Thursday, March 19, 2015

Forms of Communication


“Communication-the human connection- is the key to personal and career success” (Meyer, 2001-2015).  I feel this quote is very true, from my own experience thus far with communication in the workplace and in my personal life.  Without communication, there really is nothing.  I know that sounds like a blank statement, but it is true.  Without communication in my field of education, for example, our students could not successfully move from one grade to another, or go home to parents who know how they are doing in school.  Without communication in the healthcare field, nurses and doctors wouldn't know what is going on with patients.  Without communication businesses could not run smoothly.

As assigned this week, I read the email sent to Mark from Jane I felt Jane is feeling it is somewhat of an urgent matter.  She is coming across as if she knows that Mark has other things going, but she really needs his help regardless of what he is doing all day.  By stating “I might miss my own deadline if I don’t get your report soon” Jane makes the matter more urgent for her and more personal for her.  This is now something that affects her career/deadline at work.  The email is polite and states Jane’s appreciation of Mark’s help in the matter, but I feel like this may have been something that has been going on for a while now, since it seems like Jane may be nearing the deadline now.

Next I listened to the voicemail message from Jane.  To me, the message seemed stern.  I think the tone of voice was so flat that Jane communicated a lack of kindness.  When there is no inflection in a person’s voice and they don’t say “have a nice day” when they end a message it seems rude.  I do not expect a “have a nice day” on emails, but on voicemails I do.  I never hang up a phone after leaving a voicemail without saying "have a nice day." 

Oh dear, I think the face-to-face conversation was the least friendly of all the conversations.  Jane seemed to be squinting or (almost) rolling her eyes when she spoke.  Since she was saying the entire conversation at once without Mark talking back, it made it tough to feel it was a true conversation.  Her facial expressions were not making me want to help her at all.  I am thinking Mark may have felt the same way.  Although I like the idea of meeting with someone face-to-face, then following up with an email to assure the conversation is documented, I just do not feel her domineer suits me.
Jane did not seem to communicate that Mark had important things to do as well.  She was pushing for her deadline to be met, not stressing any empathy toward him.  I think it is important, no matter how stressed you may feel at the moment, to assure you communicate to the other party that you care about their feelings and needs.  Mark may not be a sensitive person, but there is a chance he is.  He may also be the type of person that gets frustrated easily with someone asking him for something when his is busy.  I think it is best to know the person you are dealing with and communicate with their personality.

 

Resources

Meyer, P. 2001-2015. BrainyQuote. Retrieved from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pauljmeye190945

"The Art of Effective Communication" Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

 

 

1 comment:

  1. Hi Jenny -
    I also thought the face-to-face conversation was my least favorite. It made me feel uncomfortable and guilty about not doing my work, and it wasn't even mine. I think the activity overall was a little too contrived for what I think the developers of the course wanted to illustrate. Email should be the least personal because of the lack of visual or auditory cues (Byron, K., 2008), and yet I think I would have responded better to that than the other two methods of communicating. I also agree with your assessment of the tone in the voicemail and strange body language/face expressions int he last clip. I just don't think they are really what the developers wanted to portray. It was an interesting activity anyway!
    Thanks for sharing! Renee

    Byron, K. (2008). Carrying too heavy a load? Communication and miscommunication of emotion my email. Academy of Management Review, 33, 309-327. http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2008.31193163

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