Respond to books about interpersonal communication

Dan Curtis, the author of Business and Professional Communication, described various aspects and types of interpersonal communication at the workplace in chapter 2. Interpersonal communication in the business setting. Curtis starts the book by comparing interpersonal communication: between two or more people that the productive relationship and intrapersonal communication: many people send internally. Eisenberg, the author of Understanding Communication in Business and the Professions, indicated a lot of ways to improve and express ourselves when it comes to interpersonal communication in the workplace. The author insisted the importance of smile and handshake. Finally, Filley, the author of Interpersonal Conflict Resolution, showed how to avoid and solve the interpersonal conflict.

Contents Summary
Dan Curtis addressed various types of interpersonal communication by showing:
• Self-Concept
• Relationships
• Climates
• Conflict
For self-concept, Curtis said “A positive self-concept is important in successful business communication. What you tell yourself about yourself enhances or diminishes your self-concept” (1997). Basically, people who have positive self-concept tend to seek and to attend to effective feedback at their workplace.

For relationships, Curtis addressed “Open people share information regarding their needs with others. Disclosing people share information regarding their feelings, beliefs, attitudes, and so forth, as well as factual information” (1997). To add some values to relationships, it’s going to be a great choice to add ideas from Eisenberg’s Understanding Communication in Business and the Profession. Smiling, and handshaking is the most important aspects to build a great relationship. However, we should identify the true meaning of someone’s smile. And, we should conduct an appropriate style of handshake.

For climates, Curtis described defensive climates and supportive climates. Defensive climates are the heavy and repressive atmosphere. In contrast, supportive climates are warm, respectful, and encouraging atmosphere. There are some different aspects of defensive and supportive climates. Defensive climates contain evaluation, control, strategy, neutrality, superiority, and certainty. Supportive climates contain the description, problem orientation, spontaneity, empathy, equality, and provisionalism.

For conflict, Curtis addressed four aspects of conflict:
1. Defusing potential escalation or more serious future conflicts
2. Sharpening issues and nurturing creativity
3. Building group cohesiveness
4. Providing a means to measure assets
To add an idea about conflict, it would be better to add content from Filley’s Interpersonal Conflict Resolution. Belief in cooperation rather than competition would be very important for solving the conflict, particularly in this competitive period. Also, the belief that differences of opinion are helpful is extremely crucial for resolving conflict issues because ignoring one’s idea is the worst way to aggravate the situation. Finally, belief in trustworthiness of other members is another important criterion for problem-solving.

Reason for choosing these books
When I searched these books at the library, I was thinking about the relationships between them. For example, I was thinking how I should utilize those three books together to write an effective and a powerful blog posting. It was definitely challenging for the first time, but as I read about these materials over and over again, there were some connections between them. Developing and using Interpersonal communication skill in real life could be pretty much difficult task to do for people who haven’t developed this skill yet. I hope this posting will be beneficial to help some of you to build this skill.

My Response
After I read these books, my initial thought was ‘Why should we actually learn this skill? And why people even write books about this topic?’ Because what I felt was theories of soft skills are talking about common senses of everyday life. However, as we think about common sense, we do not actually pay attention whether if we’re doing it appropriately or not. Also, people might think they’re confident enough to dive into the workplace without developing soft skill because it might sound cliché or common sense. That’s the point why every new employee makes a mistake. And, I’m pretty sure a lot of employers have already gone through this frustrating process.

We should be humble and modest to learn every aspect that helps us to fit ourselves into our desired job. That’s because even though those features of interpersonal skills seem like we can develop ourselves in our daily lives, applying those skills at the workplace should be burdening and challenging task for the first time.

Citation
Curtis, D. B., Floyd, J. J., & Winsor, J. L. (1997). Business and professional communication. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.
Eisenberg, A. M. (1978). Understanding communication in business and the professions. New York: Macmillan Pub. Co.
Filley, A. C., & Filley, A. C. (1975). Interpersonal conflict resolution. Glenview: Scott Foresman.