Introduction
Despite the fact that an increase in health care facilities is aimed at reducing the morbidity and mortality rate in humans, the increase has been characterized by high mortality rate due to an increase in clinical errors that results from ineffective communication among the caregivers (Cheesebro, O’Conno, & Rios, 2010).
Thus, a balance that bridges the communication gap between the various disciplines in health care settings is called for.
This paper will review a case study of Darnell and Janine who work for a large lab company in an appointment office.
Case Study
To start with, Janine portrays ignorance on part of attending to the needs of the patients. This ignorance emanates from poor interpersonal communication between Janine and Darnell, as Janine did not observe the importance of storing files in a manner that would avoid work complexities.
This miscommunication has led to an increase in the time under which proper treatment should have been arrived at in the health care setting.
Though Darnell was able to handle the patients awaiting care, both Darnell and Janine portray poor allocation of boundaries within their duties,as Darnell could attend to patients who were awaiting the services of Janine. This is apparent in the case study where patients would only wave at Darnell, rather than Janine, while the responsible clinical officer was Janine.
And while Darnell and Janine seek a common ground on how to schedule their responsibilities, their speech is further characterized by poor interpersonal communication.
Elements of Good Interpersonal Communication
Verbal communication skills are used as a vehicle for adopting successful interpersonal relationship. When done effectively, a person gets into a position of acquiring new information on the topic under discussion. However, this can only be achieved through active, critical, and empathetic communication.
In active communication, the participants involve both the speaker as well as the listener. Active communication can only result from speakers who engage in speaking subjects that trigger the mind of the listener (Cheesebro, O’Conno, & Rios, 2010).
Developing critical communication helps the listener to not only listen to the speaker but also to make judgment on the speaker’s message through an evaluation process; hence, it is characterized by persuasive listening.
In empathetic communication, the listeners portray understanding of the intended message by demonstrating emotional and intellectual intelligence, and this improves their interpersonal communication (Lum, 2005).
What Happened in the Case Study
Perception of the Participants
In this scenario, poor interpersonal communication is evident in a number of occasions.
Given that the goal of every health care organization is patient centered, Janine shows little concern for the patients’ welfare, as she does not engage herself in handling therapeutic communication with the patients who are in dire need of receiving care. This has a negative implication on the minds of the participants.
The presence of discord and poor communication styles between Darnell and Janine makes the patients have a negative perception, as the behavior of the nurses and the doctors is portrayed in a negative manner.
It is worthwhile to note that the patients may ask for referrals to other health care institutions due to how they perceive the relationship between the clinical officers, as well as between the patients and clinical officers.
The Conflict Type and Conflict Management Styles
This conflict is known as presentation interpersonal conflict between Darnell and Janine.
While Darnell endeavors to create a balance between patients’ empathy and professional accountability of the health care practitioners, Janine endeavors to make her children happy through the phone despite the goal of health care workers being patient centered.
Thus, the conflict emanates from the fact that Janine had absconded from her duties, and it escalates due to their poor presentation of information that would ensure that Janine responds to the patients’ demands amicably.
The conflict management styles for this scenario should involve adopting conflict communication skills that would facilitate a build up of better dialogue. This can be achieved by compromising, which entails negotiating the chaos at hand and assessing the opinion of each other in an effort to attain a common ground.
More so, collaboration is of much essence when it comes to managing this conflict. This would entail active listening, identification of concerns, and holding non-threatening confrontations (Wood, 2009).
Listening Barriers
Interpersonal communication is faced with a number of listening barriers, making it hard for the recipient to receive the intended message.
According to Cheesebro, O’Conno, and Rios, (2010), pride, which characterizes this case study, is one of the barriers that hinder effective listening because it prevents the listener form listening to another person’s point of view, and this, in turn, hinders effective achievement of organizational goals.
Making assumption is a communication barrier portrayed by listeners who tend to think they know everything that is being communicated.
Defensiveness is also a listening barrier that prevents us from making mistakes due to fear of criticism. More so, this prevents the listener from participating in the communication style that may expose someone’s shortcomings.
Supportive and Defensive Climates and Relationships
Supportive communication can greatly improve interpersonal communication because it describes or puts the blame to the inadequate behavior rather than the culprit (Cheesebro, O’Conno, & Rios, 2010).
This communication style requires the topic in question to be presented in a manner that portrays deep concern, discloses personal motives in a non-threatening manner, strikes a balance of equality, and shows empathy in all aspects of communication.
The defensive communication climate, which characterizes this case study, is a type of communication style that encourages defensive strategies on the part of the listener (Cheesebro, O’Conno, & Rios, 2010).
This stems from the fact that the speaker conveys his/her message in a manner that accuses the culprit rather than the behavior. Thus, the defensive communication is portrayed in a communication style that controls the listener, is superior to the listener, neutral on issues affecting the listener, and certain about everything.
Verbal and Nonverbal Communication
Verbal communication is a type of communication that has the capacity of reducing communication ambiguity by demonstrating three critical skills: individual accountability, constructive feedback, and problem solving skills (Wood, 2009).
Individual accountability defines the responsibilities of the speaker as well as the listener. This can be achieved through self-reflection since it helps to establish the contribution of each member in the communication process.
Constructive feedback is a tool that helps members of a group to convey the intended message effectively since it focuses on communicating and listening rather than focusing on the individuals (Wood, 2009).
Constructive feedback is thus achieved through proficient listening skills that ask for clarification of ambiguous comments as well as demonstrating openness to ideas from the listener.
The problem solving skills, on the other hand, focuses on conflict management within the group by taking an assumption of what constitutes to good or bad comment, thus helping the listener to express his/her personal opinion (Wood, 2009).
The non-verbal communication, on the other hand, involves the use of facial expressions, proximity, humor, and paralinguistic, among others, that help to communicate in a manner that sends the message to the receiver appropriately and to increase the level of psychological control between the message sender and the message receiver (Lum, 2005).
This stems from the fact that the message conveyed is received and interpreted according to the non-verbal cues that go along with it, as illustrated in figure A. below
What Could Have Been Done Differently in the Case Study
Darnell could have been more acquainted with Janine’s emotions since it is of utmost importance in developing interpersonal communication skills.
This entails adopting an analytic mindset, as it would have facilitated a self-reflection in relation to factors that affect interpersonal communication with her (Lum, 2005).
In doing so, Darnell could have developed constructive feedback and problem solving skills attributed to a change of attitude while dealing with Janine.
Conclusion
From the facts presented in this paper, it is clear that interpersonal communication in a work place can be developed through effective verbal and non-verbal communication.
Verbal communication skills can be achieved through active, critical, and empathetic communication, while the non-verbal communication skills can be achieved by the use of appropriate good facial expression, paralinguistic, and humor, among other skills.
As demonstrated in the case study, these interpersonal communication skills can only be achieved when one adopts an analytic mindset that helps him/her reflect and recognize other people’s emotions.
References
Cheesebro, T., O’Connor, L., & Rios, F. (2010). Communicating in the workplace. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall.
Lum, G. (2005). The negotiation fieldbook: Simple strategies to help negotiate everything. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Wood, J. T. (2009). Interpersonal communication: Everyday encounters (6th ed.). Independence, KY: Cengage Learning.