Building Relationships by Communicating Supportively - Assignment Example

Building relationships by communicating supportively PART A Student Name Student Number Lecturer, Date Name of the Institution Contents PART A Article Review 3 Introduction 3 Context 4 Methodology 5 Sample 5 Data Collection 6 Measurement 7 Data Analysis 7 Limitations of the study 8 Conclusion 9 PART B. Implementation and Reflection 12 Reference List 16 Appendices 17 PART A Article Review Introduction The importance of supportive communication in building relationships cannot be ignored. Usually it is easier to communicate supportively when everything is fine and when every person is doing what they are supposed to do. As an interpersonal communication supportive communication enables one to communicate accurately without jeopardizing the relationship especially during difficult times and situations. When another person’s shortcomings are pointed out or when a negative feedback is delivered, supportive communication establishes and strengthens these relationships. Though the issue may still be addressed positive communicate seeks to enhance or preserve the relationship between the concerned parties. It is very useful when communication with other non-complimentary information as it strengthens the relationship. This part of the paper will review three articles related to supportive communication in building relationships as the area of my skills development. These three articles are as follows: (i) Supportive and Defensive Communication by Svein Larsen and Ingebjorg Folgero, (ii) Academic stress, supportive communication, and health by Erina Malcgeorge, Wendy Samter and Seth Gillihan, and (iii) Impact of mindfulness on supportive communication skills: Three exploratory studies by Susanne Jones and Wesley Hansen. Social support and supportive communication are the main keywords considered for the articles. Context Both articles focus on supportive communication but presented in different context: college or university and a ship organisation. Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen assert that in conveying empath, care and encouragement, supportive communication plays an important role in how individuals cope with aversive situations and difficult emotions. Mindfulness is a mechanism that links conveyed verbally and nonverbally emotional support, and is comprehended as enhanced attention that is non-reactive to the current external and internal stimuli, as well as its awareness. Reappraisal, social skills and communicative coping affects supportive communication among university students. Like Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen, Erina MacGoerge, Wendy Samter and Seth Gillihan have focused on university students. In their article they assert that physical illness and depression among other negative health outcomes are as a result of academic stress. They emphasize that the capacity of supportive communication students receive from their family and friends can prevent the relationship between academic stress and health. This is a study to be admired as it adds a unique concept to the world of health research. Svein Larsen and Ingebjorg Folgero have taken a different turn from other authors, and focused on a yet a unique organisation: a cruse company. In their study the researchers assert that job satisfaction and productivity on board cruise ships are affected by communication. Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen on exploring on the impact of mindfulness on supportive communication skills among university students concluded that mindfulness plays a crucial role in in the supportive communication between the recipient and the provider Methodology Sample Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen had different samples for the three studies they carried out. However, all participants were communication students at a university in the Midwester in USA. Participants in Study 1: Dispositional Mindfulness and Support Skills were 215 students from undergraduate communication courses. The average participants’ age was 21.3 years ranging from 18 to 51 years. The sample majorly consisted of white Americans (142), followed by Asian-Americans (49), African Americans (11), Hispanics (5) and other ethnic groups (8). Participants in Study 2: Mindfulness Interventions and Support Skills were 92. 44 students from three classes were in one group (mindfulness) while 48 from two classes were in another group (comparison). The classes were for senior and junior communication studies, but none of them had lectures on emotional support, meditation and mindfulness. The average participants’ age was 22.5 years ranging from 19 to 39 years. Sample consisted majorly the white/Europeans (64), followed by Asian Americans (14), African-Americans (6) and all other ethnic groups (9). The participants Study 3: Mindfulness and Communication Coping Strategies were 123 communication students from upper-division classes, at a. The students were divided into two groups: 51 from two classes in mindfulness group and 72 from three classes in comparison groups. At the time of the research the average participants’ age was 21.7 years, age ranging from 18 to 49 years. White/European Americans were the majority participants (87), followed by Asian-Americans (17), African-Americans (12) and other ethnic groups (7). The sample was picked out in an excellent way, however the issue of race can bring a problem with a question of why the majority participants being white/European Americans? The researchers would have indicated the reason for this as either the class or the university has majority students as white/European Americans. Getting the participants to participate in the online survey in exchange for an additional credit in study 1 was a good way of encouraging response. The participants in Irina MacGeorge, Wendy Samter and Seth Gillihan’s study were 793 in total with 516 females, 210 males and 16 whose gender were not reported. They were volunteers studying communication at two medium –size universities. The majority of participants were Euro-Americans (80.9%), African American (6.2%), and Latino Americans (2.4%). There some form of similarities in the way Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen, and Erina MacGeorge, Wendy Samter and Seth Gillihan have chosen samples in their studies. Both provided participants with a small amount of extra credit in their communication classes in exchange for participations. The majority of their samples are majorly European Americans. They should have undertaken the same research in other universities that have for example more African American or Latino Americans to compare results. The participants in the Svein Larsen and Ingebjorg Folgero’s study were all the employees working on board ship. However, the study failed to give the total number of participants and how they were divided in terms of male or female or nature of work. Data Collection In their study, Svein Larsen and Ingebjorg Folgero’s the ship’s company representative was chosen to administer a six-question questionnaire to all employees. The employees were asked to identify their place of work (Europe office, US office) ship number, age, nationality, sex, department (air, finance, hotel, engine, deck, etc.), and whether they had anyone working under them. Erina MacGeorge, Wendy Samter and Seth Gillihan administered questionnaires with ten questions. Apart from online survey for study one Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen do not clearly provide ways in which they collected data for study two and three Measurement Erina MacGeorge, Wendy Samter and Seth Gillihan, and Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen used Likert-scaled questions to measure variables. The Likert scales ranged from strong disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). Likert-scaled questions can measure respondents’ attitudes, and opinions and fixes choice response. Svein Larsen and Ingebjorg Folgero did not provide their measurement methods, thus a reader is left guessing from his or her own knowledge. Data Analysis Svein Larsen and Ingebjorg Folgero used NSD Stat+statistical programme to analyze data. This programme is fast, fairly powerful and simple to use for people who need to do statistical computing. For Erina MacGeorge, Wendy Samter and Seth Gillihan, the research question and hypotheses were examined using two hierarchical regression analyses. They standardized all variables to eliminate nonessential information and entered demographic factors at the first step of the analysis to control the factors, and informational support, emotional support, and academic stress were entered in the second step. Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen did not provide their data analysis method, and due to this a reader may question their results. Limitations of the study The study carried by Erina MacGeorge, Wendy Samter and Seth Gillihan has methodological limitations which vaguely provide a relationship between academic stress, support and health. Rather than measure academic stress existence, this study has assumed that it exists. In addition, instead of acquiring assessments on support communication, the perceived support ones were obtained. Therefore, although the perceived support is indicated to be associated with reduced depression, it is not clear whether these results of health benefits are from other people’s actual behaviours or from perceptions that are not based on direct behaviours. Therefore, it is important to examine whether association between health and academic stress is moderated by supportive communication. In the Svein Larsen and Ingebjorg Folgero the European office response was very low (30 percent). In addition, the respondents were higher for female (70.8 percent) than for male (28.8 per cent). This may not give accurate results in terms of how it affects both male and female and all the offices at large. In future measures should be put in place to increase the respondents of male and European offices. The use of the company executive to administer the questionnaires may have contributed in low respondents because of confidentiality. The researchers should use an external person in future studies. Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen used quasi-experimental design for the second and third study. This posed a problem because of the internal validity threats that the design suffered. In future randomized experimental trials should be incorporated in examining mindfulness mechanisms in emotional support. Group equivalence for study two were not assessed which impacted the results. The assessment of group equivalence should be given a priority in future if accurate results are needed. Conclusion Svein Larsen and Ingebjorg Folgero concluded that compared to the land-based operations of the cruise ship company, the board ships had lower degree of supportiveness and higher degree of defensiveness. These results will be helpful to other ship companies that are facing the same challenge or may be on the verging of facing one. Wendy Samter and Seth Gillihan provided useful information to school management, students, parents, and health care givers on how relationship between academic stress and health problems can be affected by supportive communication. However, this explanation lacks perfection due to other factors that may influence academic stress such as part-time jobs, worry of grades, competition, and sports among others. According to these researchers, the increase in informational support decreased the positive association between academic stress and depression. In addition, the association of emotional support with depression in all academic stress levels was negative. Susane Jones and Wesley Hansen reported that the supportive communication between the provider and recipient is affected by mindfulness. Individuals who have the ability to attend to internal and external stimuli mindfully can also be able to effectively manage verbal information, whether receiving or sending it. The ability of individuals to monitor their own emotions displayed publicly can also be able to interpret other people’s verbal communication. The project was the first to be attempted in finding connecting between mindfulness and supportive communication. It forms a foundation through which researches investigating the role of mindfulness in the emotional support process can be undertaken. Building relationships by communicating supportively PART B Student Name Student Number Lecturer, Date Name of the Institution PART B. Implementation and Reflection The goals I planned to achieve were (i) to become an effective listener by the end of week 3, (ii) To give constructive feedback to those I interact with by the end of the third week, (iii) to develop empathy towards others by the end of week three. I interact with different people daily including friends, family, fellow students, lecturers and other university staff among others. It was through my interaction with these people that I was set to achieve my goals. However, I was determined to achieve my goals and overcome my weaknesses, after all who does not want to build strong supportive relationships. I didn’t have a specific audience or group of people that I wanted to experiment my skills on but since I wanted to gauge the level of those skills in all areas I decided to be flexible. Interacting with different people was not a hard thing to do and since I was flexible with whoever or whichever group I came across, everything happened naturally. I know the importance of being a good listener to what is being said, left unsaid or partially said. One afternoon a close classmate approached me on my way to the library. She requested for an advice regarding a situation she was in. Apparently she had borrowed money for her roommate who promised to pay within two weeks but a month down the line she had not paid and kept on giving her excuses. This had caused tension between them and they do not talk much when together. As she narrated the whole story I kept on interrupting her to ask a question or to finish a sentence for her. I noticed this kind of irritated her and remembered that I was supposed to listen to her more and talk less. I patiently waited for her to finish talking though this took more time because she was repeating herself to show how annoyed she was, and being the kind of a person who wants to give an advice fast and move on it was a test of time that I had to overcome. I am good at facing a person who talks to me and I maintain eye contact. This shows the other person that I am listening and I am giving her all the attention. However, sometimes I can stare too much that it makes the other person shy off. I remember as my friend was telling me her story I was looking at her straight into her eyes until she asked ‘Is there something in my eye?” That’s when I realized I had gone overboard with my eye contact. My friend had caught up with me on my way to the library to work on my assignment that was due in two days. While she was telling me her story I was tempted to be distracted by my thoughts about my term paper and how time was running. This made me miss some parts of her story and had to keep on asking her to repeat what she said. Realizing this mistake I quickly brushed off the library idea and decided to focus on her. I would also want some else to focus on me when I speak. Feedback is very important to any person in an organization. Mangers or supervisors give feedback to their subordinates by letting them know how they have achieved the goals and expectations of the department, individual and the organization as a whole. I was caught up in a situation where as a group leader I was expected to give feedback to our group members on the presentation we were working on. The most sensitive information I was to give was failure of a certain member to respond to the group’s mail, not contributing towards the group presentation and boycotting meetings. I knew by giving feedback it would indicate that things are going right and redirect the problem of performance. My feedback objective was to guide members back on track towards successful group performance. The tricky part however was giving this feedback constructively by maintaining the group relationships and making the group member feel that I am on his side, though personally I felt like I could throw him out of the group, after all he was acting like a parasite. To achieve this I had to focus on description (reporting what has happened) rather than judgment (evaluating what has happened in terms of “good or bad” or “right or wrong”. When we met for our second last meeting I wanted to tell him “Your failure to contribute to the group presentation is unacceptable”. Though other members wanted me to use this sentence I knew that this would offend the team member and may shy away or become annoyed with us, or feel distant from the group. I instead told him “You help this group work towards achieve high marks when you participate fully in the discussion and attend discussion meetings”. I was amazed at how he smiled and apologized for his behavior and promised to take the group work seriously for the benefit of everyone. I felt satisfied that I had achieved my second goal of giving constructive feedback to those I interact with. My third goal was to develop empathy towards others. Though I had no idea on how I was going to achieve this I remained open for whatever was to come my way. Empathy skill is essential in building strong relationships with other people. Empathy is being able to step into another person’s shoes with the purpose of understanding the perspectives and feelings, and use them to guide our actions. In the previous paragraph I had explained about a group member I had given feedback on his contribution towards the group. I requested him to remain behind and have a chat with me after I dismissed other group members. From our conversation I learnt that he had a lot going on in his life. He is the first born in a family of three being under care of his mother who is a single parent. Apparently his mother was admitted to the hospital. He commuted every day to the hospital to visit his mother and home to check if his siblings were alright. He had little time to work on his assignments and sometimes he missed classes. This explained why he rarely responded to our group emails or contributed towards it. I felt for him and I realized if I was in his place I would have acted the same way. I told him everything would be alright and offered to visit his mother in the hospital alongside other group members. We shared our class notes with him and supported him in completing his assignments. I am glad that I achieved my goals. The whole exercise taught me that supportive relationships result in intellectual, social, emotional and physiological well-being. It doesn’t hurt to listen to people as they talk, giving them attention and avoiding interruption. Being judgmental in giving feedback is not healthy for a relationship; instead constructive feedback will put the other person in an apologetic position and promise to change his behavior. If we take time to know people more we may discover what is hindering them from performing, and by showing them empathy, they feel loved and care for. What motivated me most was the exercise itself and the surprise involved, as I did not specifically know who undertake the experiment on. I left everything to flow naturally which was very exciting. Reference List Jones, SM & Hansen, W 2014, The Impact of Mindfulness on Supportive Communication Skills: Three Exploratory Studies. Mindfulness. Springer Science Larsen, S & Folgero, I 1993, Supportive and Defensive Communication. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 5, No.3 pp.22-26 MacGeorge, EL, Samter, W, & Gillihan, SJ, 2007, Academic Stress, Supportive Communication, and Health. Communication Education. Vol. 54, No. 4, pp. 365 _ /372 Appendices Appendix A: Articles Appendix B- Skills Development Plan Appendix C- Timeline for Implementing my Skills Development Personal Smart Goals for Skills Development in Building an Effective team and Teamwork Read More