Chapter 12 Outline

The majority of our relationships will remain in the less personal, public sector of the social world. We need to better understand how to manage these interactions and relationships.

Historically, social codes focused much more on the public realm of impersonal roles, cultural and social-level rules, and codes of civility than on friendship and intimacy.
Public forms of communication differ from more intimate forms.

Civil demeanor is maintained by practicing discretion, sincerity, modesty, and poise under pressure.
Not all public communication is formal; expressive behavior is also valued through playacting.

The design of neighborhoods can invite or discourage interaction.
Third places, distinct from home and workplace, serve as spaces within communities where conversation and other forms of public interaction can take place.

Third places are considered “neutral territory,” where patrons are seen as having relatively equal status and where conversation is the dominant activity.
Third places are accessible; they are located within walking distance, and have a recognizable group of “regular” patrons, although others are welcomed.
Third places are characterized by unimpressive décor, a playful mood, and a “home away from home” feeling.

Workplace interactions, while occasionally producing close personal relationships, are marked by a set of norms that are more impersonal and public in nature.

Work organizations are themselves shaped by the kind of communication that takes place in them, including stories, conversations, group interactions as well as more formal communications.

The metaphors found in organizational vocabularies reveal a lot about the organization.
Repeated stories often reveal workplace values and practices.
Rituals also contribute to organizational culture.

Organizational communication networks, such as the grapevine, serve as a primary means of sharing stories and myths. While often mistrusted, studies indicate that up to 80% of information shared via the grapevine is accurate.
Group interaction dynamics, including leadership, cohesion, the development of norms, and the phenomenon of groupthink, play a considerable role in the effectiveness of organizational efforts and in employee satisfaction.

1. Today, leadership, the ability to influence organizational outcomes, is viewed as a communicative achievement.

In today’s “team-based” organization, a manager is more often thought of as a resource person—someone who has the responsibility of locating and providing support knowledge and materials so that employees can perform their jobs at a higher level of excellence.
Leadership can be seen as a set of dyadic linkages.

While following norms and fulfilling roles leads to cohesion; too much cohesion can result in poor performance.

Without norms a group has no way to distinguish itself from all the other work groups in the organization, and it has no way of governing the behavior of the whole group or establishing cohesion.
Cohesion, the degree to which group members like one another and want to remain in the group, can lead to satisfaction, but it can also result in problems.
When a group becomes too cohesive, members experience groupthink. In trying to maintain group relations at all costs, members sacrifice critical thinking and end up making bad decisions

Effective supervisory communication is important in managing status differences, preserving respect, and stimulating employee innovations and contributions.
Communicating with customers, both internally and externally, is another important aspect of workplace interaction.

With the advent of modern communications technology, many organizations now target individual customers through relationship marketing.
Organizations today encourage members to consider ways to enhance the ability of others within the organization to do their jobs, a process known as internal marketing.

Balancing personal and professional relationships in the workplace can be difficult.

Workplace friendships contribute to job satisfaction but must be carefully managed.
Office-based romances are becoming more frequent as the workplace becomes a major source of community.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain boundaries between home, work, and community.

Managing conflicts in professional contexts requires a variety of strategies, including informal conflict styles and more formal negotiation techniques.

Learning how to negotiate with employers, bosses, and coworkers to manage conflicts involves assessing your own conflict style.

Those with an aggressive style emphasize achieving personal goals at the expense of maintaining relational goals with others.
Those with a withdrawing style avoid conflict as much as possible, thus sacrificing both achievement of personal and relational goals?
Those with an accommodating style try to smooth over disagreements, thus maintaining their relationship with the other, but sacrificing personal goals.
Those with a compromising style try to show moderate concern for both relational and personal goals by giving in on some issues and expecting the other to do likewise.
Those with a problem-solving style try to find ways of resolving conflicts so that both sides achieve their personal goals and in the process maintain a good relationship.

There are several strategies that embody the problem-solving approach to negotiating conflicts, including:

Cost-cutting occurs when one party finds a way to eliminate perceived costs of an objecting party so that agreement can be reached.
Compensation involves finding a way to pay back an accommodating party in order to reach a mutually beneficial agreement.
In logrolling, both sides make concessions on issues that are important to the other side but relatively unimportant to them
Bridging is finding new options that satisfy both parties, without either having to concede.
When a conflict is over shared resources, expanding the pie is a way of increasing the resources so there is enough for everyone.

Diagnose your personal and relational goals.
Make an effort to understand the other’s interests and emotions.
Realize that emotions may run high during negotiations and accept them as legitimate.
Focus on interests, not positions. Exploring concerns and interests opens up new possibilities, whereas focusing on positions tends to make parties inflexible.
Consider turning to third parties for help in negotiations. Such professionals can help with mediation, fact-finding, or arbitration.