Identify one of the conflict-handling styles

In this case study, Robert is showing a competing conflict handling style. There is a clear and vivid evident of this in which it is shown that Robert is insisting for a monetary compensation for his team due to their hard work. Robert believes that the profit of the company is increasing due to his team’s dedication.

Choose one of the characters and determine which bargaining approach

The character that I use is Kay. From the case study, we could see that Kay is offering some solutions to satisfy Robert’s demand such as involving Robert’s team in the new project, overseas assignments, and possible promotions to various leadership positions. She is offering all these things when she knows that the company is trying to expand and diversify, in which this would use up the majority of the profit increase for at least the last five year. It is clear that Kay is attempting to meet Robert’s demand and searching for solutions which favour both parties. Therefore, it can be concluded that Kay is adopting an Integrative bargaining approach towards Robert.

What aspect of interpersonal communication is contributing to the poor working environment?

Based on the case study, we could conclude that the lack of listening skill is contributing to the poor working environment. This is shown based on Robert being too obsessed with the idea of getting paid more instead of looking at the bigger picture for the future of the company. Eventhough he has been offered various alternatives by Kay such as involvement with new projects, overseas assignments, and possible job promotions he is still insisting that receiving monetary compensation would be way better instead of the alternatives.

His personal obsession with getting paid more could disrupt the company’s progression in the future, because the company is looking forward to expanding and diversifying. In order to do that, they will need an experienced and strong team like Robert’s team. However, the company is also facing another problem which is due to Robert’s ego.

Describe one of the character’s behaviour based on Hall’s context model

The character that I choose is Robert, and it could be concluded that that Robert is showing us a low-context culture. It is due to the fact that Robert is expressing his thoughts in a straightforward manner without valuing his relationship with Kay. Instead, he keeps on insisting of getting a monetary compensation without even considering Kay’s offers and the company’s future.

References

CluerHR. “How The Workplace Environment Affects Productivity.” Cluer HR, 16 Aug. 2018, http://www.cluerhr.co.uk/how-the-workplace-environment-affects-productivity/.

“High Context – Low Context.” Prof. Dr. Gisela Schmalz, 16 Mar. 2015, http://www.giselaschmalz.com/cultures-and-context-edward-t-hall/.

What are stereotypes?

A form of shared knowledge in which it oversimplifies the image or idea of a certain group of people or things. There are quite numerous things that are being stereotyped in the society, but commonly it covers racial groups “Black people often commit crimes”, gender groups “Women are bad at driving a car”, demographic groups “Chinese Indonesians are richer than the natives”, and situations “Australia beaches are the most dangerous in the world”.

How does stereotypes affect the way we communicate with each other?

When we stereotype, we draw conclusions regarding a group of people or things based on the common assumption which exists in the society. Sometimes, we do not even know that the existing stereotypes are even true, and we tend to believe that it is true because there are so many people who think that the stereotypes are true. Therefore, this may cause disruptions within a communication when we judge people based on the stereotypes.

For example, when we just meet a random african-american guy on the street and we think that all of them are criminals. Hence, I would just avoid him. First of all, it is very disrespectful and dehumanizing to think that all black people are criminals. Secondly, we do not know this guy’s story in which he might be a successful businessman and I might see him as a potential business partner. Last but not least, we are restricting ourselves from gaining more knowledge from people who come from different backgrounds and cultures.

Therefore, it is clear that stereotype is a barrier to having an effective communication, and it is best to avoid using stereotype to draw conclusion out of a group of people or things. Some people think that there are a few stereotypes which are “good” for example, “Asian people are good at math”. However, I personally view this as incorrect and a form of derogatory generalization because I find that everyone can do math no matter what is your skin color or race.

What are the implications of such stereotyping occurring in your social life?

On November 2012, I had a study tour to Sydney, Australia and my school visited a local australian school with a goal to learn more about their cultures and the way they study. The moment we arrived at the school, they gave us a warm welcome and the students from my school were assigned to different classes and it happened to be that I was assigned to the Physical Education class. It was all okay at the moment I stepped into the class, until one of the students (Australian Moslem) asked me “Where are you from, mate?”. I answered, “Indonesia”. Right after I replied, he immediately yelled “Wow, Assalamualaikum mate, me and you are brother you know?”. I honestly did not know how to reply him and I was trying not to make things awkward for him therefore, I replied “hahahaha, yes yes”.

Ever since that day, I knew how some Australians see Indonesians in their mind. They perceive that all Indonesians as Moslem due to the fact that Indonesia is a Moslem country. It is indeed correct that Moslem is the main religion in Indonesia however, there are other minorities such as Christianism (myself), Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism.

Conclusion

Any form of stereotypes should be avoided in order to prevent any sort of conflict or misunderstanding within an interaction. This applies to any form of communication (one-to-one or one-to-many). By avoiding stereotypes, it could help us in gaining more knowledge about the world we are living in and it also helps in making a better society. Eventhough it is not possible to completely break the stereotypes that have existed in the society because they have been planted in the society’s mind for a period of time. However, we could do our job by neglecting any form of stereotypes and not jumping into conclusion when it comes to judging a group of people or things.

Reference

1. https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shleifer/files/pdf.pdf?m=1455816262

What is Johari Window?

The Johari window model is a technique, created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955. It is a useful tool for self-understanding, awareness, and personal growth. In addition, it is helpful in a sense that it may improve the relationship between ourselves and our surroundings (friends, colleagues, and etc). As a result, we could have better interactions with other people. There are several purposes in which Johari windows could be applied. Starting from self-help groups, team building exercises, and coaching.

Model Description

1. Open/free area = an area where the individual knows about him/herself, but it is also known to others.
2. Blind area = an area where there are characteristics that you are unaware of, but others think you have.
3. Hidden area = an area where there are characteristics that an invidual knows but others may not think you have it.
4. Unknown area = an area where there are characteristics that an individual and others are unaware of.

My Analysis

In order for me to do the analysis, I needed some help from my sister and a person that I just met from the same school.

Is the analysis accurate?

I would say that the result is accurate to a certain extent especially for the open area, because I know how I behave when I am around others. However, for the analysis which I did with Russell was not as many as my sister’s due to the nature of our relationship which is not close yet. Therefore, it is very understandable that there are some things that I disagree with Russell but, he mentioned quite a lot of things especially in the open area in which I agree.

Things that surprise me

The thing that surprised the most is when both my sister and Russell told me that I am an extrovert. This is actually very interesting because eventhough I like to talk and interact with people, I do not see myself as an extrovert. This happens because sometimes I feel very comfortable when I distance myself from people and sometimes I prefer to interact with people. Another thing that surprises me is when people say I am wise. This is because I am one of the youngest guys in the class and I never thought that they would think that I am a wise person.

Explain how this result will be useful for self-awareness and your communication in a team.

I always thought that by having other people to let me know about my characteristics is better because they are the people that we are communicating with. This does not mean that self-reflection is not good, it is just sometimes we are being biased to ourselves therefore, the results based on our own reflection might not be accurate. When it comes to team communication, this result is useful because I get to know what my friends like and don’t like about me, and I can try to get rid of the things that they don’t like about me.

What is Shannon and Weaver model of communication?

In 1948, a Mathematician and an Engineer named Shannon and Weaver proposed a communication model known as “Bell system technical journal” or “Shannon and Weaver model of communication”. This model revolves around the idea that in order to have an interaction, there must be a sender and a receiver. According to Shannon and Weaver, effective communication could be achieved by having these two parties involved.

The picture above shows the process involved within a communication according to Shannon and Weaver. Starting from the sender sending information source until the receiver receiving the informations after being processed. However, there might be some disturbaces during the interaction process in which it is called as the “Noise”, and it could come in different forms such as thunder, crowd noise, or encoded signal.

Is it considered to be a complete form of communication?

Even though “Shannon and Weaver model of communication” helps in making communication more effective however, it is not considered to be a complete form of communication. First of all, it is because this model is neglecting some aspects such as emotions, feelings, psychological factors, and others. Including emotion and psychological factors within a communication would prevent both sender and receiver from having miscommunication.

For an instance, Whatsapp is considered to be a non-verbal communication method because both party are not able to look at each other’s reaction. Imagine if a sender is used to sending “okay” as “K” through text eventhough he is actually fine and does not mean to be rude. However, the receiver could perceive it wrongly and he/she might think that the sender does not have any interest in talking to the receiver. Therefore, this would lead to miscommunication.

Secondly, Shannon and Weaver model is not applicable when it comes to communicating with a large crowd due to the great amount of noise. Interacting with a large crowd means the information sent by the sender has to go through a long and tedious channels with a lot of noise in it. Therefore, some information may be lost and it would result in an ineffective communication. For example, when a principal is giving a disciplinary speech to students and suddenly the microphone has some technical issue which results in the microphone making loud noises. Due to this error, the students may perceive the principal’s information wrongly.

Because of this, the model is only useful when used to target a one-to-one exchange communication because of the lesser amount of noise occurring during the interaction.

Hi! my name is Michael Lazuardi or you can just call me ‘Mike’ ‘Mikey’ or ‘Michael’. First and foremost, I am not Singaporean and instead, I am a proud Indonesian. I have been in Singapore for 3 years and developed Singlish accent as well. There are a lot of things that I enjoy doing in my life, especially when it comes to sports and music.

Why BBIS?

The first time I heard about BBIS, my first impression was “Wow, this is definitely the course that I want to do because it involves two things that I am interested in, which is Business and Information System”. Fun fact, I was thinking of doing Civil Engineering before but looking at my high school results, I think it was not possible LOL.

Things that I enjoy

I do a lot of sports such as basketball, swimming, and badminton. However, if I had to choose one of them, I would choose basketball. In fact, the first thing that I check every time I wake up in the morning is NBA news. That is how much I love the game of basketball. Secondly, I play Mobile Legends a lot and in fact, I used to hate the game but because my friends are all playing therefore, I had to adapt xD.