Exam 4: Building Relationships by Communicating Supportively

A manager maintains little eye contact,interrupts subordinates,and criticizes them for feeling a certain way.He or she is displaying which type of communication?

One aspect of supportive communication,- listening and responding effectively to someone else's statements,- is at least as important as delivering supportive messages.

The difference between saying "You are stubborn" and "This is the second time we are unable to reach agreement" is the difference between what two types of communication?

Problem-oriented communication focuses on the individual's personal traits that led to the unacceptable behavior.

When utilizing descriptive communication,evaluative comments should never be made.

You need to turn in your expense account.This is your first one.Mary,your co-worker,has turned in over 50 in the last two years.As you explain a problem related to turning in your expense account to her,which response type would be most appropriate for Mary to use?

What does person-oriented communication focus on?

You are channel surfing while watching TV,and you come across a rather rotund individual sitting by himself talking politics in a rather rushed manner.In the few minutes you watch,you notice that he has an answer for everything,that his answer is always right,and that he appears to reduce complex issues to very simplistic definitions.You think to yourself,"I'm glad no one listens to this person." The TV person is practicing which form of communication?

When her boyfriend asks if everything is okay,a woman coldly responds,"Everything is fine." She is practicing congruent communication.

"Either you do it now or never." Why is this statement useless?

In her student evaluations,Morgan notes the following comments: (1)"The course is boring," (2)"The room is always cold," (3)You are a great teacher," and (4)"You are easy to understand; you provide real-life examples to clarify your point."

Communication that is accurate and honest regardless of whether or not it jeopardizes interpersonal relationships is supportive communication.

You have a tendency to finish your brother's sentences.This annoys him but it makes you happy.You are practicing what type of communication?

You have just given a report to your boss.He says,"You have a good idea,but I'm afraid headquarters will think it is a little radical." What type of communication is this an example of?

You take responsibility for your statements,using first-person words,such as "I," "me," and "mine." This practice alone ensures that you are practicing validating communication.

Studies have found that productivity at work is markedly higher when relationships are positive.

The type of response that provides instruction or direction is an advising response.

You know that your performance has recently declined.You tie this decline to the new software.Even though you fully understand how to use the new software,you think the software is garbage.In fact,you campaigned against the software but lost the political battle.Your boss has called you into her office.What would be the most correct response for the boss to use?

When Calvin explained his problem to Melissa,her facial expressions and comments encouraged him to say more.She occasionally restated to make sure she understood what he was saying.Which stage of listening was Melissa exemplifying?

Find Somebody Else Ron Davis, the relatively new general manager of the machine tooling group at Parker Manufacturing, was visiting one of the plants. He scheduled a meeting with Mike Leonard, a plant manager who reported to him. RON: Mike, I've scheduled this meeting with you because I've been reviewing performance data and I wanted to give you some feedback. I know we haven't talked face-to-face before, but I think it's time we review how you're doing. I'm afraid that some of things I have to say are not very favorable. MIKE: Well, since you're the new boss, I guess I'll have to listen. I've had meetings like this before with new people who come in my plant and think they know what's going on. RON: Look, Mike, I want this to be a two-way interchange. I'm not here to read a verdict to you, and I'm not here to tell you how to do your job. There are just some areas for improvement I want to review. MIKE: Okay, sure, I've heard that before. But you called the meeting. Go ahead and lower the boom. RON: Well, Mike, I don't think this is lowering the boom. But there are several things you need to hear. One is what I noticed during the plant tour. I think you're too chummy with some of your female personnel. You know, one of them might take offense and level a sexual harassment suit against you. MIKE: Oh, come on. You haven't been around this plant before, and you don't know the informal, friendly relationships we have. The office staff and the women on the floor are flattered by a little attention now and then. RON: That may be so, but you need to be more careful. You may not be sensitive to what's really going on with them. But that raises another thing I noticed the appearance of your shop. You know how important it is in Parker to have a neat and clean shop. As I walked through this morning, I noticed that it wasn't as orderly and neat as I would like to see it. Having things in disarray reflects poorly on you, Mike. MIKE: I'll stack my plant up against any in Parker for neatness. You may have seen a few tools out of place because someone was just using them, but we take a lot of pride in our neatness. I don't see how you can say that things are in disarray. You've got no experience around here, so who are you to judge? RON: Well, I'm glad you're sensitive to the neatness issue. I just think you need to pay attention to it, that's all. But regarding neatness, I notice that you don't dress like a plant manager. I think you're creating a substandard impression by not wearing a tie, for example. Casualness in dress can be used as an excuse for workers to come to work in really grubby attire. That may not be safe. MIKE: Look, I don't agree with making a big separation between the managers and the employees. By dressing like people out on the shop floor, I think we eliminate a lot of barriers. Besides, I don't have the money to buy clothes that might get oil on them every day. That seems pretty picky to me. RON: I don't want to seem picky, Mike. But I do feel strongly about the issues I've mentioned. There are some other things, though, that need to get corrected. One is the appearance of the reports you send into division headquarters. There are often mistakes, misspellings, and, I suspect, some wrong numbers. I wonder if you are paying attention to these reports. You seem to be reviewing them superficially. MIKE: If there is one thing we have too much of, it's reports. I could spend three-quarters of my time filling out report forms and generating data for some bean counter in headquarters. We have reports coming out our ears. Why don't you give us a chance to get our work done and eliminate all this paperwork? RON: You know as well as I do, Mike, that we need to carefully monitor our productivity, quality, and costs. You just need to get more serious about taking care of that part of your responsibility. MIKE: Okay. I'm not going to fight about that. It's a losing battle for me. No one at headquarters will ever decrease their demand for reports. But, listen, Ron, I also have one question for you. RON: Okay. What's that? MIKE: Why don't you go find somebody else to pick on? Note to Instructors: The following essay questions relate to the above case. You may choose to use all of the following questions, or some subset of them. To ensure that you have all relevant information regardless of which questions you use, we have provided a general explanation of the case for each question. The redundancy in the explanations is built in intentionally. In most cases, there are multiple reasonable responses to these essay questions. Instructors should evaluate the quality of the reasoning the student employ to support their arguments. -Categorize each of the statements by naming the rule of supportive communication that is either illustrated or violated.