Interpersonal Skills at Work

John Hayes

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781134587339
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: History & Theory in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

In this age of e-business, there is an increasing over-reliance on electronic communication and insufficient attention paid to the management of face-to-face relationships. In this fascinating text, John Hayes addresses this significant workplace issue by examining the nature of interpersonal skill: the goal-directed behaviours used in face-to-face interactions in order to achieve desired outcomes. He argues that interpersonal competence is a key managerial skill which can distinguish the successful from the unsuccessful.

Providing a clearly structured and comprehensive overview of the interpersonal skills essential for effective functioning at work, this book presents a micro-skills approach to development that can be used to improve interpersonal competence, as well as explaining, through the use of illustrations and practical examples, how to read the actual or potential behaviour of those around us. This knowledge can then be used to guide the way in which we relate to others as we learn to manage our relationships more effectively.

This book will be ideal for practising managers and students of business and management studies and psychology. The skills it promotes make it of great value for those in a wide range of professions (including teachers, doctors, nurses, social workers and police officers) in their everyday working environment.

1

THE NATURE OF INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

A historical perspective

Learning objective

To understand the nature of interpersonal skills from a historical perspective and to develop a critical appreciation of the different approaches that have been applied to the study of social interaction.

After reading this chapter you will:

• Be able to define interpersonal skill, and recognise that it involves the use of goal-directed behaviours to achieve desired outcomes.

• Be able to compare and contrast the behavioural and cognitive approaches to studying social interaction.

• Understand the difference between those behavioural approaches that restrict attention to observable behaviours and those behavioural approaches that pay attention to the intention that lies behind the behaviour.

• Be aware of how cognitive processes influence behaviour and how social interaction may be viewed as a transaction in which each interactor is seeking a satisfactory outcome.

Introduction

This chapter provides a review of the different theories and methodologies that have been applied to the study of interpersonal interaction. Particular attention is focused on cognitive models that view interpersonal interaction as a transaction between parties who are each seeking satisfactory outcomes for themselves. The importance of feedback for managing and improving performance in response to the reactions of self and others is also highlighted.

Chapter 2 outlines a hierarchical model of interpersonal skill and a microskills approach to training that provides the conceptual framework for the approach to skill development presented in this book.

The effect of behaviour on goal achievement

We spend a considerable part of our working day relating to others. One of the findings of the early work activity studies, echoed more recently by Oshagbemi (1988), is that we consistently underestimate the amount of time we spend in face-to-face interaction. There are also indications that we underestimate seriously the effect our behaviour has on the way others behave, and therefore on the achievement of personal and organisational goals.

Simple examples may serve to illustrate this point.

Selection interviewers need to obtain from applicants as much relevant information as possible in order to determine which applicant will be most suitable for the job. To achieve this end they need to manage the interaction in a way that encourages each applicant to provide the maximum amount of relevant and the minimum amount of irrelevant information. This objective is likely to be frustrated if the interviewers do most of the talking. It will also be frustrated if they prevent applicants from giving full answers by overusing the kinds of questions that limit their responses to yes or no, or if they ask questions in a way that prompts them into giving the answer which they think the interviewers want to hear.

In negotiations, there is evidence that negotiators’ opening bids have an important influence on the expectations of opponents and that this can affect the outcome. There is also evidence that, in competitive negotiations, concessions are more likely to be reciprocated when the person offering the concession is perceived by opponents to be in a relatively strong position. It is possible for a negotiator to create this impression by behaving in certain ways.

In decision-making groups, one of the factors which can influence the quality of a decision is the extent to which the knowledge and skills of group members are applied to the task. Some of this task-relevant knowledge may not be available to the group because some knowledgeable but non-assertive members of the group lack the confidence to make their views known, or because some members fail to pay attention or give appropriate weight to the views of others. The person who is able to recognise what is happening, and who can use this awareness to intervene, to act consciously in ways that make it more likely that relevant knowledge will be applied to the task, can make an important contribution to improving group performance.

The importance of interpersonal skills

One of the most widely used definitions of management is getting things done through people. Mangham (1986) argues that a person’s success as a manager depends upon the ability to conduct oneself in the complexity of the organisation as a subtle, insightful, incisive performer. He goes on to suggest that successful managers appear to have a natural and/or highly developed ability to read the actual and potential behaviour of others around them and to construct their own conduct in accordance with this reading. This is an ability we all have but, according to Mangham, ‘the most successful among us appear to do social life with a higher degree of skill than the rest of us manage’.

Interpersonal skills as goal-directed behaviours

‘Interpersonal skill’ is one of a number of broadly similar terms that are sometimes used interchangeably. Other such terms include interactive skills, people skills, face-to-face skills, social skills and social competence.

Argyle (1984) defines socially competent people as those who possess the skills necessary to produce desired effects on other people in social situations. These desired effects may include persuading somebody to work harder, make a purchase, make a concession in a negotiation, be impressed by one’s expertise or support one in a crisis.

Honey (1988) offers a similar definition. He refers to interactive skills as the skills people use in face-to-face encounters to arrange their behaviour so that it is in step with their objectives. He emphasises the point that interactive skills have very little to do with being nice or winning friends unless these sorts of outcomes are encapsulated in the individual’s objectives.

A common theme in these definitions is the ability to behave in ways that increase the probability of achieving desired outcomes. It therefore seems appropriate to define interpersonal skills as goal-directed behaviours used in face-to-face interactions in order to bring about a desired state of affairs.

Approaches to the study of interpersonal interaction

The study of interpersonal skills and interpersonal relationships is multidisciplinary and, at one level, each discipline has tended to focus attention on different contexts and different kinds of relationship. In the management literature, relationships with bosses, subordinates, peers, customers and suppliers receive considerable attention whereas in the education literature, the focus is on the teacher-pupil relationship and in the social work literature, marital, family and similar relationships tend to be the focus of attention. Berscheid (1994) observes that this has led to a situation where the matrix of interpersonal relationship knowledge is fractured along the lines of relationship type. Even within the context of a particular relationship type, the study of interpersonal skills has been influenced by a rich array of conceptual approaches.

Behavioural approaches

One approach to the study of interpersonal interaction restricts attention to observable behaviour, but there are differences even within this broad approach.

At one end of the scale there are investigators (e.g. Chapple 1940), who believe that the most important characteristic of an individual’s interaction may be measured along a dimension of action-silence. Using a machine which he called an interaction chornograph, Chapple conducted many studies that were based largely on recordings of the frequency and duration of speeches and silences. Social scientists and trainers who have followed in Chapple’s footsteps have concentrated on observing the pattern of interaction (for example, who communicates, how often, how long and with whom) without reference to verbal or emotional content. Others have adopted a similar approach but have also attended to the basic elements of verbal and/or non-verbal behaviour. Duncan and Fiske (1977), for example, focus their attention on specific, immediately observable behaviours, such as head nods and eyebrow flashes, of which the larger actions are composed. They argue that when human conduct is characterised at this relatively low level of abstraction there is the advantage that observers are required to use only the minimum of inferring.

This contrasts with an alternative behavioural approach that pays attention to the intention that lies behind the behaviour and therefore requires more interpretation on the part of the observer. Advocates of this approach include Deutsch (1949), Bales (1950), Honey (1988) and Belbin (1993).

Deutsch was one of the first to develop a system for categorising role functions. He argued that members of an effective group must perform two kinds of function: one concerned with completing the task, and the other with strengthening and maintaining th...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• INTERPERSONAL SKILLS AT WORK
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• List of illustrations
• Preface
• 1 The nature of interpersonal skills: a historical perspective
• 2 Developing interpersonal skills: a micro-skills approach
• 3 Awareness of self and others and the development of interpersonal competence
• 4 Listening
• 5 Listening to non-verbal messages
• 6 Questioning and the information-getting interview
• 7 Presenting information to others
• 8 Helping and facilitating
• 9 Asserting and influencing
• 10 Negotiating
• 11 Working with groups
• 12 Managing relationships more effectively
• Index