Team communication
Discuss about the Group Communication and Negotiation Skills for Team Communications.
Group communication and negotiation skills are vital in daily activities. Negotiation is where two or more people consult each other to come up with a solution to a particular problem. On the other hand group, communication is communication directed to a large number of audiences or communication among teams. In the course of time, one gets involved in different experiences where one needs these skills. The following report is about the applicability of these skills in the real-life situations. The report points out the exact circumstances where a particular skill comes into play. The advantages of these skills are also outlined in the report.
The interaction among people of the same group or team is vital to the success of the team. With fluent team communication, instruction as well work performance is fluent and compelling. Team communication could also involve electronic transmissions, face to face discussions or just documents. (Cordon and Marshall 2015) The following are benefits of effective team communication.
Team communications develop the sense of identity and cohesion. Team communications allow idea is sharing among team members. The members are united towards achieving the same goal or objective. This interaction, in the long run, creates a strong cohesion between team members (Cardon and Marshall 2015). The workforce operates in harmony implying the achievement attained is a result of the team. Every member of the team fells involved in attaining the goals. With this unity developed the business can achieve more success following the shared ideas communicated during team interactions (Nam et al. 2009)
Team communication also results in high engagement. An effective team communication should contribute to maximum member contribution. This team communication is a better platform for every member to pass their opinions or add-on ideas geared towards achieving specific goals. Team communication is also the significant driver towards high commitment towards achieving the set goals as a team. Team communication strives towards employing the best ideas regarding viability to ensure optimal performance. In the search for the best opinions, member’s contribution is maintained high. The same idea may be made better through these contributions which result in better service or product outcomes.
Team communication maintains strong performance. The strong performance is a result of shared ideas. Only the best of all ideas are put into place. When the team members interact to solve a particular puzzle, ideas are laid down as well as the challenges that come with each idea. The good ideas are then built into great ideas through these interactions. This implies that the decision made only employ the best ideas available and which is ensures strong performance trends. Opportunities available can only be pointed out through team interactions which ensure that a business is always working to strive towards a particular opportunity. This ensures good results.
Benefits of effective team communication
In a customer care service setting, the workforce needs to employ the most active team communication. Each customer seeks help for a given issue with each issue presented by different departments. When a customer calls for assistance, the customer care desk gathers all the information to narrow down from which department do the complaints fall. Team communication comes into play between the customer care desks to the department than to the client (Durlach, Wansbury and Wilkinson 2008). The quality of the service provided to the customers dramatically depends on the communication skill that the stakeholders possess. The details of each call are also recorded for the team members to make easy references so that to ensure quality services.
In a production organization, for instance, team communication dictates the work efficiency in the company. Team communication starts from when the tasks are being assigned to the implementation of rules or instructions passed down. Each department needs to interact to come up with the best task assignment strategies (Kennedy and McComb 2010). The tasks are assigned to the person with the best skills. Team communication also plays a role towards ensuring fluent operations. The flow of work is quickening when the stakeholders possess best team commutation skills. Conflicts between team members are also reduced since the members clearly understand what is required of them and is working towards that (Page and Mukherjee 2009).
In both settings, it is clear that effective team management is the key towards a successful team operation. Better team communication skills are the significant determinants of quality of the service provided in the customer care setting. The unity towards achieving the same goals is further boosted by these communication skills. In the production company, the cooperation in the performance of tasks is of great importance. This cooperation is achieved through team interactions. As seen above with better team interaction skills, the flow of work is quickened as well as the production levels.
Negotiation skills can be defined as the relevant skill possessed by diplomats or business people which enables the bargain, discuss, negotiate, transact or carry out any activity that is aimed at drawing all members involved come into terms. Negotiation skills are relevant primarily to business people and diplomats who find themselves in numerous situation usually disagreements (Thompson and Thompson 2008). The skills are relevant to ensure each member benefits from the terms drawn. The principles of fairness, seeking mutual benefit and maintaining a relationship are the guidelines for ensuring successful negotiations. There exist two forms of negotiations, that is, formal negotiations and informal negotiation. Informal negotiations arise in case of disagreement in an informal situation. Such scores are solved through informal negotiations. Most informal negotiation does not follow the formal order of negotiation due to circumstances at which the conflicts arise (Cohen 2008)
Negotiation skills
The success of any negotiation depends on the attitude underlying to the process itself. The participants in any negotiation need to understand the attitude to the issues at hand. The personalities involved and their attitude also needs to be understood to come up with a solution based on both sides’ demands. This element affects the features of negotiation.
The participants’ knowledge on the issue at hand dramatically determines the success of the negotiation. The more information on the matter at hand ensures proper participation in the negotiation. The matter is wholly handled to avoid some loopholes in future. To ensure more knowledge on the matter, better preparation before negotiations take off is of great importance. The process of negotiations is made more effective and efficient if the participants are well equipped with information on the issue at hand (Olekalns and Brett 2008).
This involves the skills that participants in a negation possess. These negotiation skills are essential in ensuring the success of any negotiations. The skills are essential in both informal negotiations and formal negotiations (Van Hasselt, Romano and Vecchi 2008.). This interpersonal skill includes effective verbal communication, reducing misunderstandings skills, rapport building skills, problem-solving skills, decision-making skills, assertiveness, and skills to deal with stressful situations and many other skills. Without these skills, the negotiation is more likely to fail or even end up in conflicts.
In an informal conflict like a street fight between two local traders, the success of a negotiation is a rare thing. The local traders disagreed over idea copying. One of the traders was accused of stealing the branding and even marketing strategy of the other trader resulting in a stiff completion (Schneider 2012). The latter trader reacted by airing defamation accusation against the fellow trader. Now the traders have a problem to solve and a score to settle. Both the traders are angry with each other. In such a negotiation, best skills are required for the negotiations to succeed. The participants need to understand the attitude of this matter which is an angry attitude. This implies that the negotiation is prone to conflict.
In such a conflict, it is wiser to employ a mediator to act as the negotiator. The negotiator should be very fair and just in listening to both complainants. The decision reached should be ensuring satisfaction to both parties. A formal type of negotiation is the one conducted on official matters or business related matters. Experience in a formal negotiation is the discussion on a business partner during a merger conference. The partners want to draw the maximum benefits from the merger which might lead to conflicts in the case in partner takes advantage of the other. In such a negotiation, the third party does not play any role in discussions but documents the agreements after the negotiation. Both parties present their demands on the table. During the part of negotiations, a formal order is followed. The final decision is reached at through propositions where the best proposition is the chosen.
Interpersonal skills play a huge role in such situation. Better persuasion skills that participant possess give them more chances of winning the best bargain of the negotiation. In such negotiation, the organizations involved should hire a representative with the best negotiation skills. However, negotiation is not always the first way of solving conflicts among most people. The primary reasons for this are the emotional intelligence among people involved. Lack of emotional control discourages negotiation. Mistrust between people also undermines negotiation as a way of resolving conflicts.
References
Cardon, P.W. and Marshall, B., 2015. The hype and reality of social media use for work collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(3), pp.273-293.
Durlach, P.J., Wansbury, T.G. and Wilkinson, J.G., 2008. Cultural awareness and negotiation skills training: Evaluation of a prototype semi-immersive system. Army Research Inst For The Behavioral And Social Sciences Orlando Fl.
Kennedy, D.M. and McComb, S.A., 2010. Merging internal and external processes: Examining the mental model convergence process through team communication. Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 11(4), pp.340-358.
Olekalns, M. and Brett, J.M., 2008. Beyond the Deal: Next Generation Negotiation Skills Introduction to Special Issue. Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, 1(4), pp.309-314.
Page, D. and Mukherjee, A., 2009. Effective technique for consistent evaluation of negotiation skills. Education, 129(3).
Schneider, A.K., 2012. Teaching a new negotiation skills paradigm. Wash. UJL & Pol’y, 39, p.13.
Thompson, L.L. and Thompson, M., 2008. Making the team: A guide for managers. Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Van Hasselt, V.B., Romano, S.J. and Vecchi, G.M., 2008. Role playing: Applications in hostage and crisis negotiation skills training. Behavior modification, 32(2), pp.248-263.