Communication Analysis Paper
Communication Analysis Paper
Performance reviews are meant to help the employer know of his performance over time as per the firms’ guidelines and objectives. This also helps the employers know if the employees are working according to expectation or they are just joy-riders in the organization. For most employees, the performance review processes are not processes to look forward at any given moment. For most, they are the most dreadful moments one can experience in a work place as they do not know what to expect or what question will be thrown at them by their bosses. But the performance review process entirely depends on the communication method used by the superiors and also how they employees react to their superiors methods (Agarwal, 2010). Hence, communication is the main thing that determines whether a performance review will be positive or not for both parties.
During the spring break, I had taken a job which I was referred to by one of my friends, worked there for a period of four months. For the first three months, all was well as I found out that most of the employees used to call me to help them with their work and the senior employees used to congratulate for my hardworking spirit and dedication I had to my firm. This gave me a positive attitude towards work and also made me look forward to be going to work each and every morning. With this type of feedback coming my way, I never expected to be ambushed by anyone to be told I had a negative attitude towards work and how lazy I was; little did I know my days were numbered.
On one lazy afternoon, my immediate supervisor requested for me to see him in his office, immediately knew what was waiting for in the office. Little had I not seated down, than the manager started throwing his tantrums on me, I was told how lazy I was and how I had work done quickly yet it had many errors and most of the time I did it wrongly. All that time he was speaking, I was just asking myself whether he really had my file in hand or was confusing me with someone else. He never gave evidence or even a scenario in which I had it done wrongly or erred in my duties but just kept throwing basely arguments towards. As a junior employee, couldn’t counter with hard words towards him but just seated down and absorbed all this acquisitions till he was done and was told to leave the office and reflected on my life in that firm, whether I really wanted to be retained there.
This is an example of a negative performance review process with in effective communication applied all through the process. As communication is vital for understanding between two or more parties, in this case it can be seen that there lacked effective communication by the supervisor. First, the supervisor did not bother to notify me in time of my evaluation as I was just ambushed with a direct notice effective immediately. For proper communication, the supervisor would have informed me in advance to allow myself to prepare psychologically and be fit during the process. Secondly, the supervisor would have used a more positive approach during the process. As the process is mainly used to evaluate the performance of the employee, the supervisor would have spent more time researching on all my works that I have done, clearly separating the good and the bad and highlighting them to me with substantial evidence to enable me to be in a position to correct any of my errors and be effective in the future.
According to Martin & Andersen (2009), effective communication involves a scenario through which both parties have time to both air their grievances and each supporting their arguments with substantial arguments. In this way, in case of a misunderstanding, both parties would be in a position to tell where they went wrong or where they need to correct themselves so as to be in the right track. For this to happen, both the parties should have good listening skills where one talks as the other listens careful so as to understand each other and vice versa. In case of an argument, the best way would be to be saying facts and supporting them with reasonable and substantial evidence so as to avoid any conflict as well as solving the conflicts effectively. When following these key communicating techniques, it will noticed that there will always be a reasonable understanding between the two or more parties.
As an employee, I would say that I was more effective on my listening skills as I gave the supervisor ample time and an easier time to explain his grievances and to air out all he had to say, though I was not given time to talk on my behalf, I made sure the situation did not go out of hand by trying to follow the appropriate channels on how to effectively communicate my opinions. As I noticed the supervisor was not in his best moods, that would have not been the time to air out what I had to say but to wait till the supervisor had calmed down so as to come back and air my grievances in a proper manner and in a way that I know he would have taken it kindly. From this, I can say that I have good negotiation and conflict resolution skills as I was in a position to understand the situation and wait for the best time to communicate my issues and solve the conflict in the end.
In terms of communication, the areas which need improvement on my behalf would be the talking skills, as the supervisor was airing out his comments, I did not utter even a word during the whole process. For effective communication to take place it is of importance for both parties to be active participants and in my case I was more of partial than active. This is my greatest area of weakness in terms of communications, I tend to be more of passive withholding information that would prove to be useful when the other parties appears to be aggressive in his or her communication method. The best way to improve this area will be to involve myself in a debate club and get more friends who are talkative than I am. This will be the best way that I could help develop my talking skills in areas where everyone is a bit louder than normal hence helping me to adopt to the environment of the real world where everyone is mostly looking out for themselves.
Success is measured by the degree to which one has attained his objectives which were set before the beginning of the task. Therefore, for success to be measured there need to be an object which was set in the beginning. With communication, success is when an individual or parties are able communicate to another and come to an understanding in the most formal way possible, hence, success in my case will be measured when I will be in a position to listen, interpret and effectively air out my views at the right time to avoid further inconveniences (Harvey, 2012).
References
Agarwal, O. P. (2010). Effective communication: I. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House.
Cartwright, R. (2008). Communication. Oxford, U.K: Capstone Pub.
Harvey, N. (2012). Effective communication. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan.
Martin, H. H., & Andersen, K. E. (2009). Speech communication: Analysis and readings. Boston: Allyn and Bacon
