Interpersonal Communication- Meaning

●​ Interpersonal communication is the exchange of information, feelings, and meaning

between people through verbal and nonverbal messages, acting as a crucial life skill for
building relationships and understanding others.
●​ It is often a face-to-face, dyadic process (between two people) but can occur in small
groups, encompassing voice tone, body language, facial expressions, and listening skills.

Types of Interpersonal Communication:

●​ Types: Verbal (speaking), nonverbal (body language, gestures, eye contact), written
(emails, texts), and listening.
●​ Components: Involves a sender, receiver, message, channel, and feedback.
●​ Characteristics:​
It is transactional (simultaneous sending/receiving), irreversible, and inevitable.
●​ Functions: Used to build and maintain relationships, solve problems, influence others,
and share information.
Importance and Skills:

Mastering interpersonal communication is essential for career success, personal development,

and effective teamwork. Key skills include:

●​ Active Listening: Focusing on the speaker and understanding the full message. Active
listening is different from hearing. It is an exchange of thought instead of a
[Link] listening involves understanding the other person's statements
carefully by paying attention and providing meaningful responses during the
conversation.
●​ Emotional Intelligence: Managing emotions and understanding others' perspectives.
●​ Assertiveness: Communicating needs clearly and respectfully.
●​ Flexibility/Adaptability: Adjusting communication styles to suit the audience and
situation.

Some examples of interpersonal communication:

●​ Active listening:. Active listening involves understanding the other person's statements
carefully by paying attention and providing meaningful responses during the
conversation.
●​ Teamwork: For a team to work without disruptions, all team members have to exchange
ideas and share information accurately. With proper interpersonal communication, the
team members can avoid misinterpretations and potential conflicts later in their
projects.
●​ Leadership: Team leaders or heads usually have excellent oratory skills. In a typical work
environment, leaders combine active listening with effective delivery of instructions to
encourage employees to finish their tasks.
●​ Dependability: Effective teamwork often involves relying on each other to continue the
work without interruptions. So, if one of the team members cannot carry out a task,
another one can fill in and pick up the workload. This shared information arrangement is
 only possible when those team members are able to understand each other using
interpersonal communication.
●​ Flexibility: A rigid approach to the opinions of your colleagues can prove to be an
obstacle in interpersonal communication. Good interpersonal communication skills
involve respecting other views and presenting any disagreements in a firm yet polite
tone of voice. By keeping an open mind, you can also accept their suggestions or reach a
compromise, as long as you focus on finding a solution instead of having a confrontation.
This shows adaptability.
●​ Motivation: Motivation is a part of interpersonal communication. Usually, team leads
and managers use this concept and encourage the team to achieve their goals. Most
leaders use positive reinforcement to reward their teams for excellence because it
increases self-motivation and consistency in performance reviews.
●​ Empathy: In modern workplaces, employers value emotional intelligence among their
employees. Many offices function like a family with a specific culture because employees
spend almost 8 to 12 hours together. So, colleagues can become friends and show
empathy by providing emotional support, guidance and help. This process creates
healthy interpersonal relationships and a positive office atmosphere.
●​ Patience: Patience works in conjunction with active listening and empathy. Patience is
your ability to give enough time to your colleagues or team members and express
yourself without getting frustrated. In most conversations, listening patiently with
empathy can resolve many underlying issues, leading to a faster resolution of problems
or conflict resolution.
●​ Conflict resolution: Even with proper interpersonal communication, a conflict between
two employees may happen. Usually, leaders or mediators work with both parties and
arrive at a solution that is agreeable to both. This ability requires listening to arguments
from both parties and finding out the facts to resolve the matter and make necessary
decisions for conflict resolution.
●​ Negotiation: Negotiation is useful when both you and your colleague or team member
stand to lose much if neither of you agrees to a common solution. Consider your
 priorities and be prepared to let go of the ones that are less beneficial or not worth
arguing about. Successful negotiation depends on the eloquence of both you and your
colleague and how you reach an agreeable compromise.
●​
●​

Interpersonal communication can be impaired by poor listening, lack of empathy, or

inconsistent nonverbal cues, whereas effective communication improves professional and
personal relationships.

Transactional Analysis

Transactional Analysis (TA) in organisational behaviour, developed by Eric Berne, is a framework

for understanding personality and social transactions to improve workplace communication and
interpersonal relationships. It operates on the premise that individuals behave from three core
ego states—Parent, Adult, or Child—and that identifying these patterns helps resolve conflicts
and enhance productivity.
Components of Transactional Analysis
●​ Ego States (Parent, Adult, Child):
○​ Parent:​
Behaviors, thoughts, and feelings copied from parents or authority figures (can
be nurturing or critical).
○​ Adult: Behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that are direct responses to the
here-and-now, acting rationally.
○​ Child: Behaviors, thoughts, and feelings replayed from childhood (can be free,
compliant, or rebellious).
●​ Transactions (Communication Exchanges):
○​ Complementary: Parallel communication where ego states match (e.g.,
Adult-to-Adult).
○​ Crossed: Occurs when the other person reacts from an unexpected ego state,
causing disruption.
○​ Ulterior: Involves more than two ego states, where hidden messages are sent.

Parent Ego State

The Parent Ego State is comparable to an "internal parent" in a person. This aspect of ourselves
expresses concern, desire to protect, and a wish to instruct others. It can be nurturing like a
supportive parent or it can be restrictive/inhibiting like a punitive schoolmarm. When we come
from this state, we will instruct someone on what to do, or facilitate them learning something
new or interesting.
Adult Ego State
Adult Ego state is when we are objective and rational. This aspect of ourselves is a thinker and is
slow to make decisions engaging in "fairness". The adult ego state is responsible for using
problem solving by using reason without too much emotion. When we act from the Adult ego
state we are attempting to use our intellect and practicality in what we say and do.

Child Ego State

The Child Ego State represents our playful and emotional side. There are times we act like a
child when we experience happiness, sadness, or anger; we are also playful, silly, and even
somewhat defiant. In this state, we may ask for help, or we just may want to play and enjoy life.

Transactions
A transaction occurs when two people communicate with one another. In TA, we study who is
talking to whom: is it Parent to Child? Or Adult to Adult? When we differentiate "transactions,"
it helps us understand why some conversing works better than others. It is easier to talk when
people are communicating from the same ego state.

Strokes
Strokes are words or behaviors that show someone you care or are at least aware. Some strokes
are positive—such as a compliment, and others are negative—like saying something nasty.
However, we all need strokes to feel good about ourselves. Give and receive strokes to develop
better relationships.

Life Scripts
A life script is like a story you continuously tell yourself about the way life is or will be. You
create this story if you want to call it that when you are very small, and many of the ideas come
from your family, friends, or maybe "let's pretend" or games. You may even sometimes enact
portions of your life script without realizing it. Understanding your life script will help you
change things you do not like in your life and help you decide if you want to engage in another
way of being.

Application in Organisational Behaviour

●​ Improving Communication: By encouraging "Adult-to-Adult" transactions, TA reduces

misunderstandings and conflicts in the workplace.
 ●​ Management and Leadership: Leaders can identify their own and their team's ego states
to adapt their leadership styles, fostering a more positive culture.

●​ Organisational Development: Used to foster collaboration, understand employee

motivations, and improve team dynamics.

●​ Conflict Resolution: Helps identify "crossed transactions" and disruptive "games,"

allowing for better intervention.

●​ Employee Development: Helps employees understand their "scripts" or habitual ways of

interacting, promoting personal growth.

Discovering the interpersonal orientation through FIRO-B

The FIRO-B® (Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior™) theory, developed

by Will Schutz in 1958, explains how underlying interpersonal needs—Inclusion, Control, and
Affection—drive human behavior in social and professional settings. It measures expressed
(outward) and wanted (internal) behaviors across these areas, helping individuals understand
their relational needs, reduce conflict, and improve team effectiveness.

Core Components of FIRO-B Theory

The theory posits that three basic interpersonal needs, or dimensions, influence how people
behave in groups:
●​ Inclusion (I): Relates to belonging, connection, and social participation. It measures how
much an individual includes others in their activities (Expressed) and how much they
 want to be included by others (Wanted)​
.
●​ Control (C): Concerns influence, authority, and responsibility. It measures how much an
individual tries to exert control or influence (Expressed) and how much they want to be
controlled or guided by others (Wanted).
●​ Affection (A): Focuses on openness, emotional closeness, and trust. It measures how
much an individual tries to get close to others (Expressed) and how much they want
others to get close to them (Wanted).

Expressed vs. Wanted Dimensions

The instrument breaks down the three needs into two dimensions, resulting in six distinct
scores:

●​ Expressed (e): The behavior a person displays toward others (e.g., "I include," "I control,"
"I open up").
●​ Wanted (w): The behavior a person desires to receive from others (e.g., "I want to be
included," "I want to be directed," "I want to be close").

Takeaways and Applications

●​ Driving Motivation: FIRO-B helps identify the motivations behind behavior, aiding in
conflict resolution and communication.
●​ Team Building: It is widely used to improve team synergy, as it identifies potential areas
of conflict (e.g., when one person's high "wanted control" clashes with another's low
"expressed control").
●​ Workplace Utility: Organizations use it to boost productivity by ensuring that individuals'
interpersonal needs are met within the team structure.
●​ Origins: The tool was originally created for the US Navy to build more effective
submarine crews.
Discovering facets of interpersonal trust through Johari window,

The model is divided into four perspectives:

●​ Open Area (Arena): Known to self and others. Represents open communication and
shared knowledge.
●​ Blind Spot: Known to others, but not to the self. Represents habits or traits others see
that the individual does not.
●​ Hidden Area (Façade): Known to self, but not to others. Represents personal information
kept private.
●​ Unknown Area: Known to neither the self nor others. Represents untapped potential or
subconscious feelings.

Key Takeaways for Growth:

●​ Increase Openness: By sharing more information, you reduce the Hidden Area and
increase the Open Area.
●​ Seek Feedback: By asking others for feedback, you reduce your Blind Spot.
●​ Self-Discovery: Through new experiences or self-reflection, you can discover the
Unknown Area.

The goal of the Johari Window model is to expand the "Open" quadrant, fostering better
teamwork, trust, and self-awareness.
Communication skills