MANAGERIAL SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
Work paper
[pic 1]
Table of contents
1. Communication 2
2. Negotiation 3
3. Leadership 4
4. Ethics 6
Communication
First of all, I would like to start with my personal belief that cannot only summarize the importance of communication, but it can also give a frame to the topic under discussion. As we are living in a society appropriate communication is really important as it is the base of coexistence.
Everyday life is highly affected by communicational problems and conflicts caused by negotiations especially when you work at a company as a manager. How can communication be efficient? What are the indicators? In the following pages, I will be looking for the correct answers.
The first things that we learn in primary school when communication comes up are the two types of communication: verbal and non-verbal. Both of them are needed if we want the listener to interpret us correctly. It is indispensable to communicate the same with our words as with our body language. When this fails, the listener may get confused and there is a chance that he/she gives another meaning than we wanted to achieve. A manager cannot afford misunderstandings as it can have long-term consequences regarding the company’s life.
If we are in an international environment, different cultures, cultural backgrounds can be seen as indicators as it can determine the way we communicate. For example cultural background can define components of non-verbal communication such as space between the members.
As for me, I truly believe that the relationship between the transmitter and the receiver can also have an impact on the communication; therefore it can be seen as another indicator. The relationship decides on the vocabulary we use.
Furthermore, the background (knowledge) can also specify our communication. It is not the same when the receiver has already had knowledge about the topic that we communicate towards him/her.
The importance of these indicators could be possible to observe in the first exercise that was the introduction of ourselves. For example to highlight the non-verbal communication I have to say that the posture like crossed arms or smiling betrayed a lot of things about the person and his/her reactions under stress. Concerning the background knowledge - that I have already mentioned – we can admit that highly ascertained that things that we saw as important details to say and to bring them to the other’s notice.
Negotiation
The topic of negotiation was the second topic taken under discussion at class as it is based on the first topic, because there is no negotiation without communication. The role play that was played was an exercise in which we were able to link the theme and the indicators. But what are the indicators?
In the followings, I would like to take one by one through our role play. Negotiation is a process that has to a follow a concrete structure in order to be sufficient. Sufficiency differs depending on whose point of view we are looking at the negotiation. With my group we chose the first role play that was named as the ‘Manager in Paris’ case.
First of all, I think that in case of a negotiation it is really important to know what position we have. I mean that the way we negotiate differs if we are a monopoly or if we have a lot of competitors. This is the matter of climate. Climate is an indicator that can be influenced by different factors such as the one mentioned above or relationship of the negotiators, because it is responsible for the formation or the lack of trust that can influence the progression of the negotiation. Furthermore we can also think about how the knowledge or information can influence the negotiation? The more information one negotiator has about the purposes/intents or the general situation of the other negotiator, the better is his/her position, as a more powerful position will ease to reach his/her goals in the negotiation. Concerning the question of climate in our role play, we put the emphasize on listening and active participation in order to reach our common objective, that was to sign the contract. We had no information about our company’s position so maybe we would do the following steps in another way if we would have more details.