Interpersonal Skills Needed by Business Managers

Interpersonal Skills Needed by Business Managers In modern corporations, business managers desire to develop positive and effective interaction with their employees. In order to build up successful relationship with subordinates, managers need to improve their interpersonal skills. This paper sets out to analyse three different interpersonal skills needed by business managers: understanding others, developing and maintaining rapport, listening and presenting feedback to others. And it seems that listening and presenting feedback is the most significant one. Introduction In recent years, there has been a great deal of discussion about interpersonal skills of business managers. For business managers, they always work with people who have different backgrounds, and whether they can maintain successful interaction with their employees, to a certain degree, depends on their effective interpersonal skills. In modern society, it is significant difficult for business managers who cannot relate with others to achieve succeed. (Fandt 1994) In modern corporations, positive relationships are of great importance in earning high degrees of job satisfaction. If employees have a good feeling about their jobs, they will be more likely to do their job well; in addition, they are able to accomplish their tasks in high-quality environment. The research of service-profit chain(Heskett et al. 1994; Heskett, Sasser, and Schlesinger 1997 cited in Tews Tracey 2009, p.245) which analyses how companies achieve and maintain outstanding performance mentions that internal servi ce quality, such as the way people work with each other, moves employees to feel more satisfied about their working environment. (Tews Tracey 2009) On the contrary, if a business manager lacks interpersonal skills, they will limit the performance of employees. For example, employees who are likely to be passive, lack creativity, and depend too much on others ideas and instructions results in working with the managers who lacks interpersonal skills. (Fandt 1994) Therefore, it is one of the most basic priorities for business managers to improve their ability of interpersonal skills. The interpersonal skills needed by business managers can be seen as the capacity to be a facilitator-to foster a collective effect; get along with peers, subordinates, and superiors; and manage interactions with other. (Fandt 1994) This paper will analyse the following interpersonal skills: (1) understanding others, (2) developing and maintaining rapport, (3) listening and presenting feedback to others. Moreover, it will be argued that listening and presenting feedback to others is the most significant interpersonal skill among the three skills needed by business managers. Understanding others Some social psychologists have recognised that making efforts to understand the inner world of others is an extremely common feature of human interaction. This is because interpreting how to open up a conversation with others, how to respond to what others say are built up on the level of understanding of others. (Guirdham 1996) For business managers, understanding others is also of great significance. The survey (Heller Porter 1996 cited in Guirdham 1996, p. 147) of 150 US and UK executives found that the ability to understand people was ranged as the top of a list of 16 skills of management. This is because other skills such as communication, persuading, and team work are based on a basic priority of understanding what others do and say. (Guirdham 1996) In addition, business managers need to interpret others also because people are differing from each other and the managers should not treat everybody alike. Fiedler (1964) as cited in Guirdham (1996) suggests that a leader who can distinguish among their followers is more likely to be succeed than those who cannot. Taking the captains of basketball teams as an example, Fielder (1964) as cited in Guirdham (1996) found that the leader of the losing team seemed to find the differences among his players from a macro perspective, however, the captain of winning team knew who dribbled well, who shot well, who played well under pressure, and so on. Willard E. and Robert W. (1951) also mentioned that the more you are able to recognize the differences among your men, the better you will be able to understand and help them. For instance, there was a business manager who interpreted his subordinates by making notes in index cards. He picked up some information such as the birthday, education of his employees, names of the subordinates wife and children, the employees hobbies, ages, and even interests. By doing that, the manager could remember some individual characteristics of his employees which would play a key role in talking with each other much easier and distinguishing the employees better. In a word, successful business managers tend to have the capacity to perceive differences among their employees. (Guirdham 1996) Furthermore, no business manager can function without comprehending and understanding individuals who work with him. The performances of a leader will be affected by what he knows of his followers. A manager may always study the behaviours of his subordinates in order to avoid lacking confidence or discord. (Parker Kleemeier 1951) Finally, understanding the subordinates will help the business managers match their employees properly with the right work. If a person who lacks sufficient abilities probably will fail in finishing his job. And as a result, he will be more likely to become frustrated and disappointed. On the other hand, employees who are over-qualified tend to become bored with their simple work. Thus, it is essential for the managers to understanding their employees better in order to match them with the right work. (Parker Kleemeier 1951) Developing and maintaining rapport Rapport can be seen as the quality of the relationship in describing the interactions between psychotherapists and their clients (Gfeller, Lynn, and Pribble 1987 cited in Gremler Gwinner 2000, p.83), as the quality of [a] relationship characterized by satisfactory communication and mutual understanding in investigating college roommate relationships (Carey et al. 1988 cited in Gremler Gwinner 2000, p.83) and as a quality in the relation or connection between interactants , especially relations marked by harmony, conformity , accord, and affinity (Bernieri et al. 1996 cited in Gremler Gwinner 2000, p.83). In terms of the relationship between business managers and their subordinates, rapport means the enjoyable interactions which will be established when the business managers tend to open to others with a friendly manner, display the interests in their employees, use the sense of humour to reduce tensions, demonstrate that the managers have the sensitivity of the needs and feelings of their subordinates. (Fandt 1994) For business managers, developing and keeping rapport with their employees will help them build up confidence to deal with problems in an appropriate way, encourage them to share their helpful ideas with the employees, promote the cooperation between leaders and followers, and bring themselves and their subordinates into harmony by reducing the possibility of the grievances and disruptive conflicts (Filley 1975). Grievances and disruptive conflicts (Filley 1975) seem to be the two main aspects which are result in failing in maintaining rapport in working environment. Firstly, a grievance can be described as the resentments of a person which is possible to contribute to adverse effects on subordinates attitude toward their job, their manager even the whole company. The quality of work will be suffered severely and the morale of the employees will be lowered when employees have a grievance. In addition, the relationship between managers and their employees is also likely to be tensional because of the existence of grievance. Secondly, according to Filley (1975), conflict is divided into two different kinds: competitive conflicts and disruptive conflicts, and to a certain extent, disruptive conflicts are likely to cause damage to keeping rapport. It will bring tension between business managers and their followers. Moreover, it seems to create negative feelings between leaders and subordinates which will contribute to a complaining atmosphere in work. (Quinn, Faerman, Thompson and McGrath 1996) According to the above-mentioned, it is clear that for business managers, developing and keeping rapport is of huge significance in order to create enjoyable interactions between leaders and their subordinates and avoid grievances and disruptive conflicts(Filley 1975). Listening and presenting feedback to others The meaning of listening is not the same as hearing. Listening is an intellectual and emotional process in which you use all resources at hand to understand the meaning of a message. (Fandt 1994) Thus, to a certain extent, listening is a reflective activity. An effective listener should not only hear something form others, but also include keeping appropriate eye contact, observing the hidden stories, exploring the words that have been spoken, and understanding the body language of the speaker. (Fandt 1994) For business managers, in order to be a good listener, they should attempt to use empathy (Quinn, Faerman, Thompson and McGrath 1996) which means feeling others inner world and experiencing others thoughts instead of directly controlling others thoughts. For example, when the statement of a subordinate is not accurate, the manager should not interrupt him and keep listen to him to the end. And after that, the manager can ask some open-ended questions like How did you feel when that happened. This kind of listening behaviour may help managers understand the inner thoughts and feelings of the subordinate. In addition, it will also be beneficial to save time because of the less of interruption and repetition. However, if a manager experiences a subordinates inner world excessively, the subordinate may feel uncomfortable, and as a result, the manager cannot understand the speaker deeply. (Quinn, Faerman, Thompson and McGrath 1996) It is also of great importance that while listening to the subordinates, the business managers should present some feedback to them. Fandt (1994) mentions that appropriate feedback given by managers will help the subordinates promote, correct, and obtain a greater achievement. For instance, some business managers present feedback as I think you handled the customer complaints very professionally and I appreciate your error-free report (Fandt 1994). This kind of feedback shows subordinates that the managers understand what they are doing, recognize and appreciate their performances, as a result, the subordinates tend to continue to perform well. (Fandt 1994) In most cases, business managers attempt to give critical feedback to their employees. In another word, managers not only present some negative feedback but also give some negative feedback. However, according to Fandt (1994), it is more considerable to give positive feedback than negative feedback. That is because most employees feel difficult to hear and accept negative feedback. For example, punishment, blame, and wrongly criticism seem to be the most common kinds of negative feedback which will decrease the inspiration of employees because of the feeling of tension. Furthermore, punishment, blame, and wrongly criticism also tend to reduce the capacity of doing jobs of employees because they are likely to be defeated by them. On the other hand, giving some positive feedback such as praise can inspire employees to a greater achievement. Parker and Kleemeier (1951) states all men will work hard to gain admiration and praise from others. It is for the reason that praise is one of the strongest motivating forces at the supervisors command. If an employee gets positive feedback such as praise from the manager, he will desire to accomplish his work better and show great cooperation. (Parker and Kleemeier 1951) Moreover, although some employees may make some mistakes during their work, the manager also should point out what they have done is right, and as a result, employees will be more likely to have more confidence to correct their performances. Discussion Comparing to the three interpersonal skills needed by business managers, listening and presenting feedback seems to be the most significant one. That is because understanding others and keeping rapport in working atmosphere are based on listening and giving feedback to others. Firstly, managers tend to show their understanding of the subordinates through listening and presenting some feedback. As Parker and Kleemeier (1951) point out nearly all supervisors who really understand their men eventually learn to be good listeners. Successful managers attempt to study the attitudes of their employees, to observe what the employees really are thinking about through listening to them. After listening to them, managers can present some feedback to show the employees that the managers can understand what they are thinking about and what they really want. Secondly, listening and showing feedback to others will also help business managers to select the right man to do appropriate work. If a manager desire to select employees the most common way to do that is interviewing. During the interviewing, the managers may always ask some open-ended questions and then they keep the interviewees talking about it. The only job of the interviewers is listening and giving feedback at the end of the interview. This kind of activity will be more likely to help managers make the accurate choice and understand the interviewees better. Finally, the possibility of grievances and disruptive conflicts (Filley 1975) seems to be reduced by listening and presenting feedback. For instance, some employees may complain that they are treated unfairly. For an experienced manager, the best way to deal with this kind of problem is to listen to their complaints to find some hidden problems of the employees even the company. In addition, they present some feedback to show that they have understood the problem and will take actions to cope with it. As a result, the managers can develop and maintain rapport in the working environment. (Parker Kleemeier 1951) Conclusion In conclusion, a perfect business manager should maintain successful interaction with their employees. Furthermore, to become a successful manager, people should be skilled in outstanding interpersonal behaviours which will not only develop the level of self-awareness but also promote the level of prestige. This essay has analysed three different interpersonal skills needed by business managers including understanding others, developing and maintaining rapport, and listening and presenting feedback to others. For business managers, firstly, understanding their employees can promote the capacity of distinguish people from different backgrounds, help them interpret what their employees feelings and match their employees appropriately with the right job. Secondly, it is also beneficial to develop and keep rapport. Most of people would like to work in a positive place where there are less grievances and disruptive conflicts (Filley 1975). If a manager can keep rapport in a company, he will be more likely to build up cooperation relationship with his subordinates and become more successful. Finally, listening and presenting feedback to employees can make the employees feel that their managers concern about them, and understand them. So that managers may earn the respect of their employees which will develop the efficiency of their work. In addition, listening and presenting feedback might be the most significant ability among the three interpersonal skills needed by business managers. Because it seems as the foundation of other interpersonal skills and business managers should concentrate on develop the capacity of listening and presenting feedback to their subordinates firstly.

Comparison between Ancient China and Singapore Civilisations

Who am I? I am Aicirt, a time traveller. Recently I travelled to the view life in Ancient China. Was it interesting, you might ask? Indeed it was, which is why, I have decided to compare two aspects of life in the early civilisations with life in Singapore today. My first aspect would be Technology The main difference between the technology in the early civilisations and present day Singapore is that the technology in the early civilisations was not as highly advanced as in Singapore now. Singapore is very much highly advanced in technology than in the early civilisations. An example would be many Singaporeans depend a lot on electronics such as their handphones etc. Whereas in the early civilisations such as the Indus Valley civilisation and Shang civilisation, there was no such things as electronics. In fact, there was no electricity at all! The next example I am giving is that when making goods such as vases and other objects, we currently use machines to make them and design them. On the other hand in the early civilisations, all the objects were made by hand and were intricately designed using bones or sharp stones etc. However, the early civilisations and present day Singapore have something in common with reference to the aspect on technology. The technologies in both the early civilisation and life in Singapore today share the same things which include making tools, weapons and craft objects etc. Even cooking is present in both of them. In both times, the people have always tried to make life better for themselves by trying to different methods to complete their jobs efficiently. The next aspect I will compare is the Transportation. Transportation is a very important aspect to compare. Traveling to the early civilisations made me realise that the people there used little transportation (only small boats) for trading purposes. Other than that, they seldom used transport. In Singapore, transport is used widely. For example, we take buses, cars to work or attend school. Firstly, I have noticed a similarity when I travelled to different early civilisations such as the Shang civilisation. The similarity is that in both the early civilisation life and life in Singapore today, people transport by land and water. Even though, the time gap has a big difference, we both share the same type of transportations. This shows that over time, the type of transportation may have had modifications but the main idea of traveling by land or water did not change. Next, I shall point out a difference in the transportation between present day Singapore and early civilisations. The main difference is the modernization of the transports available in both times. Currently now, we have many different kinds of transportations to choose from. We can take the MRTs, buses, ferries or cars for short or long distances. For much further distances, we can take aeroplanes or ships. However, during the early civilisation life, the types of transport were less and much less modernized. You will probably ask what they are, then. Well, they differ a lot. In the early civilisations, transportation modes only consisted of small boats and perhaps carts driven by larger animals such as bulls or cows. What I admired about the people of the early civilisations I admired the people of the early civilisations for their ability to be open minded to new ideas and the ability of thinking of ideas to improve their lives. They often tried to improve their lives by using their limited technology to allow themselves to complete task with more efficiency. They had determination to complete and overcome everything, every obstacle faced. They always knew and wanted to improve in the way the live, their lifestyle. For example, in the Shang civilisation, the people introduced leisure activities to their lifestyle. They created board games such as chess using stone. I admire them for being resourceful too. The people were able to develop some sort of technology by being able to use harder materials such as stone and metal to create objects so that they were more durable. They could make inscriptions and inscribe or carve on hard objects. This showed that they planned whatever they were going to do before attempting to do this. This is a good skill-planning before embarking on doing. I think I would like to adopt this ability/skill to prevent rash decisions which may result in several mistakes. Planning goes a long way. A quote I heard several times is â€Å"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.† Therefore, the people of the early civilisation were successful as they had steadfast determination and well planning. An example of well planning would be the Indus Valley civilisation. In Mohenjo-daro, a main city of the Indus Valley Civilisation, it was a very well planned city with many public buildings and the world's first complex underground drainage system was there. The people of the early civilisation put in their best even if it seemed unlikely that they would succeed. In conclusion, I admire the early civilisation people for being determined and persevering in doing whatever they do, overcoming obstacles, finding solutions to their problems such as solving the irrigation flood problem etc.

What Is So Fascinating About Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Esl?

What Is So Fascinating About Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Esl? Though you're just beginning to compose essays, you shouldn't struggle attempting to produce something to discuss. The excellent thing with these kind of essays is they can be quite interesting to the reader so long as you frame theme will. The first thing which you have to do before you get started writing is to decide on an ideal topic to write about. For example an individual may pick a topic like, life in the shoes of a werewolf. Whispered Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Esl Secrets If you aren't prepared to master the art of academic writing alone, there is absolutely no need to go the site of an official writing service for students and purchase an affordable paper written from scratch to stick out from the remainder of your peers! After discovering our website, you will no longer will need to bother friends and family with these kinds of requests. You have to present your topic, naturally, a nd also your thesis statement that has the function of indicating to your readers what is the probable path of the full work. Try to remember, make certain you do your research, and don't rush writing. A Secret Weapon for Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Esl Introduction with the effective hook and thesis statement stays the same. You're able to restate your thesis statement and point out a number of the arguments used over the whole essay that backs it up. Point to the principal argument of your topic called a thesis statement. In these instances, you should compose an essay or report to explore your ideas about this issue. Research the 2 topics you've been given. A number of the essay topics below may appear to contain subjects that don't have anything in common. You may use any as the subject of your essay particularly whenever you're not assigned any specific theme. Choosing the appropriate topics might take a while in case you don't have a list of sample topics facing you. In the majority of cases, the topics you select should be closely related. This guide will allow you to understand just what's expected of you, and provide the structure you will need to compose a high grading essay of your own. There's an ideal instance of such topics below. Such an essay can be very confusing, as balancing between comparing and contrasting can be somewhat tough. The job of comparing and contrasting phenomena might be challenging one. The sort of compare and contrast essay topic you select should always d epict your degree of learning. Offer particular examples to demonstrate the facets of the comparison and contrast. The Characteristics of Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Esl A massive number of topic ideas is your primary benefit. Before you even begin writing it is extremely important to pick the topic that will set you in advantage. You may use the suggested topics as inspiration for your own, or you may simply decide to write about one you enjoy the most. Plenty of various topics in every single field can be modified to your specific conditions. The reply to the disturbing question like how to compose a compare and contrast essay starts with the structure of this sort of academic writing. In a lot of sections of text's principal body you are supposed to demonstrate different contrast or compare points. So now you understand how to pick the best compare and contrast topics and the various segments which you require to address when writing. There ought to be up to three supporting points in every single body paragraphs. Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Esl - What Is It? Students should successfully finish the curriculum of both educational institutions to be able to advance in many careers. They will find some good points and ideas necessary for the development of a good school or college comparative essay. They write better papers when they have some good examples in front of them. They lead busy lives and often forget about an upcoming deadline. How to Get Started with Compare and Contrast Essay Topics for Esl? There are plenty of sources from where you are able to gather information on your subjects but be certain you always go with facts. Otherwise, you should have a look at a number of the easy compare and contrast essay topics on the many scientific innovations. You have to have valid proof to back up your ideas along with proper analysis that your readers can see and follow all of the way down. Write them down and begin researching to get informed and evaluate whether it's possible to come across enough evidence for some specific subject. Such topics are extremely interesting to write about and can be a good alternative for people, who need to express themselves. It's possible to come across contrasting features in 1 country during various occasions or ages. You're given the freedom to not just pick compare and contrast topics all on your own, but you need the freedom to decide on the side of your support along with how to contrast it. Just because you're given total freedom what you're going to write, does not signify that you need to write casually without giving any proof.

United States Border Control Problems and Possible Solutions Free Essay Example, 5000 words

The Fourth Amendment of the US succinctly states that a person cannot be subjected to unlawful searches and seizures. Consequently, in order to carry out searches and seizures, warrants must be issued in behalf of the searching party and based on the specific terms set forth in the warrant. Moreover, evidence or materials gathered from such illegal searches and seizures are inadmissible in court (Kim, p. 2). Based on the provisions of the Fourth Amendment, some groups claim that border patrols, seizures, searches, and inspections violate the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution. Therefore, anything seized from the searches or seizures by border patrol officials cannot be considered admissible in court. Legal experts however emphasize that such border seizures and searches are based on the police power of the state in the name of national security and is superior to the right of an individual against illegal searches and seizures (Kim, p. 2). This has not however stopped va rious interest groups from pointing out that the border searches can sometimes be used as a means of abuse and a means of implementing unfair and unjust practices. In the recent implementation of the Arizona immigration laws, the issue of racial profiling has once again been raised. This is an issue which has been considered a potential outcome of the implementation of the provisions of the Fourth Amendment. Various interest groups point out that the implementation of searches and seizures is often based on the race of the individuals crossing the borders (Johnson, p.We will write a custom essay sample on United States Border Control Problems and Possible Solutions or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/page United States, the SC legalized the application of more, not less profiling in the implementation of border patrol policies. This case further gave power to police officers to solely depend on racial characteristics in the implementation of border control policies (Johnson, p. 1009). The practice of racial profiling has been severely criticized by various interest groups because of the practice of some law enforcement officials in making broad and sweeping statements or descriptions in order to justify some of their actions. For example, they may apprehend or search a person s cargo and truck because the driver looks like a Mexican. However, as pointed out by human rights activists, just because a person looks like a Mexican, does not automatically make him an illegal immigrant, or even a Mexican, for that matter. Nevertheless, this is how border patrol policies are often being implemented. An unfortunately, these actions and judgments are often seen no t just near the border, but also in America s heartland (Johnson, p. 1009).