Supportive Communication Climate
Work environments depend on communication for the exchange of ideas that promote the realization of individual goals in ways that ensure that organizational goals are important. This implies that how different individuals in the workplace treat each other is a significant factor in promoting organizational success. It is ideal to note that the work environment concerning communication may offer a supportive environment or a defensive one (Dukes, 2012). Based on such, it is important to consider the environment fostered in any organization, including in the case of my organization, which is named Atlas Company. Our organization has a supportive communication climate, and this is based on the idea that my employer performs his role as a leader using an approach that allows employees to have their room for creativity. It is also important to consider that my Boss ensures that correction is private. Most of the tasks we do as employees are not supervised since my Boss believes that employees can perform their tasks adequately and as expected even without supervision. This aligns with my communication climate inventory results, where the supportive score was 24 and the defensive score was 83, implying that the communication climate is supportive.
Impact of Communication Climate on Team Motivation
Communication climate has a direct impact on motivation and team commitment. This is based on the idea that employees are generally more motivated when they feel that the leadership and management are keen on considering how they feel as individuals in the sense of considering their feedback and their ability to work without too much supervision. In such cases, employees derive a sense of job satisfaction from being part of an organization that recognises their ability and supports them where necessary. This inclines them to feel motivated and commit to working with others towards realising different organizational goals.
Promoting Communication Climate in the Organization
It is possible to improve the communication climate in our organization by practising conflict resolution skills. These skills can improve the communication climate in our organization, teams or department since it will ensure that in case of a dispute, things are handled in a way that considers the importance of a positive communication climate. In such a case, in order to improve the communication climate, members of the organization can be taken through sessions where they learn about conflict resolution across different levels of communication. The communication climate can also be improved by providing more platforms where employees can give their input on aspects related to different activities the organization is involved in (Bacal, 2016). This will promote the communication climate by allowing employees to feel valued,; therefore, where an issue is present, they will react well to input from the management (Eveland, 2016).
Communication Skills
To create a supportive communication environment, I would like to improve on the communication skill of turn-taking. Turn-taking is an important communication skill because it allows the parties involved in a conversation to exchange ideas rather than working with one sided view, which is the case where turn-taking is not considered (Burns et al., 2019). This will help me promote the creation of a supportive communication climate since people often feel respected and valued when they are listened to, especially when their ideas are composed of aspects they feel strongly about. I would also like to improve my communication skills in showing empathy. Empathy refers to putting oneself in another person’s situation to understand their thinking or reaction (Ilie, 2019). Through showing empathy, I can promote a supportive communication climate in our organization since those I communicate with will feel a sense of being understood, and it is this understanding that is often described as support. In such a case, empathy and turn-taking would be ideal in promoting a supportive communication climate.
Reference
Bacal, R. (2016). Articles on communication and conflict management.
Burns, A., & Seidlhofer, B. (2019). Speaking and pronunciation. In An introduction to Applied Linguistics (pp. 240-258). Routledge.
Dukes, A. J. (2012). Defensive vs. Supportive Climates in the Workplace.
Eveland, J. D. (2016). Group Dynamics and Conflict. (PowerPoint Presentation) Trident University International.
Ilie, O. A. (2019, June). The intercultural competence. Developing effective intercultural communication skills. In International conference Knowledge-based organization (Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 264-268).
Appendix
| Communications Climate Inventory | |
| 1 = Strongly agree | |
| 2 = Agree | |
| 3 = Neutral | |
| 4 = Disagree | |
| 5 = Strongly Disagree | |
| My Boss criticizes my work without giving me a chance to explain. | 5 |
| My Boss allows me as much creativity as possible in my job. | 1 |
| My Boss always judges the actions of everyone who reports to him/her. | 2 |
| My Boss allows flexibility on the job. | 1 |
| My Boss criticizes my work in front of others. | 5 |
| My Boss is willing to try new ideas and listen to others’ points of view. | 1 |
| My Boss believes that he/she needs to control how I do my work. | 5 |
| My Boss understands the problems I contend with in my job. | 1 |
| My Boss is always trying to change other people’s attitudes and behaviours to suit his/her own. | 5 |
| My Boss respects my feelings and values. | 1 |
| My Boss always needs to be in charge of the situation. | 5 |
| My Boss listens to my problems with interest. | 1 |
| My Boss tries to manipulate subordinates to get what he/she wants or to make him/herself look good. | 5 |
| My Boss does not try to make me feel inferior. | 1 |
| I have to be careful when talking to my Boss so that I will not be misinterpreted | 5 |
| My Boss participates in meetings with me without projecting his/her higher status or power. | 1 |
| I seldom say what is really on my mind because it might be twisted and distorted by my Boss | 5 |
| My Boss treats me with respect. | 1 |
| My Boss seldom becomes involved in employee conflicts. | 5 |
| My Boss does not have hidden motives in dealing with me. | 1 |
| My Boss is not interested in employee problems. | 5 |
| I feel that I can be honest and straightforward with my Boss. | 1 |
| My Boss rarely offers moral support during a personal crisis. | 5 |
| I feel I can express my opinions and ideas honestly to my Boss. | 1 |
| My Boss tries to make me feel inadequate. | 5 |
| My Boss defines problems so that they can be understood but does not insist that his/her subordinates agree. | 1 |
| My Boss makes it clear that he/she is in charge. | 1 |
| I feel free to talk to my Boss. | 1 |
| My Boss believes that if a job is to be done right, he/she must oversee it or do it him/herself. | 5 |
| My Boss defines problems and makes his/her subordinates aware of them. | 5 |
| My Boss cannot admit that he/she makes mistakes. | 5 |
| My Boss tries to describe situations fairly without labelling then as good or bad. | 3 |
| My Boss is dogmatic; it is useless for me to voice an opposing point of view. | 5 |
| My Boss presents his/her feelings and perceptions without implying that a similar response is expected from me. | 1 |
| My Boss thinks that he/she is always right. | 5 |
| My Boss attempts to explain situations clearly and without personal bias. | 1 |
| 107 | |
| Defensive score | |
| Evaluation | 12 |
| Control | 15 |
| Strategy | 15 |
| Neutrality | 15 |
| Superiority | 11 |
| Certainty | 15 |
| Total | 83 |
| Supportive score | |
| Provisionalism | 3 |
| Empathy | 3 |
| Equality | 3 |
| Spontaneity | 3 |
| Problem Orientation | 7 |
| Description | 5 |
| Total | 24 |
| Adapted from Gibb, J. (1961) Defensive communication. Journal of Communication, 11, 141-148. | |
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