Background

Robert, a director and union member, has requested an 8 percent raise for his work unit. His request is based on recent finance reports showing that his department has substantially contributed to a 15 percent profit increase for the organisation. He feels that his team should be compensated for the hard work and long hours they have put in over the last few years to achieve this outcome.

Kay knows the value of Robert’s team and readily acknowledges their achievements. However, she knows that the company has plans to expand and diversify. This new project will use up the majority of the profit increase for at least the next five years. She is willing to sit down with Robert and talk about how his team can get involved in the new project. There could be new job opportunities, some overseas assignments, and possible promotions to various leadership positions within the new project. Kay has flagged this with Robert; however, he is adamant that his team needs to be compensated with a monetary increase. He went as far as threatening to get the union involved if his request is unsuccessful.

Conflict-handling style

In this case study, one of the conflict-handling style used is competing. Robert demands that his request be fulfilled. He did not consider the offer that Kay gave and was adamant of the monetary increase. This style on conflict-handling would result in a temporary solution, and if he feels that him and his team deserves more, he would demand for more again. This would leave the organisation in a very difficult situation as other departments would see this an a possible opportunity to have their demands met too.

Bargaining approach

An integrative bargaining approach was used in this scenario. Rather than giving in to Robert’s demands, Kay gave an alternate solution for him and his team. She took into account the organisation’s interest and instead of a monetary increase, she offered job opportunities, overseas assignments, and possible promotions to various leadership positions within the new project. Her solution would create added value and maximize joint gains for Robert and his team and the organisation while ensuring that Robert and his team were rewarded for their time and effort that they gave for the organisation.

Interpersonal communication

There were many aspects of interpersonal communication that contributed to the poor working environment. There was a lack of clarification in the sense that Kay knew of the future plans of the company and did not disclose it. Robert might have taken up the offer if he knew about the plans to expand and diversify, this would ensure that him and his team has future opportunities as compared to the company not expanding.

However, Robert has lacked interest in what Kay has to say. He threaten to go to the union despite the possibility of a better future for him and his team. His actions may have serious repercussion in the future as it shows the lack of loyalty to the company.

Hall’s context model

In this scenario, Robert has a low-context culture. He has an uncompromising and dominating communication style, he made his case very explicitly clear that if there was no monetary increase for him and his team that he will get the union involved. His demands were very individualistic, and had no regard to the interest of the company. The fact that he threatened to get the union involved shows that his needs was of a higher importance than his relation to the company.

What is the Shannon and Weavers’s model of communication?

It is a model of communication created in 1948 by Shannon who was an American mathematician and Weaver who was a scientist.

It is also called the “mother of all models”, because it embodies concepts of information source, message, transmitter, signal, channel, noise, receiver, information destination, probability of error, encoding, decoding, information rate, channel capacity, etc.

Concepts in Shannon Weaver Model

Encoder (Transmitter) – Encoder is the sender who uses machine, which converts message into signals or binary data. It may also mean the machine.

Sender (Information source) – Sender is the person who makes the message, chooses the channel and sends the message.

Channel – The medium used to send the message.

Decoder (Receiver) – Decoder is the machine used to convert signals or binary data into message or the receiver who translate the messages from signals.

Receiver (Destination) – Receiver is the person who gets the message or is the place where the message must reach. The receiver then provides feedback according to the message.

Noise – Noise is the physical disturbance like the environment, people, etc. which does not let the message get to the receiver as what is sent.

Explanation of Shannon Weaver Model

Sender wants to send a message to the receiver. He has to encode the message before sending it through a technological channel like a telephone or telegraph. The sender converts the message into codes understandable to the machine, it is then sent in codes through a medium.

For the receiver to understand and interpret the message, he has to first decode the message. The receptor machine can also act as a decoder in some cases. The channel may have noise which cause the receiver to not be able to decode the message properly which could lead to problems in the communication process.

Example of Shannon and Weaver model

A father(sender) sends his son(receiver) a message via text(channel). His son gets the wrong message due to the auto-correct(noise), and replies panicky.

Is the Shannon Weaver’s model of communication complete?

As simple a model as it is, it has its flaws. It has a misleading misrepresentation of the nature of human communication as there are many other factors in human communication that are not taken into account.

A much better and upgraded model of communication will be the Dwyer’s Model as shown.

TL;DR no

My name is Joash. I’m currently studying Computer Science (Cyber Security) at SIM.

Why this course?

Because it has pretty good job prospects for me in the future and I also because studied something similar when I was studying in Poly.

Some fun facts about me

I finished serving the Army on 8 Jan 2020. I was a photographer for my unit and I met the President twice in my two years of service. Sadly, I am not allowed to share the photos I took in Army, so it is up to you to believe me or not.

I recently went to America and loved it. I really enjoyed the culture, the people, the food and most importantly, the weather. The people in America are SO friendly. Just walking into a random store and literally every employee greets you and asking if you need any help, which you hardly find in Singapore.

Hobbies

• Gaming
• Badminton
• Photography

Some games that i play include CSGO, Dota, GTA and Monster Hunter. Mostly on PC with the exception of Monster Hunter which I play on my PS4. I usually only play games with friends because communication is key. But those were my Poly days, because as we get older, we have less time to do the things we love. EXCEPT MONSTER HUNTER.

Photography is a weird one. I won’t call myself a photographer because I don’t take conventional photos like portraits, architecture or food like most people. I usually take long exposure photos which looks something like the photo below. I actually secretly want to get into portrait photography, so hit me up if you have any contacts 🙂

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What’s next?

No idea but here’s a song to the future. 🙂