HR Research Paper Sample: Interpersonal Skills at Work

Interpersonal skills are the different skills one uses to interact with other people effectively or properly. In any working place, these are fundamental skills for different people within a workplace need to interact with each other so as to exchange different ideas related to the nature of work happening in the workplace. A workplace is an environment with a number of people whose main purpose is to deliver on a certain mission or on a certain goal. This implies that the different people within the workplace need to exchange ideas among each other so as to ensure the success of their work. Interpersonal skills come in the picture of such an environment in a simple manner, the different people in the workplace need to portray high interpersonal skills so as to deliver on what is required of them and ensure accurate delivery (Cheruvelil). Within this paper, we will look at the different types of interpersonal skills and the importance of interpersonal skills in any workplace.

Different types of interpersonal skills at work

There are different types of interpersonal skills at work which contribute to the success of the organization. These include skills such as verbal communication, listening skills, non-verbal communication, negotiation skills, problem-solving skills, assertiveness and decision-making skills. All these falls under the category of interpersonal skills at work. It is important to note that all these different types work hand in hand in any workplace despite the nature of work at the given workplace (Cheruvelil). The application of all these skills leads to the success of the organization as well as improved personal relations within the organization or the workplace.

Verbal communication is the passing of a message from one person to the other via word of mouth. This is a basic interpersonal skill that is required not only at work but in our day to day life. Every person needs to pass a message to the next person, and this message needs to be passed via word of mouth in most of the cases. At work, people need to talk to each other so as to pass messages from one arm of the organization to the other (Koprowska). A good example is the passing of a message from the management department to the staff via word of mouth. This type of interpersonal communication is very critical. In case one lacks good verbal-communication skills this would have a great impact on the company.

This can be seen in a practical case scenario where the human resource has to communicate with new employees in the company on the working hours as well as the salary an organization pays (Koprowska). This is very critical information for the organization. In case the information is communicated poorly this may result to wrong working hours and disagreements in salary among other things. Another good example is the communication between a departmental management with their department. These are a few cases that involve verbal communication as interpersonal skills at the work place. Effective application of the skill can be evaluated by the nature of information flow within the workplace without the message losing its meaning. While lack of these type of interpersonal skill within the organization results in loss of messages within the organization among other problems.

Nonverbal communication is another type of interpersonal skills. This involves the passing of messages from one person to the other without the use of spoken words. This is a skill effectively utilized in different places and work is one of those reasons. This is a communication skill which may be used to relay different types of messages. Most of the workplaces have their different non-verbal communication skills hence one needs to possess this skill to understand these skills within their operation environment (Koprowska). These skills also help in conveying coded messages between persons within the same workplace who do not heed the message to be understood by the organization workers where the information does not need to be verbally communicated to the entire company. This skill can be classified among the confidential interpersonal communication within the organization.

The other important interpersonal skill within the organization is the problem-solving skills. These are essential interpersonal skills in an organization or the workplace. They involve the ability of a person to exchange ideas in the process of solving different problems within the organization. A workplace is a place with set goals and objectives (Whetten). These goals and objective require problem-solving skills so as to achieve them for instance in a software development company, where the employees or the team is made up of software developers, they are faced with daily problems that involve the development of complex software for their customers. Such a team needs problem-solving skills among the team members so as to be able to address the issue. It would be impossible for such a team lacking problem-solving skills among them to address such a problem among them self. This would affect the objective of the company as well as the purpose and mission of the company.

Decision-making skills is another important type of interpersonal skills in a workplace. This skill is important for the management sector of the company where the sector is made up of a management team who are responsible for the company decisions which govern the organization's goals. An instance where poor decision-making skills within the department are experienced different arms of the organization falls since the body responsible for making the right decisions of the company lack their right interpersonal skill for the purpose of decision making. This skill involves the ability to way between two important decisions and making the right decision without affecting the operation of the company or the organization.

Listening skills is another crucial interpersonal skill which involves the listening of information from different parties of the company and delivering on what the message requires. One can imagine an environment within some organization where poor listening skills are portrayed. This would result to serious miscommunication within the organization which would hinder the organization from achieving its set goals (Whetten). Employees need to have great listening skill throughout the day so as to avoid such incidences.

A good example of good listening skills as a type of interpersonal skill in a workplace is, for instance, the airplane, this is where keen listening skills are required when communicating between the pilot and the control center. A scenario where the pilot falls to listen to the control center while landing a plane could be catastrophic, but we find that this type of the skill. Listening is the other side of verbal communication skills both types of interpersonal communication skills are equally valued the same; one can imagine a verbal communication with no listening party. This information is lost in the process, and this would have been quite important information.

The different types of interpersonal communication skills need to be employed at the same time so as to ensure effective communication within the company or the workplace. Application of these interpersonal skills among different workers in a workplace brings about different advantages within the organization (Koprowska).

Advantages of interpersonal communication

The main advantages of interpersonal skills within work is the provision of good customer service; this is seen when the employees work the organization effectively delivers quality services to the customers (O'Neil). Customers receive the quality services and products they expect from the organization since the organization's team is a dedicated team with the sole purpose of reaching the organization's goals. As seen in the analysis of the different types of interpersonal skills the organization is able to make the right decisions which will end up impacting the companys customers need.

Interpersonal skills also help in the making of a good leader. Good leaders are characterized by, good communication skills, good decision-making skills, good negotiation skills among other characteristics (O'Neil). Good leadership is natured through the different interpersonal skills which in return produce a qualified leader with all the required features. Such a leader helps the organization or the workplace to deliver a lot. Also, another major advantage of interpersonal skills is that it fosters an effective communication in workplaces. This means that information within the workplace flows easily and its completely effective. This makes interpersonal skills at work very important.

Work cited

Cheruvelil, Kendra S., et al. "Creating and maintaining high-performing collaborative research teams: the importance of diversity and interpersonal skills." Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 12.1 (2014): 31-38.

Koprowska, Juliet. Communication and interpersonal skills in social work. Learning Matters, 2014.

O'Neil, Harold F., ed. Workforce readiness: Competencies and assessment. Psychology Press, 2014.

Whetten, David, and Kim Cameron. Developing Management Skills: Global Edition. Pearson Higher Ed, 2014.