Rationale: Communication failures are often at the heart of research misconduct. For the lecture, you watched a https://vimeo.com/72063943 in which each character (i.e. professor, post-doc, and graduate student) could have communicated more effectively with the members of their research group. In this assignment, you will be learning about two basic styles of communication. One is not better than the other, but you probably tend to use one of the styles more. If you know your style and how it can be misinterpreted, you will be able to prevent some communication failures in the future.
Instructions:
- Read the Monsoon Workload script at the end of this document, which includes:
o The script of a phone conversation between two colleagues who have different communication styles.
o Some points to consider
o An explanation of the two communication styles (i.e. high-context and low-context)- Write a reflective essay that addresses all the following questions/points
• Do you tend to use high-context communication or low-context communication? Provide an example to illustrate your answer.
• Describe one situation in which your high-context or low-context communication style led to a problem or misunderstanding.
• In terms of communication, what could you have done differently?
• How will you apply this lesson in the future? - Prove that your essay contains the essential elements by highlighting or copying the quotes that contain:
o Your communication style (high-context or low-context)
o Your example
o What you would do differently
o Your plan for the future
Monsoon workload:
Rebecca works with United Technologies, a Chicago based company. She is talking on the phone to Abhinav, the manager of one of United Technologies’ vendors in India for customer service outsourcing.
Rebecca: We really need to get all of the customer service representatives trained on our new process in the next two weeks. Can you get this done?
Abhinav: That timeline is pretty aggressive. Do you think it’s possible?
Rebecca: I think it will require some creativity and hard work, but I think we can get it done with two or three days to spare
Abhinav: Ok.
Rebecca: Now that our business is settled, how is everything else?
Abhinav: All’s well, although the heavy monsoons this year are causing a lot of delays getting around the city.
Two weeks later…
Abhinav: We’ve pulled all of our resources and I’m happy to say that 60% of the customer service representatives are now trained in the new process. The remaining 40% will complete the training in the next two weeks.
Rebecca: Only 60%? I thought we agreed that they all would be trained by now!
Abhinav: Yes. The monsoon is now over so the rest of the training should go quickly.
Rebecca: This training is critical to our results. Please get it done as soon as possible.
Abhinav: I am certain that it will be done in the next two weeks.
Things to consider:
- Do you think Abhinav agreed to the initial timeline requested by Rebecca? Why or why not?
- What might Rebecca be thinking about Abhinav?
- What might Abhinav be thinking about Rebecca?
- How will this incident affect their future interactions?
- Have you ever had a similar misunderstanding i.e. different expectations, or misunderstanding due to different communication styles?