Effect of Feedback on Relationships and Communication in Stakeholders

Assignment Title

Write a report that discusses how feedback can be used to improve interpersonal relationships and organisational communication with key stakeholders.  Within this report review and reflect on the effectiveness of personal communication and influencing style against your current job role and team/organisational objectives. Include a personal development plan of strategies for improvement of personal communication skills based on feedback in a work context.

Contents page

1. Assignment title
2. Contents page
3. Introduction/Main body A/Types of feedback
4. Types of feedback/Written feedback/Positive and Negative feedback
5. Positive and Negative/Insights Discovery Feedback
6. Insights Discovery/Main body B
7. Main body B
8. Main body B/Conclusion
9. Appendices
10.  Appendixes
11.  Appendices
12.  Appendices
13.  Appendices
14.  Appendices
15.  Appendices
16.  References
17.  Bibliography

Introduction

The report will analyse how feedback can be used to improve interpersonal relationships and organisational communication, through the identification of different types of feedback. The report will then review the effect of personal communication and Influencing style as it affects my job role at vaultex. This information will be used to construct a personal development plan.

Main body A- Feedback and improvement in interpersonal relationships and organisational communication with key stakeholders

Interpersonal relationships are a major component, in our ability to form meaningful relationships, these rest largely on interpersonal communication competencies (DeVito pg.196).Research of service-profit chain (Heskett1994, Sasser and Schlesinger1997) analysed how companies achieve top performance. They highlighted the way people work with each other and the relationships they make improves communication and increases productivity on a personal, team and organisational level. It is important that each and every employee develops an effective interpersonal relationship with co- employees in the workplace. This can be achieved through the use of effective feedback. Office vibe statistics strongly support the value of feedback, it was shown that 4 out of 10 workers are actively disengaged when they get little or no feedback, 82% of employees appreciate positive and negative feedback and 43% of highly engaged employees receive feedback at least once a week as opposed to 18% of low engagement employees(Folkman,J 2013). Feedback is the receiver’s basic response to the interpreted message (Bartol&Martin 2008). Companies generally feedback either informally or formally. Tools such as 360 degree feedback (see appendix1) encourages feedback from various stakeholders including managers, supervisors, peers and individual self-evaluation. These key stakeholders can be analysed using the stakeholder analysis map (Thompson R 2018) (see appendix2). This measures the interest and power of your key stakeholders. Foster and La Hurley (2008) found that 360 feedback can increase communication, foster employee development and increase productivity and overall efficiency of a team. This shows the relevance of this tool of feedback in forming relationships and communication. There are numerous ways feedback is used at Vaultex and these collaborative collective platforms can take the form of written and verbal feedback. Written feedback involves emails, display boards and written up reviews/errors. Verbal feedback is phone calls, face to face meetings either one to one or as a team. Although there are different ways this feedback can be portrayed. For example positive or negative. This will have an effect on the value of this feedback. The value is also measured by the smart analysis (Doran 1981), this should be approached with every form and type of feedback (see appendix 3).

Types of feedback

Verbal- team meetings/individual meetings

Interpersonal relationships are key to an organisations success. If someone feels excluded it’s a rejecting and painful experience and the organisational communication is likely to suffer (Shutz1958). (Shutz1958). Feedback can develop these relationships and improve organisational communication. For example Vaultex uses one to one meetings with a manager and employee to give feedback. This is effective because it gives personal time with your key stakeholder. Forming an interpersonal relationship and improving organisational communication will ensure that projects are on track and career goals fulfilled. For example my manager Michelle Cleary, a key stakeholder to my role is placed on this graph on “keep informed” and “manage closely” quadrant. This is because during my apprenticeship programme, my line manager will measure my performance closely. I need to impress and ensure effective communication happens. Individual feedback through one to one meetings will improve this interpersonal relationship because it increases bonding through engagement. As it personalises it to both parties, allowing specific target setting (Antonioni 1996). In comparison a team meeting as a form of feedback, may lead to less relationship building and organisational communication with key stakeholders. This is because people may be less likely to open up in the presence of colleagues and therefore reduce this engagement. This can be shown by the Johari’s window (Luft 1969), when people are not at an acquaintance with other people in a group they will be less likely to communicate because of being in the “hidden stage” of the model (see appendix4). This means they are less confident to engage in discussion because they don’t know the people well enough. This can limit the effectiveness of the feedback message. Individual meetings will avoid this “hidden stage” as it increases intimacy and personal communication with your key stakeholder, opening up the “hidden stage” of the model as your relationship improves as you get to know the other person. However team feedback can always be useful to. As seeing others seek and receive feedback increases trust with each other (Mamatoglu 2008). The commitment trust theory (Morgan1994) states that a fundamental factor for a relationship to be successful is trust.

Written feedback

Another type of feedback is written feedback. This type of feedback may not have such an impact on interpersonal relationships because the levels of intimacy are not as high as with face to face meeting. This can be shown by Albert Mehrabian who said that only 7% of information we process is words, 55% of this information is body language and 38% is tone. Therefore the feedback given through a written email may be lost and the value of this method must be questioned. The intimacy and emotional understanding is a key feature to building relationships (Susan Ritchie date). These levels of emotions are low which shows an individual may not take it in compared to face to face meetings. Furthermore Face to face meetings show their quality of communication by a study from the Harvard business review. It was noted that among people recruiting for a cause, face to face communication were 34 times more likely to succeed than an email. This shows how powerful verbal communication can be compared to written forms in value to the receiver and less effect on relationships and organisational communication.

Positive and negative feedback

The effect of written feedback and Verbal feedback will only be as powerful as the type of feedback being given. Positive feedback works on the premise of building on a person’s strengths. Positive reinforcement is established through positive feedback. Positive reinforcement is the process of encouraging or establishing a pattern of behaviour by offering reward when the behaviour is exhibited (Bandura 1977). For example in Vaultex I received positive feedback from my line manager saying “I was preforming well feeding the cobra in the machine room”, a room that’s dedicated to counting our cash. This positive reinforcement ensured I repeated the behaviour. A Gallup survey found that 67% of employees whose managers focused on their strengths were fully engaged. Engagement is key for organisational communication and forming relationships as I am repeating the behaviour due to praise through feedback. This is emphasised by Karen Bridbord, who says that we like people who help us feel good about ourselves. The art of recognising others at work is key to building a sound relationship (Karen Bridbord2015). Therefore understanding Michelle’s aspects for me and fulfilling them will improve our interpersonal relationship and communication in Vaultex. Michelle’s high concern for me and my production can describe her leadership style. Referring to Blake moutons grid (Blake 1964) (see appendix5) High concern for people and production refers to a “team management style”. With an Understanding of Michelle’s leadership style I am following the “manage closely” part of the stakeholder mapping graph (See appendix2) as I am analysing my key stakeholder. Furthermore Michelle needs to be informed of my performance regularly through this individual feedback as she is key to my apprenticeship programme which is why she is also mapped on this quadrant. Positive feedback can also be linked to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The feeling of belonging to a company that comes with receiving positive feedback is a level in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs pyramid (see appendix6) (Maslow1943). When an employee gets a positive response they feel acknowledged in their role which builds security in terms of career. Once security is achieved on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs an individual can achieve self-actualisation. Self-actualisation creates personal morale levels. Maslow identified morale to be a key factor on engagement and communication in an organisation as confidence is established with career. Maslow links self-actualisation with increasing personal morale levels, this leads to a feeling of confidence in the role and the ability to develop interpersonal relationships and organisational communication. Overall there is a link between high morale and an increase in interpersonal relationships leading more effective organisation communication with Key stakeholders. Positive feedback in its many forms allows all stakeholders to understand their roles and responsibilities within the business leading to greater productivity and engagement.   

The other type of feedback is negative feedback and this creates negative reinforcement (skinner1904-1990). Negative feedback is received when not achieving expectations. This improves interpersonal relationships because the negative response acts as a form of constructive feedback to produce positive behaviour change. This can be shown in my organisation as I gained feedback from another one of my key stakeholders, Paul Hannon. Paul as the learning and development manager at Vaultex, his role is to ensure that all apprentices successfully attain the required standard. Therefore on my stakeholder analysis map (see appendix2) he would be placed on the “keep informed” quadrant. I need to regularly communicate with him, as he is key to my success concerning the academic requirement of the apprenticeship. Paul’s concern with performance links to the management style of “high concern for production” on the Blake moutons grid (Blake 1964) .His responsibility is monitoring my performance and shaping targets for me to achieve. This also displays his “high concern for people”. Both Paul and Michelle show “team management style” throughout their communication on the Blake moutons grid. Which illustrates the organisational communication style at Vaultex of a “team management”. Furthermore the negative feedback I received from Paul was concerning my university studies and my lack of effort in the assignments. The negative reinforcement was emphasised here as I know that if this behaviour carries on it will impact negatively on our interpersonal relationship and my career will be at stake.  Therefore my effort and application to my university studies has increased. Indeed this is a key target to area in my pdp(see appendix7). This leads to an improvement in organisational communication with my key stakeholder as now negative feedback is being replaced with positive and our communication is now focused on my achievements rather than problems. This will induce a harmonious atmosphere, developing a bond between manager and employee.

Insights discovery feedback

Another example of how feedback can improve interpersonal relationships and organisational communication with stakeholders is Insights discovery. This course brings together the manager and apprentice at Vaultex. Insights discovery was developed to help people understand themselves, others and build the relationships that will affect them in the workplace. The insights profile works on feedback from a questionnaire about how people react to certain statements. The feedback can improve interpersonal relationships based on questionnaire results. Individuals are presented with a graph that shows different personality types which are colour coded. From this individuals gain an insight into their strengths and weaknesses based on personality type and their communication style (See appendix8). This is a key tool used to improve interpersonal relationships and organisational communication with key stakeholders. As understanding an employee’s personality and temperament style is key for relationship building (Ferguson2010). For example my insights profile showed I had a high red energy (see appendix8), meaning in terms of communication I was very authoritative and driven in my style. It also showed my strengths and weakness, for example a strength was that “I am capable to adopt a number of roles simultaneously” and “I have the ability to constantly generate ideas”. However a colour I lacked on the profile was blue their mantra is “Give me details” (Insights discovery 2018). This is emphasised through my weakness as I “prefer flexibility than routine tasks” and “lack organisation” (See appendix9). Which are key strengths to the personality type of a blue. Therefore insights discovery will help improve interpersonal relationships because I can work on the colours that I lack such as blue to develop relationships with employees and improve my overall productivity. Furthermore this programme helped organisational communication with key stakeholders as individuals attended the course with their managers. This gave them opportunities to understand the personality types of their managers. For example my key stakeholder Michelle’s communication style was “to take things slowly and allow time for a response”. As her energy was a high green. Whereas my red energy would rather take things at a pace and get them done abruptly. Therefore understanding my managers personality and for her to understand mine, will improve our communication. We will understand each other efficiently, through effective organisational communication and bonding. An even greater interpersonal relationship will follow.

Overall there are many different ways feedback can be given, but it is the way the feedback is delivered that impacts on interpersonal relationships and organisational communication with key stakeholders.

Main body B – Review and reflect on the effectiveness of personal communication and influencing style against current Job role and team/organisational objectives and a personal development plan of strategies for improvement of personal communication skills based on feedback in a work context.

From the insights course I can understand my influencing style. Influencing is defined as change that can be an attitude, a perception or a behaviour (Cialdini 2009). Bortons reflective model (Borton1970) (see appendix10). “The what, so what and what next” can determine how effective my influencing style is. The what: what my influencing style is in my job role currently and how this aligns with my team objectives. Currently some of my objectives are to demonstrate role model behaviour, build good relationships with management and teams. I also have to achieve a full competence skill set, learning all the processes efficiently in the business. From feedback with my manager, my influence and personal communication, has not yet met one of the objectives,” developing good relationships with managers”. This is due to poor effort on the university side of the programme. Seeking specific feedback from colleagues using the 360 model will have a positive influence as my assignments will improve. This is shown in the what next: as using 360 degree feedback is put in my PDP to improve my communication and influence. Furthermore feedback from a survey where I asked employees to comment on my influencing style supports my insights profile (see appendix11). The survey showed I was driven and authoritative in tasks however “I lost focus when stuck to routine and didn’t ask questions to push me on the right track”. This is not effective at times in terms of communication and influencing style as I can miss vital information. My PDP (See appendix) focuses on slowing down, taking one task at a time, asking more questions from experienced mentors and attending training programmes to reinforce personal communication techniques, influence and improve outcomes. The next component of the reflective model is the so what: Why is this my personal influence style? This could be dependant on my childhood background and how I was nurtured growing up. For example if we look at the transactional analysis model (Berne 1957) (see appendix12) it shows an idea that one’s behaviour and social relationships reflect an interchange between parental (critical and nurturing), adult (rational), and childlike (intuitive and dependant) aspects of personality established early in life (Berne1957). For example my mother, a teacher showed an authoritative influencing style, embedding this adult child transaction and shaping my behaviour. In the workplace a more “adult to adult” response is required to avoid cross transactions, moving from “why are you criticising my work” to “let’s work together to find out what happened”. 

Appendices

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

Appendix 4

Appendix 5

Appendix 6

Appendix 7

Appendix 8

Appendix 9

Appendix 10

Appendix 11

Appendix 12

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