Interpersonal Communication: Role, Styles, Barriers and Suggestions

This report discusses the role of communication in professional and personal relationships, listening and talking styles and their impact on others, barriers to communication and causing challenges, and suggestions to overcome barriers to improve communication. The report also includes subject matter experts' opinions, references, and examples to help readers improve their interpersonal communication skills.

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Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
The role of communication in professional and personal relationships.................................................2
Listening and talking styles and impact on others.................................................................................3
Barriers to communication and causing challenges...............................................................................4
Suggestions to overcome barriers to improve communication..............................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................5
References.............................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
Interpersonal communication is a face to face communication between two or more people. It
is the process in which people exchange information and feelings through verbal and non-
verbal communication. The interpersonal communication is not all about the language used
but the non-verbal messages communicated through voice tone, facial expressions, gestures
and body language.
In this report, I would reflect upon the role of communication in both professional and
personal relationships. The listening and talking styles are discussed along with it’s impact on
others. I would also discuss the barriers to communication and it’s causing challenges.
Finally, the suggestions to overcome barriers are debated in order to improve communication.
The role of communication in professional and personal relationships
According to my opinion, the communication is an essential aspect of the routine life for both
professional and personal relationships. It is involved in the all day long. The communication
skills made my understanding better. It can spoil any kind of formal and informal relationship
if we are not careful at the time of communication. The communication has helped me to
improve the personal relationships by bridging the gap between people (Berger, 2014). It
played important role in the development of personal relationships by setting a mutual sense
of commitment. There are various mediums of communication which are helpful in
relationship formation such as email, chat room and more. The communication strengthens
the level of trust, honesty, and respect (Yuriev, Boiral, Francoeur & Paillé, 2018). The
examples of communication in personal relationships can be taken from the daily life such as
speaking on the phone and expressing emotions through facial expressions.
I believe that communication is important for any kind of profession and is an essential part
of a career. For instance, giving a presentation at work and writing an email are both
examples of communication in professional relationships. The communication made possible
sharing of information in a formal way by using various technologies such as slideshows. The
exchanges of ideas are required in the professional world. The communication has an
important role in the completion of tasks. The communication skills at a workplace helped
me to collaborate efficiently and also helped in the accomplishment of tasks efficiently
(Cappella, 2017). The communication made the relationship better at the workplace and
enables to provide more productivity. It leads to more involvement of employees at every

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important decision of company which helps to an improved relationship. It clarifies the goals
and ideas and which helped me in implementation.
Listening and talking styles and impact on others
Listening is one of the important skills to have and it has a major impact on the job
effectiveness and personal relationships. A person listens to obtain information and to
understand. The listening styles are:
Pseudolistening: In the pseudo listening, a person pretends to listen but really do not absorb
anything from the conversation. A person just does not want to hear, it may be due to lack of
interest.
Appreciative listening: In the appreciative listening, the listener seeks the information which
he will appreciate. Such information helps the listener to achieve his goals. A person is highly
focused in such kind of listening.
Empathetic listening: A person is involved in the empathetic listening only when he is
emotionally connected to another person. The empathetic listening is all about understanding
other person and listening with empathy (Norouzinia, et. al. 2016).
Comprehensive listening: The comprehensive listening is a basic understanding of words and
ideas. It includes understanding opinions, ideas, and messages. It builds on discriminative
learning.
Critical listening: The critical listening is focussed on evaluating and analyzing information.
It is an active practice of listening which includes assessment and making judgments (Tsoh,
et. al. 2016).
The talking styles are:
Mussitation: In the mussitation style, a person talks softly with an indoor voicing. A person
mumbles but not much comes out. It is difficult for another person to understand.
Discursive: In this type of talking style, a person changes the topic in the middle of a
conversation. The person talks about the topic which is slightly connected to the main
subject.
Ponderous: A person lacks enthusiasm in this kind of style. It is just a fancy conversation and
boring.

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Flowery: The sentences are overcomplicated in order to sound smarter and interesting. The
ideas define the whole topic.
Prolix: In the prolix style of speaking, a person uses an excess of words which becomes
boring. (Walther & Valkenburg, 2017)
Sesquipedalian: In the Sesquipedalian talking style, a person uses long words. Using lots of
lots of words can make people confused.
Loquacious: Usually a person speaks a lot in this kind of talking style, often in a negative
way. The person hums about anything and everything.
I consider that listening styles are viable in keeping information open and unproductive. It
helped me to convince other persons to listen to the words that are being said. The persuasive
speaking techniques can be used to convince the audience by the words which are usually
worth understanding (Gut, Wilczewski & Gorbaniuk, 2017). The listening and speaking skills
reduce conflict and motivate which as a result improves morale and productivity.
Barriers to communication and causing challenges
As per my opinion, there are various reasons for failing interpersonal communications. The
message has not received the way the sender intended is one of the barriers to
communication. The common barriers to the communication which I faced are the use of
jargon, lack of attention, interest, and distractions. The language differences and difficulty in
understanding accents also creates barriers to the communication. The communication varies
in different cultures. The variations of social interaction in the cultures create communication
barriers. The prospects and prejudices lead to the false assumptions. People tend to hear what
they want to hear rather than what is actually said (Chen & Agrawal, 2017). The physical
disabilities such as hearing problems and speech difficulties create communication barriers.
The differences in perception and viewpoint are also the common barrier of communication.
The inadequate attention makes communication ineffective and the message is likely to be
understood less.
According to me, the communication barriers create conflict in groups. It results in a lack of
clear goals and misunderstandings. The lack of clear goals caused me to develop my own
ideas on the basis of group objectives (Caughlin & Basinger, 2015). The communication
barriers create a challenge to maintain standards. The communication problems can lower
standards due to lack of consistency. It resulted in inadequate attention and premature

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evaluation. I face no resistance to change in the organization when there is a lack of
communication. The communication barriers due to inappropriate words prevented me from
understanding the message and focus on the goals. The communication barriers also lead to
misinterpretations and assumptions.
Suggestions to overcome barriers to improve communication
The barriers can be overcome with the help of a skilled communicator. There are some
suggestions which can be used to overcome barriers in order to improve communication:
Active listening: The active listening is an effective skill which can be attained and developed
with practice. It takes time and patience to master this skill. The term ‘active listening’ means
actively listening. It leads to focus on what is being said than hearing the message of the
communicator. It comprises listening with all senses. I believe that communicator can
communicate with more ease if feedback is provided on regular basis. The active listening is
the result of both verbal and non-verbal indications. The non-verbal signs are smiling,
making eye contact, avoiding distractions and more. It represents the interest towards the
discussion made by the communicator (Gilkerson & Southwell, 2015). The verbal signs help
to improve communication such as asking questions on the discussion made by the
communicator. It also involves paraphrasing to repeat the idea of the communicator is also a
way to show active listening.
Use simple language: I think it is important to use simple language in order to avoid
communication barriers. The medical terminology and jargon should be avoided while
speaking to another party. It is seen that people are often intimidated by the use of such
language. People do not understand the message which is being delivered to them. It is
important to ask questions within the discussions as it ensures that the message is being
understood as anticipated. The audience should be permitted to ask questions in order to
clarify the points (Parks, & Faw, 2014).
Constructive feedback: The feedback is an important part of communication. I believe that
feedback can be occasionally negative but important to be beneficial in nature. The feedback
should add to the abilities of the communicator (Jenifer & Raman, 2015). It supports the
interpersonal relationship and enhances communication in the future.

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Conclusion
The communication dictates morale in relationships whether it’s personal or professional.
The effective listening and talking styles have an influential role in the communication and
have an impact on others. These styles have a major impact on the job effectiveness and
personal relationships. There are some barriers to the communication which makes
communication challenging such as the use of jargon, scientific language and more. Finally,
the suggestions are given to overcome communication barriers in order to overcome
communication challenges. Active listening, using simple language and constructive
feedback are the important methods to improve communication.

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References
Berger, J. (2014). Word of mouth and interpersonal communication: A review and directions
for future research. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24(4), 586-607.
Cappella, J. N. (2017). Vectors into the future of mass and interpersonal communication
research: Big data, social media, and computational social science. Human
Communication Research, 43(4), 545-558.
Caughlin, J. P., & Basinger, E. (2015). Measuring interpersonal communication. The
International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication, 1-14.
Chen, M. H., & Agrawal, S. (2017). Do communication barriers in student teams impede
creative behavior in the long run?—A time-lagged perspective. Thinking Skills and
Creativity, 26, 154-167.
Gilkerson, N. D., & Southwell, B. G. (2015). Interpersonal Communication and Political
Campaigns. The International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication, 1-9.
Gut, A., Wilczewski, M., & Gorbaniuk, O. (2017). Cultural differences, stereotypes and
communication needs in intercultural communication in a global multicultural
environment. The Employees’ perspective. Journal of Intercultural
Communication, 43.
Jenifer, R. D., & Raman, G. P. (2015). Cross-cultural communication barriers in the
workplace. Internafional Journal of Management, 6(1), 348-351.
Norouzinia, R., Aghabarari, M., Shiri, M., Karimi, M., & Samami, E. (2016).
Communication barriers perceived by nurses and patients. Global journal of health
science, 8(6), 65.
Parks, M. R., & Faw, M. H. (2014). Relationships among relationships: Interpersonal
communication and social networks. Interpersonal Communication, 6, 395.
Tsoh, J. Y., Sentell, T., Gildengorin, G., Le, G. M., Chan, E., Fung, L. C.,& Burke, A.
(2016). Healthcare communication barriers and self-rated health in older Chinese
American immigrants. Journal of community health, 41(4), 741-752.

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Walther, J. B., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2017). Merging mass and interpersonal communication
via interactive communication technology: A symposium. Human Communication
Research, 43(4), 415-423.
Yuriev, A., Boiral, O., Francoeur, V., & Paillé, P. (2018). Overcoming the barriers to pro-
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