Analyzing Assertive and Passive Communication in Real-World Scenarios

This essay delves into the contrasting communication styles of assertiveness and passivity, examining their characteristics and impacts. It begins by defining communication and highlighting the importance of effective communication methods, specifically focusing on assertive and passive approaches. The essay analyzes a real-life scenario involving three friends to illustrate these communication styles. The first and third friends demonstrate assertive communication, clearly expressing their views and advocating for their needs, while the second friend exhibits passive communication, avoiding conflict and indirectness. The essay discusses the advantages and disadvantages of each style, citing relevant research and examples. It concludes by emphasizing the importance of developing communication skills for both personal and professional success, particularly in leadership and management roles. The essay underscores the significance of interpreting business communication accurately and striving for clear, fair, and barrier-free interactions.

Running head: ASSERTIVE AND PASSIVE COMMUNICATION
ASSERTIVE AND PASSIVE COMMUNICATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

1ASSERTIVE AND PASSIVE COMMUNICATION
Introduction:
The exchange of ideas, messages, or information is an act of communication.
Communication promotes cooperation and cooperation. Communication People interact because
they want something to occur or because they want something to meet a need. The
multiplication of communication methods has made communication more effective (Janasz
2007). There is various ways in which a communication can be made effective. Two of them are
‘Assertive Communication’ and ‘Passive Communication’. The art of assertive communication
is one way to enhance your communications abilities. Confident communication is a type of
communication in which people both advocate their rights and take the rights and the emotions
of others into consideration. Fairness, directness, acting and sensitiveness, honesty are part of the
assertive communication. The aim of strong communication is to maintain open contact lines
and respect others while at the same time affirming your views and preferences (Pipas and
Jaradat 2010). Sadly, many of us feel uneasy with being confidential; some equate affirmation
with aggressiveness and use passive communication styles instead. Passive communication
includes indirectness, conflict avoidance and readily convinced / blurred, excessively worried
about satisfying others, and an individual's ideas and emotions are screened or disregarded in the
extent that the people with whom you communicate have no concept of their true view. People
communicate passively in fear or in poor self-esteem, when they are in a position in which they
have little control, or when they have decided that the problem is not worth standing. Frowning,
weeping, breathing, or just saying nothing is all methods of proving passive communication
(West and Turner 2018).
Discussion:

2ASSERTIVE AND PASSIVE COMMUNICATION
In this section, two communication style, assertive communication style and passive
communication style, mentioned above will be discussed. For this purpose this communication
style will be analysed based on a real event witnessed by the author of this essay. The transcript
of the event is presented in the section below.
Two friends (seemingly) are waiting in hall of the library for someone to arrive. Then,
another guy arrives. The conversation among them is detailed in the following paragraph:
1st Friend: Guys!! Let’s go! I am here.
2nd Friend: (Looking at the third friend) let’s go! He is here.
3rd Friend: (At the first friend) we were supposed to meet at 16: 30. Now it is 16: 25. You
are 25 minutes late.
1st friend: I sorry that you guys had to wait. A family matter came up just before I leave. I
apologize for the delay.
In the above communication between the three friends, both the communication style,
assertive and passive, being discussed in this essay has been demonstrated. In the above
communication the first friend and third fried are being assertive in their communication style
where the second friend is being passive in this scenario.
The assertive communication style efficiently expresses views and advocates. You can
lead a team or ask for an increase. Assertive communicators look in people's eyes and trust in
concepts. An affirmative individual always stands up for his points of view, and what others
have to say does not bother him much (Pfafman and McEwan, 2014). The third friend did
exactly that when the first arrived late. He did not burst out in angry manner or uttered swear

3ASSERTIVE AND PASSIVE COMMUNICATION
words. He clearly expressed his opinion without being rude or harsh. That made the first friend
understands his situation without getting offended, insulted, or embarrassed. As a result, the first
friend also did not reacted in a negative manner. Furthermore, the first friend also reacted in an
assertive manner and he made his friend understand his reason of late. Assertive communication
is generally the best way to communicate (Host’oveckỳ 2017) and this can be understood from
the event above.
Passive communication style is frequently expressing emotions and views which tend to
prevent conflict. Others see this style as patient, easy, but somewhat distant. Eyes and prolonged
discussions are avoided by passive communicators (Tynan et al. 2013). All these can be seen
from the response of the second friend to late arrival of the first friend. The second friend did not
want any confrontation with the first friend and he did not even acknowledge his friends late
arrival. On top of that the friend did not maintain eye contact with his friend while he asked his
other friend to move on. Passive persons thus do not react openly to harmful or wrathful
circumstances (Dasgupta, Suar, and Singh 2014). This was also evident in the friend’s behaviour.
Passive communication is not generally suggested as it rarely leads to what you want. However,
it can be helpful if avoidance is genuinely desirable, for example, if an individual in an
organisation where he/ she chose not to talk about everything that he/ she do not agree with
(Dasgupta, Suar, and Singh 2013).
Conclusion:
Communication is not as simple as it might seem to people. To succeed as managers and
achieve success in individual’s private relationship, developing abilities in communication with
others is crucial. An individual need be able to interpret business communication correctly to

4ASSERTIVE AND PASSIVE COMMUNICATION
demonstrate a high degree of communication skill. Part of the communication can be
communicated with confidence. People can improve the probability of private and professional
achievement by communicating clearly, seeking and providing feedback fairly, and working
towards removing barriers to efficient interaction. In this scenario, among the three friends, two
friends (1st and 3rd friend) communicated in an assertive communication style while one friend
(2nd friend) communicated in a passive communication style.

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References:
Dasgupta, S. A., Suar, D. and Singh, S., 2014. Managerial communication practices and
employees’ attitudes and behaviours: A qualitative study. Corporate Communications: An
International Journal, 19(3), pp.287-302.
Dasgupta, S.A., Suar, D. and Singh, S., 2013. Impact of managerial communication styles on
employees’ attitudes and behaviours. Employee Relations.
Hosťovecký, M., 2017. Communication skills as the competitive advantage of sellers.
Janasz, D., 2007. Interpersonal skills in organisation. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Pfafman, T.M. and McEwan, B., 2014. Polite women at work: Negotiating professional identity
through strategic assertiveness. Women's Studies in Communication, 37(2), pp.202-219.
Pipas, M.D. and Jaradat, M., 2010. Assertive communication skills. Annales Universitatis
Apulensis: Series Oeconomica, 12(2), p.649.
Tynan, L., Wolstencroft, D., Edmondson, B., Swanson, D., Martin, A., Grace, D. and Creed, A.,
2013. Communication for business. Oxford University Press.
West, R. and Turner, L.H., 2018. Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis And Appliaction.
McGraw-Hill Education.