Page 34 - Communication in Organizations Basic Skills and Conversation Models

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criticism is justified, then this fear is ungrounded. Second, if the other person does
become angry, annoying as this might be, this anger is entirely his own responsibility.
Above all, you know how you can react to this anger (see pp. 17–18). An example
follows:

Bert Berman has plucked up the courage and one day he asks his assistant
Dan Diamond if he can come to his office at the end of the afternoon. At
the arranged time Diamond steps in.

BERT: Take a seat, Danny. I just want to speak with you about something. Frankly, I find
it troublesome that for the last three weeks you have called in sick on Monday
mornings. What is actually wrong at that time?

Situation clarification
By situation clarification we mean: the skill of perceiving emerging problems or
misunderstandings in time, realizing their importance and discussing them. This skill is
important in many situations, namely at moments when mutual expectations are no
longer in tune with each other. The goal of the skill is to bring about or restore the clarity
of the conversation. This skill is somewhat more complex than those previously
discussed. When applying it, there is a conversation about the conversation. This is also
called meta-communication or meta-conversation. With meta-communication you take
some distance from the conversation that you are holding at that moment (Kouwer,
1973). Figure 3.1 shows the two conversation levels.
To clarify further we give a few concrete situations where the application of this skill
is useful. First, a situation where someone is addressed about responsibilities that he does
not have:

Grace Green and Ronald Rosenthal are having a conversation about the
staff’s day out.

GRACE: So we agree that we need to hold a survey amongst all staff members.
Depending on the outcome, we must then make sure we get a better programme for
the day. After all we must ensure that the atmosphere at work improves.
RONALD: Wait a second, let me just clear up a few things. I will be glad to help think
about the staff’s day out, and also to join in helping with the organization, but I most
decidedly do not feel responsible for the atmosphere. We need to create the conditions
where it is possible for others to make the atmosphere, I think.