Page 80 - Communication in Organizations Basic Skills and Conversation Models

The personal problems interview 69

quick and concrete steps to eliminate the problem, for example, by mediating in a co-
workers’ conflict (see Chapter 15).

Phase 1: Problem clarification
The goal of the first phase in the personal problem interview is for both manager and
employee to get a clear view of the problem. It is important for the manager to have a
basic attitude of respect and acceptance of the employee as a person (Rogers, 1962).
Since personal problems are not easily discussed, the beginning of the conversation is
often hesitant and careful, as we have seen in fragment 2. It is the manager’s task to
clarify the procedure, and to invite the employee to talk. The manager listens, the
employee notices he can talk freely or, if he’d rather, to stall for a bit.
When a relationship of confidence has been established, the manager will stimulate the
employee to speak more freely. The main goal in this phase is to acquire a good view of
the factors contributing to the problem, and of the thoughts, feelings and behaviour of the
employee. At this point the goal is not making choices, establishing the exact nature of
the problem or finding solutions. If it appears, in the course of conversation, that the
employee is having problems at home and as a consequence is drinking heavily, as in our
fictional case, the manager does not come forward with suggestions at this stage. His or
her task is to listen carefully, but this is often not enough. He should also try to create
some order in the conversation and to make vague statements concrete. The manager
should try to search the employee’s story for clues to solutions, which he keeps to himself
for the time being.

Skills in Phase 1
In order to achieve the aforementioned goals, the manager needs regulating skills, such as
situation clarification at the beginning of the conversation: for example, explaining why
he invited the employee for an interview, indicating the amount of time available and the
structure of the conversation; see Chapter 1 (Benjamin, 1987; Brammer & MacDonald,
1999). In addition, listening skills are of especial importance. In order to show the
employee that he is interested, the manager has to make use of attentive behaviour,
minimal encouragers, open and closed questions, paraphrases of content, reflection of
feelings and concreteness (see Chapter 2). In order to give some structure to the story it is
necessary to use summarizing skills (see p. 19).

Phase 2: Formulating an action plan
If phase 1 has led to clarification and clear description of the problems (whether through
one or several conversations), we can move on to phase 2. In the action phase it is
possible to work on solutions explicitly. Action in phase 2 means actively looking for a
solution to the problem: in Alex’s case ‘How can we make sure your work does not suffer
from your home situation?’ or ‘How can we make your home situation more tolerable?’
In short, the goal in phase 2 is to do something about the problem.
How do we go about this? In our view the employee should decide which problem to
tackle first. He should have the responsibility for this choice. If he is able to, he should