Page 417 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

Model Question Papers | 405

of the human spirit, so by studying the behaviour, pedagogues acquaint themselves
better with the nature and practice of psychotherapy in every day life, it explores the
character of moral action and fosters a sense of community in the classroom.
The recent focus on supportive communication owes much to the tradition of inter-
disciplinary scholarly inquiry centred on the concept of social support, and at the
same time the sociological and psychological perspective on social support were
being articulated and refined, roughly between 1975–90, scholars in several different
academic disciplines were developing research programmes examining what eventu-
ally would be called supportive communication, especially the work of Albrecht and
her colleagues within the academic discipline of communication, provided much of
the initial impetus for an articulation of a communication perspective on social sup-
port. This emerging perspective was also informed by a variety of other empirical
traditions. These diverse literatures remain largely segregated through the common
focus in the varied research traditions on communicative efforts directed at helping
others in need. As a result, a distinctive communication or interactional perspective
on social support has emerged over the past 10 years in this section, we shall try to
understand the concept of supportive communication and then we shall see the facts
of communication.
Let us now see the underlying mechanisms through which supportive, messages
have their effects. Any explanatory model for supportive messages must account for
relationships among three elements: message feature, theoretical mechanisms and
outcomes. Message behaviours are verbal and nonverbal components of a helper’s
behaviour, directed at assisting a target; there are isolated units of behaviour that have
characteristics structure. Theoretical mechanisms discuss the actions performed by
message features; such a mechanism identifies what the enacted or presence of mes-
sage components does. Finally, outcomes are the events or states that follow (more
or less reliably) from the action of some mechanism; when messages are successful,
outcomes reflect the goals which helpers seek to achieve.
At least four features/influence the effectiveness of supportive messages: (a) the presence
of a discernible supportive intention, (b) the use of politeness or face work, (c) the infor-
mative or prepositional content of the message, and (d) the person-centred quality of the
message. Here, we discuss each feature in conjunction with the particular outcomes.
b. Team effectiveness is an important concept, without which the success of the team is
impossible. Team effectiveness does not emerge out of vacuum and it is a byproduct
of several aspects. When evaluating how well team members are working together, the
following statements can be used as a guide:
• Team goals are developed through a group process of team interaction and agree-
ment in which each team member is willing to work towards
• Participation should be actively shown by all team members and roles are shared to
facilitate the accomplishment of tasks and feelings of group togetherness.

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