Blog #6 - Supervisor-Subordinate and Peer Communication

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K95OlKIgrrw

I start out my blog this week with an example from NBC's Parks and Recreation, a comedy sitcom involving the lives of government workers in fictionalized Pawnee, Indiana. The scene depicts Ron Swanson, the Director of the Parks and Recreation department, giving his own personal thoughts on government and why he doesn't believe in it. Which is highly ironic, considering that he is the supervisor for the entire department. 

I use this example as a means of putting you, the viewer, in a hypothetical situation. Let's say Ron Swanson was your boss, and you were forced to work with him every single day. How do you think Ron's point of view and attitude about the work you both are required to perform would change your perception and your attitude about your workplace?

There are several factors that dictate relationships between subordinates and supervisors, including communication openness, upward distortion, and semantic information distance. This was described in lecture as the "Leader-Member Exchange Theory". 

Communication openness is the ability for supervisors and subordinates to both send and receive messages to each other in a respectful and open manner.  If this openness is hindered in any way, it can lead to upward distortion, which is the subordinate's tendency to distort information sent upward to the supervisor. Semantic information distance is the gap of understanding between a supervisor and his/her subordinate that exists due to the supervisor's and the subordinate's expectations on job duties and knowledge.

I can recall from personal experience that I am much more comfortable admitting to a mistake with a supervisor if I have a better overall relationship with the supervisor. It would lead to less upward distortion and an overall lower semantic information distance because I would be able to directly communicate and ask the information I will need to perform the job correctly without feeling nervous or anxious about asking. They say there are no dumb questions, but certainly I'd feel better about asking a question even if it was one I probably should know if I had a strong relationship with my supervisor. The worse the relationship, the higher the likelihood for a more closed relationship, increased upward distortion and a larger semantic information distance.

This leads to the topic of "Social Information Processing Theory", which theorizes that employee attitudes towards their job and workplace are socially constructed. This includes analyzing information received from other employees which leads to forming an opinion based on fellow employee's attitudes. 

Relating back to the Ron Swanson example, I recall having a fellow coworker when I worked at a local grocery store chain that was extremely pessimistic and overall very negative about his job, mainly because his own superiors did not put him in a position where he felt he could be successful without overworking and rushing to get everything done. It also so happened that the coworker was my supervisor. The sad matter of fact is that his griping turned out to be the very same experience that I had working under him. The list of tasks required for me to get done on a hourly basis were too timely, and led to me being very stressed about getting everything done on time. Although the store manager told us to not worry if we couldn't finish our jobs on time, it did not help me feel any different about not getting my work done on time. It ultimately led to me constructing my own opinion about my job and the workplace, which was not a very positive one.

The article we were asked to read for this week described ways to build positive workplace relationships, and included two main points: communicate roughly as much as possible, and rise above being a part of any office gossip. I wholeheartedly agree that these two ideas are critical to construction of a positive relationship between employees as well as a positive workplace overall. 

Gossip is not something that is entirely fun to be around because it usually involves one individual venting and complaining about another, or about an aspect of the job they dislike. It can ruin the relationship between you and the person your coworker is complaining about, as well as the relationship between you and the gossiper. Overall it's best to avoid and reduce it at all costs. 

Communication is the only way to create a positive relationship as well as a positive setting in the workplace, so don't be that naysayer that hates his job or doesn't like the people he/she works with. Who really wants to work with someone like that, anyway?