Importance Interpersonal
The Importance of Interpersonal Communication
Interpersonal skills are increasingly critical because of four factors of growing importance in most organizations these days: technology, time intensity, diversity, and liability.
Technology
Review what you do. How
much of your workday is
spent interacting with people
face-to-face compared
with interacting with technology?
How do you think
employees would answer
the question?
In an edition of a
respected dictionary dated
1987, the word “e-mail” doesn’t appear. Now, e-mail is commonplace.
So is voice-mail. Every year, the ranks of telecommuters
grow. Technology has transformed the workplace, and
its influence and impact are growing.
As early as 1982, social forecaster John Naisbitt cautioned
in Megatrends (1982, p. 39), “Whenever new technology is
introduced into society, there must be a counter-balancing
human response—that is, high touch.” When you skillfully interact
person-to-person, you bring to an increasingly high-tech
workplace the necessary high-touch. (That’s a key theme in
Chapter 9, “E-Communications.”)
technology introduced
It’s an exchange that occurs through dialogue between two people or through discussion among several, with participation by everyone involved.
