Communication Patterns Impact Conflict

Communication and Conflict Management Communication and conflict There are varying communication patterns that are used within organizations and even in daily communication between parties privy to the subject matter under discussion or contested.

The most commonly used communication patterns within organizations, corporate world and even among individuals can be condensed into four major patterns which are usually determined by the main source of information; The wheel pattern- this is a pattern where the source of information is at the center of the communication circle and passes information in all directions in a radial manner to the recipients. One example of such a pattern is the CEO who may be passing instructions to managers who are at the same level though in different departments.

Y-Pattern- in this case the communication starts from a central source but along the way it splits up into two or more different directions. One good example is where a CEO passes information to the manager about a new product to be launched within the organization, the manager will in turn call the heads of different departments under him and pass down the information to them as well.

Chain pattern- in this case, the information flows from a single source, often the senior person, and passes down towards one direction, normally the junior staff. A CEO may inform the manager of a change in the price or packaging of a product within an organization, the manager, the manager will then inform the department head, the department head will pass that information down to the floor sales representatives and so on hence information travels in a linear direction.

The circle pattern- This is when information travels among people of the same levels of influence within the organization and normally it is sharing of information of interest to the group and not necessarily passing down instructions.

This pattern is common among managers of different departments but within the same organization who may want to inform each other of an event or a change hence one manager will inform the other manager, who will in turn pass the information to yet another manager and the information goes in circle among the managers (Science Netlinks, 2012). When an individual's preferred pattern f communication differs from that of a colleague, there is bound to be conflict emerging between the two.

There are different people within an organization or even within the society hence there are the assertive ones in the communication and the adaptive kind. As the assertive type of people will want to have their preferred patters of communication used in a given situation no matter what, the adaptive type would want to sensitize people to accept their preferred means and if this seems impossible they would easily opt to adapt to the prevailing.