Personality and Communication in Supervisor-Employee Relations

Introduction: Personality and Human Difference

Imagine that you are sitting in a room with three other people: a convicted serial killer, an eccentric scientist, and a four-year-old child. If you had to choose one, which one would you pick? Which qualities would you automatically associate with each individual? Which one do you think you most closely identify with? If this same situation were applied within a group of people sharing the same characteristics, the answers to each question would still vary. The reason for this difficulty in arriving at a clear answer is that there are so many differences among members of the human race. Human beings not only come in many shapes and sizes but also behave in very complex ways. Of the more than five billion people who presently inhabit our planet, no two are exactly alike.

Apart from the same bodily organs and systems, it is hard to imagine what "human nature" the three individuals identified above have in common. Such differences are often referred to as personality traits. The meanings of personality, as described by several recognized theorists in the field, are as diverse as the differences within the human race itself. One philosopher has described personality in terms of the self — an organized, permanent, subjectively perceived entity that is at the very heart of all our experiences (Rogers, 1951). Another has proposed that life proceeds through a series of psychosocial crises, with personality a function of their outcome (Erikson, 1982). Yet another has viewed personality as a complex pattern in which person, behavior, and situation continually influence each other (Bandura, 1982).

These varied interpretations suggest that personality, from a psychological perspective, signifies an essential aspect of the individual. Research has consistently shown that individual behavior and oral communication affect others and can influence the actions of others. Different people have different communication skills: one individual might have a personality that lends itself to effective interpersonal communication, while another may exhibit personality traits that negate it. Researchers have used studies on personality traits to analyze the supervisor-employee relationship, and many different approaches have been taken to effectuate a successful supervisory relationship through the study of personality and communication.

Organizational Communication and Its Development

Managers have traditionally spent the majority of their time communicating in one form or another — through employee meetings, memos, and reports. This fact supports the idea that communication is a central part of managerial work. This is especially true now that service workers outnumber production workers and research as well as production processes emphasize greater collaboration and teamwork among workers across different functional groups. As a result, communication practices and technologies have become more important in all organizations, and most important of all in knowledge-intensive organizations and sectors. The study of organizational communication is not new, but it has only recently achieved recognition as a field of academic study, having grown largely in response to the needs and concerns of business.

The first communication programs were typically located in speech departments, but most business schools now include organizational communication as a key element of study. The field recognizes that communication in organizations goes far beyond training managers to be effective speakers or to develop good interpersonal communication skills. Interpersonal theory asserts that the client will "live" his or her maladaptive interpersonal style within the counseling session — a phenomenon often referred to as the social microcosm (Yalom, 1985).

In interpersonal theory, the supervisor aids in the identification process by focusing on how the employee thinks, feels, and acts in response to the client. The employee also brings his or her problematic interpersonal behaviors into the counseling interaction. The supervisor then addresses these problematic behaviors by pointing out the continuity between the employee's behavior in sessions with clients and in the supervisory sessions themselves. The interpersonal approach to supervision is explicitly designed to deal with transference-countertransference issues. Findings from a study of verbal interactions between supervisor and employee indicated that, although supervisor support was the most frequent intervention, it did not lead to employee thinking and learning.

Furthermore, the results of that study found that no supervisor intervention could reliably predict cognitive responses from the employee. This suggests that interpersonal approaches to supervision might be best used with more advanced trainees. In a study conducted by Reising and Daniels, data revealed that employees who were beginning supervision were more anxious, dependent, and technique-oriented than more advanced students, and that beginning students were also less ready for confrontation.

That study concluded that there are two equally important sides to interpersonal competence: it is necessary to become skilled in the behaviors required for effective face-to-face interaction, and it is equally essential to learn how to interpret the behavior of others so that one's own behavior can be adjusted accordingly. Proponents of this study acknowledge that all organizations — not just business organizations — have communication needs and challenges. The field of organizational communication is highly diverse and is still working to develop and convey some sense of coherency across its many areas.