NORSYAHIDA MOHD MAAMON

2012183749 Position Paper:

Interpersonal Relationship and Organizational Success Interpersonal relationship can be defined as face-to-face interaction between two people. The face-to-face interaction for particular period of time who anticipate the roles of sender and receiver of messages simultaneously. Human relations involve all types of

interaction among people which is human conflicts, cooperative efforts and group relationships. Reece, Brandt, Howie (2010) highlighted that the importance of interpersonal relations can be conclude in one concise law of personal and organizational success which is all work is done through relationships. Employees are more productive when they have the ability to develop good and effective relationship with their supervisor, coworkers, customer and clients. Interpersonal relationships in the organization can be divided into two forms, first is organizational and second is personal. An organizational interpersonal

relationship is based on the organizational structure. For instance, two men are assigned by their supervisor to work on a particular task. Because of the organizational structure has forced them to comply with the instruction and they need to spend time together on a mutual task, they are participating in a dyadic relationship. (Modaff, Dewine, and Butler, 2008). This relationship may remain mostly task-related communication which is in Fayols principle of subordination of individual interest to general interest show that employees should focus on the goal of the organization not on their own individual needs and desires. (Miller, 2009). Good interpersonal relationship is very importance to lead to organizational success. It is because an organization can be described as collection of people who work together and coordinate their actions to achieve individual and organizational goals. (M. George and R. Jones, 2008). The phrase work together is refers to interpersonal relationship among employees in an organization. In order to achieve organizational goals successfully,

employees must have a good interpersonal relationship between them to ensure that they will channel their full commitment and work effort in the right way to accomplish the

NORSYAHIDA MOHD MAAMON organizational goal.

2012183749

Good interpersonal relationship means there is interdependence

relationship among people involve in the organization. Miller (2009) discuss that, Interdependence concept in an organization is related with the systems or organismic metaphor that views organizations not as self-contained and self-sufficient machines but as a complex organism that must interact with their environment to survive. It just like our human body which the brain needs a constant supply of blood in order to function, but this supply would not be possible if there is no for the hearts pumping action. In turn, the heart relies on the lungs to bring in the oxygen that fuels the blood. As conclusion, the body is a highly interdependent system in which breakdown of one component would lead to breakdowns in other components and in the system as a whole. So it same goes to an organization which is as a system and the employees in the organization is also highly interdependent. If in the employees have a poor interpersonal relationship among them, it will lead to breakdown to organizational success just like the body system. Good interpersonal relationship can provide a lot of benefits to organizational success. The strong relationship within the organization will produce positive work

relationship that provide a sense of involvement and feel a part of the organization which make employees feel motivated to give the best for organization success. P. Modaff,

DeWine and Butler (2008) in the book Organizational Communication: Foundations, Challenges and Misunderstandings stated that interpersonal relationship in the workplace can also provide a support system that supplies information and feedback people might not otherwise receive. Peers, particularly those with higher level of trust and intimacy, can be valuable sources of important organizational information as well as gossip (Rawlins, 1994). The more connected someone to other person in the organization, there will be a greater loyalty feeling that will show by the person to the organization. The combination of

organizational information and loyalty can lead to further career development, which can benefit both the employee and also the organization.

NORSYAHIDA MOHD MAAMON

2012183749 Reece, Brandt, Howie

Interpersonal relationship also related with the teamwork.

(2010) describe that the healthy functioning of any organization, small or large is depends on teamwork. A team is referring to a formal work group consisting of people who work

intensely together (team with a good interpersonal relationship) to achieve a common group goal. (M. George and R. Jones, 2008). If manager apply the teamwork in a positive and supportive environment, it can help the organization to attain productivity, efficiency and successful of organizational goal. Employees that work in team will develop and maintain strong interpersonal relationship that may result for better decisions, develop better product and services and create a more engaged workforce than do employees working alone. Team also typically provide superior customer service because they offer more wide of knowledge and expertise to customer than individual can offer. (Shane and Glinow, 2010). The spirit of teamwork will place employees in a high interpersonal relationship that will stimulate them to give the best and focus their work effort for organizational success. Poor teamwork can restrain your workplace teams from working effectively and attain their goals. Organizations increasingly rely on project team, product development teams and virtual team to be productive and efficient in rapidly changing domestic and global markets. Poor teamwork and failure to work together as a cohesive unit can lead to project delays, feeling of frustration, opposition between team members and decreased team productivity. (Sirbasku, 2011). So, it is explicitly can be seen that that the low interpersonal relationship will result in a poor teamwork that will lead to less productivity and interrupt the process of attaining organizational goal and success. Thus, it is clearly view that the strong

interpersonal relationship will develop a good teamwork that finally will lead to organizational success. An organization that has employees with strong interpersonal relationship may have consistent value with the organization. Shane and Glinow (2010) stated that personal values not only define the persons self-concept; they also affect how comfortable that person is with being associated with the organization and working with specific people. The key

NORSYAHIDA MOHD MAAMON

2012183749

concept here is value congruence, which refers to how similar a persons value hierarchy is to the value hierarchy of the organization, a co-worker, or another source of comparison. Person-organization value congruence occurs when the employees and organizations dominant value are similar. The sense of high value congruence among employees and organization will help in socialization process of organization. The socialization process it is very important because it is the process which employees especially for newcomers become organizational members. As an employee, they need to adapt with the organizational

environment immediately to ensure they really understand the information of organizational culture and the role-related information to perform the job. By understand both information it will guide and lead to organizational success because at this stage, employees experience metamorphosis phase which is at this phase employees reached at the completion of the socialization process (Miller, 2009) where they engage in organizations norms, values and beliefs as well as the formal and informal role requirements associated with the persons position in an organization. (Modaff, DeWine and Butler, 2008). High value congruence and reached the complete stage of socialization process represent the result of strong interpersonal relationship in the organization. Both value congruence and socialization play an important role to assist the organizational success because when the degree of congruence is high, members are more likely to adopt the organizational value system and in order to make sure the organizational value system will benefits them, so they will give full commitment to focus their work effort for organizational success and the success will useful for them in the future. Compared with isolated person, employees with strong interpersonal relationship will generally more sensitive to each others needs and develop better interpersonal relationship, thereby reducing dysfunctional conflict. When conflict arises, members tend to resolve their differences swiftly and effectively. (Shane and Glinow, 2010). Miller (2009) highlight the definition of conflict developed by Putnam and Poole (1987) which they define conflict as the interaction of interdependent people who perceive opposition of goals, aims and values and

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who see the other party as potentially interfering with the realization of these goals. Low interpersonal relationship one of the factor that cause conflict. Conflict will lead to negative consequences to organization because it will result in poor decision and low productivity of work effort. It is because employees whose experience conflict with their supervisor, coworkers and client are unable to give a good cooperation to produce a good work performance especially if the task need for high team based work effort from all parties that involve in that particular task. Conflict will give drawbacks to the organization if they fail to manage it. It is difficult for organization to achieve the goals if their employees faced conflict with each others. In order to overcome this problem, organization must encourage their employees to develop a strong interpersonal relationship among them. As a conclusion, a good interpersonal relationship is the key concept for organizational success. It is because organization consist a group of people where they need to interact regularly to make sure they understand the task, the process to perform the task to ensure that all the work effort they give to the organization is useful and benefits to achieve organizational goals. In order to achieve these goals, an organization must develop a good and effective teamwork among their employees. A good teamwork derived from the strong interpersonal relationship between employees. Other than that, the strong

interpersonal relationship will develop sense of value congruence that will engage the employees in loyalty towards the organization. Once there is loyalty and congruency

between employees and organization, it will increase employees that will lead to organizational success. Conflict is a situation that will give negative effect to organizational success, thus to avoid from this kind of situation organization need to make sure that their employees have strong interpersonal relationship among them. It was clearly see that good interpersonal relationship are essential to high productivity that will make employees feel good about their work and will motivate them to give the best not only for their own self but also for organizational success.

NORSYAHIDA MOHD MAAMON REFERENCES

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Miller Katherine (2009) Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes 5th Ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning: Boston. McShane and Von Glinow (2010) Organizational Behavior: Emerging Knowledge and Practices for the Real World 5th Ed. McGraw Hill: North America Jennifer M. George and Gareth R. Jones (2008) Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior 5th Ed. Pearson Education: New Jersey Daniel P. Modaff, Sue DeWine and Jennifer Butler (2008) Organizational Communication: Foundation, Challenges and Misunderstandings 2nd Ed. Pearson Allyn and Bacon: United State Pamela Shockley-Zalabak (1995) Fundamentals of Organizational Communication: Knowledge, Sensitivity, Skills, Values 3rd Ed. Longman: New York