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Chapter 8: Communication Climate: The Foundation of Personal
Relationships
Key Concepts
assertion
commitment
communication climate
ethnocentrism
investments
relational dialectics
self-disclosure
trust
Chapter Outline
I.
Satisfying relationships are vital for human beings to thrive and be successful in both
personal and professional situations.
A.
There are four vital features of satisfying relationships:
• Investment: What we put into relationships that we could not retrieve if the
relationship were to end.
• Commitment: A decision to remain in a relationship.
• Trust: Believing in another’s reliability (that he or she will do as promised)
and another’s effort to look out for our welfare and our relationship.
• Comfort with relational dialectics: Accepting as normal that there are
opposing forces, or tensions, that are continuous in personal
relationships.
II.
Communication climates exist on a continuum from confirming to disconfirming.
A.
Scholars have identified three levels of communication that confirm or disconfirm other’s
climates.
1.
Recognition is the basic form of confirmation. It is where you
recognize that the other person exists.
2.
Acknowledgment is the second level and is an acknowledgment
of what another feels, thinks, or says.
3.
Endorsement is involving another’s feelings or thoughts.
B.
Researcher Jack Gibb noted that with some people we feel disconfirmed and on
guard, so we are unlikely to communicate openly with them, and with other people
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we feel supported and confirmed, so we are likely to communicate freely with them.
C.
There are six types of communication that promote disconfirming communication
climates:
1.
Evaluation
2.
Certainty
3.
Strategy
4.
Control
5.
Neutrality
6.
Superiority
D.
There are six types of communication that promote confirming
communication climates.
1.
Description
2.
Provisionalism
3.
Spontaneity
4.
Problem orientation
5.
Empathy
6. Equality
III.
Climate matters when we communicate using social media just as it does in face-
to-face (f2f) interaction.
A.
Confirmation is created by liking posts.
B.
Disclosure is challenging since privacy is no longer assured.
C.
Online and digital communication tend to be more abbreviated than f2f
communication; therefore, offering extra cues is useful as is being tentative
about how we interpret online and digital messages.
IV.
There are at least five guidelines for building and sustaining healthy relational
and communication climates.
A.
Actively use communication to build confirming climates.
B.
We need to accept and confirm others while still being honest.
C.
We need to make sure we affirm and assert (state what we need, feel, or want
without putting ourselves above or below others) ourselves in a relationship.
D.
Respect diversity in relationships. Understand that there is not a single mold into
which all relationships fit.
E.
Find ways to respond constructively to criticism.
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Discussion Ideas
Supportive and Defensive Climates: Ask students to make a list of behaviors that teachers and
students exhibit in a class conducive to learning (e.g., respecting each other’s ideas and
asking questions when a point is not clear). Ask students to make a list of behaviors that
teachers and students exhibit in a class not conducive to learning (e.g., implying that one’s
point of view is the absolute correct one or criticizing someone personally rather than their
position on a matter). Compare and contrast these behaviors with what should create a
supportive or defensive climate. Generally, students need to be prompted to come up with
anything positive for the class not conducive to learning or anything negative for the class
conducive to learning. Defensive behaviors include evaluation, certainty, strategy, control,
indifference, and superiority. Supportive communication behaviors include description,
provisionalism, spontaneity, adopting a problem orientation, empathy, and equality.
• Turning a Defensive Climate into a Supportive Climate: Ask students to alter the following
statements in the specified ways (as indicated in parentheses). Possible student responses are
included after the parentheses.
• The right thing to do is crystal clear (change certainty to provisionalism). For example, “The
right thing to do can be difficult to decide.”
• Don’t you owe me a favor from when I typed that paper for you last term? (change strategy to
spontaneity). For example, “Remember the term paper I helped you with last term? Do you think
you could help me out with one of my own?”
• You’re acting very immaturely (change evaluation to description). For example, “I notice that
you are getting upset by this situation.”
•
I think we should move where I have the good job offer since I earn a larger salary than you
anyway (change control orientation to problem orientation). For example, “In terms of moving,
what decision will make the most sense for us in terms of our financial position as well as our
relationship?
•
I can’t believe you got yourself into such a dumb predicament (change superiority to equality).
For example, “This is tricky situation. Let’s see what we can do to help you address it.”
•
I don’t want to get involved in your disagreement (change neutrality to empathy). For example,
“I can see where you’re coming from with this, and based on what you’ve said, it seems like it
might be best to talk with Susan directly about this issue.”
• Relational Dialectics: Ask students to list examples that occur in their relationship. Ask
students to provide examples for each of the dialectic tensions and how they manage them in
their relationships: autonomy/connection, predictability/novelty, and privacy/expression.
• Electronic Greeting Cards and Communication Climate: Greeting cards represent a
large industry and have become an integral part of U.S. culture. Ask students how many
send greeting cards and under what circumstances. Then, draw students’ attention to the use
of electronic greeting cards, or e-Cards (e.g., www.bluemountain.com). Again, ask students
how many send e-Cards and under what circumstances. How can e-Cards be used as a
relational tool that fosters a particular interpersonal climate? Are there differences between
sending a “snail–mail” greeting card and an e-Card?
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Activities
Title
Individual
Partner/
Ethno
Group
Demonstration/
Whole Class
Internet/
InfoTrac
1. Creating supportive climates
X–H
X
2. Building healthy climates
X
3. Classroom climates
X
4. Climates in the workplace
X–P
5. Building trust
X
X = Marks type of activity H = Handout P = Preparation required for students/teacher
Creating Supportive Climates
This role-playing activity provides students with concrete examples of communication that helps
to create supportive and defensive interpersonal climates. The exercise also emphasizes our
capacity to use communication to improve unhealthy interpersonal climates.
Ask for four volunteers. The first two should be given Scene A of Communicating Climate. The
second two should be given Scene B of Communicating Climate. Instruct the role players to start
with the existing dialogue and then improvise to create defensive communication climates.
After each dyad presents its role-play, have students in the class identify specific types of
communication that contributed to the defensive climate. They should be able to point out
examples of evaluation, strategy, superiority, neutrality, control, and certainty. Invite them to
explain how these forms of communication foster a negative climate.
Then ask students to rescript the role-play so that a more supportive climate is created by using
supportive types of communication. Repeat this discussion for the second role-play. Conclude
the exercise by emphasizing individuals’ power to use communication to create supportive
interpersonal climates and to improve defensive ones.
Building Healthy Climates
Ask the students to find a partner in class. Ask each pair to number off from one to six. Then,
assign each pair one of the six guidelines for building and sustaining healthy relational and
communication climates. The pair that is numbered one gets the first guideline; the pair that is
numbered two gets the second guideline, and so on.
Ask the students to come up with a skit that illustrates this guideline.
Give the students about 5 minutes to come up with their skits.
Once they have come up with their skits, have them randomly present their skits in front of the
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class.
Have the other class members try to guess what their skit was illustrating and critic each skit.
Discuss the importance of building and sustaining healthy relational and communication
climates.
Classroom Climates
This is a demonstration that gives students a dramatic and personal sense of how communication
creates open or closed climates in the classroom.
Unlike other exercises in this resource manual, this one involves you, the teacher, as a role player
who demonstrates the power of communication to shape a classroom climate. Do not inform
students what you are doing.
Hold a discussion with your class on any topic you would normally discuss regarding
communication climate. Although you should be sure to include sound content in the discussion,
the content is not the focus in this instance. For the first 5 minutes of the discussion, consistently
use supportive behaviors to respond to students. You might foster equality by saying, “I’m not
sure; what do you think?” You could demonstrate tentativeness and openness by responding,
“That’s an interesting comment that I’ll think more about.”
After the discussion is progressing well, switch to using communication that fosters
defensiveness. You should evaluate students’ comments (“That’s wrong”; “You don’t seem to
have read the book very carefully”), be close–minded about differing opinions (“That’s not as
reasonable an explanation as the one I just gave you”), proclaim your superiority (“I think I have
considerably more knowledge on this topic than a sophomore”), and exert control and strategy
(“You know I could give you a pop quiz”). As you interact with your class, notice how students
behave so that you can point out their responses to them.
After you are satisfied that you have created a defensive climate in the classroom, stop the
demonstration and explain to students what you were doing. On the board, write Gibb’s six pairs
of defensive and supportive communication behaviors. Ask students to provide examples of each
behavior (or as many as you modeled) in your previous discussion-demonstration. Then ask
students to describe how they felt at the beginning of the discussion and how they felt when you
switched to communication behaviors that evoke defensiveness.
Climates in the Workplace
The purpose of this activity is to understand communication climates in the workplace. The
concept of interpersonal climate applies to relationships in the workplace. Oftentimes,
organizations talk about the “climate” or “culture” or their organization in terms of what it is like
to work there.
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For this activity, introduce the concept of interpersonal climate as the overall feeling or mood
between people, and talk about how it can also be used to assess the climate of a workplace.
Next, visit organizational websites in class (e.g., http://www.cisco.com/jobs/us/culture.shtml)
and examine the types of climate that these companies seek to cultivate.
In discussing the descriptions of the organizational climate, ask students to apply Gibb’s
typology of communication practices that lead to defensive and supportive climates. Be sure to
point out how such descriptions tend to focus on communication practices that lead to supportive
climates, such as creativity (or spontaneity), equality and diversity, focus on problem solving,
and so on.
Variation: Make reference to organizational climate surveys that companies conduct to assess
perceptions and feelings of what it is like to work in a particular organization.
For a sample organizational climate survey, visit: https://www.hr-
survey.com/EmployeeClimate.htm
For a web-based slide presentation on organizational climate assessments, visit
https://www.slideshare.net/RichardMenes/organizational-climate-survey
For an organization that conducts organizational climate surveys, visit: https://perceptyx.com/
Building Trust
Ask students (individually) to generate a list of how a person can build or gain trust with other people.
Tell them to write as many as they can think of and try to be original. Then, ask students to share one
item on their list. They cannot repeat what other students say. They must go down the list until they do
not repeat what other people say. Ask the class to discuss if these are legitimate ways to gain trust.
Which methods are most effective and appropriate? Which methods would be more beneficial for males
or females? Why?
Journal Items
• Identify one relationship in which you feel on-guard and defensive and one relationship
in which you feel comfortable and supported. Describe and analyze the communication
behaviors in each relationship. To what extent do the defensive and supportive
communication behaviors discussed in the text explain the climates of these two
relationships?
Responses will vary, but defensive behaviors include evaluation, certainty, strategy, control,
indifference, and superiority. Supportive communication behaviors include description,
provisionalism, spontaneity, adopting a problem orientation, empathy, and equality.
• Pick a situation in which someone with whom you are talking seems defensive.
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Consciously engage in supportive communication behaviors and avoid ones likely to
produce defensiveness. Analyze what happens in terms of the other person’s comfort
and communication.
Responses will vary. See the first Journal Item for examples of defensive and supportive communication
behaviors.
• Ask students to evaluate each of their relationships they have or have had (work,
school, social, romantic) and describe how relationship dialectic tensions are present in
each of their relationship. Ask students to describe how these dialectical tensions are
managed in each of their relationships.
Responses will vary. Students might discuss: autonomy/connection, predictability/novelty, and
privacy/expression. For managing relationship dialectics, they might talk about reframing,
separating, neutralizing, and selecting them.
Media Resources
Websites
Name: How to be Assertive
Developer: MindTools
Brief Description: This web page defines assertiveness in the workplace and explains how to
develop this skill effectively.
URL: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/Assertiveness.htm
Name: Our Culture
Developer: GE
Brief Description: This web page provides a description of the culture and work climate at
GE.
URL: https://www.ge.com/careers/culture
Name: Cisco Systems Culture
Developer: Cisco Systems
Brief Description: This web page provides a description of the culture and work climate at Cisco
Systems.
URL: http://www.cisco.com/jobs/us/culture.shtml
Name: Blue Mountain
Developer: Blue Mountain.com
Brief Description: This website allows users to send free electronic greeting cards to anyone
with an email address. Consider this site in relation to how e-Cards can be used in the
cultivation of communication climates.
URL: http://www.bluemountain.com
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Name: Ethnocentrism
Developer: Wikipedia
Brief Description: Defines and give examples of ethnocentrism. Also includes links to related
articles on ethnocentrism.
URL: http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnocentrism
Name: Johari Window
Developer: Sources of Insight
Brief Description: Offers an interesting look at the Johari Window
URL: http://sourcesofinsight.com/know-and-share-yourself-
enough/
Name: Communicating Constructively
Developer: Wright University
Brief Description: This article offers suggestions for creating more supportive conversations
with others.
URL: http://www.wright.edu/~scott.williams/skills/communicating.htm
Film Ideas
Workplace and Office Space. These films provide a humorous look at the culture and climate
of a corporate workplace. Ask students to analyze the film for the interpersonal climate that
exists in the company portrayed in these films.
American Beauty. This film offers a look at how some families are very unsupportive. The
film can be used to illustrate how to create more supportive climates in a relationship.
Grown-Ups. This film illustrates how different couples have various marriages. This film
illustrates that some climates are defensive while others are confirming.
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Print Resources
Family Communication: The Essential Rules for Improving Communication and Making
Your Relationships More Loving, Supportive, and Enriching by Sven Wahlroos. Ask
students to compare and contrast the guidelines for creating supportive and confirming climates
discussed in the textbook with those suggestions made in this book.
Tell Me How I’m Doing: A Fable about the Importance of Giving Feedback by Richard Williams.
This book is written as a fable. It demonstrates the important of giving feedback and ways of being able
to create a positive environment.
The Communication of Social Support: Messages, Interactions, Relationships, and Community
by Terrance Albrect, Irwin G. Sarason, and Brant Burleson. This book is written by experts in the field.
It examines how there are different types of supportive communication in a variety of relationships.
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Script: Communicating Climate
SCENE A: A woman and her husband are driving in the late afternoon. They have been on
the road for 4 hours and still have 3 hours to drive to reach their destination.
Passenger: You’re driving too fast.
Driver: I’m a good driver. I know what I’m doing.
Passenger: You’re going to have an accident if you keep speeding. I’m warning you.
Driver: Well, if I do it will be my first accident!
Passenger: I may have had accidents, but you have the world record for speeding tickets.
SCENE B: A professor and student are discussing a paper that received a C grade from the
professor.
Student: I don’t see why you gave me a C on my paper.
Prof: I didn’t give you any grade. You earned a C.
Student: But I worked very hard on this paper, and I thought it showed that I understand
the readings. Nothing in your comments tells me what is missing.
Prof: You ought to know what’s missing without my having to spell it out for you. You
will learn a lot more by figuring out for yourself why the paper is weak than by
having me simply tell you.
Student: I feel you’re really putting me in a double bind. You’re being unhelpful and rigid.
Prof: Really, now? Well, I’m sure in no mood to help now!