Important phenomenon of interpersonal communication Essay

Important phenomenon of interpersonal communication - Essay Example This paper will focus on the interpersonal relationships found in business, such as between customers and companies, among co-workers, and between managers/supervisors and their subordinates. This paper provides an empirical description of the Social Exchange Theory, a theoretical explanation of the phenomenon, and a critical evaluation of the validity and utility of the theoretical explanation. There is an empirical description of the Social Exchange Theory, which begins with the concept of knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing is an important goal of interpersonal communication at organizations, because it can yield competitive advantages (Wu et al. 84). Nonetheless, organizations do not always exert adequate effort to develop mechanisms that successfully persuade employees to share knowledge (Wu et al. 84). Knowledge is precious and knowledge-sharing behavior is an example of social exchange in the workplace (Wu et al. 84). People who have the knowledge do not always feel free to s hare them, unless there are perceived benefits in doing so, which is a fundamental argument of the Social Exchange Theory. ... ndividual altruism† and â€Å"a social interaction environment.† The sampling came from Taiwanese high-tech industries, particularly research and development (R&D) teams. Finding showed that employees’ â€Å"perceived interpersonal trust,† from colleagues or supervisor, was found to be positively associated with their propensity to share knowledge (91). Employees’ altruism is also a trait that affected the tendency to share knowledge in the workplace and altruism also lessened the association between trust of colleagues and knowledge sharing (91). Furthermore, an â€Å"organizational social interaction environment† improves the positive association between trust of colleagues and knowledge sharing (91). Hence, trust is critical to knowledge sharing or the formation of some of the basic interpersonal relations that organizations require to become competitive. Whitener et al. explored the kinds of behavior managers may perform to build trust. Th ey used the agency and social exchange theories and proposed an exchange relationship framework that recognizes organizational, relational, and individual factors that support or restrain managerial trustworthy behavior. Their model argued for the importance of trust in creating strong and knowledge-sharing relationships. The empirical research showed that the social exchange theory is grounded on trust and from trust and expectations of benefits, positive social exchange can occur. A theoretical explanation of the phenomenon will further help understand the social exchange theory. The social exchange theory, as developed by Blau in 1964, states that an individual may seek to create an exchange relationship with others by willingly giving benefits to others first and then expecting some level of return in the future (Wu et al.