I was hired into my current position in January of this year and have spent the last three months desperately attempting to reduce the amount of uncertainty I feel with my immediate supervisor. It has been much easier to develop clarity and confidence in my relationships with other co-workers which, according to D&Z, is for a number of reasons. The first relates to the incentive value of our interaction - my boss is the only individual that has the ability to provide me with rewards or punishments. Secondly, I work with her everyday in ways that I don't with other co-workers which is explained as the anticipation of future interaction condition of our relationship.
Almost immediately I sensed that my supervisor and I did not share the same ways of communicating. These differences caused friction between us right away. Initially I used what D&Z called passive strategy and observed how she interacted and communicated with others at our firm - her peers, my peers, her boss, her former assistant, etc. These observations made me feel even more uneasy about our interactions. I inferred that her behaviors demonstrated low consensus (others were very pleasant toward me), high consistency (mostly unpleasant when interacting with me) and low distinctiveness (because her negativity happens often).
When my passive strategy for reducing uncertainty left me with more questions than answers, I approached her former assistant who is now a peer co-worker of mine to determine if she had similar interactions with my supervisor (active strategy). I was somewhat relieved to find that she had.
Soon after I spoke with her former assistant, my supervisor and I had a serious disagreement that caused me to confront her in a public way and then schedule a private meeting later that day to discuss. And without realizing it, I had initiated an interactive strategy for getting to the bottom of our uncomfortable interactions. We spent more than a half hour discussing our misunderstandings leading up to the confrontation.
Since our meeting, our interactions have been more pleasant. The conversation helped us to identify our differences in communication styles and interpretations. It's only been a couple weeks so I can't definitively that my uncertainty with her has been reduced however, it seems to be moving forward on a more positive path.
It seems like you were talking about my relationship with my previous boss. Initially, after finishing this weeks readings, I actually felt as though I could not relate to the URT. However, hearing your example made me feel that maybe I have utilized some of the stratigies mentioned in the readings. It is really sad that you had to be the one to initiate the meeting to resolve your differences because I feel the boss should be more proactive in creating a good, stable working environment. I am just happy that things are going better for you! Great post!
ReplyDeleteMelissa,
ReplyDeleteNice application of URT to your current situation. It's interesting to look back and think, "Oh, now I see why I did that!" isn't it? Good observations, Melissa!