, Research Paper

The Current Nature of Human Relations

Group Project 1

Group Members:

Kari Johnson

Todd Lessman

Mark Mellum

Craig Popp

Tim Weller

Organizational Behavior

Richard J. Sebastian

March 9, 2000

The nature of human dealingss is evolutionary. It changes over clip as our society adjusts to our ever-changing environment. These alterations can be positive or negative, and sometimes necessary alterations have both positive and negative effects on our lives. It seems that the overall nature of current human dealingss can best be determined by analyzing human interaction in a few cardinal countries. Interaction in the workplace, the school, and the place, every bit good as interaction among aliens, can be analyzed to supply an accurate description. There are many factors that can hold an consequence on our interaction in each of these scenes.

The workplace is an environment in which there is by and large a high grade of personal interaction. Recent technological progresss have made it much easier for people to pass on with one another. The outgrowth of the Internet in the 1990 & # 8217 ; s has everlastingly changed the manner that people will interact with one another. Electronic mail has become a manner to link with colleagues anyplace in the universe. No longer is one confined to merely pass oning with people in their section or office. The increasing popularity of cellular phones had besides changed human dealingss. One can now be reached virtually anytime, anyplace.

Although engineering has made human dealingss easier in the workplace, it has besides decreased the sum of face-to-face interaction. Peoples are trusting vastly on engineering and it has become merely easier to direct an electronic mail to person than to physically travel and speak to them. Technology has besides created the practical workplace, where people can work from the confines of their ain place. This has drastically reduced the sum of personal interaction between workers. This new type of workplace is merely in its beginning stage and will go on to derive popularity in the following millenary.

The cultural diverseness of the typical workplace has increased greatly over the last decennary. This addition in diverseness has come from a twosome of beginnings. First, many companies were forced to diversify to follow with equal chance Torahs. Second, companies began to detect that people from different cultural backgrounds were helpful in working with a broad spectrum of clients. Regardless of the grounds, this increasing diverseness in the work force has caused a alteration in human interaction. Peoples are now being exposed to others with many different cultural backgrounds, beliefs and imposts. This has forced people to spread out their skylines and larn the proper ways to associate to people from other civilizations. Many times linguistic communication barriers exist, and it can be hard to set up effectual communicating. Diversity has, for the most portion, improved human dealingss within the workplace. It has made people friendlier towards others who are different and helped them to develop and better the manner they interact with colleagues.

Unfortunately, non all workplace interaction is altering for the better. The menace of force has been an increased concern for many companies. Homicide is the taking cause of decease in the finance, insurance, and existent estate industries ( McMurry, 96 ) . Violence in the workplace is blamed for the decreasing quality of human dealingss in many companies. In the past, many people considered their colleagues as a sort of extended household, which gave them a sense of security. In today & # 8217 ; s workplace, nevertheless, layoffs and downsizing have taken away that household feeling. Workers today feel as though they are merely one portion of a machine, and could easy be replaced. This has degraded the quality of personal interaction in the workplace. A colleague who at one clip may hold been like a brother to you is now a rival who could easy replace you. This feeling has lessened the friendliness between workers and has led to increased workplace force.

The workplace is non the lone establishment in which we have seen an addition of force in the 1990s. It seems that this tendency toward violent behaviour is traversing the coevals spreads and occupying our schools every bit good. Too frequently we are seeing kids bring downing injury on other pupils in what should be a safe and supportive environment. The shots at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado last twelvemonth sent daze moving ridges through the state, and made it clear that school force should be an issue of concern. Just late, a six twelvemonth old male child in Michigan shooting and killed a fellow schoolmate at school. The fact that this first class male child had entree to a gun, and the will to utilize it to harm another pupil, shows that kids of all ages are cognizant of this tendency toward violent behaviour in our society.

Schools today are altering in many of the same ways as the workplace. Advancing engineering and turning diverseness are holding an impact on the environment of schools across the state. These facets of alteration are holding many positive influences on the quality of instruction available to our pupils. Progresss in computing machines and the cyberspace make illimitable sums of information accessible to pupils. Cultural diverseness in schools helps kids to larn at a immature age that there are many things that can be learned from other people & # 8217 ; s civilizations. These alterations are really of import to society as a whole because they indicate that future coevalss will be more accepting of differences and better able to suit others. These societal accomplishments that kids learn at school have a strong impact on how they will associate to others throughout their lives.

About mundane people face state of affairss in which they interact with aliens. These interactions are really common, since one of course meets new people while traveling about one & # 8217 ; s day-to-day modus operandi. The nature of human dealingss between aliens is complex and dependent upon certain state of affairss. Most of the clip these interactions are polite or at the least non-committal. Unfortunately, there seems to be a tendency in recent times towards misgiving and straight-out force in a turning per centum of these day-to-day societal interactions.

An illustration is & # 8220 ; route fury & # 8221 ; , or aggressive drive, going more and more prevalent in our society. Dr. Arnold Nerenberg of Clinic Well-Being, who has established a route fury web site, claims that 20 eight thousand people died in 1996 because of aggressive drive. It is estimated that over two billion episodes of route fury occur each twelvemonth. This is grounds that aliens are associating to one another in violent ways, but it has non become wholly permeant yet. Thankfully we still see many state of affairss where drivers are gracious to one another, either by allowing person merge into traffic or by beckoning another driver to travel in front at a four manner stop mark.

Besides those interactions aliens experience while driving, there are other incidents that show the complexness of these state of affairss. There are many incidents seen on the intelligence Stationss that show hideous, violent events. For case, in Minnesota, there was late a snatch and possible slaying of a immature adult female named Katie Poirer. While she was working at a gas station, a adult male non known to Katie abducted her by gun point. Her whereabouts are still unknown, but what is known is that this is non an stray event. There are many kids kidnapped each twelvemonth in the United States.

There are many other personal incidents that show that force is going really prevailing in our society. While Craig was at the Red Carpet saloon with his friends he witnessed a possible violent state of affairs. His friend happened to look around the saloon and made oculus contact with a adult male who was glowering at him. The friend nodded his caput to this alien in polite recognition. The adult male responded by inquiring, & # 8220 ; Do you desire something? & # 8221 ; in a really aggressive tone. Craig & # 8217 ; s friend knew that this individual was looking for a battle and did non desire to acquire involved in this type of state of affairs. This is merely one illustration of the turning sum of motiveless aggression.

Even though these illustrations of random force seem to be increasing at an dismaying rate, things are non yet hopeless. In theory, people should be able to swear one another to be civil, even as complete aliens, and many times they can. Another tendency in society today is state of affairss in which people perform & # 8220 ; random Acts of the Apostless of kindness. & # 8221 ; There was a motion in the 1990 & # 8217 ; s to pattern random Acts of the Apostless of kindness, using telecasting, wireless and hoardings to distribute the message of caring and consideration of others. Oprah Winfrey & # 8217 ; s telecasting talk show had several segmen

T on this subject, and there is now a web site devoted to the issue of being sort to aliens. Possibly the most promising mark that there may still be hope is the overpowering alteration in attitudes we see during the Christmas season. This is a clip when people give gifts and money to those less fortunate, travel caroling door to door to convey good cheer, and say Merry Christmas even to people they do non cognize.

Relationss between aliens are different in face-to-face state of affairss as opposed to interactions via engineering. When aliens meet in individual, they are likely to rapidly do oculus contact and so look off. Harmonizing to William Gudykunst and Young Yun Kim, this state of affairs can be explained because & # 8220 ; in communicating we seek to cut down uncertainness. Communication with aliens involves comparatively greater grades of uncertainness & # 8221 ; therefore people may experience higher degrees of anxiousness ( www.colorado.edu ) .

This may explicate the turning figure of people who are taking to interact with aliens via Internet confab suites. In this state of affairs there is no face-to-face contact, so people do non hold to worry about how they are perceived if they were to do a error. Anxiety is reduced, doing this interaction between aliens easier.

Another of import country that has seen alterations in the 1990s is the construction and function of the household. In today & # 8217 ; s environment the traditional household as it was known in the yesteryear is no longer the norm. There are many factors lending to the increasing figure of non-traditional households. The easiness of obtaining a divorce and the addition in adolescent gestations have led to smaller households and more individual parent households. Many individual parents are overwhelmed with the duties of raising a kid, and in some instances the parent is still a adolescent, and non yet mature themselves.

Another turning non-traditional household type is a consequence of inter-racial matrimonies. This is a consequence of the turning diverseness in our society, and is a positive mark of the turning credence of differences. Unfortunately, jobs may originate in these households because of the mix of different cultural imposts and values. There may besides be disapproval and/or discourtesy from other household members. Sometimes a bi-racial twosome can be torn apart by force per unit areas from a racialist male parent and/or female parent. Many assorted kids have jobs at school because they don & # 8217 ; T know where they fit in at school and may be teased by other pupils.

Not merely is the construction of the typical household changing, but the manner kids are being raised is altering every bit good. It has been referred to as a diminution in household values by many people and is frequently an issue of political argument. The bottom line is that the kineticss of household interaction are altering, and the consequence is increased turbulency within the household unit. These altering kineticss include decreased quality and measure of communicating, decreased interaction and involvement in the lives of other household members, and decreased ability of parents to pull off and command the behaviour of their kids.

Parents today are timid to penalize their kids physically because they are afraid that the kid may claim kid maltreatment. The current tendency is to seek alternate attacks, such as guidance, as a manner to change behaviour. Therefore many parents end up unable to train their kids and allow them make as they please. Parents need to be involved in their kids & # 8217 ; s lives and promote school assignment and engagement in extracurricular activities. Parents that show an involvement in their kid & # 8217 ; s life will hold a kid that is more likely to develop good ethical motives and do good determinations. Many of the & # 8220 ; job kids & # 8221 ; in our society are acquiring into problem to derive attending because they lack this attending from their ain households.

These alterations in the typical household seem to be a major factor in the general diminution in the nature of human dealingss. Without a strong household support system, kids are turning up with weaker ethical motives and increased susceptibleness to peer force per unit area and violent or anti-social inclinations. The typical household has changed so much late that it is hard to avoid these jobs. Family members are busy, agendas are feverish, and quality household interaction is accordingly diminished. Rarely is it easy to acquire the household together for an activity every bit simple as dinner. Public service proclamation commercials can be seen on Television reminding parents to speak to their kids. When Television is needed to remind us that household interaction is of import, it is obvious that there is a job.

This brings us to another of import cause of the current diminution of human dealingss, viz. the influence of telecasting and the media. The issue of increasing force in the media has become a to a great extent debated subject. Many people argue that the tendency toward force throughout society is caused, or at least encouraged by the force we are exposed to in films and telecasting plans. Television makers have late installed a & # 8220 ; V-chip & # 8221 ; in telecasting sets to assist forestall immature kids from watching violent plans. Still, the parents have to be proactive in their kids & # 8217 ; s sing wonts, because the Television needs to be programmed or monitored on what shows are suited for kids.

A recent probe on the influence of force through Television plans showed that kids behave otherwise after watching a violent plan versus a non-violent plan. The two plans that were contrasted in the probe were & # 8220 ; The Power Rangers & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; Barney & # 8221 ; , two popular kids & # 8217 ; s & # 8217 ; shows. The trial took topographic point in a day care puting. As the kids were shown the & # 8220 ; Barney & # 8221 ; picture, they were singing and dancing along with the violet dinosaur. However, when the picture of the Power Rangers was shown, the group of kids began copying the functions of the characters, kicking and pluging at each other and demoing an addition in violent behaviour. This is merely one illustration proposing that the more that kids are exposed to violent behaviour, the more likely it is that they will move upon the behaviour they have seen. As these kids grow up being continually exposed to violent images, it may hold an overall consequence on the manner they relate to others, including aliens.

Other accounts exist as to why there is force among aliens. One account is the diverse population of the United States. Our communicating with aliens is influenced by the groups to which we belong. As a portion of our socialisation into these groups we are taught to avoid people from certain other groups. Because there is less credence among people of different civilizations, jobs may originate. Violence may besides be attributed to the value that our civilization topographic points on individuality. Because people are focused on their ain concerns, they are less likely to assist others. This so creates a cyclical consequence, in which people believe they are non cared about, and accordingly are less likely to care about others.

This seems to be the overpowering tendency that is altering the nature of human dealingss in the new millenary ; that people merely care less about each other. Not merely is this impacting interaction between aliens, but besides interaction with those that we consider friends. Friendships are going more superficial, due to a assortment of grounds. Peoples change occupations more frequently and households move off, taking to shorter lengths of relationships and an inability to develop deep friendly relationships. Peoples find themselves with many familiarities and fewer true friends.

All of the issues that we have addressed are obvious countries of concern, but can they be considered jobs? Changes in diverseness and engineering have many positive impacts on our society and the manner we interact with one another. There may besides be a few negative impacts, but these tendencies truly are non jobs. On the other manus, the addition in force in apparently all locales of our society, along with the lessening in household values and communicating, are clearly jobs that need to be addressed. Unfortunately, there is no simple or realistic reply to these jobs. These issues can merely be dealt with on a personal degree, each person making his/her portion for the greater good of society. We must take it upon ourselves to be accepting of others, avoid violent behaviour, and raise or lend to our households in positive and nurturing ways.

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Glaser, Tanya. ( 1998 ) . & # 8220 ; Communicating With Strangers: An Approach to Intercultural Communication & # 8221 ; . Online. Internet. www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/example/gudy6816.htm

McMurry, Kelly. ( 1996 ) . & # 8220 ; In Harms Way: Workplace Violence on the Rise & # 8221 ; .

Test, September 1996, pp. 96-98.

Nerenberg, Arnold, Ph.D. ( 1998 ) . & # 8220 ; Road Rage & # 8221 ; . Online. Internet.

www.roadrage.com