Question

Identify three themes in the Case in Point about "Working with jerks" from chapter 9 in the textbook Organizational Communication - Approaches and Processes by Katherine Miller and identify 3 recommendations of how the themes discovered in the case could be used to improve communication in other organizations. Explain why your recommendations will work.

Answer 1

The three themes in the Case in Point about "Working with Jerks" are :

• In every organization there are individuals who are always confrontational, are not cooperative, and are not able to take others point of view. These people are called jerks. For jerks conflict is their way creating stress and tension for the co-workers at work place. The main method these people use are bullying others, and are good at demeaning and deenergize their co-workers.
• The main method to deal with such jerks is to screen such individuals during the hiring process and preventing their entrance to the organization. Or the other method is to quit the job when it is extremely difficult to work with jerks.
• The best approach to handle jerks is to avoid them and maintaining one's calm by developing one's own way of not caring about them no matter what.

The three recommendations are:

• Accepting that Jerks are to be found in every organization, and possibly at every organizational level. This would make it esay to work better at any place.
• There should be some screening methods to identify the jerks during the hiring procedures, so that such individuals can be limited in the organizations.
• Employees should be taught to avoid jerks at workplace or should be helped to identify their own ways to deal with the jerks. This would help to not to care about jerks demeaning and deenergizing strategies, and would ensure maximum dedication for work in employees.