The participants in communication are always specific people who have specific qualities. These qualities and traits of people are revealed in the course of communication and joint activities. In the role-based form of communication, the interlocutors act as carriers of certain roles, for example, the seller - the buyer, the doctor - the patient, the teacher - the student. In the role form of communication, a person loses spontaneity of behavior, since his steps and actions are dictated by the role that he plays. That is, role-based communication is communication in the course of which a person manifests himself not as an individual person, but as a unit of society that performs certain tasks.
This type of communication plays a significant role in people's lives.
Role-based communication is a type of communication and interaction with other people that helps to solve complex tasks that cannot be solved alone.
General terminology
Before talking about the role type of communication, you should understand the basic concepts.
Communication is the contact between living organisms, includes the exchange of data, information. The process is accompanied by mutual perception and attempts to influence each other.
Functional role communication is the communication of partners at the level of public roles, for example, the boss and subordinate. With this type of communication, certain norms and expectations are involved.
Interpersonal communication is communication between individuals, it is very multifaceted. Practical interest provides an opportunity for interlocutors to influence each other.
Types of communication
Communication may be conflicting or confidential. Confidence is an important sign of all forms of contact, without it you cannot negotiate, solve personal issues. Conflict communication is a mutual opposition of people, mutual expressions of distrust and displeasure.
Communication is divided into business and personal, direct and indirect (using additional means - audio, video, letters, e-mail).
In social psychology, there are such types of social-role communication as:
- Imperative communication is an authoritarian form of contact with a partner in order to achieve full control over his behavior, thoughts, attitudes and forcing him to certain decisions or actions. The partner is the passive side. As forms of influence, orders, requirements and prescriptions are used. The most striking examples of the use of imperative communication are during role-based communication āboss - subordinateā, ācommander - soldierā. But this type of contact is completely inappropriate in marital relationships, in relations between children and parents, in the system of pedagogical relationships with students.
- Manipulative communication is a form of communication in which the influence on the interlocutor is carried out secretly, but the goal remains the same as in the imperative form, that is, exerting influence and achieving complete control over the interlocutor. With this type of communication, the partner is perceived not as an individual, but as a carrier of qualities and properties necessary for the manipulator. But it often happens that a person who has chosen this type of communication with people becomes a victim of his own manipulation. He begins to perceive himself fragmented, guided by imaginary goals and motives, switches to standard forms of behavior. As a rule, a manipulative form of communication is used by not quite decent people in business, business, and in the media.
The concept of role-based communication: features
The role-based type of communication is the communication of people who are carriers of certain social roles, for example, mother and child, teacher and student, husband and wife. This communication is built according to certain rules that society establishes, use these rules to simplify the communication process, to facilitate the fulfillment of the tasks of each participant. If you play various situations in a role-playing game, communication in real life is much easier.
In some cases, communication on established social roles is impossible, for example, business negotiations or meetings are subject to business etiquette, and communication within this framework is much more difficult than within a teacher-student framework. In childhood, the business type of communication is practiced in role-playing games, when children agree on what game they will play, or, for example, there are special games in which children gain communication skills in business situations.
Thanks to games, children get closer, which creates conditions for the development of collective relationships, and communication develops. The role-playing game fosters the ability and desire to play together, the ability to negotiate, enjoy the success of a friend, share toys, jointly carry out certain actions, not interfering, but helping each other.
Roles
In the role-based form of communication, instead of understanding the identity of the contact person, they only manage to know the role that he plays, and in life, everyone plays many roles.
A role is a mode of behavior that is dictated by society, therefore, for example, it is not typical for a student or cashier to behave like a military man.
We all live in society, therefore, each of us performs a huge number of social roles (functions). For example, service - a subordinate (head), employee, specialist, scientist, student; everyday - a client, a tenant, a neighbor, a buyer; family - husband (wife), son (daughter), and so on.
The social role is a type of human behavior in the system of social, social and personal relations. Simply put, this is a type of behavior of a person occupying a certain social (public) status.
Types of social roles are classified by social groups, relationships, types of activities in which the person participates or includes.
Role classification
Depending on the relationship, social and interpersonal roles are distinguished.
- Social are associated with social status, type of activity, profession. These roles are impersonal and standardized; they are built on the basis of duties and rights, regardless of who performs these roles.
- Interpersonal roles are associated with relationships that are controlled at an emotional level: leader, loved one, idol, etc.
Key Features of a Social Role
Characteristics of the social role highlighted by American sociologist Talcott Parsons. Here are the main ones:
- In scale - some roles can be severely limited, while others are blurred. The scale of the role depends on the breadth of interpersonal relations, for example, a large scale is established between a wife and a husband, since there is a wide range of relations between them. They are interested in all aspects of each other's life, therefore, their relationship is not limited. But there are strictly limited relationships, for example, the seller and the buyer. The interaction between them is carried out on a specific occasion. In this case, the scale of the role is small.
- By the method of obtaining social roles are divided into: prescribed and conquered. The way to get this or that role depends on how inevitable it is for a person. For example, roles that are determined by age or gender are effortless to acquire. But there are roles that must be won in the process of life, for example, a student, professor, department head. That is, these are roles that are associated with a personās profession or achievements.
- According to the degree of formalization: activity can proceed arbitrarily or within strictly established boundaries. The formalization of the role is determined by the specifics of interpersonal relations. Some roles involve the establishment of exclusively formal relations, others, on the contrary, informal ones, and third roles can combine both formal and informal features. For example, the relationship between the representative of the traffic police and the offender of traffic rules are formal, and relations within the family are informal. But there are times when, from formal relationships, relationships between people develop into an informal form. This happens when people interact with each other for a long time and emotionality and feelings appear in relationships.
- By types of motivation: personal profit, obtaining any benefits and so on. Motivation depends on the motives and needs of the person. Different roles are due to different motives. The parent takes care of his child, guided by a sense of love, and the leader works in the name of the enterprise.
Role conflicts
They arise when the role is not fulfilled or when one person has the need to simultaneously perform several of their roles that contradict each other. Also, a conflict situation may arise due to the contradiction between the different roles of some employees of the organization.
For example, the head of the department instructed to write a report on the work done in an hour, and the head of the company insists that the report is of high quality, and requires the head of the department to allocate more time to the employee to work.
Role positions
In modern psychology, the American psychologist E. Berne analyzed role roles in communication. He took the transaction or the psychological state of the personās internal āIā as a unit of communication. He identified the states that manifest themselves in the process of communication in the form of 3 roles:
- The āParentā state, which psychologically resembles the state of parents. It is based on the forms, styles and methods of training and education deposited in the human mind that his parents used.
- The condition "Adult" is based on an objective attitude to events.
- The condition "Child" is based on the attitude to reality that has survived from early childhood.
These conditions are quite normal, they repeatedly appear in life situations.
For example, the position āParentā is manifested in situations requiring order, decree, criticism, reprimand. Or, conversely, when care, advice, courtship, help, support, sympathy are needed.
The āChildā position is manifested in insults, moods, emotional protest, with any behavior that can be described as impulsive, irrational. Or vice versa, when a person seeks authority, protection, support.
The position in the communication of "Adult" is manifested in the form of an objective, reasonable approach to events, expressed in a calm, restrained attitude towards people.
Types of communication depending on the role position
The most effective and comfortable is the communication of people who are in the "Adult" position, people in the "Child" position also understand each other well.
The communication between the āAdultā and the āParentā is intense: the āAdultā irritates the āParentā with his calmness, he either knocks him off, or makes him move into an equal position of the āAdultā in communication. But it happens that the āParentā suppresses its interlocutor, in which case, most likely, a conflict will develop.
Communication between āAdultā and āChildā is dynamic: āAdultā encourages the interlocutor to be serious and responsible, in this case either āChildā will move to the position of āAdultā, or āAdultā will take the position of āParentā.
Communication between āParentā and āChildā is complementary.
The communication of the two āParentsā is very conflicting. Someone needs to temporarily change their position to "Child" or "Adult."
The concept of status, role and nature of communication depending on status
Elements of the social structure of society are roles and statuses. The latter characterize the sustainability of society. Status is a personās position in a social system, which is determined by characteristic features, for example, professional.
Each person has a number of statuses and plays certain roles. The set of all statuses that a person holds is called a status set. They are divided into: social (class, profession, age, nationality), personal, prescribed (mother, father, mother-in-law, son-in-law).
A person treats other people in accordance with his status, for example, the poor envy the rich. Statuses determine the content, nature, duration of human relationships and status-role communication.
Business Communication
The main part of business role communication is official communication. It forms the interaction of people in organizations during working hours. But besides this, the concept of ābusiness communicationā includes communication outside working hours - at exhibitions, business receptions, seminars, conferences.
Features of the business type of communication:
- Maximum achievement of mutual understanding.
- The maximum understanding of the subject of communication and the situation. In business communication, the personal characteristics of the interlocutor are taken into account, but the interests of the business always come first, they are more significant than possible personal differences of opinion.
The main forms of business communication: conversation, public speaking, meeting, negotiations, discussion, telephone conversation, business correspondence.
The relationship of individuals during business communication is a very important phenomenon. Without this, high-quality activities of employees and managers are impossible.
Conclusion
Human communication is multifaceted and depends on the goals pursued by the interlocutors. Human interaction with the surrounding reality is carried out in a system of relations that are formed between people in their social life. In order for the teacher to educate the student, he must enter into the process of communication with him. And this is a multifaceted process of developing ties and contacts between people, which is generated by the needs of joint activities.