Resolving Interpersonal Conflict

"Describe an interpersonal conflict in detail, articulate it in the form of a question that might be answered in the form of a possible solution by members of your blogging group."


Below is a summarised version of a true account which happened in my junior college class. Names have been changed to protect the identity of the people involved.

There was a clique of 7 girls in my class. During a free period in class, Alice wanted to complete her tutorial but her good friend, Betty, wanted to chat with her instead. Betty thought that Alice could finish the tutorial at home since school was ending early that day. Despite several attempts to do the tutorial, Alice was often disturbed by Betty who asked her to stop doing her work.

Alice told Betty a few times that she was not interested in chatting but Betty did not take Alice seriously and continued to disturb her. In the end, when the period ended, the tutorial was uncompleted.

The next morning, Betty told Alice that she had finished the tutorial at home. Alice was unhappy because she only managed to finish a few questions despite spending the whole day at home solving the tutorial. Alice felt that if Betty did not disturb her the previous day, she could have done more. But Betty found the tutorial easy and thought that it could be completed within a short time.

Alice did not raise her unhappiness to Betty. Instead, she gossiped about Betty to other friends in the clique and under her unfluence, Betty was obstracised by the clique, not knowing the reason behind. Betty made many attempts to communicate with the clique but failed. Her friends treated her as a transparent person. She was sad for a period of time because she did not know why she was treated that way. Finally, Betty left the clique one day.

If you were Alice, how would you react to Betty's request to chat with you when you needed time to complete the tutorial? When you were unhappy that Betty completed the tutorial at home, what would you do?

If you were Betty, how would you communicate with your clique which kept ignoring you? How would you feel if your good friends suddenly obstracised you without telling you the reason and how would you manage your emotions?

Importance of effective communication

"Explain why developing effective communication skills is important for you."


My future career is to be a classroom teacher. This occupation requires me to interact with many people, namely my colleagues and my students. Developing effective communication skills is therefore essential for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, effective communication saves time. When the intended message is conveyed and received correctly, there is no need for communicator to repeat himself. For example, if a teacher can deliver a lesson pitched at the level of the students, effective communication can take place between the teacher and the student, reducing the need for the teacher to explain concepts time and again. In addition, instructions can be carried out in the right way, thus saving time for corrections.

Furthermore, being able to communicate effectively with others make me a more approachable person. When I can express myself clearly to my targeted audience, my audience will enjoy the communication process. This gives them a good impression of me and it is likely that they will find me an easy person to talk to. This could then create future opportunities for us to interact more.

Lastly, effective communication reduces the chance of being misunderstood. This is important in situations whereby a message needs to be passed down several layers. Often, the message becomes distorted when it reaches the last layer of audience. However, this problem can be avoided if there is effective communication between the layers of people. The consequence of misunderstanding may be undesirable if I do not know that people interpreted my message wrongly and no actions are carried out to clear the air.

In a nutshell, effective communication benefits both the speaker and the targeted audience. There are various areas to look into in order to develop good communication skills, such as the tone, specific words, etc. I hope that after attending this module, I can be both a good speaker and a good listener.