Skill means possession of the qualities required to do something or get something done. Soft or social skills (also called non-technical skills) are those personal values and interpersonal skills that determine a person’s ability to work well with others in a project team. These skills include effective communication, leadership, and teamwork skills; demonstrating problem solving abilities, initiative, and motivation skills; displaying honesty and strong work ethics. Communication is a type of interpersonal skill.

To solve the questions on interpersonal skills it is important to understand the theory and the concepts for the same. There are various components like confidence, friendliness and whether or not someone has a sociable nature, while others are skills that can be taught or improved upon, such as developing effective communication, organization, and social graces.

A large number of soft skills are known today. However, for our purpose these may include the following.

·         Communication skills

·         Team skills

·         Leadership skills

·         Etiquette

·         Cross cultural skills

·         Conflict resolution

·         Anger management

Communication: The ability to communicate ideas to others effectively is an absolute essential requirement for our career building. Communication is a two way process. Active listening is an essential part of it. It includes the following mechanism as:

·         Sender: As the source of the message, it tells why & what to communicate. The information communicated should be useful and accurate.

·         Encoding: This is the process of transferring the information meant to be communicated into a form that can be sent and correctly decoded at the other end. One must be careful about cultural issues, mistaken assumption, missing information etc.

·         Channel: Message are conveyed through channels which may be verbal, face to face meetings, telephone, videoconferencing, written, including letters, e-mails, memos and reports.

·         Decoding: Just as successful encoding is a skill, so is successful decoding (for example, taking the time to read a message carefully, or listen actively). Confusion can arise from errors in encoding as well as decoding. This is particularly the case if the decoder does not have enough knowledge to understand the message.

·         Receiver: Message is delivered to individual members or audiences. Be aware of the actions or reactions generated by the message sent.

·         Feedback: Feedback is obtained by monitoring response of the receiver to the message. Audience provides the feedback in the form of verbal and non-verbal reactions to the communicated message.

Interpersonal communication: Interpersonal communication differs from other forms of communication. The following principles are basic to interpersonal communication.

·         Interpersonal communication is complicated

·         Interpersonal communication is contextual

·         Interpersonal communication is inescapable

·         Interpersonal communication is irreversible

Functions of Interpersonal Communication: Interpersonal communication is important because of the following functions it achieves:

·         Gaining information

·         Establishing identity

·         Interpersonal needs

Sample Questions included in this section are: To find complete solutions with explanations and details on many more similar questions, visit Examrace CSAT Series.

1. α lied and said that she was going out with her parents on Saturday to see her best friend β. α went to the mall with γ instead. What does this demonstrate?

(a) Hurtful messages

(b) Aggressiveness

(c) Deceptive communication

(d) Defensiveness

2. Building Understanding includes:

(a) Content Messages

(b) Relationship Messages

(c) Content Relationship and Contextual

(d) Both (a) and (b)

3. Dynamics of interpersonal communications are:

(a) Body language and facial expression

(b) Posture

(c) Movement

(d) All of the above

4. You are the only cashier working in a small store. A customer asks for help getting a product from the shelf. You would....

(a) Tell the customer it's a "self-serve only" store

(b) know that according to store policy, you can lock the cash register and help the customer

(c) leave the cash register as is so you don't get locked out of it and go help the customer

(d) Tell that we don’t want to sell that product

5. Interpersonal communication involves the following:

(a) Those interacting are in close proximity to each other, large number of participants many sensory channels used, immediate feedback

(b) Small number of participants, those interacting are in close proximity to each other,

(c) Small number participants, those interacting are in close proximity to each other, few sensory channel immediate feedback.

(d) Small number of participants, those interacting are close to each other, many sensory channel used feedback in phases.

6. In regard to communication, Situational context deals with:

(a) Psycho- physical- Relationship.

(b) Psycho- dynamic where one is communicating.

(c) Psycho- ethnic where one is communicating.

(d) Psycho- Social where one is communicating

7. The interpersonal needs are all of the following except:

(a) Control

(b) Authority

(c) Inclusion

(d) Affection

8. β got his first job at Company X and worked there until his retirement. He reports that he was very happy at work for the entire time he was there. According to research cited in your text, which finding is characterized by β's feelings?

(a) There is evidence that job satisfaction remains relatively stable over time.

(b) Emotional disposition of a worker is related to long-term job satisfaction.

(c) Neither of these statements applies to β's feelings.

(d) Both of these statements apply to β's feelings.