1. INTRODUCTION:

Inter personal skills are social skills employed to achieve effective communication in any social transaction, be it in a formal or informal setting. Interpersonal skill in its core sense means the ability or understanding of oneself as well as others, then trying to bring the two concepts in a coherent fashion to achieve good communication. Interpersonal, skills in other words, can be understood as a social weapon wanted in any social interaction setting to impress people and forge good relationships either in business or any other social context.

A number of studies show that communication is less efficient in virtual than in face-to-face teams (McGrath and Hollingshead, 1994; Straus, 1996). They reveal how difficult it may be for team members to remain aware of each other’s presence (Olson and Olson, 2003) and highlight the obstacles to the development and upkeep of trust relationships (Jarena, Knoll and Leisner, 1998; Rocco et al. 2000).

Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace In this competitive marketplace, businesses seek toemploy those who not only have the proper experience and knowledge but have strong interpersonal skills that fit well within a company's culture. Strong interpersonal skills, such as negotiating, problem-solving and knowledge-sharing, are the main job requirement, as employees must be able to work well with others to achieve company objectives.

1.1 BACKGROUND STUDY:

Interpersonal communication is the process of exchange of information, ideas, feelings and meaning between two or more people through verbal and/or non-verbal methods. It often includes face-to-face exchange of messages, which may take form of a certain tone of voice, facial expressions, body language and gestures.

Employee communication has become one of the most important contributors to organisational effectiveness (Grundig, 1992) by creating a link between the organisation and the employees through various communication media such as interpersonal and small group communication, traditional print communication, electronic communication, and online communication. Communication is important to keep employees well-informed about an organisation’s business vision and strategy as well as to help every individual in the organisation to working together with a common purpose.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW:

Interactive video and other information technologies are very useful in informing the employees about important internal messages as well as gathering their new ideas (Wright, 1995). With the adoption of new communication technologies in employee communication, it has increased the overall level of the organisational communication (Miller, 2009). The electronic communication technologies media use in workplace includes telephone, fax, video-conferencing and internet facilities such as email, intranet and social media. Besides electronic technologies, face-to-face communication is also used in employee communication. Face-to-face communication can be started with formal and informal one-to-one meeting which include eye contact, facial expression, body movement and the tone of message that show the importance of the message. The way to interpret the message will also change based on the differences of the expressions.

Face-to-face communication is a conversation that one has while being face to face with the other party. This type of communication enables a person to hear and see the non-verbal communication conveyed by the sender and respond with feedback straightaway. Face-to face discussion also facilitates immediate feedback, contains visual and audio cues, act as a personal source and uses natural body languages.

An and Frick (2006) further claimed that face-to-face communication is best use for communicating ambiguous tasks, making decision and completing complex tasks. Tom Crawford, the head of employee engagement at Deloitte, stated that face-to-face communication is still the most effective and compelling provided it’s delivered with honesty, clarity and in a time-relevant fashion (SCM, 2008).

Angela Savickas, the president of Savickas Communications, Inc., further advised not to let face-to-face be eclipsed by technology (SCM, 2009). She claimed that “all the online communication has not made employees any better informed than they used to be in the days before we started speeding along the information superhighway, though they’re getting that information faster and more accurately… not letting two way face-to-face communication get left behind in the dust” (SCM, 2009, p. 11).

(Anderson et al., 2007) In a work environment, it is an open question how face-to face and online interactions compare in affecting mood. To our knowledge, this has never been investigated before. On the one hand, we might expect online interactions to positively affect mood, as has been found with face-to-face interaction in field experiment. On the other hand, interactions could be associated with work interruptions and task demands which have been shown to increase stress, which in turn could negatively impact mood. In this paper we investigate how face-to-face and online social network interactions influence mood in the workplace. (Anderson et al., 2007).

3. PROBLEM STATEMENT:

The present study aims to on Effects of Virtual communication technology on interpersonal skill of employees in E-Commerce sector in Bengaluru. The employees supported for face to face communication and also employees agreed that face to face communication is better than virtual communication technology in workplace.

4. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

In general the study conducted in E-Commerce sector, Bangloreemployees aims to achieve the following objectives:

1. To understand the effect of virtual communication technology on interpersonal skills of employees in the workplace

2. To analyse the effect of virtual communication technology on interpersonal skills of employees in the workplace

3. To give suggestions to enhance the interpersonal skills

5. RESEARCH METHOD:

The chapter outlined the basis of the research by formulating the research problem. The following chapter discusses the methodology used in the research procedure in order to gather information for the study. The research identified a research question that leads towards designing a hypothesis. The research problem focused on the effects of virtual communication technology on interpersonal skill of employees. The chapter further explains the choice of research design, shows justification for the research technique used and the research medium used, in relation to the study.

Primary Data:

The primary research consists of the actual findings. In this study, questionnaires were prepared to collect the primary data.

Secondary Data:

The researcher accumulated information on interpersonal skill of employees by various authors through library research, journals, publications, worldwide web etc.; this constitutes the secondary research data.

Sampling technique:

The sampling technique adopted for the study is non-probability sampling. The respondents were chosen on the basis of Convenience sampling. The reason why this sampling method will be used is because of the time constraints, lack of knowledge about the entire universe and the main reason being that it will not be easy to collect the data from all the employees who worked on this project.

6. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS:

6.1 Reliability Analysis:

From the Table 1 shows the Value of 0.717 reported of these items is an estimate of true alpha, which in turn is lower bound for true reliability. Reliability can further be confirmed by calculating the Cronbach’s Alpha each time by deleting one item form the total Statements. Mean, Variance and Cronbach’s Alpha was further calculated by deleting one item. This further confirms that respondent’s responses are consistent and reliable.

Table 1 Reliability Analysis

Cronbach's Alpha	N of Items
0.717	30

6.2 Correlation Analysis:

Correlation between Interpersonal skill on face to face communication and Technology

Table 2 Correlation

		Face to Face communication	Technology
Interpersonal skill on face to face communication	Pearson correlation	1	0.097
	Sig(2-tailed)		0.124
	N	255	255
Technology	Pearson correlation	0.097	1
	Sig(2-tailed)	0.124
	N	255	255

From the above table 6.3the variable one is representing the dependent variable Interpersonal skill and variable two is Technology, which acts as independent variable. From this statistical data, it can be observed that there is no correlation between the two variables at 0.124 significant levels. The result shows a negative correlation between the variables Interpersonal skill and Technology with the correlation value at 0.097 Henceforth, the H0 Hypotheses is accepted and H1 is rejected therefore technology has an negative effect on social media has an effect on interpersonal skill.

Correlation between Interpersonal skill and Social Media

Table 3 Correlation

		Interpersonal skill	Social media
Interpersonal skill	Pearson correlation	1	0.167
	Sig(2-tailed)		0.007
	N	255	255
Social media	Pearson correlation	0.167	1
	Sig(2-tailed)	0.007
	N	255	255

From the above the variable one is representing the dependent variable Interpersonal skill and variable two is Social media, which acts as independent variable. From this statistical data, it can observe that there is no correlation between the two variables at 0.167 significant levels. The result shows a negative correlation between the variables Interpersonal skill and Technology with the correlation value at 0.007. Henceforth, the H0 Hypotheses is accepted and H1 is rejected therefore interpersonal skill does not have impact on Social media.

7. CONCLUSION:

The paper aims In the E-Commerce sector, the working employees accepted that face to face communication or interpersonal communication is better communication than virtual communication. Most of the employees was agreed that by using face to face communication they can improve their interpersonal skill. The key variables were identified and it is found that technology and social media are negatively corelated with interpersonal skill. Virtual communication technology will not have a positive effect on employee interpersonal skill. Most of the employees agreed that face to face communication is effective than virtual communication in workplace.

8. RECOMMENDATIONS:

Employees agreed that face to face communication in major will help to improve their interpersonal skills than virtual communication technology. But the problem is that in E- Commerce sector concentrated more on virtual communication technology than face to face, because of this most of employees are not satisfied in virtual communication, So the E-Commerce private ltd must allow to employees to use face to face communication to improve their interpersonal skills in workplace. In order to improve interpersonal skill, the organization must concentrate on bringing people together by conducting activities where in employees would try to convey their ideas or thoughts more conveniently ensuring that employees take part in it actively is the responsibility of the organisation.

9. FUTURE RESEARCH:

The sample that taken mainly represents E-Commerce sector employees. Therefore, it can be done on another IT Industry. The study can be extended to other regions in India. The study has involved only few of the variables, the future work can be performed by considering other variables to identify the effects of virtual communication technology on interpersonal skills of employees in workplace.

10. LIMITATIONS:

The research survey was carried out on Amazon and Ziamet and Flip cart in Bengaluru. The limitation of the research was its restriction to only on employees in E-Commerce Sector in Bengaluru.

Another major limitation was due to the time constraint of the research since it was a part of postgraduate study. The study lacks the depth of exploration and discussion possible, an in-depth investigation on other aspects of Interpersonal communication and virtual communication could not be investigated.

11. REFERENCES:

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6. Zuckerman, M., Miyake, K., and Elkin, C. S. (1995). Effects of attractiveness and maturity of face and voice on interpersonal impressions. Journal of Research in Personality, 29, 253–272.

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Received on 30.08.2019 Modified on 20.10.2019

Asian Journal of Management. 2019; 10(4):301-304.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5763.2019.00044.1