“Power of words”: impact, concerns and applications of nonviolent communication training

What is it about?

The current VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) global scenario calls for creative and sustainable alternatives to managing organisations. Humanistic management focuses on human well-being and thus offers a sustainable alternative to the traditional human resource management approach. Humanisation of organisations implies the humanisation of its processes: organisational communication being crucial to develop trust and build relationships, has been identified by scholars as a process suitable for humanising. However the methods for such humanisation have not been researched sufficiently. Nonviolent communication (NVC) is a communication framework based on humanistic principles and holds scope for humanizing organizational communication. Scholars have suggested NVC as an intervention suitable to navigate the VUCA world. However, research on NVC training and its effectiveness in different contexts is very limited. The purpose of this article is to study the impact of NVC training, its applicability to the context of work and the retention and application of the skills after a period of three months after the completion of the training program. The study uses a qualitative approach and semi structured interviews to study the impact of an NVC training program titled “Power of words”. The findings are analysed using theory based thematic analysis. The implications of the findings, limitations and areas of future research are discussed.

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