Chapter Overview

Interpersonal skills including communication skills is a listed area of CGPSC Prelims Paper II (CSAT). Unlike numeracy, it has no formulas: questions place you in a role — a tehsildar facing an angry crowd, a section officer with a late employee, a block officer on a field visit — and ask for the most appropriate response. A few items also check concepts such as barriers to communication, active listening or conflict styles.

The good news: these questions follow predictable patterns. Learn the core ideas once and a steady elimination method, and they become some of the most dependable marks in the paper.

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this chapter, you’ll be able to:

Explain the communication process, its models, types, flows and barriers
Distinguish hearing from active listening, and apply the 7 Cs of effective communication
Use emotional intelligence, the Johari window, transactional analysis and the Thomas–Kilmann conflict styles to judge behaviour
Tell assertive from passive and aggressive responses
Solve district, office and field-visit situation questions with a 5-step elimination method

Prerequisites

Before starting this chapter, you should be comfortable with:

Reading a short passage carefully and spotting its keyword — see Reading Comprehension
A basic idea of how a district office, tehsil, block and gram panchayat work — see Local Government in Chhattisgarh

Learning Path

Follow these topics in order — each builds on the one before:

graph TD
    A[1. Communication Skills] --> B[2. Interpersonal Relations at Work]
    B --> C[3. Situation-Based Questions]
    C --> D[Quick Revision sheet]
    D --> E[Decision Making and Problem Solving]
    A -.-> C

Topics in This Chapter

Topic	Description	Time
Communication Skills	Process and models, verbal and non-verbal communication, directions and grapevine, barriers, active listening, the 7 Cs, communication in administration	15 min
Interpersonal Relations at Work	Empathy, emotional intelligence, Johari window, transactional analysis, assertiveness, conflict styles, teams and negotiation	15 min
Situation-Based Questions	Wrong-option types, the 5-step elimination method, eight solved district, office and field scenarios	15 min
Quick Revision	Every framework and decision rule on one page	5 min

Where It Is Asked

Paper	How this chapter appears
Prelims Paper II (CSAT)	Objective MCQs: short administrative or workplace situations (“most appropriate response”) and concept checks on communication and interpersonal behaviour. 100 questions in the paper, 200 marks, 2 hours.
Interview (personality test)	Not a syllabus item, but “What would you do if…” questions test exactly the judgement practised here.

Paper II is qualifying — and wrong answers cost marks

Prelims Paper II marks are not added to the merit list, but you must cross the minimum qualifying mark — commonly cited as 33%; check the current CGPSC notification for the exact threshold. Wrong answers carry negative marking of one-third of the question’s marks, so use the elimination method rather than instinct.

This chapter is closely tied to Decision Making and Problem Solving — the two areas often blur in the paper — and to Logical Reasoning, which trains the same habit of eliminating options systematically.

Quick Reference

Core frameworks

Framework	Key idea
Communication process	Sender → Encoding → Message/Channel → Decoding → Receiver → Feedback; noise distorts
Barriers	Semantic, physical, psychological, perceptual, organisational, cultural, overload
7 Cs	Clear, Concise, Concrete, Correct, Coherent, Complete, Courteous
Goleman’s EI	Self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, social skills
Johari window	Open, blind, hidden, unknown; feedback + disclosure enlarge the open area
Transactional analysis	Parent, Adult, Child — the best answers come from the Adult
Thomas–Kilmann	Competing, collaborating (win–win), compromising, avoiding, accommodating
Situation filter	Law → Proportion → Ownership → Effectiveness → Human touch

Exam Focus

High-yield: angry-citizen and grievance situations, subordinate/colleague conflicts, pressure from superiors or influential people, field lapses, barriers to communication, active listening.
Favourite traps: punish-first options, “refer to higher authority”, “ignore it”, and options that please everyone by bending a rule.
Speed target: read the role and the stem keyword first; most items can be settled in under 60 seconds by striking the flawed option types.

Start Learning

Ready to begin? Start with the first topic:

→ Communication Skills