Assertiveness for people & organisations

Abstract

We are writing this article and the follow up one next month as a result of our experiences in training people in organisations to become more assertive. At the same time we are drawing on our learning from working on our own personal assertiveness. In this article we describe assertion, aggression and nonassertion, and their effects on individuals. We outline how to see this relating to people in organisations. We end with comments on some of the assumptions about assertiveness and assertiveness training. In the second article we explain our approach to assertiveness training.