Among the essential skills evaluated in this test, interpersonal and communication skills play a significant role.
What are interpersonal skills?Interpersonal skills are essential for effective communication and building positive relationships with others. Here are 20 interpersonal skills that are valuable in various personal and professional settings:
- Active Listening: Giving full attention to the speaker, showing understanding, and asking relevant questions.
- Empathy: Understanding and sharing the feelings and perspectives of others.
- Communication:Clearly expressing ideas, thoughts, and information while being a good listener.
- Conflict Resolution: Effectively addressing and resolving conflicts or disagreements in a constructive manner.
- Negotiation:Finding mutually acceptable solutions during discussions or disputes.
- Non-Verbal Communication: Being aware of and using body language, facial expressions, and gestures to convey messages effectively.
- Assertiveness:Communicating needs, opinions, or boundaries confidently without being aggressive or passive.
- Adaptability:Being flexible and open to change, both in personal and professional contexts.
- Problem-solving: Analyzing issues, identifying solutions, and making sound decisions.
- Time Management: Organizing tasks and responsibilities efficiently to meet deadlines and commitments.
- Stress Management: Handling stress and pressure in a healthy way, and helping others manage their stress as well.
- Teamwork:Collaborating effectively with others, respecting diverse perspectives, and contributing to a common goal.
- Leadership:Inspiring and guiding others towards a shared vision or objective.
- Cultural Sensitivity: Demonstrating respect and understanding for different cultures, customs, and backgrounds.
- Networking:Building and maintaining professional relationships that can provide opportunities and support.
- Conflict Management: Identifying potential conflicts and taking preventive measures, or addressing them constructively when they arise.
- Feedback Giving and Receiving: Providing constructive feedback to others and being open to receiving feedback for personal growth.
- Trustworthiness: Establishing and maintaining trust through honesty, reliability, and integrity.
- Tolerance:Demonstrating patience and tolerance when dealing with differences of opinion or challenging situations.
- Interpersonal Awareness: Being attuned to the emotions and needs of others, and adjusting your communication style accordingly.
The Importance of Interpersonal and Communication Skills in CSAT
- Comprehending Complex Scenarios: In CSAT, candidates often encounter complex scenarios involving interpersonal relationships or administrative challenges.
- Effective Decision-Making: Civil servants need to make crucial decisions that impact society. The ability to communicate clearly and empathetically is essential when justifying or explaining decisions to the public, colleagues, or superiors.
- Problem Solving: Candidates may face questions where they need to identify the best course of action in a given scenario.
Examples of Questions
1.You are a district magistrate, and a group of villagers comes to meet you regarding the construction of a new road. They express concerns about its impact on their farmlands and request a meeting to discuss potential alternatives. What would be your approach to addressing their concerns?
In this scenario, how would you effectively communicate with the villagers and address their concerns?
Answer Choices:- A) Schedule a meeting with the villagers to hear their concerns, empathize with their situation, and explain the importance of the road project.
- B) Dismiss the villagers’ concerns and proceed with the road construction, as it is in the public interest.
- C) Ignore the villagers’ request for a meeting and consult with experts to determine the best course of action.
- D) Postpone the road construction project indefinitely to avoid conflicts with the villagers.
2.You are a senior bureaucrat handling public relations for a government department. A journalist requests information about a controversial government decision that you know may cause public outrage. What would be your response to the journalist?
In this scenario, how would you effectively communicate with the journalist while considering the government’s position and public sentiment?
Answer Choices:- A) Provide the journalist with all the information requested, regardless of the potential consequences.
- B) Refuse to comment on the matter, citing government regulations.
- C) Offer a balanced explanation of the government’s perspective while acknowledging the public’s concerns.
- D) Provide misleading information to protect the government’s image.
3.You are a senior administrator responsible for disaster management. During a disaster relief operation, you receive conflicting reports from various field officers about the allocation of resources. How would you resolve this situation?
In this scenario, how would you use interpersonal skills to gather information and ensure efficient resource allocation?
Answer Choices:- A) Make unilateral decisions based on the reports you find most reliable.
- B) Disregard the field officers’ reports and allocate resources randomly.
- C) Conduct a meeting with all field officers to discuss the conflicting reports, gather additional information, and make a collaborative decision.
- D) Delay resource allocation until the reports are reconciled.
Given below are eight items. Each item describes a situation and is followed by four possible responses. Indicate the response you find most appropriate. Choose only one response for each item. The responses will be evaluated based on the level of appropriateness for the given situation.
Please attempt all the items. There is no penalty for wrong answers for these eight items.
4. You have been asked to give an explanation for not attending an important official meeting. Your immediate boss who has not informed you about the meeting is now putting pressure on you not to place an allegation against him / her. You would
(a) send a written reply explaining the fact.
(b) seek an appointment with the top boss to explain the situation.
(c) admit your fault to save the situation.
(d) put the responsibility on the coordinator of the meeting for not informing.
Solution: More preferred (a); less preferred (b).Admitting your fault would be succumbing to unjust pressure. It is not expected of a civil servant.
Putting responsibility on someone else would be unfair, wrong and irresponsible.
The other two are in line with upholding the truth and being sincere with your official responsibilities.
5. A local thug (bad element) has started illegal construction on your vacant plot. He has refused your request to vacate and threatened you of dire consequences in case you do not sell the property at a cheap price to him. You would
(a) sell the property at a cheap price to him.
(b) go to the police for necessary action.
(c) ask for help from your neighbours.
(d) negotiate with the goon to get a higher price.
Solution: More preferred (b); less preferred (d)Selling the property at cheap price would be succumbing to pressure. It shows lack of capacity to fight for justice.
Asking for help from neighbours would not be a good idea as he is a local thug. So the neighbours may not support you.
Negotiating for a higher price (though less preferable) will ensure that you don’t get a bad deal.
Willing to go to police shows that you can fight against injustice. This is a trait civil servants should have. UPSC asks such questions to test the same.
6. You have to accomplish a very important task for your headquarters within the next two days.
Suddenly you meet with an accident. Your office insists that you complete the task. You would
(a) ask for an extension of deadline.
(b) inform Headquarters of your inability to finish on time.
(c) Suggest alternate person to headquarters who may do the needful.
(d) stay away till you recover.
Solution: More preferred (c); less preferred (b).Asking for an extension is impractical as it is a very important task that has to be submitted within
two days. If you inform the headquarters of your inability, they will at least assign another person.
The work will not be affected.
Staying away till you recover would be abdicating official responsibilities and duty; and reflects badly
on your professional values and commitment to work.
Best is (c) as it shows your professionalism towards work keeping in mind your own personal limitations.
7. You are an officer-in-charge for providing basic medical facilities to the survivors of an earthquake affected area. Despite your best possible effort, people put allegations against you for making money out of the funds given for relief. You would
(a) let an enquiry be set up to look into the matter.
(b) ask your senior to appoint some other person in your place.
(c) not pay attention to allegations.
(d) stop undertaking any initiative till the matter is resolved.
Solution: More preferred (a); less preferred (c)Asking for someone else to be appointed would be succumbing to public pressure, which is like a daily affair in the bureaucracy.
Stopping any further initiative will affect the relief operations and is not advisable. Public interest should come first.
Letting an inquiry in the matter is a sign of highest integrity and is expected of civil servants. Integrity simple means subjecting oneself to the greatest scrutiny possible.
8. You have been made responsible to hire boats at a short notice to be used for an area under flood. On seeing the price mentioned by the boat owners you found that the lowest price was approximately three times more than the approved rate of the Government. You would
(a) reject the proposal and call for a fresh price.
(b) accept the lowest price.
(c) refer the matter to the Government and wait.
(d) threaten the boat owners about a possible cancellation of the licence.
Solution: More preferred (b); less preferred (d).Rejecting the proposal and calling for fresh prices is a long drawn process. You do not have time as its urgent for floods. Same problem is there with referring to the government and waiting.
Since its very urgent best would be to accept the lowers price for now since its required very urgently for relief operations. You may be dragged into controversies later, but public interest should be put first. Service should be selfless. Threatening the boat owners might take some time, and given the urgency may not be that practical.
9. You are the officer-in-charge of a village administering distribution of vaccine in an isolated epidemic hit village, and you are left with only one vaccine. There is a requirement of that vaccine from the Gram Pradhan and also a poor villager. You are being pressurised by the Gram Pradhan to issue the vaccine to him. You would
(a) initiate the procedure to expedite the next supply without issuing the vaccine to either.
(b) arrange vaccine for the poor villager from the distributor of another area.
(c) ask both to approach a doctor and get an input about the urgency.
(d) arrange vaccine for the Gram Pradhan from the distributor of another area.
Solution: More preferred (c); less preferred (b)Best would be to get who needs it more urgently and give it to him. But, as its an epidemic hit
village, you would need the pradhan to help you in the relief efforts. So instead of saving the poor
villager (even out of sympathy and duty), you should keep the lives of others in mind too.
Rejecting vaccine to either would be foolish and inhuman.
This question checks your pragmatism and empathy towards the downtrodden.
10. You have taken up a project to create night-shelters for homeless people during the winter season. Within a week of establishing the shelters, you have received complaints from the residents of the area about the increase in theft cases with a demand to remove the shelters. You would
(a) ask them to lodge a written complaint in the police station.
(b) assure residents of an enquiry into the matter.
(c) ask residents to consider the humanitarian effort made.
(d) continue with the project and ignore their complaint.
Solution: More preferred (b); less preferred (c)A complaint in the police station may lead to the shelters being removed by police. Its the winter
season. It will result in undue harassment for the poor shelterless people.
Continuing with the project ignoring the complaint would be abdicating duty and is not a sign of
integrity, fairness and impartiality.
integrity, fairness and impartiality. Asking them to consider the humanitarian efforts made would at least save the homeless people’s
lives in the winter. Then you can monitor the situation and take appropriate action.
11. You, as an administrative authority, have been approached, by the daughter-in-law of an influential person regarding harassment by her in-laws on account of insufficient dowry. Her parents are not able to approach you because of social pressures. You would
(a) call the in-laws for an explanation.
(b) counsel the lady to adjust, given such a circumstance.
(c) take action after her parents approach you.
(d) ask her to lodge complaint with the police.
Solution: More preferred (a); less preferred (d)(d) is less preferred because the girl might not go to police because of social pressures as mentioned in the question.
Since you are an administrative authority, you cannot handle dowry cases. Best would be to assist the lady by calling the in-laws for explanation.
This would improve the faith of people in the administration; it shows capacity for justice; and sensitivity towards important social issues.
