Working couple’s communication patterns in maintaining family harmony

Abstract

For married couples who both works are vulnerable to conflict between them. Effective communication is needed to prevent this from happening. This research aims to find out how the communication patterns of husband-and-wife couples work together to maintain family harmony. This research is a qualitative descriptive study involving four husband and wife couples who work in Jakarta. This research uses the Coordinated Management of Meaning Theory with the Family Harmony Aspect approach. Data was collected through interviews. The research results show that there are married couples who can still understand each other, even though they lack communication and are unable to express affection for their partner, such as by giving compliments. There are also two married couples who spend a lot of time with their partners, but even though other married couples admit that they rarely spend time alone with their partners, they still have a sense of mutual understanding. Communication between partners, mutual understanding and how they spend time together, are important aspects in maintaining family harmony. The implications of this research can be applied to premarital counseling, especially for job applicant couples, to minimize the risk of divorce due to disharmony.