Diagnostic Tools for Analyzing Communication Skills
Discuss about the Intercultural Communication Apprehension Emotional.
Reflective essays come with the objective of reflecting upon or highlighting certain aspect. When a reflective essay is related to effective business communication, the purpose of it is to shed light over the flaws and the qualities of an individual. This is particularly helpful in order for such individual to work towards improving on their possible shortcomings. This helps a person in growing more and in excelling in both their personal and professional life. Communications are of particular importance in business scenario. Thus, it becomes even more important for a person to concentrate on improving their flaws in communication, be it of large magnitude or of small. This is what the purpose of this reflective essay is. This reflective essay is aimed at analyzing my possible shortfalls, be it of big in magnitude or small. This analysis would help me in removing these shortfalls, or at least working on them, so that my future would not be negatively impacted due to the presence of such flaws. In this reflective essay, my journey would be covered, where I would initiate by making use of five diagnostic tools, given to us under this module. Once this is done, I will analyze the results of these diagnostic tools and would try to find out my flaws. In doing so, I would also show two specific professional interactions of last two years, where I had encountered this problem. The next stage in this reflective essay would be undertaking a literature review to get a better understanding on my flaws. In doing so, I would not only analyse my problem in literature, but would also try to find possible remedies covered for my flaws, under different literature. Then I would move on to the last stage of this reflective essay, where I would create an action plan for the coming six months, which would show the steps which I have planned to take, for getting over my shortcomings.
In order to start with this reflective writing, we were given five diagnostic tools, which we had to fill up. Each of these tools analyzed a certain aspect of our communication skills and before going into the results of these tools, the very basic purpose of these tools has been covered herewith. The first tool which I started with for this reflective essay was Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale or simply SPCC. This tool shows the self perception of a person regarding their communication competency. In simple words, how does the person think their communication skills are, when it comes to different groups of people, is what this tool analyzes. The apprehensiveness or non-apprehensiveness of a person regarding a certain group of people is highlighted through SPCC (Neuliep & McCroskey, 1997). The second tool for the purpose of this reflective essay was Nonverbal Immediacy Scale-Self Report, or simply NIS-S. This tool covers more of the communication skills which are in non verbal form. It is well known that people communicate through their body using gestures and movements. This tool analyzes how effectively or non-effectively a person uses their gestures (Richmond, McCroskey & Johnson, 2003).
Scoring and Results of Diagnostic Tools
Coming to the third tool of this reflective essay, I was given Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension, or simply PRICA. As the name shows, this tool analyzes the apprehensiveness of an individual where they are asked to or required to undertake communications with intercultural people. So, where a person sees a situation where they are required to communicate with a person from different cultural background, they may be indifferent or may get very anxious (McCroskey & McCroskey, 1988). In the requirement of using diagnostic tools, I then moved on to talkaholic scale. As is the case with any other tools, this tool too shows its purpose from its very name. This tool checks the talking ability of any person. This tool analyzes if a person over talks or under talks in any situation, apart from shedding light on the listening capacity of a person (McCroskey & Richmond, 1995). The last tool given to us for this reflective essay was Tolerance For Disagreement, or simply TFD. This tool checks if a person is able to be or is comfortable or not, when another person does not agree with their viewpoint. So, where a person has high TFD, that person can be comfortable in person disagreeing with them, and the vice versa is also true (Teven, Richmond & McCroskey, 1998).
As the purpose served by each of the diagnostic tools has been clarified, we can move out to the scoring and results of these tools. The first tool which I started with was SPCC. In this tool, I got a score of 60.33 under public, 80 under meeting, 93.33 under group, 86.67 under dyad, 133.33 under stranger, 100 under acquaintance, and 130 under friend, giving me a total score of 121.11. Analysing these scorings, I got average under public, average under meeting, high under group, average under dyad, high under stranger, high under acquaintance, and high under friend, giving me a total ratings of high self perceived communication apprehensions. This shows that I very comfortable in talking to people, and am even good at interacting with strangers. Hence, this tool could not show any area of improvement for me. The second tool for the purpose of this reflective essay was NIS-S, where I got a score of 93. This was an average scoring, highlighting the possibility of improving on my non-verbal immediacy skills.
The third tool for the purpose of this reflective essay was PRICA, in which I scored 41. This again positioned me in average scoring giving me another aspect in my communication skills to work upon. This average score shows that neither I outshine at talking to people from other cultures, not am I very comfortable at it. There is a scope of improving this aspect and hence I would focus my literature on it. The fourth tool for the purpose of this reflective essay was talkaholic scale. In this tool, I got an average score of 29. However, there is no need of improving upon this average scoring, as being overly talkative is a negative thing and so is being under talkative. Hence, despite these average scores, this shows a good aspect regarding my communication effectiveness. The last tool given to us for this reflective essay was TFD, where I got a score of 47. This is a high scoring which shows that I comfortable even when people do not agree with my viewpoint, which shows a strong point about my communication effectiveness. Hence, the two issues which I need to work on for the purpose of this reflective essay are regarding intercultural apprehensions and nonverbal immediacy.
Professional Interactions and Shortcomings
As I had stated earlier, I would be linking my areas of improvement to two professional interactions which happened in the last twelve months. So before going into the literature review, these two instances have been summarized. I have a fondness for travelling and love to explore new places. Inclining my fondness with a way of earning some experience, I enrolled myself to a volunteer programme which took place in the city some 7-8 months back. This work required me to distribute brochures to different people on the beauty of Australia and the different places which a person could visit in Australia for a good vacation. I was required to approach people and talk to them about their experiences in Australia, what they thought of the nation, and the tourism worthy spots as per them. Once this was done, I had to inform them about the various other options in the nation which they could tap in to enhance their experience. Naturally, the people I approached were of different cultural backgrounds. Even though no per se “blunder” or big incident occurred, or even such a thing took place, which could have ruined the other person’s experience, or even come to their knowledge, I felt a little uneasy when talking to different people. This was particularly when I had to communicate with such people about whose culture I do not know much of. I was unsure if I was communicating with them properly or whether they were able to understand me. Even though there was nothing to show any such thing taking place, I still did not feel 100% confident. This is when I started fidgeting and blurred up a few words. This did seem like a normal thing but I knew that I was not very comfortable in this situation.
The second professional incident is also related to this very incident. Once we had done with our awareness of sorts’ campaign, we were required to share our experiences in the group and had to give the feedback on this experience to Amanda, who was the head of this campaign. After sharing the experience in the group, which was done in brief, we went to Amanda for sharing our experiences. When I was having a conversation with Amanda, it was very different from the one which I had in the group earlier. Amanda asked me to tell my experience in detail and to not leave anything unstated, as she wanted thorough feedbacks. I started from the very first meet to the very last meet. Once I was done, she asked me to repeat the very incidents where I felt uncomfortable. Initially I told her that I never got uncomfortable, but upon her insistence, I did tell her about the entire episode that whenever it came to interactions with people of certain cultural backgrounds, I got a bit apprehensive. In order to improve me, she handed me over a task of approaching the nearby Coles and gaining the review of such Coles’ visitors, who were from different ethical background. I thought that this was an easy enough task and so I took up this challenge. However, it was not as easy. The reason for this was that people did not have time to answer my questions. And as a result of this, I started using verbal gestures, which Amanda later on told me about. As per Amanda, I was using agitated gestures, where I was biting my nails, fidgeting a lot, tapping my feet and kept my hands busy through clicking. This was not the case, as per the analysis of Amanda, when I was talking to Indian people, as they are the ones who have similar backgrounds as I have. These two incidents are the ones which were in my mind when I filled up the diagnostic tools, which confirmed my possible areas of improvement for this reflective essay. And these are the results which were highlighted for me by combination of diagnostic tools and personal experiences.
Literature Review
Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, and Roy (2013) have defined intercultural communication as the interaction which takes place between such individuals who have difference in symbol systems and cultural perceptions to such an extent, which has the ability of influencing the communication of any event. As a result of increasing internalization of the global colleges, the role of intercultural communications has been enhanced (Fall, Kelly, MacDonald, Prim, & Holmes, 2013). With growing globalization, there is a stronger importance of culture and this has made understanding of intercultural communications as the key of avoiding ethnic and racial tensions in view of Neuliep (2014). Liu (2007) has highlighted that as a result of factors like unfamiliarity, language barriers and cultural uncertainty, a number of international students have developed intercultural communication apprehensions. As a result of this, people feel anxious during their social and academic activities, where the individuals are required to interact with people from different cultures and of the host society. Such an experience takes place owing to difference in cultures, backgrounds, beliefs, languages and ethnicities (Fall, Kelly, MacDonald, Prim, & Holmes, 2013).
A person experiences anxiety in certain forms which cover noticeable loss of control, fear of visual scrutiny, fear of revealing said anxiety, and psychological arousal which is similar to a person getting panic attack (Horowitz, 2002). Pate and Merker (1978) have highlighted that this can be deemed as a frightening feeling which takes place even before the very possibility of being engaged in such interactions, as the individuals create a predisposition against their encounters regarding the communication which is set to take place. This anxiety is faced by a high number of students, especially when they are in their initial years of college life. This requires the corrective steps to remove such apprehensions to be taken place in the early years. When a person is set to face an intercultural different people or face them, they get apprehensive feelings, which are deemed as a casual agent in success of students. Where a person has high communication apprehensions, they get lower grades and have less chances of completing college degree. So, high communication apprehensions show poor academic outcomes (McCroskey, Booth-Butterfield, & Payne, 1989).
The higher levels of intercultural communication apprehension in the case of international students is related to negative expectations before experiencing the study abroad (Kim & Goldstein, 2005). This is particularly when a person tries to relocate in an ethnocentric society, where people are hostile, defensive or suspicious to global students, particularly when they have different social and cultural norms (McKeiver, 2013). Both the verbal and nonverbal communication styles are impacted due to the intercultural variances (Spencer-Rodgers & McGovern, 2002). Baraldi (2006) suggested a harmonious state of such communications as a way of coping with multicultural identity having universal values. There is a need to create such global state where every person shares common interest in each other, which would enable people as being eager to give and take in an equivalent way (Kim, 2007). Mak, Brown, and Wadey (2013) have highlighted the need to channelling the emotions to control the negative perceptions. There was a similarity in physical reactions in people faced with normal communication apprehensions and intercultural apprehensions, where both psychological and physical reactions could be noted (McCroskey & Richmond, 1996). Another solution to this problem is to improve upon the language of a person as such apprehensions are often noticed in Asian students as per Lin (2012).
Action Plan for Improvement
Coming to the second aspect of this literature review, which is on non-verbal immediacy, there is an ample amount of literature on this topic as well. A number of literatures have covered that verbal communications are used in conveying information. However, where it comes to the negotiations aspect, body language plays a key role (Pease & Pease, 2004). Body language is a major part in nonverbal immediacy and is considered as a key tool in business communications. The effective use of nonverbal immediacy can make or break deals. For instance, an overuse of body language shows that an individual is getting anxious (Cohen, 2015). Thus, when an individual uses lot of hand movements and shifts a lot in the chair, this shows the lack of confidence of such person and that the person is feeling anxious. The reason for this stems from the nonverbal cues being a reflection of mind of people. There are scholars who have noted that nonverbal communications or body language often covered involuntary acts, which were based upon time, space, use of objects, appearances of people and of others, and smells, as the person perceives (Gamble & Gamble, 2013). Through the use of such nonverbal cues, a better clarity is brought and the meaning of the entire conversation is changed. Thus, where a person inevitably rolls their eyes while having a conversation with another person, this shows the dismissal or disapproval of the person rolling his eyes to the conversation which takes place. This is the reason for the famous proverb of actions speaking louder than words, and proves to be quite true in context of this literature (Nelson, 2012).
There have been some other scholars who have provided that nonverbal communication is a very complex topic on its own and further becomes more complex due to different perceived meanings of it (Butland, 2012). This can be related to the uneasiness which I felt, where I started fidgeting. In view of some people this can show my communication apprehension, and for others, it can be deemed as my intercultural apprehensions. Further, some people may not even contribute fidgeting to intercultural apprehensions at all. However, as per Navarro and Kartins (2009), it does often happen that people use nonverbal cues without a conscious knowledge of using such cues, leading to people animating unconsciously. A person can show their displeasure through their nonverbal cues used. A common example of this is a person clinching on to the table cloth, which shows unhappiness or anger in such person. Hence, there is a need of making effective use of nonverbal cues, particularly in business scenarios, so that the next person does not get a negative feeling owing to such unconscious verbal cues being used (Gamble & Gamble, 2013).
The reflective essay, through the use of diagnostic tools highlighted that I have two possible areas of improvement, which is of using nonverbal communications in a better manner and in trying to remove the anxiety which is faced when I have to talk to people from different cultural background. The literature highlighted that this is a common problem with international students, particularly with Asians, and so I have drawn certain possible steps, from this literature review, which would possibly help me in removing my hesitations. These steps have been presented through the action plan presented here.
The Gantt chart prepared above shows the different activities which I will be taking in the upcoming six months. The values covered under the month segment are the estimated days for which I would undertake each activity in every month. I would initially be attempting to approach strangers at new places in the city only. I would be doing this on weekly basis, and would try to do these on the days which are free in my schedule. I would also organize a culture meet after from August 2018 onward, where I would invite university students to come and meet me for half an hour and have a conversation on any topic. People could both suggest and take my ideas for the conversations. As the literature stated that language often acts as a barrier, I would attempt to work on it. Even though I do not have any language problem as such, but I would still try to improve my spoken language skills. I would also attempt to learn a new language, particularly of such a culture of which I am apprehensive. This would allow me to meet people of different cultures, get comfortable with them and also acquire a new language skill.
I would also make attempts to read more about the possible ways of improving upon my communication skills, so as to have an efficient future. I would also be taking help of our tutor and mentor, in order to get their suggestions on the possible ways of improving my areas of shortcomings. In order to track this journey, I would maintain a personal diary, which would be filled on daily basis, to cover what I have done and where I have failed. The success of this action plan would be reflected in the success of my university activity, where I would sit with a board for people from different background to approach me and talk to me, regarding their possible intercultural apprehensions. This would be a fun activity, where I would be sitting on the main campus grounds, with a banner stating “intercultural communication help needed”. This would give me an opportunity of learning about the perceptions of people on this very issue, along with giving me a chance of meeting new people. If I am able to go back to successful events as took place in the volunteering activity highlighted above, this action plan would prove truly to be big success.
Thus, in this reflective essay, I went on through a very enlightening journey, where I really got to know more about myself. I took five diagnostic tools scoring which included SPCC, NIS-S, PRICA, talkaholic scale and TFD. Through the use of these tools, I came to know that I have average intercultural apprehension and also have average nonverbal immediacy. In order to have a successful professional life, I selected these two measures and read literature on the backgrounds of these two issues. This literature review showed me that students, particularly Asian students faced such intercultural immediacy issues, due to difference in perceptions. Further, the nonverbal immediacy skills showed me that I do tend to indulge in involuntary physical reactions when I get anxious. Thus, based on this analysis, I created a gannet chart which depicted by future activities for six months, in order to improve my shortfalls. There are more of my areas of improvements and I expect that by strictly following the aforementioned activities, I would be able to get over my apprehensions, and these areas would truly be improved.
References
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Butland, M. (2012). Achieving Communication Competence: An Introduction to Human Communication. Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
Cohen, D. (2015). Body Language: Overcome Common Problems. London: Sheldon Press.
Fall, L. T., Kelly, S., MacDonald, P., Primm, C., & Holmes, W. (2013). Intercultural communication apprehension and emotional intelligence in higher education. Business Communication Quarterly, 76(4), 412-426.
Gamble, T.K., & Gamble, M.W. (2013). Interpersonal Communication: Building Connections Together. London: Sage Publishing.
Horowitz, B. (2002). Communication apprehension: Origins and management. Albany, NY: Singular/Thomson Learning.
Kim, R. I., & Goldstein, S. B. (2005). Intercultural attitudes predict favorable study abroad expectations of U.S. college students. Journal of Studies in International Education, 9(3), 265-278.
Lin, Y. (2012). Chinese international students’ intercultural communication competence and intercultural communication apprehension in the USA. Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 1516. Retrieved from: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1516
Liu, L. (2007). International student’s perceptions of intercultural communication apprehension. Master’s Theses. Paper 3425.
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Navarro, J., & Kartins, M. (2009). What Every BODY is Saying: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Speed-Reading People. New York: Harper Collins.
Nelson, R. (2012). Body Language 101: The Ultimate Guide. North Carolina: Lulu Publishing Services.
Neuliep, J. W. (2014). Intercultural communication (6 th ed.) London: Sage Publications.
Neuliep, J. W., & McCroskey, J. C. (1997). The development of intercultural and interethnic communication apprehension scales. Communication Research Reports, 14, 385-398.
Pate, L. E., & Merker, G. E. (1978). Communication apprehension: Implications for management and organizational behavior. Journal of Management, 4, 107- 119.
Pease, B., & Pease, A. (2004). The Definitive Book of Body Language. New York: Bantam.
Richmond, V. P., McCroskey, J. C., & Johnson, A. D. (2003). Development of the nonverbal immediacy scale (NIS): Measures of self- and other-perceived nonverbal immediacy. Communication Quarterly, 51, 502-515.
Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2013) Communication between cultures (8th ed). Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Spencer-Rodgers, J., & McGovern, T. (2002). Attitudes toward the culturally different: The role of intercultural communication barriers, affective responses, consensual stereotypes, and perceived threat. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 26, 609-631.
Teven, J. J., Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C. (1998). Measuring tolerance for disagreement. Communication Research Reports, 15, 209-217.
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