Assessment Of Communication Competency – Diagnosis, Literature Review & Action Plan

Diagnosis and Reflection

This essay is a self-reflection study of my interpersonal communication skills and abilities, based on the accurate information I have received from five diagnostic tools. These tools aim to evaluate my level of communication at varied circumstances and with varied individuals. Through the analysis of the results which I have obtained, I would be able to learn the areas of my weakness and further find ways to overcome these issues. Furthermore, the essay will comprise of a comprehensive literature review concentrating on the fundamental concepts and ideas related to the communication issues which have been brought into light. In addition to this, I will implement effective ways to handle these communication dilemmas and develop SMART goal that will be reflected in an action plan following the literature review.

I have utilized five individual diagnostic tools which have been given to me during my tutorial session, that demonstrate various scales to evaluate the level of my competence in developing a communication ground with individuals at different interpersonal communication situations. The first tool known as the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCCS) has been used to analyse the way I interact with individuals like friends, acquaintances or strangers at various situational contexts such as in a meeting, close association, or in a private conversation (McCroskey & McCroskey, 1988). This tool has primarily been developed to attain the knowledge related to the way individuals consider themselves in diverse communication situational contexts engaging various types of recipients. This tool comprises of scale that aims to provide knowledge to the respondent about their communication abilities. The second tool called the Non-verbal Immediacy Scale Self Report (NIS-S) considered as the most advanced and improved equipment that assists to measure the level of non-verbal immediacy in the form of a self-report. Non-verbal immediacy is regarded to the behavioural patterns and cues which provide indicators to the individuals concerning the affirmative feelings and vibes towards one another who are actively involved in the communiqué process. This tool further assists individuals to attain an understanding of the way they can enhance the level of non-verbal immediacy (Richmond, McCroskey & Johnson, 2003). Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension (PRICA), the third tool has been utilized which focuses on the degree of communication apprehension and anxiety level at intercultural situational contexts (Neuliep & McCroskey, 1997). This tool primarily aids individuals to develop an understanding of the way individuals develop competences like cultural and intellectual abilities while conversing, and thus coping up with critical cultural prejudice by being well-read about the concepts and values of other cultural backgrounds. It has been noted that concepts associated with inter-cultural communication skills are considered to be essentially significant for the individuals affianced with organizations who have been involved in worldwide business operations. Employees engaged in such organizations often need to communicate with people of various backgrounds and thus it is essentially crucial for individuals to enhance these areas so that reflect excellent abilities to work with teams comprising of diverse cultures. Another vital communication diagnostic tool known as the Talkaholic scale is a ten-item Likert scale, which aims to distinguish individuals who have gained awareness of the possibilities that leads to extensive communication in a reliable as well as compulsive approach (McCroskey & Richmond, 1993). Certain individuals tend to be vocal about their opinions and thus undergo complexities to maintain silence during any conversation (McCroskey & Richmond, 1995). Lastly, another effective diagnostic tool known as the tolerance for disagreement is utilized to assess the tolerance level of an individual in a communication procedure. This tool is primarily been designed to assess the degree to which a person have the ability to endure or tolerate the opponents in any disputes or negotiation process. It has been noted that this scale draws its similarities with the concepts related to argumentativeness  (Teven, McCroskey & Richmond,1998). Individuals with high level argumentativeness have the possibility to handle intensive dispute situations and negotiation skills further generating effective outcomes from these situations.

Literature Review

The Talkaholic scale for assessing compulsive interaction process reveals that certain individuals attain the motivation to deliver their opinion and are regarded as intensively vocal being and often face difficulties of maintaining silence at situations which demand so. However, these individuals as being highly talkative or voluble must not be associated with ineffective or abusive communicators. Studies have revealed that highly Talkaholic persons are perceived to be immensely competent and possess leadership skills. In this scale, I have obtained a score of 25 that is lower than the borderline Talkaholic score of 30-39. I have the tendency of not expressing my ideas or put forward my opinions and perceptions at vital situations thus have face issues certain critical points of my professional life. Thus, this issue has drawn my concern and I have realized that I would need to enhance this particular area and improve my self-concept of understanding the importance of my position in my team and focus on the area leading to misinterpretations.

In the next tool which is the Non-verbal Immediacy Scale Self Report (NIS-S) is a five point scale consisting of 26 vital questions where I have obtained a score of 98 which fall in the moderate category. Individuals who score higher than 104 it perceived to possess improved level of competences and the ones who obtained a score less than 83 are considered to be less developed in these areas of abilities. As it has been identified that I am at the moderate level I would need to put my efforts on this area that reflect my body language and gestures while interacting with my business associates, superiors or team members at my workplace. Thus it is important for me to develop my skills in this area of non-verbal communication abilities.

It has been noted from after the evaluation of the third tool of Tolerance for Disagreement; I have attained a score of 58 whereby the scores obtained above the scale of 46 is stated as High TFD. With my ability to endure dispute situations with my workplace co-workers, clients as well as business associates I have often received positive reviews from my supervisors of maintaining my calm during critical situations. Thus, it has resulted to give positive impact to my employment and receive various opinions and views of my team associates which help me to improve my skills for the upcoming days of my career.

Action Plan

The Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCCS) has been offered to me so that I have attained the understanding of my competence level while engaged in diverse communication situations. The results of my 12 answered questions indicate that my scores nearly fall into the moderate category based on the evaluation of my communication style with public, friends or dyad communication. However, while establishing a communication ground with the acquaintances who are primarily the peers of my workplace I realized that I have to develop my communication ability have be more expressive and work with ease to achieve higher degree of professional success in future.

The result received from the fifth tool of Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension (PRICA) have revealed my scores reflecting my competence level of dealing individuals belonging to various cultural backgrounds. The score I obtained by answering a set of 14 questions is 23. However, as stated in the scoring criteria of the tool scores falling below 32 indicate lower level of Intercultural Communication Apprehension. As I have been employed in a client facing role and need to meet and interact with diverse individuals across the world I realized the need to enhance my level of awareness related to cultures, mannerism and ideologies of other cultures.

Thus, from the highly precise and accurate analysis of the scores obtained by me in the five important diagnostic tools, it can be distinguished that my scores either have fallen on the moderate category or on the lower category on most of the communication areas. However, it must be noted that my score in specific area of communication I have experienced certain degree of issues especially while dealing with people belonging to diverse cultural backgrounds. This has drawn my concern to this specific area of Intercultural Communication Apprehension as I have to communicate with people who belong to particular social group and imbibe certain accepted norms and behaviours. I have further realized that this would facilitate me in eradicating critical obstacles and challenges I undergo while performing any communication procedure with stakeholders and business associates belonging to other cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, another significant issue which must be developed by me to develop my communication competence in the area of Talkaholic scale and put effort of developing myself as an extrovert. As being introvert I have been facing issues to expand my network and establish strong relationships with my team associates and others at my workplace thus often gets situated at an uncomfortable or inexplicable position.

I have often faced dilemmas for being an introvert in nature of in my personal as well as professional life. However a few weeks ago I have experienced an unpleasant situation of being unable to express my views at the appropriate moment which led me to receive few criticisms and create severe confusion and misinterpretation among my co-workers and superiors. During a meeting with few of the important business associates of my company I preferred not to express my ideas on a specific area which led the clients misinterpreted as my lack of interest or being unaware of the area which the meeting was based on. However, being aware of my expertise on the area hence not being vocal on that subject, my supervisor gathered negative traits towards me and further developed doubts on my expertise. This has degraded my professional abilities and created an apprehensive situation at my workplace. A similar situation had occurred associated to my lack of awareness in dealing people of diverse cultural backgrounds have led me to undergo an excessively embarrassing situation in front of foreign business associates, my workplace peers, supervisor and the manager. Last month, my company initiated a new business agreement with few eminent business clients from China. However, after receiving the clients from China I address the manager of the company with his first name in order to establish an amiable relationship with our potential clients. In addition to this I made several other errors which have made the situation even more critical. Moreover, after exchanging the business cards which has been referred as one of the significant business etiquettes of Chinese culture I wrote some figures on the card in front of them. These have been perceived as immensely disappointing factors of business by both my supervisor, manager and the clients in particular and were on the edge of losing the deal. 

Global business operations have always encompassed high level of communication. With the rapid increase of globalization, several business activities such as effective exchange of information, negotiation process are based on the skills and expertise degree to communicate with individuals belonging to other cultures and accept certain social beliefs and ideologies. Thus, it has been essentially significant for employees to gain adequate knowledge of cultural disparities and values of various cultures (Comfort & Franklin, 2014). In recent times, with the elevating need of multicultural people in business, it has been inevitable to encounter individuals belonging from varied nations with dissimilar verbal communication and cultural beliefs. Thus the aptitude to use other language would facilitate the efficiency level of business communication (Goleman, 2017).  It has often been noted that the primary intention of communication is to explicitly express oneself especially in intercultural communication in business (Søderberg, Krishna & Bjørn, 2013). An enormous amount of previous observations on intercultural business communication have revealed the way poor communication can lead to a declined rate of organizational performance and the way process of communication have been vital to the employees of the organization involving both the ones in managerial positions as well as the subordinates (Hammersley & Reid, 2014). Effective communication has been regarded as immensely significant to develop competitive advantage in achieving organizational performance. Furthermore, constructive communication facilitates an enterprise to explain in a more concise manner to the clients the importance and the disparities of the company’s goods and services in relation to their competitors (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra, 2014). This would enable businesses to possess a significant competitive edge in the global market to efficiently operate its business ventures. For instance, organizations develop competences of spending extended time as well as resources to involve instead of finding solutions for internal as well as external communication issues. Moreover, establishing effective communication with business associates from foreign enterprises often leads to be an unavoidable and critical factor in a global organization (Ang & Van Dyne, 2015).

With the rate of international migration becoming progressive and gradually increasing it level of accessibility and affordability, employees are recruited in increasingly diversified work environments as a result being revealed to several cross cultural backgrounds. Individual have individualistic cultures perceptions that influence their way of thinking, feeling as well as behaviour and these disparities further result in conflictive situations. Employees in organizations often encounter people of diverse cultures having different personalities (Liu,  Volcic & Gallois, 2014).. There can be witnessed a higher rate of dispute between cultural beliefs, ideologies while working with diverse individuals in order to attain organizational goals and targets (Eisenberg et al., 2013). However, the overall organizational performance can further be declined  if these conflicting situations fail to be resolved or the organization or show incompetence to bring an amicable scenario for mutual work culture (Leonardi & Rodriguez-Lluesma, 2013). One of the significant approaches of attaining effective intercultural communication has been determined to avoid any form of ethnocentrism. Factors associated with ethnocentrism are considered as a critical barrier resulting to the failure in establishing intercultural communication (Jackson, 2014). One of the significant terms related to effective intercultural communication is to gain adequate knowledge and further honour other cultures (Ferraro & Briody, 2013). However, it is significant to note that individuals who develop factors of ethnocentrism fail to possess the ability to acknowledge beliefs and ideologies of other cultures and often tend to involve in posing judgemental behaviour of other ethnic backgrounds (Hua, 2013). As a result, ethnocentrism is regarded as an essential factor which needs to be avoided by employees who deal with diverse cultured people at workplace. In contemporary era of accessible migration process, the concept of intercultural communication is considered as a significant factor for achieving greater organizational performance (Jaidev, 2014). Effective communication across cultures not only facilitates to eradicate critical issues arising conflictive situations as well as causing misinterpretations within the work environment. It will further aid in encouraging strong relationships among employees and employer to employee (Binder, 2016). Coca-Cola’s encouragement in intercultural communication can be sited as a classic example of effective communication in business whereby the company has been employing employees of diverse cultural backgrounds as trainers in order to work with the existing employees during their execution of relocation or conducting short-term project in foreign nations. In addition to this, effective intercultural communication will reinforce the performance level of the employees and further help organizations to achieve its goals (Barak, 2016). Employees dealing with diverse people while conducting business must be able to recognize the barriers that arise in the path of accomplishing successful and effective intercultural communication and develop the areas of competitive advantage in the business domain.

Researchers of contemporary times describe the term ‘extrovert’ as individuals whose characteristics or inclinations direct or receive their enthusiasm from external sources. Extroverts are often perceived as easily approachable, sociable and explicitly expressive and opinionated individuals and are perceived as people most efficient and capable of reflective leadership abilities (Oerlemans & Bakker, 2013). Employees with greater degree of extraversion skills have the potentialities to have less inclination and interest towards social interactions and further to obtain constructive insights and perception that would aid in achieving higher level of organizational performance. Development of higher degree of extraversion often leads these individuals to be recognized as assets of the organization and able to entail improved levels of interactions with clients, stakeholders as well as workplace peers (Scheibe & Zacher, 2013). Furthermore, it has been noted that employees who have been incapable to develop these areas or have lower degree of extraversion undergo critical situations especially when it entails social interaction or interaction with other people. Similarly factors related to being introvert can often lead employees to remain unheard and be interpreted as ineffective within a team or an organization (Osborn, 2015). Several studies reveal that extrovert comprise of over 70% of the population and are identified as individuals with observable leadership skills especially because of their high tolerance level and ability to gather attention. Higher rate of extraversion assists individuals in understanding and gain awareness of their position in the organization and among colleagues and other business associates (Soto, 2015). With extraversion comes greater possibility of change and transformation within the organizational structure. However, many a times, extroverts or individuals with high degree of approachable qualities are being perceived as aggressive speakers or immensely expressive. However recent studies have revealed that individuals with the ability to be opinionated or expose their ideas and perceptions at suitable contexts facilitate greater degree of growth and development in the organization.

An action plan must be developed which is based on SMART goals that would further aid me to enhance my communication skills specially the areas concerning intercultural communication abilities and Talkaholic skills. The goals which are purposed to be developed must be smart in the following ways:

The goals need to be specific. For the enhancement of the areas concerning intercultural communication skills, I would be developing my knowledge of other cultures by reading several evidence based research articles which have extensively dealt with varied cultures, its people and their social norms, beliefs and ethics. Furthermore, the increasing rate of internet technologies with social media would facilitate the development of my awareness of other cultural and ethnicities. Gathering understanding of various cultural groups from several journal articles would help to gather utmost and adequate knowledge and awareness of other cultures and also business ethics and etiquettes followed by various countries as well as communication techniques. In order to develop my communication skill and emerge from the domain of recluse or being introvert I would be asking for sincere feedback and reviews from my workplace peers, supervisors and team associates. The goal is measurable. I will engage myself in establishing effective communication with various team members as well as clients belonging to diverse cultural backgrounds and will further inquire my level of improvement in these areas especially from my co-workers as we share similar work environment and involve in several discussions. These reviews and opinions will aid to comprehend my development pace and will be aware of the areas where I need further improvement. Receiving sincere and honest feedbacks from supervisors would also help in me evaluate my competencies and where I have been positioned the communication procedures. Furthermore, attending workshops of developing interpersonal abilities would help me to measure my abilities. The goal is attainable because of the increasing rate of accessibility and availability of research articles, journals, videos and blogs. With internet and social media increasingly advancing I can download articles, e-books, journals with utmost ease and read those at convenient timings without concerning about extra costs and hassles.  While developing my communication skills in enabling to put my opinions in public or improve my social interactive abilities I would attending workshops at convenient time and interact with strangers which have been my primary area of concern.  The goal is relevant as gathering relevant readings would aid me to be comprehensive of the knowledge of various cultural backgrounds and the way to interact with diverse people. Furthermore, for developing my ability to be more expressive I would be experiencing various situations and will encounter several people especially who are unknown to me and thereby gather knowledge of ways to communicate in any situational contexts and be opinionated. The timeframe of the goals will be 8 months.

Therefore, it can be viewed that an effective communication in business facilitates to successfully conquer unforeseen and unanticipated situations with various types of people at the organization. Thus it is immensely crucial for individuals to gather adequate knowledge and understanding of ways to successfully communicate with people and facilitate in greater organizational growth.

References

Ang, S., & Van Dyne, L. (2015). Handbook of cultural intelligence. Routledge.

Barak, M. E. M. (2016). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Sage Publications.

Binder, J. (2016). Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. Routledge.

Comfort, J., & Franklin, P. (2014). The mindful international manager: How to work effectively across cultures. Kogan Page Publishers.

Eisenberg, J., Lee, H. J., Brück, F., Brenner, B., Claes, M. T., Mironski, J., & Bell, R. (2013). Can business schools make students culturally competent? Effects of cross-cultural management courses on cultural intelligence. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 12(4), 603-621.

Ferraro, G. P., & Briody, E. K. (2013). The cultural dimension of global business. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Press.

Hammersley, R., & Reid, M. (2014). Communicating successfully in groups: a practical guide for the workplace. Routledge.

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Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2), 183-202.

Neuliep, J. W., & McCroskey, J. C. (1997). The development of intercultural and interethnic communication apprehension scales. Communication Research Reports, 14, 385-398.

Oerlemans, W. G., & Bakker, A. B. (2013). Capturing the moment in the workplace: Two methods to study momentary subjective well-being. In Advances in positive organizational psychology (pp. 329-346). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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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(4), 502-515.

Scheibe, S., & Zacher, H. (2013). A lifespan perspective on emotion regulation, stress, and well-being in the workplace. In The role of emotion and emotion regulation in job stress and well being (pp. 163-193). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Søderberg, A. M., Krishna, S., & Bjørn, P. (2013). Global software development: commitment, trust and cultural sensitivity in strategic partnerships. Journal of International Management, 19(4), 347-361.

Soto, C. J. (2015). Is happiness good for your personality? Concurrent and prospective relations of the big five with subjective well?being. Journal of personality, 83(1), 45-55.

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