Introduction to Effective Communication
Discuss about the Effective Business Communication for Nonverbal Immediacy Scale.
The art of communicating efficiently with different people can be an effective tool to implement the skills of interpersonal communication and to present a conversation in an effective manner. The efficiency of a person can be assessed from the fact that the person utilizes the interpersonal communication skills to perfection and is able to make the people understand whatever the person intends to communicate. The interpersonal skills of a person can be assessed from a number of tests and analysis such as the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC), the Nonverbal Immediacy Scale Self Report (NIS-S), the Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension (PRICA) and the talkaholic scale. These tests enable a person to understand and reflect the areas wherein the person can effectively engage in a communication process with the other people and also understand those areas wherein the person is lagging behind. The communication skills can be assessed by the fact that the person is able to effectively understand and comprehend the requirements of communication required to build a dialogue with the other people around. The essence of building an effective communication system has enabled human beings to progress rapidly in the modern world. This is because the information and knowledge have been transferred over the ages through the process of communication by the people. The language which is learnt from a very early age is the key source of transferring knowledge down the ages. This source of transferring knowledge is possible only when the person is able to communicate effectively and efficiently with each other. The people who are responsible for the process of building an effective communication process are Master of Communication and are experts in the key areas of nonverbal communication skills as well as the interpersonal communication skills. The essay highlights the personal details of the communication qualities and enumerates two literature reviews. The action plan to improve the condition of the weak areas in the communication process are enlisted at the end of the essay. The essay is written exclusively to address the issues faced in communication.
The communication skills of a person play a dominant role in the life of a person. The people who are effective in communicating efficiently and eloquently with many diverse population are able to succeed at a rapid pace in the world. The efficiency of a person is determined by the ability to speak and communicate effortlessly with the global audience. I appeared in 5 different tests to evaluate my communication skills and understand my ability to speak and express myself in front of diverse people and in different situations. The first test I took was the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC) test. This test is conducted to obtain the relevant information which evaluates as to how competent a person feels when they are presented into a when they are exposed to a variety of communication situation to assess the communication skills of the person. The person who gives the test is evaluated based on the test analysis. From the test which I gave, I found that I was a decent performer when it came to speak with people in various situations such as the public place, the meeting, the social groups, the dyadic communication, with the stranger, the acquaintance and with a friend. I scored a total of 86.24 % which meant that I was relatively on the higher side of the scoring chart and this meant that I was able to communicate easily with people at different situations in life. The other test I undertook was the Nonverbal Immediacy Scale Self Report (NIS-S). The Nonverbal immediacy assesses the behavioral aspects which can transmit the positive vibes towards another human being. This is the most reliable and standard measurement of nonverbal immediacy as a reporting factor. This idea was propounded by Albert Mehrabian in the 1970s. The differences in the expression of nonverbal immediacy is measured by the Nonverbal Immediacy Scale. The test comprises of twenty-six behaviors which are rated by the person depending on how often the person exhibits these characteristics. The test is not used as a kind of psychological advice, rather it is used for educational analysis only. The test measures the behaviors exhibited by the people towards their fellow human beings. The test undertaken by me revealed that I had a fair enough performance in the nonverbal immediacy scores which means that I can manage communications with a wide range of people across all backgrounds and can respond to their feedbacks as well. The next test which I undertook was the Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension (PRICA). This analysis was formulated to calculate the apprehension which can arise in the communication procedure with the people concerned. This test is given to ascertain the communication skills of a person when they are speaking with several speakers from different backgrounds and native languages. The Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension evaluates the overall interpersonal skills of a person when that person faces the situation of engaging with diverse range of people from different ethnic backgrounds and nationalities (O’Connor Jr & Jackson, 2017). Based on the Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension (PRICA) test which I undertook, the result suggested that I was comfortable when interacting with people or a group of people who came from diverse cultures. I was able to interact and get along nicely in group discussion with all the people who came from diverse cultures. I had no issues whatsoever, relating to fear of speaking with a person from a different background. The only issue I had was that I got nervous while participating in a conversation with a person who came from diverse backgrounds and culture. I scored moderately in areas relating to getting tensed during interaction with people who came from diverse backgrounds. From the analysis I could deduce that I got nervous while getting into a conversation with a person from a different culture and in some extreme circumstances, I get very uncomfortable if I don’t relate anything at all with the person who is from a totally different culture. I scored an overall 35 which means that I was just ahead of the lowest range of people with low intercultural Communication Apprehension measures. The next test which I undertook was the Talkaholic Scale which is a tool for measuring the compulsive communication skills of a person (Katz, 2017). Some people are more inclined to talk and communicate with the other people around them. These people have high verbal abilities and face extreme difficulties in being quite in the presence of different people. The talkaholics are not the people who talk too much because the people who talk too much are the ones who are speaking such things which the listeners do not want to hear from them. The talkaholics, on the other hand, are the ones who are speaking things which are encouraged by the listeners to speak up more because they speak in a qualitative manner. The result indicated that I have a consistent urge to interact and speak with people, but I am not a speaker who constantly keeps on speaking. I prefer indulging in qualitative speaking with the people. I am in middle between the talkaholic and the quiet person. I scored an overall 29 which is a normal score for all the people who undergo this test. The people who score above 40 are talkaholics and speak compulsively. The next test which I undertook was the Tolerance for Disagreement which is used to measure the level of tolerance skill of a person when confronted with different opinions and viewpoints. This test is used to analyse the degree of argumentativeness of a person when confronted with different viewpoint. I obtained a score of 50 which means that I had a fairly high level of Tolerance for Disagreement. Even though, I had a high tolerance for disagreement, but I personally feel that the high tolerance for disagreement score was due to my inability to conform to differing or conflicting opinions. The ability to hold a diplomatic stance allowed me to understand the nuances of the subjects. This score enabled me to understand that I can tolerate other people’s differing opinions and viewpoints and had no issues whatsoever in remaining calm under opposing situations and conditions. The result of the communication skill test reveal that I have been able to perform exceptionally well in a range of diverse communication aspects. The only issues where I lagged were the fear of anxiety which arose when I was presented to a new audience and a new group of people. The anxiety leads me to become tensed and nervous when speaking with several people or a group of people. The anxiety even leads me to flutter and to even become panicked when confronted with such situations. I try a lot to calm myself down before the situations where I become anxious, but I found that anxiety has always afflicted me from a very early age. The fear of performing on the stage has always been a difficult process for me and this fear has progressed into the anxiety before being presented with a new group of people. Sometimes, I also avoid the meetings with new people or new group of people to save myself from the anxiety ordeal which I keep on facing from time to time. The other aspects wherein I faced the most difficulty was that the fear of being confronted with conflicting or differing opinions made me uncomfortable and uneasy. This feeling was difficult to understand and analyze in the learning process, but it can be efficiently managed if I don’t allow myself to hold a diplomatic stance in front of conflicting or differing opinions. Sometimes, I feel that I have many valid points to address a situation effectively, but I prefer to remain calm and not raise my stance as it will offend many people in the long run. The diplomatic stance which leads me to answer in a way without avoiding conflicts or divergence leads me to answer in a more conservative manner regarding the understanding of the topic. I can understand a topic much better and have a definite understanding of the topics which frame the overall topic but the most difficult aspect which I face is that the conflicting or differing opinions leads me to answer the whole issue in a submissive manner which leads me to agree to opinions which I do not conform to.
Assessment of Communication Skills using Tests
The two aspects wherein I have scored low are Intercultural Aspect and Nonverbal Immediacy Scale Self Report (NIS-S). The Intercultural Aspect is one aspect of communication wherein the student’s communication skills with the people from different cultures are verified and ascertained in relation to the person’s intercommunication skills. There are numerous theories which are used to analyze the outcomes of the communication skills of the person. These theories are the Cultural convergence theory propounded by George Ritzer (Perrault & Silk, 2015). In this theory he stated that in a closed societal system, the communication among the members is unfiltered ad the system overall will meet at a point of maximum cultural juxtaposition (Ibrahim, Noh & Abas, 2017). This system will continue to diverge towards the point where communication is restricted by the people. The intercultural skills of a person can be enhanced by fostering the person to effectively communicate with people from diverse backgrounds (Fan, et al., 2015). The present society with the advent of globalization has seen the people from diverse backgrounds and ethnicity moving in from diverse backgrounds moving into metropolitan cities in search of better opportunities and growth (Hargie, 2016). The migration of people from different ethnic and social backgrounds makes it important for the people to effectively communicate with each other and to be adept at understanding the different needs and demands of the communication skills needed by the people. There is an urgent need to understand the dynamics of the changing aspect of human interaction and communication in doing the daily tasks of intercommunicating with each other (Dragojevic., Gasiorek & Giles, 2015). The communication skills are very much essential in the modern world due to the over-dependence of using communication skills as a form of a tool to rise higher in the society. The people who have soft skills along with the technical skills as well as har skills are more preferred in the workplaces as compared to those people who possess only technical skills and hard skills (Veksler & Meyer, 2014). The soft skills combined with the hard skills and the technical skills provide an added impetus to the person to showcase his/her skills and to rise higher in the careers and professions. These skills have shown the greatest improvement and development in the academic and the professional careers (Boers, van den Putte & Beentjes, 2015). The person who has low intercultural association skills generally lags and is normally considered as a hesitant speaker, someone who gets nervous while interacting with people from diverse social backgrounds. Similarly, the person who has high intercultural association skills exhibit the highest affinity towards interacting with people from diverse social backgrounds and ethnicities. There is a phenomenal need in today’s generation to study and research on the changing dynamics of intercultural association skills, particularly because gone are the days when people from diverse backgrounds meant only English speakers from western European or North American countries (Guerrero., Andersen & Afifi, 2015). The rise in the economies of China and the Latin American countries today makes it imperative to interact with the Chinese, the people from Latin American countries, the Arab world, the people from the South East Asian countries, the Hispanics and other group of people (Bresnahan & Zhu, 2017). These situations highlight the significance of intercultural association communication skills and a lot of research can be done in the future in these areas. The o0ther aspect of Nonverbal skills also is a very significant aspect of communication in today’s global world. The nonverbal skills analyze the behavioral changes in the person’s style of communication with the other person based on the cues and gestures sent by the person. This system of communication focuses on the body movements and physical gestures more than the verbal communication techniques. The person with high nonverbal communication skills are normally preferred over those with low nonverbal communication skills, mainly because these nonverbal communication skills are the essential aspect of a person’s communication skills even before the person starts the verbal communication (Li et al., 2017). These nonverbal communication skills are the inherent traits or characteristics of a person and enable the person to emit positive or negative vibes towards other people. Based on these vibes, the other people feel comfortable enough to start communicating with the person and build an effective communication process. There has been a lot of research done in the field of nonverbal communication (Berger, 2014). The initial research was done by Charles Darwin and the findings published in his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. The key findings of his research included that human beings as well as animals exhibit certain traits or characteristics such as communicating through facial expressions and hand gestures as well as body movements (Fussel & Kreuz, 2014). These are intrinsic qualities and enable the person to build an effective communication mechanism with the other human beings. These skills are very much required in today’s world because of the fact the professions of today’s world are based on the essence of communication and meeting new people from different social and ethnic backgrounds (Braithwaite & Schrodt, 2014). Sometimes, it becomes awkward to start a dialogue without even knowing the person altogether. This is where the nonverbal communication skills come in effective usage (Walther, 2017). The essence of nonverbal communication lies in the fact that it lays down the procedural framework for building an efficient communication procedure, communication wherein the people can effectively utilize their communication skills to create an impression in the minds of the people concerned. This procedure of employing effective communication skills enables the person to understand the gestures and physical movements of the other people to start a conversation with each other. The effective communication skills can enhance the reputation of the person so that the person maintains a steady reputation in society (Nelson, 2016). There have been many literary researches done in the past regarding the nonverbal communication skills of the people, but a lot of research can be done in the aspect of the changing trends of nonverbal communication skills which have becomes an essential feature in the new age modern communication techniques of the world (Tiwari, 2016). Looking at the current trends in the world, it can be deduced that nonverbal communication skills are going to be an important part of the new age communication techniques. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the new nonverbal communication skills are enhanced and well-researched (Burgers & Beukeboom, 2016).
Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC)
There are some shortcomings which I need to overcome to effectively improve my communication skills to an extent where my shortcomings do not affect my relationships and my daily doing of business. To develop an action plan, there are five steps which needs to be enacted. These five steps are as follows- 1. To find out where we stand 2. To develop goals and core values 3. To make an action plan 4. To create new habits 5. To maintain our habits (Carroll, 2015). The first step which is to find out where we stand is to be able to understand the shortcomings of myself. From the test results, I can deduce the fact that I am facing some difficulty in public speaking due to anxiety and when it comes to tolerance for disagreement, I have always been reluctant to face conflicting opinions and have always sought to find out a diplomatic stance to avoid more conflict. Having recognized my shortcomings, I proceeded to the next stage which is to develop goals and core values to overcome my shortcomings. The best way to develop goals and core values is to engage myself more in such situations wherein I get to face my challenge of facing conflicting situations and in engaging in public speaking to gain in more confidence from the exercise. The third stage is to make an action plan. For this stage, I decided to track my progress on the aspects of my shortcomings to fully enhance my communication skills and interpersonal communication skills. I decided to maintain a journal to monitor my progress and in the initial six months, this journal proved to be a very effective tool from which I was able to monitor my progress in my weak areas. The fourth stage which is the requirement to create new habits was thoroughly thought after and after much thinking, I finally decided to get myself a mentor to assist me to overcome my shortcomings and weaknesses. The weaknesses and shortcomings would also be brought to the front by the expertise of the mentor. The last stage is to maintain our habits. In this stage, I decided to engage myself in the training workshop of my mentor so that the teachings and the learning process can be imbibed by me under the guidance of my tutor and then these learning skills can become my habits which I can showcase in my workplace and future career plans. Therefore, from the above action plan, I am certain that I will benefit from the exercise of learning new skills and talents in my communication skills and then utilize these skills to enhance my career and working process. The process of speaking in front of big audiences can also be effectively addressed by me and I can understand the nuances which are involved in the process of learning to speak effectively and efficiently.
Nonverbal Immediacy Scale Self Report (NIS-S)
From the above analysis, it is evident that the process of communication is an essential aspect of building relationships and to progress in the careers and the academics. The self-evaluation tests which were undertaken such as the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC), the Nonverbal Immediacy Scale Self Report (NIS-S), the Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension (PRICA) and the talkaholic scale enables a person to understand the key areas wherein the person lacks in his qualities of speaking and interpersonal communication. The areas of interpersonal communication can be improved by incorporating the help and assistance of a tutor to monitor the progress which a person makes in the process of enhancing the communication skills. The effective communication skills can be further enhanced by involving the process of making oneself an expert in the field of communicating efficiently and effectively in front of big audiences. This process allows a person to work on those areas wherein the person is lagging such as the effective way to make oneself comfortable in the areas of confronting new groups and new people. The inherent fear of confronting new groups of people can make a lot of people anxious in the long run. This process can be a difficult ordeal for the person concerned and the only way to deal with this process is to hold a brave outlook and not be afraid of the new group or new people. The process can further be enhanced by incorporating the process of enrolling oneself at workshops to improve the areas of anxiety and fear of public speaking. More than these aspects, the most important aspect is to recognize the areas where the person is lacking. The recognition can be done by the evaluation of the test results and the scores obtained. The final evaluation of the test result will show those aspects wherein the person is lacking. The proper diagnosis will lead the person to understand the weak areas and, in a way, help the person to assess the situation in a much better way and in an efficient way. Therefore, these aspects of communication can be improved by properly understanding the weak areas of the weak areas and then making subtle changes in those areas with the assistance of the mentor and by engaging in the workshop so as to imbibe new skills to tackle the problems.
References
Berger, J. (2014). Word of mouth and interpersonal communication: A review and directions for future research. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24(4), 586-607.
Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension (PRICA)
Boers, E., van den Putte, B., & Beentjes, H. (2015). Understanding interpersonal communication: conversational valence, peer popularity, peer preference, self-persuasion, other-persuasion, and binge drinking determinants. European Health Psychologist, 17(S), 582.
Braithwaite, D. O., & Schrodt, P. (Eds.). (2014). Engaging theories in interpersonal communication: Multiple perspectives. Sage Publications.
Bresnahan, M., & Zhu, Y. (2017). 9 Interpersonal communication and relationships across cultures. Intercultural Communication, 9, 199.
Burgers, C., & Beukeboom, C. J. (2016). Stereotype transmission and maintenance through interpersonal communication: The Irony Bias. Communication Research, 43(3), 414-441.
Carroll, C. E. (Ed.). (2015). The handbook of communication and corporate reputation (Vol. 49). John Wiley & Sons.
Dragojevic, M., Gasiorek, J., & Giles, H. (2015). Communication accommodation theory. The international encyclopedia of interpersonal communication.
Fan, S. P., Liberman, Z., Keysar, B., & Kinzler, K. D. (2015). The exposure advantage: Early exposure to a multilingual environment promotes effective communication. Psychological Science, 26(7), 1090-1097.
Fussell, S. R., & Kreuz, R. J. (2014). Social and cognitive approaches to interpersonal communication. Psychology Press.
Guerrero, L. K., Andersen, P. A., & Afifi, W. A. (2017). Close encounters: Communication in relationships. Sage Publications.
Hargie, O. (2016). Skilled interpersonal communication: Research, theory and practice. Routledge.
Ibrahim, M. Y., Noh, C. H. C., & Abas, M. M. (2017). Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Interpersonal Skills of Youth’s Scale. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 7(7), 752-762.
Katz, J. E. (2017). Machines that become us: The social context of personal communication technology. Routledge.
Li, C. R., Lin, C. J., Tien, Y. H., & Chen, C. M. (2017). A multilevel model of team cultural diversity and creativity: The role of climate for inclusion. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 51(2), 163-179.
Nelson, D. W. (2016). Enhancing interpersonal communication: Positive mood effects. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 44(9), 1535-1539.
O’Connor Jr, J. R., & Jackson, K. N. (2017). Interpersonal Communication: A Strategic Perspective. In Encyclopedia of Strategic Leadership and Management (pp. 317-327). IGI Global.
Perrault, E. K., & Silk, K. J. (2015). Reducing communication apprehension for new patients through information found within physicians’ biographies. Journal of health communication, 20(7), 743-750.
Tiwari, A. K. (2016). The non-verbal communication-an essence of interpersonal relationship at workplace. Management Insight, 11(2).
Veksler, A. E., & Meyer, M. D. (2014). Identity management in interpersonal relationships: Contextualizing communication as central to research on emerging adulthood.
Walther, J. B. (2017). The Merger of Mass and Interpersonal Communication via New Media: Integrating Metaconstructs. Human Communication Research, 43(4), 559-572.
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