SPCC: A tool to evaluate communication competencies

Discuss about the Organizational Communication For Survival.

Communication is the medium used by people to deliver messages from the sender to the receiver. In organizations, managers use communication as a medium to constitute their work (Armstrong, 2008). The self-perceived communication competence scale (SPCC), was created to gather information concerning people’s feelings towards a variety of communication contexts when they receive a variety of messages. SPCC is an effective tool that enables the respondents to define their communication competencies. Peoples’ opinion about their way of communication is important, it is considered a measure of perceived competencies. The SPCC measures five aspects related to communication with dyads, acquaintances, friends, strangers, public speaking contexts or even small groups (Croucher et al., 2016). The SPCC uses twelve situations that require communication with others. Although, people’s ability to communicate effectively vary from situation to another (Center for Good Governance, 2012).

With regard to verbal communication, I got moderate scores in self-perception communication competence with basic communication context. My score in perception of communication with the public scored 80, which falls in the middle of the highest SPCC score of 86 and the lowest SPCC score of 51. My score in perception of communication in meeting scored 73.33, which falls in the middle of the highest SPCC score of 85 and the lowest SPCC score of 51.  My score in perception of communication in group scored 80, which falls in the middle of the highest SPCC score of 90 and the lowest SPCC score of 61.  My score in perception of communication with dyads scored 76.66, which falls in the middle of the highest SPCC score of 93 and the lowest SPCC score of 68. My score in perception of communication with stranger scored 75, which falls in the middle of the highest SPCC score of 79 and the lowest SPCC score of 31. My score in perception of communication with friend scored 87.5, which falls in the middle of the highest SPCC score of 99 and the lowest SPCC score of 76.  My score in perception of communication with acquaintance scored 70, which falls in the middle of the highest SPCC score of 92 and the lowest SPCC score of 62. Although the average score of my SPCC shows that my perception of communication with others is moderate, my scores in perception of communication with the public and strangers are near to the highest SPCC score. These scores are calculated and evaluated according to (McCroskey & McCroskey, 1988).

Verbal and non-verbal communication self-perception analysis

The non-verbal immediacy scale (NIS) self-report revealed that my perceived non-verbal communication is 102 which is near to the highest score of 104 and greater than the lowest score of 83 for a male. This score is calculated according to Richmond, McCroskey, & Jhonson (2003). The NIS self-report shows that my single positive feelings towards others is near to the highest score. NIS has more diverse items than the previous test.

My score in the personal report of intercultural communication apprehension (PRICA) is 24, it falls between the highest score of 70 and the lowest score of 14. According to Neuliep & McCroskey (1997), the score below 32 is considered a low intercultural CA. PRICA uses 14 statements to measure my perception with regard to communication with people from other culture. Also, my score in the talkholic test that measures my perception of talking with people is 27, it falls below the borderline talkholic of 30. Also, it is in the middle of the highest score of 50 and the lowest score of 10. This score is calculated according to McCroskey & Richmond (1993). I can keep quiet in the presence of other people, this does not mean that I am not the person who “talks too much”. This type of people can say things that people do not want to hear.

My score in the test of tolerance for disagreement (TFD) is 56, it is above the moderate level of TFD of 46. This score is calculated according to Teven, McCroskey, & Richmond (1998) and (Richmond & McCroskey (2001). This means that I can tolerate other people disagree with what the individual believes to be true.

From the previous analysis, it is obvious that I have to develop certain communication skills, including the verbal communication and communication with people from other culture. In order to develop my perception of verbal communication skills with other people, I have to be a good listener. This means that I have first to acknowledge what I hear even if I do not agree with it, before talking about my experience or my point of view. Also, I can help my partner to reduce the level of misunderstanding by starting the conversation with the important messages. This provides a chance to the partner to understand the big picture. Moreover, I have to express myself completely and more clearly. This could be achieved by slowing down and providing more information about myself by using “I-statements”. It is beneficial to translate my complaints into specific requests to get more cooperation from others. Using positive language and become action oriented is better than using generalizations as “somebody should’s”.  Asking open-ended and more creatively questions to know more about the feelings and thinking of other people. It allows for a wide range of response from the partner. Showing appreciation to other people is likely to build satisfying relationships with others. This includes gratitude, affirmation, appreciation, delight and encouragement.

Developing communication skills in various contexts

One professional interaction I have faced during the past year, took part at my workplace. My direct managers asked me to write a proposal for developing the work process in coordination with the team members. Me and the team members coordinated the required tasks, the work moved smoothly with the team members. We were able to provide the required task at the specified time. Then, my direct manager asked me to present the work that was done to the line manager. I had to present the results of the work at a meeting with the line manager. After finishing my presentation, most of the audience did not understand the message I really wanted to deliver to them. They started asking questions, which was not sufficient for them. They continued to negotiate the topic with each other and at the end of the meeting, they asked me to do many modifications to the work to be represented later.

The problem was not in the work, it was in my communication style. I could not deliver the message in an appropriate way to the audiences. I was mistaken in jumping to the meanings, which did not give a chance to the listener to clearly understand the detailed process. The wrong message was delivered to the right people. Also, I have focused on the development of communication strategy, then jumped to the communication means. I did not realize how the message will be interpreted with the audiences which created an obstacle. I admit that I have overestimated the potential of communication. I should have realized that my perception could be unrealistic and could result in a negative action and bad impression on the receivers. They thought that I have ignored them and did not value their opinions, which is not true, but it is due to my weak communication skills.

The other professional experience I faced during the last year was when my company decided to contract with a foreign expert from Europe. This expert was selected as one of the best expertise in his area of proficiency. It was expected that the team will learn a lot from his experience on the academic and professional levels. I represent my team, which means that I had to deal with him directly and when the presence of the team is required, they can have their chance of interacting with him. As I find difficulties in communicating with people from other cultures, it was too hard for me to both deliver the message and receive it. Sometimes, it was difficult to predict if he likes the work or not, which led me to be confused and feel uncertain about everything that took place between us. I tried to develop my communication skills with people from another culture in general and I found it a good chance to practice the development of my communication skills with the foreign expert.

Evaluating professional experiences

It was really time-consuming to deal directly with the foreign expert. I started to search for information about the expert, his attitudes, level of knowledge and behavior. It was beneficial to understand his way of thinking and actions as well. Also, I realized that involving one of the team members in the direct communication with him will be a good idea that I decided to apply. This idea was more economical, the partner had a high level of communication skills with expert who appreciated this solution. I could make sure that the message was delivered and understood by the expert in the right way.

The evaluation of the results of this experience was positive. It is considered the most effective way of communication with the expert. Also, I had the chance to develop my communication skills with him by observing the way my partner used to deal with him.

The willingness to communicate (WTC) has gained much attention of the researchers when communicating with people from another culture who speak a different language. The WTC variability is a function of the personality as well as the context of communication. Mortensen et al. (1977), as cited in Shahbaz et al. (2016), applied the concept of the WTC in the area of human communication and argued that individuals are willing or unwilling to communicate with particular individuals or groups in a certain situation.

This is called the theory of predisposition towards human behavior, it has motivated the researchers to argue that individuals may choose to communicate across various contexts when they are quite consistent about it.  WTC refers to the individual psychological readiness to speak a second language, it is also based on aspects that go beyond the individual linguistic competence. WTC contributes to the educational, organizational and social level of the individual. The SPCC that considers how the individual perceives his communication competencies, is very important in relation to the WTC. Both of them affect each other. The accuracy of the SPCC can have a significant impact on the WTC.  It enables individuals to adjust their awareness, cognition and thinking to be able to communicate in different situations with different types of people.it helps individuals to be more adaptive (Shahbaz et al., 2016; Robson, 2015).

The concept of “intercultural communication”, refers to the communication and interaction that take place between individuals or groups belonging to diverse cultures. The multicultural environment enables the interaction among representatives of different nations, all types of human activities are carried out within this environment (Ryneiska et al., 2016).

Overcoming cultural communication challenges

I believe that the main factors that affect my way of communication with people from another culture are as follows:

• Lack of awareness of partners from other cultures and the differences that exist.
• Ignoring the essential information about cultural differences.
• Insufficient level of foreign language practice.
• Lack of direct interaction with people from different cultures.

Accordingly, I need to acquire certain communication skills, including discussions with a specialist and experienced people in the international environment. To exchange my experience with managers who actively interact with international events. Also, I need to practice foreign languages and to be involved in training programs that increase my awareness of foreign cultures and enables me to communicate in practice.

Communication has to be processed effectively, it involves the sender, receiver, message, medium or channel and feedback. The communication process goes through eight steps, starting from the idea created by the sender to be sent to the receiver, it is called the planning step. The next step is encoding or converting the idea in a form that could be received, as writing a letter or a report. Then, the message is ready to be delivered in different ways; oral, written or nonverbal. Followed by the ability of the sender to choose the medium to transmit the message to the receiver. The sender follows up the delivery of the message. Then, the receiver is willing to receive the message and decode it. Both of the sender and receiver have a shared understanding of the message content. The final step is the feedback, which is important to assure that the receiver fully understands the message (Chi, 2016).

The individual’s ability to speak is very important in the technological age, however many individuals are incapable of doing this. Delivering an oral presentation is sort of public speaking (Al-Tamimi, 2014).

The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA) developed by McCroskey (1982), is designed to measure the communication ability of individuals. It is directed at measuring the broad-based fear associated with the real or perceived communication with other people. PRCA uses 24 statements that measure the traits as communication apprehension (CA), across four contexts, including, public, meeting, dyads and small groups (Croucher et al., 2016).

According to Chitakornkijsil (2010), as cited in Elze & Podlesny (2014), culture is strongly related to beliefs, values, language and attitudes. He also suggests the concept of high and low context of communication. It assumes that different communication styles exist to create a way of communication. The level of nonverbal communication is likely to determine the culture. The high context culture prefers the nonverbal communication, but the low context cultures prefer the verbal communication. The low context cultures focus on the explicit information, it gives less attention to gestures and the interpretations of the meaning of the provided information.

Understanding the willingness to communicate

This issue is highly challenging to me, as I cannot communicate well in public. I always have difficulty in expressing what I want to say, to remember what to say and to speak in front of the public. I think that I have to take a training course in public speaking to develop my verbal communication skills. For me, it is a challenge to avoid misinterpretation or misunderstanding of the receiver. I need to be enrolled in the verbal communication training program. It will help me to establish and support the verbal communication with participants in the training program. It will provide me with the basic techniques of different types of listening, either active, passive or empathic. I also need to get feedback and clarification from the communication partners. I will be able to learn techniques of confident behavior and reasoning and the rules of ending the communication. Practicing the actual behavior is likely to develop my communication skills. The real output of the training depends on the context in general.

Self-awareness is very important for me as a self-learner to be aware of my own skills as an individual. It is important to me to realize the intrinsic value of learning. For me, self-development is more important than getting information from secondary resources, including textbooks. It is also beneficial to me to combine the self-awareness with the technological tools to support the learning process. It was found by the researchers that being aware of online discussions, allows the learner to recognize the advantages of reflection and sharing options and ideas with others (Ugur, Constantinescu, & Stevens, 2015). Also, participation in discussion forums assist in learning and development of new skills of verbal communication and it could have a positive reflection on my learnability (Andrén, 2012).

I need to acquire knowledge and develop my communication skills, especially the verbal communication with the public, friends, dyads, strangers, acquaintances and groups from one side and communication with people from other culture from the other side. This is likely to enable me to get a higher position inside or outside my workplace, gain experience and enhance my capabilities to fulfill the targeted position. Also, it will enable me in self-development through a variety of tools to diversify my resources of knowledge. Moreover, the managerial support is expected to assist me to gain practical experience, increase the level of trust and self-confidence. Accordingly, self-learning is expected to enable me to enhance my communication skills to adapt to the market changes.

Every opportunity has its risk that is why I have to concern that I might not be able to gain the required communication skills at the required level. Also, I might not be able to achieve the desired skills at the planned time. I will need to complete learning programs and do some activities to acquire the desired knowledge. They are described as follows:

• Attending communication training courses
• Learning how to communicate from others
• Gaining experience through the practical life
• Watching learning video programs
• Perform structured reading recommended by professionals
• Attending conferences, seminars, workshops
• Performing in-house training
• Performing action-based learning, as it is considered a systematic, and structured approach to the problem solving in the workplace.
• Reading academic articles that are concerned with culture communication
• Attending qualification courses in respected institutes
• Performing work-based development

Training is a structured process of learning, the training staff collaborates with each other or with the assistance of an external training agent. Training aims to develop peoples’ skills, knowledge and attitudes required to carry out certain tasks. Also, it provides technical or generic skills that are desired by individuals (McPheat, 2010; Detsimas et al, 2016). I have the motivation to learn and develop my skills, motivation is considered an important factor in the learning process. Also, technology facilitates the training process, the technology-based training has replaced the traditional forms of training (McPheat, 2010; Sharma & Garg, 2016). The e-learning enables people from different places, culture and backgrounds to meet in the same training program (Lundin & Lundin, 2016). That is why I consider it a perfect tool expected to provides me with the chance of communicating with people from other culture. I believe that training will provide me with life experiences that is considered a reliable and great learning resource. The self-managed learning is available everywhere and it is directed at retaining certain skills and knowledge.

After completing this training, and development activities, I should be able to measure the progress achieved within a time frame of six months. A set of assessment tools could be used includes:

• Using the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Questionnaire to enable in monitoring the way people recognize my level of communication (McCroskey & McCroskey, 2013) (Lockley, 2013). This tool would be used several times on different periods of time to measure my actual progress in developing my communication skills.
• The Personal Report of Communication Apprehension tool, is likely to assist me in measuring my ability of communication through answering set of questions that measure my behaviour in different communication situations. Then, the results are to be analysed in order to monitor the progress of my communication skills.
• The Willingness to Listen Diagnostic tool will be beneficial in measuring my listening skills.
• It is important to ask people around me about the progress in my communication level with them. These people include my manager, friends and relatives to judge the development in my abilities. Also, their feedback will enable me in screening the gap between my perception and other person’s perception with regard to my verbal communication skills and communication with people from other culture.
• The certificates that proof my completion of the communication training programs will be a documentation of the level of progress I have achieved.

In conclusion it is important to notice that although the average score of my SPCC shows that my perception of communication with others is moderate, my scores of perception of communication with the public and strangers are near to the highest SPCC score. Moreover, my score in the personal report of intercultural communication apprehension (PRICA) is considered a low intercultural. From the other side, my non-verbal immediacy scale (NIS) self-report revealed that my perceived non-verbal communication is near to the highest score. Also, I am not a talkholic and I my tolerance for disagreement scored above the moderate level.

I have to learn from my faults in verbal communication with others, as I was mistaken in jumping to the meanings, which did not give a chance to the listener to clearly understand the detailed process. The wrong message was delivered to the right people, which led them to think that I have ignored them and did not value their opinions, which is not true, but it is due to my weak communication skills.

The following is the action plan developed to set the key events and activities that I can undertake over the next six months.

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