Evaluation of Communication Skills using Five Specific Tools

Disuss about the Communication Traits And Culture On Perceptions.

In any role played by an individual, be it in their professional lives or in their personal lives, communication plays a crucial role. This is the reason why this concept is given so much importance across the lives of people (Katz, Lazarsfeld & Roper, 2017). In functions of management, this concept has again been given a lot of importance. It is a clear notion that effective communication helps in a person getting a better chance of moving forward, and leaves a good impression on others. Communication, for this reason, is deemed as an asset. In maintaining managerial effectiveness and even organizational effectiveness, this is very crucial (Mikkelson, York & Arritola, 2015). Owing to the significance of communications, this reflective essay has been written. The theme of this reflective essay is to evaluate the communication skills of the writer, by making using of five specific tools. Each of these tools analyse certain aspect of communication of the writer. As a result of the reflective nature of this task, the first person accounts and experiences of the writer have been included. These experiences are particularly related to the real life of the writer, which highlighted their shortfalls, when they entered professional scenario. This essay not only provides the shortfalls and the real life experiences, but also a literature on the communication related apprehensions of the writer, with a particular focus on intercultural apprehensions. Before coming to the conclusion of this essay, an action plan for the upcoming six months, have been drawn for the writer, which would hopefully help the writer in getting over their communication apprehensions.

The first stage of this reflective essay required me to apply the five different diagnostic tools given to us, which evaluate the different aspects of my communication skills. The five tools serve different purpose, and before going into the results, the name of these tools and their purpose has been explained. The very first tool which I opened up for this essay was titled Tolerance for Disagreement. This tool helps in analysing the degree to which a person can tolerate the other person disagreeing with their beliefs (Teven, Richmond & McCroskey, 1998). The ones with low scores reveal less ability of dealing with disagreement and the vice versa is also true (Richmond & McCroskey, 2001). In this tool, I got a score of 29, which shows that I am a moderate person. In other words, neither I like to disagree, nor am I comfortable with it. This did not reveal any communication negatives and so I moved on to the next tool for this assignment purpose. The second tool which I used was Talkaholic Scale. This tool helps in evaluating if a person is talkative, and shows if the person tends to over-talk even in sensitive situations, leading to uncomfortable interactions. Another purpose of this tool is to evaluate if a person is open to listening to others (McCroskey & Richmond, 1995). As was the case with the tool of tolerance to disagreement, in the talkaholic scale as well, I got average scores, i.e. 24. This means that I am open to listening to others and talk as is required. Again, this tool did not reveal any communication negatives and so I moved on to the next tool for this assignment purpose.

Shortfalls and Real-Life Experiences of the Writer

After this, I selected the tool of Nonverbal Immediacy Scale-Self Report, which is also denoted as NIS-S. This tool is focused on the body language of the person, their expressions, and their use of hands and other parts of body, as modes of communication. This tool not only evaluates the body movement while verbal communication is going on, but also when a person is silent. For instance, where a person is agitated to say something, they might start tapping or getting animated. Such things are evaluated through this tool (Richmond, McCroskey & Johnson, 2003). In the series of average ratings, I again got an average score of 100 in this tool. This shows that neither I overuse my body language nor I under use it. In simple terms, my non verbal communication was average. The next tool which I used was Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension, which is also denoted as PRICA. This show the apprehensions which a person feels in communicating with people from varied cultural backgrounds. So, when a person is asked to talk to a person having different cultural background as the first person, he/she would get tensed up (McCroskey & McCroskey, 1988). As against the earlier tools, I did not get average scores in this tool. Instead, I got my first weakness through it, with the score of 59. This score shows that I have high intercultural communication apprehensions. To put it simply, when I had to communicate with a person from different cultural background from mine, I got very conscious and faced anxiety.

In the series of tools given to us, I then moved on to the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale, which is also denoted as SPCC. This is a tool through which the apprehensions of a person are analysed, when they have to communicate. The focus of this tool is on varied aspects, and analyses the communications of a person in different settings, like dyad, public, strangers, and comes to a total score in the end in context of apprehensions of a person being high or low (Neuliep & McCroskey, 1997). This was a difficult tool for me, since I have known it for some time that I face apprehensions in communicating with others. All the scores which I got in this tool showed that I have low communication skills, which means that I get anxious easily, when I have to communicate with people. The scores I got in this tool were public 47, meeting 23, group 60, dyad 50, stranger, 30, acquaintance 42.5, and friend, 62.5, giving me an overall score of 45. I have been facing anxiety since last some months and this tool confirmed my apprehensions.

Literature Review on Communication Related Apprehensions

Based on the tools which I used, I concluded that I have two big communication shortfalls. If I want to be successful in my personal and professional life, I need to get over these two shortfalls. These two shortfalls are communication apprehensions/anxiety and intercultural anxiety. In order to find solutions to my problems, I conducted a review of literature on these two key areas. But before highlighting this literature review, I would like to state two of the instances, which took place in the last year, which had already sowed a seed of doubt in my heart regarding my lack of confidence, and increasing anxiety in dealing with public, particularly when it came to people from different cultural backgrounds. I have not only faced these issues in professional spheres, but in my education life as well. I have always gotten nervous when I am asked to communicate with new students of my class, and even with new teachers. At times, I even face problem in communicating with my friends. The two specific professional incidents have been covered below.

I am very fond of movies, particularly of the sci-fi based movies, including the Marvel based movies. As I stated earlier, I had known for quiet sometime that I felt apprehensive in my communication with general public. This is the incident where I was confirmed that I have this comprehension. In order to remove this apprehension, and to earn some money, I decided to do part time job at the movie ticket hall, where I worked as a helper to the cashier. This allowed me to both face the crowd and to avoid the crowd. Whenever I got a chance, I made attempts to interact with a Marvel fan. When the movie Black Panther released, I was working one day, and due to the cashier falling sick, I was doing their job. A presumably talkative person made attempts to discuss the movie reviews with me, and asked if the movie was worth watching. I ignored the man completely and simply handed over the ticket to him. He did ask me if I was okay, as I was shaking a bit, but I could not respond. I could simply manage a smile, and the person tried to relax me. However, I still did not felt better and asked my co-worker to do the job for me. During the interval, one of the other people, who had witnessed this entire incident, approached me. As she was a person from different culture from mine, I immediately started feel nauseated. This was even before he had said anything. I knew I should not be feeling this anxious, but I still felt very uncomfortable. She told me to relax and even told me that she was a psychologist. She asked me if I needed to call anyone, but I refused. She was saying something but I still cannot recall it. When she attempted to give me a business card, which I presume was of her, I simply ran away. I did go back the next day to my part time job, but to quit.

Importance of Intercultural Communication

This is not the only case which confirmed for me that I had apprehensions about talking to people. My uncle has a bakery in Perth and I was visiting him during Christmas last year. He asked me to help me with work due to the excessive work load at his bakery, due to festive season. To my plight, the community where my uncle lives is an intercultural community. I do know a lot of people who came to his shop, but since it had been a long time since I visited that place, I faced a lot of difficulty in communicating with them. One of my childhood friends from my uncle’s neighbourhood came to meet me, and I could hardly talk much. I could not get as comfortable with him as I wanted to. I could visibly see the disappointment in his face, due to my responses, but my physical responses stopped me from getting comfortable. Even talking to an old known person, I faced difficulty in communicating with them. My uncle did try to make me comfortable and I could talk to him easily. However, I still could not feel easy, till I got back to his home. Every time I visited the shop to help uncle from that time onwards, I asked him to give me work behind the closed doors, so that I would not be required to face new people.

Communication apprehension, as the name suggests, refers to the anxiety which a person feels when they have to communicate with another person. There are not only apprehensions in general public speaking, but these are also faced, or to put it more aptly, are enhanced when culture comes into play (McCroskey, 2015). This is often referred to as intercultural apprehensions. People with low intercultural apprehensions are unable to communicate properly with a person of different cultural background. When it so happens, that an individual is required to address a group, which has members from different cultural or ethnic background, such person becomes anxious and nervous (Hammick & Lee, 2014). When it comes to intergroup anxiety, it is almost like a negative feeling and the person feeling restlessness where an individual has to indulge in communication with another person, where they have a different social identity, or where the cultural identity of the sender and receiver is different (Rahmani, 2017).

James C. McCroskey was the father of communication apprehensions, and he also covered a model of intercultural communication apprehensions. This was quite similar to the emotions and the thoughts which an individual got in the other communication apprehensions. However, as per Neuliep (2014), the intercultural apprehensions were related to the cultural and the linguistic barriers. These were based on the audience, the context, the situation faced and the traits of the person. The intercultural communications are based on the negative perceptions which an individual has in view of Mak, Brown and Wadey (2013) due to the differences in culture and the uncomfortable behaviour which a person displays when they come across an individual who belongs to some other culture. This was contributed to the imminent cross cultural interactions. And these feelings are only present when it comes to public speaking or intercultural speaking, and not in daily lives. When it comes to the circumstances where the anxiety in a person was present only in certain situations, for instance where the person was faced with job interview or had to speak up in the public, the same was a content based apprehension as per the literature contributed by Gumus, Hamarat and Dursun (2005).

Communication Apprehensions and Anxiety

It has been further stated that intergroup anxiety, as is the case with the general anxiety, only gives negative results, and also has a detrimental impact over the cognitive performance of a person, along with hampering the social interactions which such person has with others. In this regard also, there have been a number of scholars who have presented their views. There have been studies conducted by Hackman and Barthel-Hackman (1993) and Hsu (2007), in addition to one done by Pederson, Tkachuk and Allen (2008) on the diversified contextual incompatibility of communication apprehensions as a result of the cultural and non cultural elements revolving around the communications of an individual. The difference in the cultures of different people from public results in different communication apprehensions. So, an English person may get apprehensive when they have to communicate with a person from a different cultural background, say one from Arabic nations. These communication apprehensions are quite common based on the nation one belongs to, for instance, East Asian cultures, US, UK, Australia, Arabic countries, and Western Europe. Based on the area from which a person comes, they put their emphasis on the personal space, their requirements and the activities they indulge in. The need for personal space is particularly prominent in the people who come from individualist cultures (Jandt, 2017).

Pryor, Bulter and Boehringer (2005), Pederson, Tkachuk and Allen (2008), and Merkin (2009) are just a handful of scholars who have conducted extensive studies in this context. These scholars have noted down that there is a big difference in the individuals who come from high context cultures, for instance the ones from Japan, Korea, Arabic countries and China, from the ones which the low context cultures face, for instance the ones from US. This difference is the reason for a person or the individuals facing communication apprehensions. In the view of Hall (1976), when it comes to high context culture, most of the information is easily shares amongst the participants. He further stated that in such culture, there is a mutual perception of communication and the same is dependent upon the context of the communication. Though, where the case of low context culture was present, it was always more straight forwards, which also covered quite a lot more information in comparison. This makes the high context cultures less value and way more apprehensive in view of Pryor, Bulter and Boehringer (2005). Allen, O’Mara and Long (2014) discussed these communication traits being present in the communication taking place orally, based on the cultural context.

As has been stated earlier, McCroskey (2001) brought the concept of communication apprehensions as a fear associated with anticipated or real communication with different individuals. This apprehension, at its heart, is basically the psychological response to evaluation. Quickly, this psychology response is converted into physical response and the body reacts as per such perceptions of mind, which are not really present in majority cases. Often, the body prepares a fight or flight response when faced with speaking up (Sapolsky, 2004). A study conducted particularly on students by Horwitz, Horwitz and Cope (1991) revealed that students got anxious when they were required to address their very classmates, and that speaking in general public was not an easy task for all. North and Rivers (2001) have gathered the physical reactions in terms of confusions, sweating, discomfort and nausea when a person was faced with even the thought of public speaking. The solution to such apprehensions, both communication and intercultural apprehensions, could be stemmed from the work of Jones (2004). He stated that the anxiety faced while a person felt apprehensive had to be overcome, and instead of dealing it as a hurdle, it has to be deemed as a stepping stone, towards getting over the fears of a person. Effectively, there is a need of properly channelling of negative energy faced when a person feels apprehensive, to the positive energy of confidence while facing public or a person from other culture (Ohata, 2005).

The literature I read was very helpful, as it made me better understand why I was not able to control my physical responses, despite trying to do so, when I met my old friend in my uncle’s cafe. As the literature suggested that I need to channel my negative energy into positive energy, I have made an action plan, which I would follow for the next six months. This action plan covers different activities, which I would be following in the coming days, to try to improve on my communication apprehensions. I realize that removing these is not an easy task, and so I have created different tasks, which cater to both my fears and my interests. The drawn action plan is portrayed below.

The first step which I will be taking in my journey to improve my skills is maintaining a personal log entry, as has been suggested in the assignment file. This log would be a personal diary of sorts, which would cover my progress or journey, the problems I face, and my mini achievements, towards my path of removing my apprehensions. This log would be maintained daily, and in case one day is missed, it would be crucial to cover at least the highlights of the entire week in this log. The next step is to reconnect with my old friends, whilst expressing myself more before my existing group of friends. This is because recently I have been facing difficulty even in talking to my close friends. As I am a Marvel fan, I would try to visit a book store and interact with Marvel enthusiasts there. I would try to first listen into conversation of people, particularly the discussions of recent movies. And I would also attempt to indulge in such discussions. In order to gain confidence in communicating my thoughts, I would start a blog on movies, from September 2018 onwards, where I would try to express my entire thoughts. I would keep this blog open to public, so that new people can interact there with me and can give me criticism on my work. Beyond six months, the aim is to convert to vlogs, in order to face the world.

As it is very clear that I have intercultural apprehensions, I would take turns in visiting different religious places, and would also try to start interactions there, if possible. However, I would ensure that no person is offended due to my anxiousness. In a bold move, I would be giving the movie review of Venom, which is another Marvel movie, set to release in October this year (IMDb, 2018). I would also be organizing a fiction meet for the university students, where new people can talk to me regarding my fictional interests. This would have people from different backgrounds as well. I would also approach my mentor on the understanding if I need any external help to deal with my apprehensions. Lastly, as a fun activity, I would take a sign board in university which would state that I have communication apprehension, and this board would invite people to me, to interact or to help me get over this apprehension, with their suggestions. If I am able to take up all the aforementioned activities, I would consider myself successful. The most important criteria in this is starting the vlog and giving the review of Venom in class, without any hesitations or apprehensions.

To summarize the detailed discussion undertaken in this reflective essay, my journey began with filling the diagnostic tools and analysing my shortfalls. These weaknesses were then substantiated with two professional experiences which took place in the last year. Based on the knowledge gained through the conducted literature review, I gained more clarity on my problems, particularly on the lack of my physical control, despite wanting to control my anxiety. The literature offered certain suggestions, based on which I drew up an action plan for next six months, to get over my communication apprehensions and the intercultural apprehensions. It is expected that by following and undertaking the activities planned up for the next six months, I would be able to improve my communication shortfalls. This is not only important for my professional future, but is even important for my personal life as well.

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