Analyzing Communication Issues: Diagnostic Tools And Real-Life Examples

Interpersonal Communication and Skills

Write a Self Reflection Essay: Interpersonal Communication.

The process of exchanging information, feelings, and emotions through verbal and non-verbal communication is called as interpersonal communication. Individuals can develop and enhance the interpersonal skills by practicing them daily. There are two types of interaction direct and indirect in which message from one person is transferred to another person. It is necessary to have strong communication skills for developing impressive image in the workplace. One can self analyze his or her communication competencies for improvement via relevant solutions (Merckaert and et.al., 2015). The current essay includes five diagnostic tools for analyzing the communication issues. The identified two communication problems are discussed via real time example for better understanding. Along with this, the essay also involves literature review for explaining the theoretical aspects of the communication issues. In the end, the action is added for improving and identified problems.

There are various tools and techniques available which help in identifying the interpersonal communication skills within a person. With the help of an appropriate diagnostic tool, one can easily evaluate his or her communication competencies from the obtained scores (Certo, 2018). The five diagnostic tools which I used for analyzing my communication skills are as follows:

Non-Verbal Immediacy Scale-Self Report (NIS-S): This diagnostic tool depends upon the immediacy of individuals with respect to the communication. This tool helps in measuring the nonverbal immediacy as a self-report. The main purpose of this tool is to identify the individual differences in the expressions regarding nonverbal immediacy.

Self-perceived communication competence scale (SPCC): This diagnostic tool helps in obtaining the information with respect to communication skills of the individuals. The tool leads to identify the capability of the individuals in different types of communication context and with different types of receivers. This diagnostic tool measures the communication competencies of the people. It is necessary for the persons to know that the method is used for measuring perceived communication competencies instead of actual communication competencies. In the scale of this diagnostic tool, 0 represents the completely incompetent and 100 shows the competent.   

Personal report intercultural communication apprehension (PRICA): This diagnostic tool calculates the fear of people while interacting with others from different cultural groups. PRICA measures communication anxiety with respect to the situational contexts such as dyadic, small groups, meetings, public speaking and many more. Intercultural communication anxiety is one of the sub categories of the general communication apprehension. In this diagnostic tool individuals can evaluate their communication problem and resolve them by using effective methods. Along with this, it helps in evaluating confidence, self-esteem, listening skills and many more in an individual.   The intercultural communication anxiety is related to the culture and intercultural communication terms.

Diagnostic Tools to Analyze Communication Issues

Talkholic Scale: This communication diagnostic tool is used for measuring the compulsive communication. Some individuals likes to talk, they are highly verbal and face great difficulty in sitting quiet in the presence of other persons. On the other hand, some people talk less and give emphasis to the work. The term talks too much represents those who keep talking even then another person does not want to listen. According to the research, the more person talks, the more he or she considered as positive.

Tolerance for Disagreement: This scale is designed for calculating the degree to which a person can tolerate other disagreeing with the opinion. It is an ability to get engaged with the people who posses different opinions from the other without becoming emotional. Individuals having high argumentativeness possess more ability to deal with the more disagreement as compare to those who have less argumentativeness.

Thus, by using the above diagnostic tools I am able to analyze my communication skills and problems regarding it. The communication issues defined by all the five tools are interconnected to each other. These communication tools help me in knowing me about my communication style and preferences. As per the results of NIS-S, I have low referential skills which result in improper capacity to express the ideas in a clear manner in the group. The score obtained in this tool are 85 which is of moderate level. I am incapable of explaining the things among people properly which results to develop unclear statement or concepts. This communication problem is not good for group discussions and meetings held at the organization. Along with this, the results of Personal report intercultural communication apprehension (PRICA) represents that I am poor in social composure. I feel tensed and constrained while speaking among the people or socially. Due to this, I feel stressed while giving a presentation and expressing my views on the certain topic. This factor affects my personality, body language and develops a poor image in front of others. The score obtained is low i.e. only 30 which represents that I need to improve my skills for social composure.

On the other hand, Self-perceived communication competence scale (SPCC) shows that my skill of public speaking among the people of different culture is moderate as I feel less confident and nervous while speaking in public or meeting the individuals who belong to different culture at the workplace. The scores obtained in this tool is 85 which comes under moderate level on the scale. The results of Talkholic Scale show that I possess poor talking skills. I used to avoid people and does not listen to them properly which develop a bad impression of mine among them and define my impatient nature. My less talkative nature also creates misunderstandings or conflicts. In context to this, I need to enhance my listening skills so that I can answer others effectively and develop a positive image of mine. Thus, from the complete analysis, it is clear that I am weak at public speaking in front of people belongs to different culture and poor listening skills . Lastly, the outcome of Tolerance for Disagreement shows that I am not able to tolerate people who posses’ different opinions from mine. I feel calm and stress free and avoid arguing with the individuals on different subjects. The issue regarding poor referential skills, fear of speaking in public and among the people of different culture is related to the poor public speaking skills. I need to improve my both tolerance for disagreement and public speaking skills for developing effective communication competencies. The workplace needs strong interaction and interpersonal skills for gaining success and handling work properly.

Real-Life Examples of Communication Problems

The scores of all the diagnostic tools are falls in moderate level but their issues belong to the same area i.e. poor public speaking skills and listening skills. From the analysis and proper examination, it is clear that I need to improve my communication skills with the help of appropriate solution. Right method and strategy will help me in decreasing my fear regarding the public speaking and improving the listening skills. I have faced various issues at workplace regarding the identified two communication problems. With respect to the public speaking, I feel nervous, stressed, and incapable of answering properly, discussing the subjects socially, presenting myself socially and many more. I have to enhance this skill for controlling all the other factors and enhancing my quality of communication. On the other hand, my poor tolerance for disagreement leads to affect my decision making skills. By not responding to others for avoiding conflicts and misunderstandings I was creating problem for myself. Less tolerance for disagreement makes me impatient, less confident and affects my work quality and performance.

In last 12 months, while working as an Assistant manager at one of the management companies in France, I have faced some issues regarding poor public speaking and listening skills. I would like to present some example of the issues which I faced at my workplace. In context to the public speaking, my senior manager said me to develop a presentation on the ongoing current project having all important details like project status, issues we are facing, usage of resources, able to complete on time or not and many more. As I am good at IT skills, I created a proper presentation with all the necessary details, graphs, images, etc. While presenting the presentation in meeting among the team members, leader, and manager, I was nervous, tensed and less confident. Due to the fear of public speaking, I was unable to explain the topics properly among the members. I was not able to make eye contact with the people sitting in front of me. This situation develops my poor image in front of all the team members, leader, and manager of the company. My manager was disappointed in me. The poor performance of mine made my manager to assign the same work to someone else and present it in next week.

On the other hand, I also faced issue regarding poor tolerance for disagreement skills at my workplace. My manager was telling me all the necessary information regarding my new work which was not related to my field. Due to the less tolerance for disagreement, I agreed and responded to the work quickly without getting all the necessary details and understanding the work properly. Later after beginning my work, I started facing various issues regarding it. Due to the lack of proper information, I was unable to do work in an appropriate manner. I had to ask things to the manager again and again which resultant to delay in completion. Due to poor tolerance for disagreement and impatient nature, I created a bad impression of mine in front of the manager.

Solutions to Improve Communication Skills

Thus, from both the examples, it is clear that it is very much necessary for me to improve my public speaking and tolerance for disagreement for improving my work performance and communication at the workplace.

According to the Møller and Malling, (2018), “Communication is the way of conveying messages from one person or group to another with the help of mutually understood signs, languages and semiotic rules”. The communication includes the formation of communicative reason, the composition of the message, encoding message, transmission of the encoded message, reception, decoding of the obtained message and interpretation of the original message. Similarly, Selman and et.al., (2017), have said that “Communication plays an essential role in day to day life of an individual. Effective communication skills result to develop strong interpersonal communication and relationship”. With respect to this, there are many channels of communication such as visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, etc which helps in sending information from one person to another.

McCroskey, 2001 has defined that “Communication Apprehension (CA) refers to the level of fear which develops by the real or anticipated act of communication”. In context to this, CA represents the anxiety of an individual with respect to any communication skill, behavior or situation. This is linked with the idea of judgment from people and self image. There are four types of anxiety defined by the communication apprehension. van den Eertwegh and et.al., (2014), have stated that “Trait anxiety is related to the type of personality which a person feels at the time of communication. This anxiety is regardless of any situation, audience or context”. With respect to this, people facing trait anxiety used to avoid exposing themselves in public while any communication. Such type of anxiety or communication apprehension can be handled by practicing daily. On the other hand Lindberg and et.al., (2017), have said that “Context Anxiety develops due to some particular context which considers psychological response”. In context to this, it is not necessary that an individual can face CA while communicating with his or her best friend but can get anxiety while interacting with group or meeting. Public speaking is one of the popular examples of the context anxiety.

As per the view of Jackson, (2014), “Dissimilar to context anxiety, audience anxiety develops when a certain person of group of persons develops a problem with respect to the communication”. With reference to this, audience anxiety can either be caused by the familiar faces or unfamiliar individuals. Meeting to new people results to develop audience anxiety but getting knows each other, feeling comfortable while communication, etc decreases the level of apprehension. Apart from this Stokoe, (2014), has discussed that “The psychological reaction of an individual due to the certain situations which may not have a connection with that person or context is referred as situation anxiety”. Such anxiety develops due to the combination of audience and context which includes various dimensions and creates a different picture. Thus, each type of anxiety has its own reason which can be handled and resolved by daily practicing and using appropriate solutions.

Merckaert, Libert and Razavi, (2017), have said that “The process or action of speaking among the audience in live mode is called as public speaking”. With reference to it, people need confidence, self-esteem, and good communication skills while speaking in public. It is not easy to present themselves in front of an audience as it needs proper planning, analysis, and preparation. In addition to it Mercer-Mapstone and Matthews, (2017), have demonstrated that “Glossophobia i.e. speech anxiety represents the fear towards speaking in public”. Some people possess public speaking phobia regarding speaking in the audience while others have a broader social phobia. With respect to this Certo, (2018), has identified that “Fear towards speaking in public includes intense anxiety, avoidance of events, physical distress, nausea, and feeling of panic, stress, and nervousness”. The causes of glossophobia can be different such as fearful incident occurred during childhood, traumatic experiences, lack of communication skills, lack of confidence and many more.

According to the Hoffman, Anderson and Gustafsson, (2014), “The ability to receive and interpreting the messages properly within the communication process refers to listening”. In context to this, listening is one of the necessary parts of all effective communication. Without proper listening ability, messages or information used to misunderstand which results to break down the communication.  On the other hand Weyers and et.al., (2016), have found that “With the effective listening skills, it is also necessary to have good tolerance for disagreement for showing interest and representing the opinions”. With reference to this, tolerance for disagreement includes awareness regarding both verbal and non-verbal information. The ability of tolerating the disagreement is based upon the degree to which an individual perceives and understands the messages. Similarly Hashim, (2015) has stated that “Proper techniques in handling the disagreement at workplaces develop effective relations among the workers and between the management and staff”. In an organization, it is necessary to disagree wih the views of others effectively for accomplishing the desired objectives and working effectively.

The interpersonal communication framework represents that, interaction is not only about talking; it is about enhancing common understanding with the help of conversations. Some workers need training and time for developing effective communication skills so that they can communicate fluently in the organization. As per the view of Moore and Morton, (2017), “Knowledge sharing, relationship management, and team commitment are important for delivering quality performance and work but it is only possible through proper interaction and conversation”. With regards to this, every manager looks for strong communication skills while hiring any new candidate for a certain position in the firm. On the other hand Certo, (2018), has said that “Communication style and type need to adjust according to the need of the people and situation both”. Thus, communication plays a major role in understanding messages, delivering appropriate responses and maintaining relations within the workplace.

Magsamen-Conrad and et.al., (2016), have stated that “While talking about the upward communication, skill of listening plays an extremely significant role”. In context to this, there are many situations when management of a firm sends messages downward via business organization for accomplishing some objectives. Juniors and assistants need to have effective listening skills for following the orders given by the senior employees or their managers. Improper listening and communication not only creates error and missed the deadlines but also leads to cause different workplace problems such as low employee morale, poor job performance, low quality work, etc. It is the duty of managers to invest sufficient time for ensuring that the goals of the projects are free of any error and posses proper sharing of ideas and knowledge. Apart from this Gillis, Morris and Ridgway, (2014), has found that “Employee communication in an organization is referred as a management tool and motivational force”. Effective communication includes free flow of ideas, instructions, and sharing of experiences between the employer and employee. Companies with strong communication leverage the relationship between employee and manager which leads to enhancing the formal communication process.

According to the Maatouk-Bürmann and et.al., (2016), “Listening is the medium with the help of which persons gain a large proportion of their education, information, understanding, ideas, and sense of values”. In context to this, out of the total time spent on the communication, 40-50% time is taken by listening, 25-30% by speaking, 11- 16% by reading and 9% by writing. One can answer properly if he or she has listened to the information actively. Thus, listening skills need to be strong so that, the assistant manager can understand what his or her senior is saying and wanting.

Continuous interaction and conversations within the workplace develop a positive working environment and make workers work stress free with full dedication. On the other hand, social interactions and information sharing among the workers need not be limited to e-mail or chat rooms. Managers need to schedule group discussions and meetings at the workplace for discussing the project or work. With regards to this, group meetings will help staff in improving their communication skills by speaking among all, sharing ideas, showing interest in work, etc. By presenting themselves among the team members, employees can reduce the fear of social composure.

Thus, communication plays a very important role in both personal and professional life. From the above, it is clear that effective interaction is key to get success in the workplace. Both verbal and non-verbal communication results to create positive, open and stress free working environment.

After analyzing the two communication problems which need development, I have created an action for the next 6 months to improve them. The plan is as follows:

 Firslty, I will maintain a diary for recording all the necessary information like communication issues, solutions for overcoming them, issues I am facing while implementing the solutions, objectives achieved or not, timeframe, etc in it. My personal diary will help me in managing all the information properly and keeping me on track. It will also reflect my progress towards development and enhancement of the interpersonal skills. In the end, the diary will aware me whether I have achieved the desired objective or not, areas in which I have improved, etc. Secondly, I will join coaching for developing effective public speaking skills. Suggestions and instructions of the faculty will help me in reducing my fear towards the social composure. For improving my public speaking skills, I would have to listen carefully to the instructions of the mentor which will indirectly enhance my listening skills as well. Daily practice of giving presentation among the other students at coaching and among the family members at home will reduce my communication apprehension.

Apart from the above solutions, I will read books, articles, magazines, and journals on public speaking and tolerance for disagreement for reducing the fear and improving communication skills. I will started showing my opinions and perceptions on the subjects for developing tolerance for disagreement. On the other hand, I will join training sessions conducted by Activia Training with respect to the effective communication skills. Proper guidance and advice will lead to enhancing my verbal communication with respect to the public speaking. Under this training session, I will also get aware of the body language, non-verbal communication and other factors which plays an essential role in speaking among the people. Moreover, this training course of Activia will also improve my ability to change communication style as per the need and demand of the situation. This training session also helps me in developing skills for tolerating disagreement.

The feedbacks and reviews of my senior employees at workplace will also help me in improving my lack points with respect to the communication. Time to time feedback from the higher authorities or colleagues will aware me whether I have chosen right strategies for reducing my communication problems or not.  The Gantt Chart for my action plan is as follows:

Table 1: Gantt Chart

Action	Jun	July	August	September	October	November
Maintaining Personal diary
Joining coaching
Reading books, journals, articles
Daily Practice
Communication Course

Conclusion

From the above, it is concluded that I used five communication diagnostic tools for analyzing my communication problems. The two issues I have identified are public speaking and poor tolerance for disagreement. I am facing issues regarding quality of work and performance due to these examined communication problems. On the other hand, a literature review in the essay pays attention to the communication apprehension, it s types, verbal communication, and importance of public speaking and tolerance for disagreement at the workplace. In the end, I have created an action plan for six months for improving my communication skills by overcoming the issues

References

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