Business Ethics And Sustainability: Communication Skills Assessment And Improvement

Diagnosis and Reflection

Discuss about the Business Ethics and Sustainability Employee.

In the present contemporary professional world it is estimated that an employee spend more than 75% of their time in building interpersonal relations in workplaces, so it can be understood why most of the organizational problems have the root in poor communication skills. The need for employees with effective communication skills is growing in business world simply because it is necessary for building rapport both at the interpersonal and organizational levels. An individual success in professional world truly based on one’s ability to communicate well. Communication is an important process as it allows us to share our interest and take important decisions in our personal as well as in professional career. The purpose of this essay is to engage in reflective practice, using 5 diagnostic communication tools and their feedback, so that I can identify two key areas of personal capability which can be improved to increase my communication effectiveness. Lastly, I have sketched a six month action with timeline and success measure included.

Every individual has different communication style and most of the time the person is unaware about the strength and weakness in his communication style. According to famous business expert and author Mark Murphy, there are four basic communication style and they are Analytical, Intuitive, Functional and Personal. The tools that I have used in this study to access my communication style are Johari Window, Communications Style Questionnaire, Assertiveness Questionnaires, Interpersonal Communication Skill Test and Listening Skills Test.

The basic purpose of Johari window tool is for self-awareness and personal development for improve understanding between individuals (Saxena, 2015). In Johari Window, it was found according to the test that it is evident that I am aware that I have a bold and energetic personality and adaptive in situations. Also, I am logical and spontaneous. But I also get self conscious at times. Whereas according to my friends, I am a friendly and approachable person who they can trust and can depend upon but get nervous and tensed when I am in pressure. This tool has helped me to recognize what my view about self and what is the social image I have in friends and acquaintances (Lowy & Hood 2011). Undergoing the test has resulted in better understanding in self awareness.

The Communication Style Self Assessment test was conducted to strengthen my communication skills and develop my ability to connect with different people with different communication style. According to the test result, I have a balanced score in Communication Style Self Assessment. That means I have no problem in expressing myself most of the time but according to situational needs I tend to obviously and honestly convey my needs, requirements and opinions in a way which is thoughtful of others.

Literature Review

The Assertive Test results shows that I am a typical self-assured individual, who reasonably let other individual, know my disagreement with them, especially when I feel I am being poorly treated. This trait shows that I have self respect and want others to treat me in that way.

As we live in an environment where most of the times people have different communication style and poor communication leads to misunderstanding and chaos. So, the communication diagnostic tools assisted in swift understanding these differences and grow simple strategies to become an effective and efficient communicator. These self assessments will facilitate to understand what really is going on when we experience miscommunication at personal as well as professional life. In this test, I found that I have a clear voice when putting an opinion and people mostly get what I try to convey. I have also empathy towards others which helps others in trusting me. But according to this test I have to improve my listening skills.  This will help me to become more efficient in my communication skills. By this way when I am outlining the impact of their behaviour on others, I am giving them the probability to reflect on their actions and judge on what needs to be improved. This process also facilitates to avoid making assumptions which can create confusion and chaos and harm interpersonal relations in workplace (Griffin, 2013).

Last by not the list, I took the Listening skills test. According to the result of this test, I found that I do moderately in the listening part. It is a well known fact that in effective communication listening is a significant part as it reduces miscommunication, better interaction between the speaker and the receiver, better interpretation of the message and greater productivity with lesser mistakes (Boud, 2013). This test identified that I have patience but sometimes when the situation becomes tense, I tend to lose control and become impatient which is a huge drawback in effective communication. An active listener is always able to communicate well with others.

According to the above communication diagnostic tool’s analysis, it is evident that I am a Assertive Communicator. An assertive communicator has generally high self esteem and values their time and self (Bishop, 2013). They also strongly promoter for their rights and requirements without disrespectful towards others or other’s rights. I work as a mechanical engineer in a two wheeler automobile organization. Lately in the past one year, I had two professional interactions and drawing reference from there I have identified some of the shortcomings in my communication style. Recently, I had an interaction with my superior regarding work progress and promotion. Also, I had an appointment with the distributors regarding market trends, client feedbacks and what aspects we need to improve in our two wheeler automobile so that we can meet customer expectations. Though most of my attributes in communication style indicates towards being an Assertive Communicator, I have identified that I need to improve and develop my listening skills as well as I should also improve my skills to accept difference in point of view and perceptions. Although I am a good communicator with persuading skills, I need to improve my persuasive skills because it is one of the basic qualities that successful all leaders and business person have in common (Nahavandi, 2016).

The word communication can be simply explained as the exchange of beliefs and ideas with the objective to convey information with one another. It is a two way process with the basic objective to exchange and convey an individual’s ideas, beliefs, feelings, opinions and necessities with transparency to arrive at a harmony or a mutually acceptable result. In the present professional environment, effective communication skills are assets of an individual (Ting-Toomey, 2012). It is basically an ability which is mainly become skilled with experience, but when an individual learns to apply, an effective communication can build long term relationships in professional carrier regardless of defensive adversities. Being an effective communicator will support me to become resourceful while taking initiatives and making important decisions in professional career (Griffin, 2013).

Also it will facilitate an individual to participate in team work and engage in effective workplace communication. There are various conceptual communication models which mainly explain the human communication process. One of the basic communication models is Continuous Loop Model, which was developed by assuming that communication is a system or machine (Neuliep, 2014). In this process or system, communication acts as the gear so that the system runs properly. Keeping in mind the Continuous loop model, it is necessary that the two ways process of communication has a swift flow of information so that the basic initiative of information sharing becomes fulfilled (Spitzberg, & Cupach, 2012). This process is theoretically correct but in practical when the sender stops sending signals, the process ends. Taking reference from the Continuous model, increasing my listening skill will not only improve my communication skills but also will assists in continuous flow of information in the conversation.

An active listener has the ability to understand situation and information better and thus capable of giving more accurate feedback or suggestions Booth, 2009). To explain the concept better we will take assistance of the situation- behaviour- impact feedback tool. For instance in my meeting with distributors, we had a discussion on customer’s demand, market trends and how we can improve the braking system in the two wheeler to meet the customer expectation. I had to give feedback about the meeting to my senior and co-workers. If I had said that customer has a liking for our new two wheeler models showing positive results in sales figure but the brake system needs to be improved. This will only convey the half information about the meeting and details about the improvement needed in the braking system does not convey in the conversation. This clearly creates confusion from the conversation. The conversation does not clearly states what’s need to be improved and what needs sustenance. The model was developed by The Centre of Creative Leadership which helped me to deliver more effective feedback. It focuses on the comments on detailed circumstances and behaviours, and then summarizes the impact that these behaviours have on others. The model details the feedback structure like situation, behaviour and impact. When I followed my feedback according to this pattern my senior and co-workers tend to understand what I was trying to convey them. Active listening also improves the ability to learn new things and accept different perspective for better decision making (Bodie, 2012). In the contemporary business organizations have diverse workforce and we will meet diverse co-workers with diverse perspectives. Becoming a good listener or active listening skills will facilitate in learning new things and also people will tend to trust and naturally drawn towards me (West & Turner, 2010). Also, becoming active listener I will tend to become more sensitive towards complex layers of cultural differences in workplace. As a result, I will keep in touch with the progression of cultural change at global level.

Although my communication diagnostic test results shows that I am a good persuader but I believe in contemporary professional world, every individual needs to improve their perusing skills as it is needed in every sphere of professional world. Persuasion is the skill that influences others to agree on a common idea or goal (Shockley-Zalabak, 2011). Without persuasion skill, I will not be able to get the resources I want or I will not be able to communicate my unique ideas and abilities with others. Persuasive skill is also an important ability in negotiations which is very important for job aspirants and also for professionals (Armstrong, 2011).On the other hand with the right approach and persuading skill an individual can achieve amazing results and climb corporate as well as social ladder. The contemporary organizations comprises of diverse workforce from diverse cultural and socio-economic background (Spencer-Oatey, & Franklin, 2009). So, it is natural that they will come with diverse perspectives and viewpoints. Thus, managing those diverse workforces to bring expected outcome from them is one of the major challenges of resent business leaders. As a result, organizations look for potential candidates with effective communication skills, persuasive power and good negotiator (Hargie, 2010). The basic task is to persuade the diverse workforce to work towards a common goal or idea for organisational success.

Conclusion:

In the above essay we have discussed about my communication style and the basic skills that I need to develop to improve my communication skill with reference of the Action plan rubric for effective communication in the appendix. Effective communication skill is one of the basic sets of abilities which are required to succeed in personal as well as professional life. It is a well known fact that many jobs in cotemporary market needs candidates with strong communication skills and candidates with good communication skills are preferred. Effective communication skills can be achieved with experience and regular practicing to improve techniques. Choosing right approach, books, websites and training will facilitate in learning of complicated concepts of effective communication.  That is why I have sketched a six month action plan that I that I have followed to improve my communication skills. According to five different communication diagnostic tool’s test result I possess a assertive communication style, the only skills I lack are active listening and maintaining patience in communication process. I have focused on parts like listening, eye contact, smile, humility, gestures, and voice modulation. I have taken part in various debates and public speaking programs in college and university level to improve my public speaking. For resources, I have used different online video sources from YouTube and read online articles on communication skills. I have also visited library to gather information about verbal communication skills from different scholarly articles. To become an active listener I have developed the strong signs of attentiveness and also learned the art of questing and remembering.  I created a plan to improve my influencing skills by developing varies of skills like emotional intelligence and persuasion power. I also tracked my potential benefits by keeping notes on daily basis about occasions where different aspects of my development plan become successful or not. Keeping tack on the areas I needed improvement become very useful because it pin pointed the problem areas. I had also tried to persuade different co-workers at professional levels to work on a project. The basic intend was to increase understanding by taking into account how my messages might be received by my co-workers. Working in a multi cultural business organization, I have experienced how miscommunication can build organizational conflict. So, improving my communication skill will also facilitate in building conflict resolution skills. Active listening and good communicator are two important aspects that a manager should possess to have effective conflict resolution skill. Also, having empathy towards others and accepting different perspective will facilitate in my professional growth. At the end of this assignment I learned the importance of effective communication skills in becoming successful and maintain a positive attitude with a smile.

Reference:

Armstrong, M. (2011). How to be an Even Better Manager: a complete AZ of proven techniques and essential skills. Kogan Page Publishers.

Bishop, S. (2013). Develop your assertiveness (Vol. 10). Kogan Page Publishers.

Bodie, G. D. (2012). Listening as positive communication. The positive side of interpersonal communication, 109-125.

Booth, W. C. (2009). The rhetoric of rhetoric: The quest for effective communication. John Wiley & Sons.

Boud, D. (2013). Enhancing learning through self-assessment. Routledge.

Griffin, R. W. (2013). Fundamentals of management. Cengage Learning.

Hargie, O. (2010). Skilled interpersonal communication: Research, theory and practice. Routledge.

Lowy, A., & Hood, P. (2011). The power of the 2 x 2 matrix: Using 2 x 2 thinking to solve business problems and make better decisions. John Wiley & Sons.

Nahavandi, A. (2016). The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson.

Neuliep, J. W. (2014). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach. Sage Publications.

Saxena, P. (2015). JOHARI WINDOW: An Effective Model for Improving Interpersonal Communication and Managerial Effectiveness. SIT Journal of Management, 5(2), 134-146.

Shockley-Zalabak, P. (2011). Fundamentals of organizational communication. Allyn & Bacon.

Spencer-Oatey, H., & Franklin, P. (2009). Intercultural interaction: A multidisciplinary approach to intercultural communication. Springer.

Spitzberg, B., & Cupach, W. (2012). Handbook of interpersonal competence research. Springer Science & Business Media.

Ting-Toomey, S. (2012). Communicating across cultures. Guilford Press.

West, R., & Turner, L. H. (2010). Understanding interpersonal communication: Making choices in changing times. Cengage Learning.