The Importance of Business Communication (PDF)

Running head: EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION 2
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Diagnosis and reflection..............................................................................................................................3
Using 5 diagnostic tools related to communication.................................................................................3
Findings of the tools................................................................................................................................6
Two key communication issues...............................................................................................................7
Reflect on two recent professional interactions.......................................................................................7
Literature review.........................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................14
Appendix...................................................................................................................................................18

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Introduction
This essay is a self-reflection assessment of my communication skills which is relied on the data
generated through five diagnostic techniques. It also emphasizes on the two way process of
communication. It also explains the concern generated by different techniques of diagnostic. The
concern regarding communication is identified within me, which could be complex to develop
my personal communication. These issues are anxiety when speaking in the public and giving
the presentation in depth and low level of intercultural communication apprehension. In addition,
this essay presents the literature review to focus on the key theories and concepts associated with
interaction concern. By the reflective procedure, understanding on practices has increased by me
that could be applied by me when dealing with concern of communication. After the review of
literature, these practices will also demonstrated by me when constructing the action plan.
Diagnosis and reflection
Using 5 diagnostic tools related to communication
Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale (SPCC)
I have applied several diagnostic techniques for assessing my communication in the different
interacting situation. The first technique was self-perceived communication competence
questionnaire that is a sign of how an individual assess their own competencies of
communication when facing overabundance communication situations among a group of
receivers.
The self-perceived communication competence scale was established to collect the data
associated with how competent individuals feel in sort of communication way with a different
type of receivers. Early self-report determines the competencies that are structured to assess the
competencies of developers and evaluates the elements of communication competence. This

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scale is created to demonstrate the communication competence of the participants (Shi,
Brinthaupt, and McCree, 2015). Since, an individual makes a judgment regarding
communication (such as whether they will even do it) hence it could be their perception about
outside observers. It is significant that users of SPCC address that users are not a determinant of
real communication competence yet it is a measure of perceived competence. While these two
types of measures could be substantially associated, they are not the same thing. This measure
estimates that above .85 score is good alpha reliability and demonstrates the strong validity. This
measure also indicates the substantial predictive validity (Lie, 2018). In addition, a score of
higher SPSS demonstrates the top interacting capability of self-perceived and common way of
communication (public, dyad, meeting, and group) with receivers (friend, associate, and visitors)
Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension (PRICA)
Another technique was PRICA (personal report of Intercultural communication apprehension)
which measures the feeling of an individual with regards to communication by asking to people
for assessing the diverse communication condition and how one would act in them. This
technique is composed of twenty-four statement regarding the feeling of communication with
other individuals. In this way, the score should be between 24 and 120 where below 24 score and
above 120 score shows the mistakes in the computing score. Further, results which come
amongst 83 and 120 demonstrate the maximum extent of CA and results which come amid 55
and 83 illustrates the moderate extent of CA as well as results which come amongst 24 and 55
exhibits the low extent of CA (communication apprehension).
Nonverbal Immediacy Scale Self Report (NIS-S)
Nonverbal immediacy is a term which is practiced for assessing the attitude used to signal
positive feelings with regards to another person. The notion relied on the performance of Albert

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Mehrabian completed in the 1970s. He is the foundation of renowned statistic that about 97% of
communication is non-verbal. The non-verbal immediacy scale determines the difference
between people of non-verbal immediacy. It was established by Virginia Richmond, James
McCrotsky, and Aaron Johnson in the year of 2003. This interactive is the version of self-report.
It is an advanced measure of non-verbal immediacy as a self-report (Hammick, and Lee, 2014).
Alpha reliability projected that about .90 score must be projected. It determines the more validity
as compared to earlier developed instruments as it has large amount of diverse contains. The
expected validity of this instrument is also greater.
While applying this technique then, there would be need for identify distinguishes in self-reports
results which come amongst males with females. It is statistically with socially vital for an
individual. Further, extensive discrepancy in outcome of this mechanism could be accredited to
natural. It also estimated whether these disparity are authentic (where, females could be really
more nonverbal as compared to males) or role of social attractiveness (where, females believe
they must be more rapid as compared to males think they should be) or a role of real notion has
not yet been estimated (Bertsch, 2016).
Talkaholic Scale
The fourth technique was scale of talkaholic that determines the obsessive interaction. Certain
individuals are obsessed to communicate. They are extremely spoken individual with have high
complexity being calm in the existence of another individual. The score should be between 10
and 50. There is a large number of individuals whose result comes amongst 30 are borderline
talkholics with could be competent for controlling the interacting several times. However,
occasionally, these individuals discover themselves in the circumstances whether it is complex to
be calm in case of obtaining the losses from communicate (Arquero, Fernández-Polvillo, Hassall,

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and Joyce, 2017). An individual with scores above 40 is talkaholics. They are actually obsessive
communicators.
Tolerance for Disagreement Scale (TFD)
The fifth technique was tolerance for disagreement scale that was intended to assess the degree
by which people can abide another individual incompatible with what the people thinks to be
factual. This aspect is homogenous to that of argumentativeness. It is stated that conflict in the
interpersonal communication is in the wider area shows the tolerance of disagreement of the
communicators. It also depicts the degree of liking between an individual. Alpha reliability
expects 0.85 for the Tolerance for Disagreement scale (Perrault, and Silk, 2015). In addition,
above 46 scores demonstrates the high TFD and below 32 indicates the low TFD. Scores amid
32 and 46 show the moderate TFD.
Findings of the tools
The outcomes from all the questionnaires were obtained through diagnostic tools. These results
were quite accurate and I have gained my learning about my communication style as well as a
preference for them. In Self-Perceived Communication Competence, I have obtained 78 score
which indicates that I have average Self-Perceived Communication Competence. It is also stated
that I have relaxed feeling while converse with my associates and making communication on
regular time. On the other hand, I feel sometimes uncomfortable while converse in the public and
amongst large set of individuals as well as meetings (Goldman, Martin, Bryand, DiClemente,
and Ditrinco, 2014).
From the outcome of PRICA (Personal Report of Communication Apprehension), I have
addressed that moderate anxiety have found on me while converse in a meeting and public. I
have also found that my overall CA (communication apprehension) result was 28 which, come

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under the category of low extent of ICA (intercultural communication apprehension)
(LaRochelle, and Karpinski, 2016).
The Nonverbal Immediacy Scale Self Report (NIS-S) score of ā depicts that I experienced a high
level of communication apprehension when giving a presentation that is associated with
Nonverbal Immediacy. The fourth diagnostic technique, talkaholic scale provided me with a
score of 32 demonstrating the borderline talkholic. Lastly, the tolerance for disagreement score
provides me a score of 47 which indicates the high scale of tolerance for disagreement
(Rimkeeratikul, Zentz, Yuangsri, Uttamayodhin, Pongpermpruek, and Smith, 2016).
Two key communication issues
It is analyzed that the score for Self-Perceived Communication Competence and Personal Report
of Communication Apprehension comes in the range of average and low. Hence, I observed that
there is a requirement for myself to enhance those fields of interaction whether I highly agreed
that it is beneficial for communicating at the business level. I should try to decline the extent of
apprehension from average to low.
In case of PRICA (Personal Report of Communication Apprehension), I always try to eliminate
the conflicts with disagreement from the intercultural interaction and also making efforts for
resolving the problem tactfully. However, I believed disagreement is predictable in case of
business particularly, in judgment. Further, it is found that communication could create
complexity in case of generating disagreeing beliefs (Sabri, and Qin, 2014).
Reflect on two recent professional interactions
I would like to show different experience, which were happened in last six months. This
experience reflects on anxiety in public speaking and delivering a presentation in a meeting. First
illustration was related to when I was deal as legal manager in company of business law. In this

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company, I was allocated the project for interpreting the findings to improve the process of
sending responses, pleas with claims to courts in the predetermined due date. Moreover, I have to
interpret the outcome obtained by the survey and meeting with the partners (Kim, Hwang, and
Cho, 2018).
Earlier to this meeting, I felt fairly anxious as I understood that I have required articulating my
results in an appropriate manner as my associate, all of whom are legal representatives with
having an inadequate understanding about the management tasks. Moreover, evaluating my
earlier experience, legal representatives is difficult audience and this only increased the demands
for interacting with delivering the presentation as precisely and visibly as feasible. When I was
ready for presentation then, I found it complex for concentrating and remembering the content of
communication (Amiri, and Puteh, 2018).
The second example of a communication problem was associated with the intercultural
communication. When I was working in the multinational company of Australia then I faced
difference in behavior of people due to intercultural communication. Behavioral difference amid
me and my colleagues of different cultures could cause misunderstandings. Australian culture
has guiding principle regarding what is considered in a feasible attitude. Under Australian
cultures, demonstrating in the eye of an individual at the time of talking could show my rude
behavior whereas under the other culture non-participation from doing so, shows the rude
behaviour (Coetzee, Schmulian, and Kotze, 2014).
Literature review
Communication apprehension
As per the view of Magsamen-Conrad Tetteh, and Lee (2016), communication apprehension
could be referred as a fear and anxiety with regards to expected and unexpected communication

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circumstances within the individual and set of people. Because of these unfavorable associations
regarding communication, a person with the elevated phase of communication apprehension will
refrain from willingly engaging themselves in oral communication.
In support of this, Aeni, Jabu, Rahman, and Strid (2017) stated that there is four type of
communication apprehension that is anxiety associated with audience, situation, context, and
audience. Trait-related anxiety defined as an individual who is avoiding public speaking due to
inadequate understanding and experience however with practice will be competent to perform in
the public speaking movement.
Machell, Blalock, Kashdan, and Yuen, (2016) stated that public speaking is defined as the
converse of an individual to communicate amongst the audience because of low apprehension
amongst the speaker. In addition to this, context communication is defined by the novelty
situation and uncertainty. Along with this, situation anxiety can be developed through integration
of components like social, psychological with cultural components. The competence for
interacting is theoretically different from the communication apprehension. But, there are strong
unfavorable relations amid factors. The key cause of communication concern demonstrated the
low competencies of an individual to temporarily overcome their anxiety and keep the
performance in disagreeable circumstances and in the unfavorable relations.
On the other hand, Barnett and Johnson (2016) discussed that public speaking competence is
required in the life of an organization. Their investigation also shows that a predominant
component of success in the professional career and developing the creditability and competency
to interact fluently. From the investigation outcomes, it was also assessed that the degree to
which communication apprehension impact the action of people is prominent. Consequently,
how important it is to lower the extent of communication apprehension so it does not indicate the

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extensive unfavorable implication for individual’s professional competence within an
organization (Noga, and Rupert, 2017).
Intercultural communication apprehension
As per the view of Simons and Riley (2014), culture aids the people for assessing the way of
observing the viewpoints on the world, individuals, and incident. It also construes the way of
beliefs, ideas, and life that is shared by an individual of the same society and goes through from
one development to another. As a significant concern for all individual, engaged on the basis of
social life and incorporating the basis of organizational structure. Reflecting the homogenous or
different culture structure in which people are engaged in the communication procedure is
regarded as an initial phase of intercultural communication.
In contrast to this, Oommen (2014) stated that the aspect of intercultural communication is
referred as a communication procedure that exists between groups with different cultures. These
groups are stated to be diverse from each other with regards to world perspectives, behavior
patterns, norms, and values. An individual could be occasionally unwilling to interact with each
other or be nervous during the procedure of communication because of cultural differences in the
intercultural communication procedure. This apprehension is called as the intercultural
communication anxiety.
Sham and Azmi (2018) stated that intercultural communication anxiety is referred as
nervousness and fear of an individual who could be created in the face of interacting with a
people with different culture. Intercultural communication nervous may create in certain cases.
There are two important things named uncertainty and anxiety. People who have high anxiety
feel themselves in uncertain circumstances because, during the interpersonal communication

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procedure, the person or situation they encounter is different and new (Munz, and Colvin, 2018).
Thus, it causes the nervousness level of individuals to increase more.
In favored to this, Hsu and Huang (2017) opined that there are different components which may
affect the level of uncertainty feeling under different elements such as the shared communication
network, the similarity amid people communicating, social belonging and the noticeability
amongst foreigners interacting. When a person in the intercultural communication media is
competent to realize the culture is different from his then they may be less shy and accordingly
experience less communication anxiety.
Action plan
After determine the two communication skills issues, I make action plan for overcoming the
issues in next six months. Initially, maintain a personal journal would be effective thought
procedure to maintain my each daily activity as it would support to accomplish my goal and
support to react on front of others. In addition, it is also analyzed journal would be imperative for
effectively demonstrates areas that required to change. It would also support to make an effective
plan for run in the future. I improved my skills effectively by considering the journal article as it
supports to make framework for upcoming plan (Hashemi, Hadavi, and Valinejad, 2016). I have
discussed with my tutors regarding my speech anxiety issue and follow their recommendations
as it support to overcome my speech anxiety issue effectively. I hired a mentor who has more
than 20 years of experience in the diploma professional coaching. He has good experience in
overcoming various communication issues. I would think to participant in their coaching class
where I will improve my presentation skills and confidence level at the time dealing with others.
It is also analyzed that mental practices and approaches could be imperative for effectively
improving athlete’s performance (Kim, 2015). In addition, it is also analyzed that I would be

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capable improve my communication skills and make enable to deal with the different situation of
communication issues. In addition, it is also analyzed that I would familiar with literature about
communication anxiety and interpersonal battles. I have used different books like CA, and
efficiency, whole guidelines for public speaking, with dealing interpersonal conflict. In addition,
it is also analyzed that I have used interpersonal communication course to enhance my
communication skills (McCroskey, 2015). It will also direct impact on improving my
professionalism and significance in communication in the organization. Moreover, this course
could be supportive for improving the capability to modify communication style as it could be
relied on communication circumstances. I will also join course of Public Speaking wherein I
trained by “the voice business” as it would support to decline my public speaking anxiety and
enhance more awareness about the ways of presentation among huge amount of people (Neuliep,
2017). This course also offer ways by which I gain my understanding about the non-verbal
communication technique as it could make effective communication. I will be capable to make
effective speech. In addition, it is also analyzed that after six months completion, I realized that I
gained my understanding towards future presentation at college in the organization. I understood
that learning communication could be imperative for improving my communication skills and
interpersonal skills that could be used by me in future (Shi-Yong, and Ali, 2015).
Figure 1 Gantt chart of the action plan
Gantt Chart showing Action Plan
June-
18
July-
18
August
-18
September
-18
October
-18
November-
18
Reading Journal articles
Developing Memo
Discussing with Mentor

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going on crowd
Participating in Cultural
Fest
Weekly communication
with strangers
Conclusion
From the above interpretation, it can be concluded that this essay presents the concise perception
of different diagnostic technique of communiction that were used by me to collect the data to
identify my issue in communication. Further, different communication concerns were addressed
such as low intercultural communication with speaking in public. These issues are associated
with the communication apprehension aspects and theories as well as disagreement regarding
intercultural communication. It can be also summarized that intercultural communication is
wider aspect which is discussed in the literature review. It is also found that the verbal with non-
verbal communication, emotions, communication and listening also creates complexity in
intercultural communication. It can be also evaluated that CA addresses different type of
communication apprehension with competencies for interacting and speaking in the public. In
the last, an action plan was developed based on the outcome of the investigation.

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References
Aeni, N., Jabu, B., Rahman, M. A., & Strid, J. E. (2017). English Oral Communication
Apprehension in Students of Indonesian Maritime. International Journal of English
Linguistics, 7(4), 158.
Amiri, F., & Puteh, M. (2018). Oral Communication Apprehension among International Doctoral
Students. English Language Teaching, 11(2), 164-171.
Arquero, J. L., Fernández-Polvillo, C., Hassall, T., & Joyce, J. (2017). Relationships between
communication apprehension, ambiguity tolerance and learning styles in accounting
students. Revista de Contabilidad, 20(1), 13-24.
Barnett, M. D., & Johnson, D. M. (2016). The perfectionism social disconnection model: The
mediating role of communication styles. Personality and Individual Differences, 94, 200-
205.
Bertsch, K. R. (2016). Digitally Mediated: Exploring the Correlation Between Hyper-reliance on
Electronically-Mediated Communication, Verbal Communication Apprehension, and
Interpersonal Relationship Skills. UK: Gonzaga University.
Coetzee, S. A., Schmulian, A., & Kotze, L. (2014). Communication apprehension of South
African accounting students: The effect of culture and language. Issues in Accounting
Education, 29(4), 505-525.
Goldman, Z. W., Martin, M. M., Bryand, M. C., DiClemente, R. K., & Ditrinco, E. A. (2014).
College students' communication apprehension, receiver apprehension, and views about
discussing condom use. North American Journal of Psychology, 16(2), 277.
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Machell, K. A., Blalock, D. V., Kashdan, T. B., & Yuen, M. (2016). Academic achievement at
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Sabri, U., & Qin, T. Y. (2014). Communication apprehension among Nilai college students.
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Appendix
Gantt Chart showing Action Plan
June-
18
July-
18
August
-18
September
-18
October
-18
November-
18
Reading Journal articles
Developing Memo
Discussing with Mentor
going on crowd
Participating in Cultural
Fest
Weekly communication
with strangers