Analyzing Communication Skills: Identifying Issues and Developing an Action Plan for Effective Business Communication

Effective business communication

This is a reflective essay which contains a detailed analysis of my communication skills with the
help of five diagnostic tools. These tools are Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale,
Nonverbal Immediacy Scale Self Report, Personal Report of Intercultural Communication
Apprehension, and Talkaholic scale and Tolerance for Disagreement scale. The two issues
identified in this paper are tolerance for disagreement and the intercultural communication
apprehension. Moreover, this paper will discuss these issues in detail with the help of literature
review. Furthermore, the paper will also review an action plan which comprises of a detailed
timeline and activities used to overcome these issues.
To assess the effectiveness of my communication skills in different situations, I have used five
diagnostic tools. The first tool used is the Self-Perceived Communication Competence Scale,
which indicates the self-perception of communication skills of a person. This scale comprises a
series of questions to assess the communicative competence of an individual in various
situations. According to this scale, communication competence varies from person to person and
from situation to situation. The second tool used by me is Nonverbal Immediacy Scale Self
Report. Nonverbal immediacy is defined as the behavior which generates positive feelings
towards another person. This includes behaviors like eye contact, physical gestures, body
positioning and facial expressions etc. The third tool was Personal Report of Intercultural
Communication Apprehension. This scale measures the communication apprehension of a
person while communicating with people from other culture. Intercultural comprehension is
considered as a part of communication apprehension. The fourth tool was Talkaholic scale,
which measures the communication compulsiveness of a person. According to this scale, some
people are unable to remain quiet in some situations. The fifth tool was the scale of Tolerance for
Disagreement, which is used to measure the extent to which a person can tolerate disagreement
with another person.
These tools have helped me to understand the strengths and weaknesses of my communication
skills in various situations and across an array of receivers. I am able to understand my
communication preferences with the help of these tools. In the scale of Self-Perceived
Communication Competence Scale, 0 is the score given to complete incompetence and 100 is
given for complete competence. I have scored myself a 70 on the competence of talking to
strangers. I am most comfortable while talking to a friend. I think that I get nervous while
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communicating with strangers in a meeting. I am moderately comfortable while speaking with
acquaintances or a group of acquaintances. For this reason, I have given myself a sub-score of
76 in the communication context of meeting and 98 in friend context. My total score SPCC score
is 82 which can be defined as moderate competence score. I feel nervous while talking to
strangers especially in a large meeting. The results of this scale are accurate and I agree with the
results. I think I need to improve my communication skills in order to improve my professional
career within an organization. I think I need to improve my communication skills so that I can
express my opinions clearly in front of a large group of strangers.
The nonverbal immediacy of a person includes behaviors like gestures, body language, facial
expression and other nonverbal communication skills. These behaviors play a significant role in
signaling positive emotions towards a person. Nonverbal immediacy scale measures how a
person behaves while talking to others. According to this scale, I use my hands and arms to
gesture while talking to other people. I am able to maintain eye contact and a relaxed body
position while talking to others. I try to avoid using a monotonous voice while speaking to them.
However, I am not able to display any facial expression while communicating with people. In
some occasions, I have a tendency to become stiff while communicating with other people. I also
have a tendency to frown at people while speaking to them. I also avoid touching people while
communicating with them. I also have a tendency to move away when others touch me while
communicating with me. In some cases, I tend to move towards the people while communicating
with them. In order to create a positive vibe, I occasionally smile while talking to people. The
total score I got from this scale is 84, which means I have a moderate level of nonverbal
immediacy.
The third tool used by me to evaluate apprehension in my communication skills is Personal
Report of Intercultural Communication or PRICA. It is designed to measure communication
apprehension of a person while communicating with people from other culture. I do not have any
problem while speaking with people from other culture. According to the results of this scale,
occasionally I become very nervous and while conversing with people from different culture.
However, I like to get involved in group discussions with people from culture. Sometimes I feel
nervous while talking to people from different culture. Agreeing with the results, I think I need to
work on my interpersonal communication skills. I have gained the score of 38, which means I
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have moderate intercultural communication apprehension. Agreeing with the results I think I
need to improve my communication skills so that I can interact with people from different
cultures. I think it will help me to advance my professional career within the organization. I
perceive myself in need of developing my communication skills and overcome my nervousness
while speaking with people from different culture.
The fourth tool was the Talkaholic Scale, which measures the compulsiveness of a person to
communicate in various situations. I perceive myself as not a talker, I have a tendency to rarely
communicate in favorable situations. According to the scores of this scale, I am not a talkaholic.
However, I have a tendency to talk in some situations where it will be best to remain quiet. I do
not have a tendency to talk more than what is necessary. I have obtained the score of 19 in this
scale, which means I am not a compulsive talker. Sometimes, I find myself unable to remain
quiet in some situations, even if it is for my own benefit. Due to this reason, the effectiveness of
my communication skills gets hampered. The fifth tool which I have used to evaluate the
effectiveness of my communication skills is Tolerance for Disagreement Scale. This scale
measures the degree up to which a person can tolerate another person disagreeing with their
personal beliefs and opinions. I agree that I do not like to be in situations where there is a lot of
disagreement. However, I think disagreement plays a significant role in stimulating a
conversation.
I also concur that disagreement allows me to communicate with others in a much effective way. I
am undecided about whether I like to prefer to work individually or in a group. I do not tend to
create disagreement in a group. I have gained a score of 43 which is determined to be a
moderate score for tolerance for disagreement. Agreeing with the results of these questions, I
think I need to improve my level of tolerance from moderate to high. I perceive that increasing
my tolerance for disagreement will allow me to develop my professional career and it will also
help me in my personal life as well. With the help of these diagnostic tools, I have identified the
two issues in my communication skills. These issues are moderate tolerance for disagreement
and intercultural apprehension. I feel very nervous while talking to people from other cultures. I
think I need to work on my interpersonal communication skills to overcome this issue. I do not
perceive myself as a person stimulating a disagreement with another person. I have a tendency
to change the topic of the conversation whenever there is a disagreement. I think I need to
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