Reflective Practice in Business Communication

This article discusses the importance of reflective practice in business communication and provides a self-assessment of communication skills using various diagnostic tools. It also highlights the author's weaknesses in communication and provides suggestions for improvement.

Running head: REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Reflective Practice in Business Communication
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
The term reflective practice refers the group of actions through which a person can
analyse his or her strength and weakness in both physical and psychological parameters.
Through this measurement the person can improve his or her current efficiency for a
particular task that will help to achieve the aims and objectives of that particular person
(Sigmar, Hynes & Hill, 2012). The purpose of this self assessment is to express my
experience during the self reflection practice to improve my ability for workplace
communication. It also allows me to monitor and improve my current flaws and lags that
will help to gain the ability to perform contextually appropriate communicative behaviour.
In order to monitor my current abilities and weakness I had to go through a systematic
diagnosis process. In this diagnosis system 5 diagnostic tools have been used to examine the
individual aspects of my communicational behaviour as well as the potentiality to improve
my ability of work base communication. According to my response through verbal, nonverbal
and assertive participation several scorecard based reports have been generated. From these
reports I can the conceptual model about my existing communication style along with the
operational efficiencies and discrepancies. After focusing on two of my particular
improvement potentials I will build the required improvement plan for me.
Communication competence emphasise the competence level of a person to engage in
a successful communication through verbal, non-verbal, assertive participation. Self
perceived Communication Competence refers individual perception of a person about his or
her communication competence level (Crews & Stitt-Gohdes, 2012). In this measurement
scale I had to score as per the provided option and my own perception on my ability to deal
with those particular situations. The psychological interpretation regulates the communication
perspective and capacity of any person. Here the score 0 refers the incompetent level, on the
other hand the 100 refers the maximum competency. In this conducted analysis the number of
the variable situations is 12. Observing the score card of Self perceived Communication

2REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Competence scale makes it clear that I am very active in friendly communication
environment. On the other hand, talking to the strangers either in individual communication
or group based communication makes me more uncomfortable to express my though and
communicative materials. At the same time it is also observable that in case of friendly or
official environment I am very less competent in communication with a large number of
people. On the other hand, in spite of engaging in a communication with a stranger I perform
better than the case of larger audience number. I have scored 60 for talking a group of
stranger and scored 95 for talking with a particular friend. Therefore the major weak point of
my ability of communication is greater number of audience and the familiarity of the
audiences.
The Nonverbal communication is the earliest communication system of mankind there
an individual can express the feeling with specific facial expression and physical gesture.
However the nonverbal Immediacy scale analyse only the facial expression of a person while
having a conversation (Conrad & Newberry, 2012). It has been noticed that the Nonverbal
Immediacy differ according to the person’s gender identification. It has been found that
females have more nonverbal immediacy than male. On the contrary, it has been also
theorised that this communicational difference is the result of social and cultural desires
(Sharp & Brumberger, 2013). Through this analysis my facial expression and physical
gesture base communication pattern have been examined with appropriate scoring system.
This system analyses the nonverbal communicational pattern by measuring the frequency of
using a particular gesture or expression while communicating with other. In this scale system
1 refers never, 2 refers rare, 3 refers occasional, 4 refers often and 5 refers very often use of a
particular expression or body gesture. From the scorecard it has been found that, I scored 4
for using variety of vocal expression and body gesture and 1 for avoiding eye contacts.
Henceforth, it have been identified that I always maintain eye contact during communication

3REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
while using a dull monotonic voice. I use my arm occasionally while talking to other while
maintaining short distance with the target audience. It has been also found that I tend to avoid
the physical contact while engaging in a conversation while maintaining a relaxed and calm
approach.
Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension or PRICA is a
measurement scale of communicational efficiency in a cross-cultural environment. It helps to
gauge my communicational efficiency while language and socio-cultural perspectives are the
major barriers between me and my audiences (Kernbach, Eppler & Bresciani, 2015). PRICA
diagnosis system has been conducted with 14 different questions about 14 different inter
cultural consequences and communicational environments. Engaging in individual or a group
communication can become very complex and dynamic to execute where the participants are
from different culture, social and psychological backgrounds that their way of showing
expression and perceive external communicational information (Keyton et al., 2013). This
scaling system is very similar to Likert scale where scoring 1 refers to strongly disagree and
scoring 5 refers to strongly agree. It has been found that I have scored 4 in the situation of
communicating with people from another culture. I have scored 2 for feeling uncomfortable
or nervous while communicating with a people from different culture. Therefore from the
above analysis it is clear that I can communicate with any person from other cultural
background comfortably. At the same time, in this case I have also shown weak
communication label when I had to talk with a group of audiences from another culture. on
the other hand, when I have to talk with a person individually, I felt more comfortable and
flexible to communicate with him or her through verbal as well as non verbal
communication. While communicating with a person from another culture I have also shown
adequate confidence level as well.

4REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
The word “talkaholic” reefers the ability to communicate freely with another person
while engaging more with verbally rather than non-verbal communication. In more simple
words a Talkaholic person uses to engage in verbal communication more frequently than an
average person. As per various conducted researches on this communication and practice, it
has been found that a talkaholic person is more likely to get evaluated by others (Cornelissen
& Cornelissen, 2017). In this measurement, the Likert scale has been also used where 1 refers
strongly disagree and 5 refers strongly agree. In this analysis 16 questions have been set to
examine my communication pattern and the frequency of my formal communication. I scored
4 for keeping quiet when I have the advantage to talk. on the other hand, I spoke to for being
a very low compulsive talker. From this analysis it has been cleared that I am not ideal
talkaholic or talkative person. I prefer keep quiet more than expressing my feelings in front
of others. Apart from that, a very less amount of people have said that I talk more than I
should.
Tolerance of disagreement is a measurement procedure that can calculate the ability
of a person to tolerate the argument or the disagreement from another person true face to face
communication. This psychological feature also reflects the amount of patience a person has
while engaging in an argumentative conversation (Doorley & Garcia, 2015). In this type of
situation a person either tries to express his or her perception or wants to leave the situation at
any circumstance. Through this measurement system, my level up tolerance at the situation of
argument a disagreement has been analysed with the help of likert scale with 5 divisions.
From the resultant scorecard, it is clear that I tend to avoid any situation that can cause an
unexpected argument a disagreement. I have scored 5 in admitting that I have more fun when
I use to be involved any discussion with a lot of disagreement. on the other hand I scored 1
Twilight meeting that I don't like to be in a situation where people are in disagreement.
Therefore, according to tolerance for disagreement scale I do not like to engage any

5REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
argumentative communication or any situation with lot of disagreement. This phenomenon
shows that I have very least amount of tolerance for disagreement.
From the above analysis, it can be clearly observed that there are two types of
communicational issues that directly regulate my communicational tendencies and regulatory
behaviours. One of the major weak points of my communication is in greater number of
audience my communicational efficiency gets hindered. At the same time I can easily engage
in individual communication with my friends. Apart from that I have very low level of
tolerance for disagreement when I use to engage in a argumentative communication. I usually
like to avoid that kind of situation, which can cause disagreement or argument.
Recently, I had to manage and lead a team of 5 members for a arranging a meeting for
professional decision making. During leading and communicating with my fellow team
members I have noticed that I was able to convey my opinion in one on one communication
rather than the group discussion. When I used to involve in an individual communication the
peers can clearly interpret my verbal and non verbal expression. On the other hand, when I
had to lead the team in a conference the purpose of my speech was often failed because of
misinterpretation of my statements. In another situation, I had involved in a debate based
activity on a particular topic. When I had to convey my opinion freely I did not experience
uncomfortable. However, whenever other participants was counterattacking on some of my
specific statement I completely kept quite in spite of having enough point to prove those
participants wrong.
Speaking to an audience can be fun and exciting. However, lack of preparation or not
clearly defining the presentation's goals and its audience can make even the best-intended
presentation a complete disaster. The theory of communication competence emphasise the
ability of engaging with a large number people through verbal and non verbal communication
with minimum amount of communicational flows (Wright et al., 2013). In another words,

6REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Communication competence emphasise the competence level of a person to engage in a
successful communication through verbal, non verbal, assertive participation. Self perceived
Communication Competence refers individual perception of a person about his or her
communication competence level (Cahn, 2013). The more communicational competence a
person has, the more freely and flawlessly he or she can express his or her feeling through
verbal and nonverbal communication. The psychological interpretation regulates the
communication perspective and capacity of any person. More that 36.5% adult are feeling
insecure in a situation where they have to communicate with a large number of people
together (Penbek, Yurdakul & Cerit, 2012).
Currently, expected techniques for foreign dialect direction have emphasised the
significance of routine with regards to dialect structures, elocution, and vocabulary with the
objective of delivering native speakers. Be that as it may, centre around the making of native
speakers may really be customizing numerous understudies for disappointment (Johansson,
Miller & Hamrin, 2014). Such practices verifiably expect understudies to disengage from
their own particular culture and acknowledge the way that the power in any connection has a
place with a local speaker. Coordinating such a point of view into one's character can restrain
development toward intercultural open competence, not just in light of the fact that the
student needs square with chance to carry individual foundation into the discussion, yet in
addition on the grounds that such a dynamic downgrades, to the point that foundation. The
Culture standard incorporates three imperative parts (Mehrabian, 2017). Two of the three,
practices and items, assist us with identifying, portray, talk about, and dissect the third
segment, viewpoints of a culture. Capability in every one of the three territories is essential
for improvement of social affectability and intercultural competence, and in this way, by
suggestion and expansion.

7REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Since the presentation of the articulation "informative competence" by Hymes in
1972, programs for the educating and testing of English as a moment or foreign dialect have
progressively been assessed in wording both of their capacity to advance open competence or
of their affectability to an open perspective of dialect competence and performance (Martin &
Nakayama, 2013). Unfortunately, in spite of this apparent pattern, there is no accord on the
idea of the informative competence constructs, nor has adequate exact help been
accommodated the different illustrative models proposed. Overheads ought to be obviously
stamped and masterminded all together beforehand. Flip graphs ought to be set up ahead of
time when conceivable. At the point when utilized amid the introduction to take notes, make
print sufficiently expansive for all members to see (Heath & Bryant, 2013).
Tolerance for disagreement emphasise the capability of an individual to participate in
communication without having an alternate feeling or perception from particular involvement
of individual while involving less emotion and passionate mental state within it. People who
have a solid tolerance for disagreement regularly strengthen a person’s privilege to express
their own conception, irrespective of whether they firmly is unable to help contradicting them
(Samovar et al., 2014). They may see a vivacious open deliberation as a optimistic situation
instead of an upsetting or awful trial. Tolerance of disagreement is an estimation technique
that can compute the capacity of a man to endure the contention or the disagreement from
someone else genuine up close and personal communication (Bylund, Peterson & Cameron,
2012). This mental element likewise mirrors the measure of tolerance a man has while taking
part in a contentious discussion. In this kind of circumstance a man either tries to express his
or her recognition or needs to leave the circumstance at any situation. People may end up
enthusiastic when stood up to with thoughts that contention with their perspective (Linvill,
Mazer & Boatwright, 2016). Thusly, usually for individuals to look for safe spots for
themselves and their youngsters from thoughts they think about disputable or off-base. For

8REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
instance, private secondary schools, universities and colleges may offer a "politically right"
condition far from thoughts that may possibly irritated somebody. On the other hand, schools
might be related with a religion or have a solid political demeanour (Misra et al., 2014).
People may likewise utilize advanced devices to escape thoughts with which they oppose this
idea. For instance, the nature of the web enables individuals to create informal communities
and media streams that line up with their perspective (Wright, Cullum & Grandjean, 2014).
In view of the possibility, that other cannot coordinate tolerance for disagreement,
rather it reflects an identified quality to keep up with the people obliquely over the cosumed
time and environment. An influencing examination was conducted to develop a accurate
measurement of gauging tolerance for disagreement that would assist to empower the
disputation with conceptualization while perceiving the capability to foresee pessimistic full
of feeling cooperation with procedural or substantive disagreement (Hopmann, 2012). To
survey singular tolerance levels for disagreement, a Likert-type scale was produced and
directed to 384 instructors. At first, 35 proclamations were utilized, speaking to both
approach and evasion of factious circumstances particular to relational and gather discourse
settings. Things were worded both decidedly and contrarily. The subjects were solicited to
demonstrate the degree from their concurrence with everything as it connected to them in
their own communication settings (Men, 2014). Investigation of the information brought
about a 20-thing scale that reflected face legitimacy and additionally adequately high
unwavering quality reliable with the conceptualization of the one-dimensional idea of the
tolerance for disagreement build. The discoveries recommend that, while singular tolerance
levels of disagreement shifted, the effect of such levels on struggle circumstances requires
experimental examination. The development of Tolerance for Disagreement was as of late
formulated by Knutson, McCroskey, Knutson, and Hurt (Camaioni, 2017). In view of past
work in the zone of compromise and administration, this develop was progressed to clarify

9REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
why a few people are inclined to end up associated with strife circumstances while others are
most certainly not.
Analysing and overcoming the potential mismatch can act as a Disagreement for
fundamental supposition of procedural execution. It emphasise the defilation of Conflict as a
theorised consequences of contention in a organised implementation of an element with either
low tolerance for disagreement among a particular or arbitrary members, or a low level of
positive effect among less than three of the total member count. From this point of view,
arguing can be seen in a negative light as prompting disappointment with a consistently
evolving condition. However, disagreement can be seen as either positive unless the tolerance
for disagreement is lowers than expected or positive influence is lower (Neuliep, 2017).
In order to overcome my current lack of communicational efficiency an effective
action plan can help. It can be clearly observed that there are two types of communicational
issues that directly regulate my communicational tendencies and regulatory behaviours. One
of the major weak points of my communication is in greater number of audience my
communicational efficiency is hindered. At the same time, I can easily engage in individual
communication with my friends. Apart from that, I have very low level of tolerance for
disagreement when I use to engage in an argumentative communication. The following action
can help to improve my communicational efficiency.
Initially, undertaking specific short courses, to develop larger audiences based
communicational efficiency can help develop the communicational competence level. There
are many online and offline tutorial based courses with effective simulation based
examination technique that can efficiently build up my basic skill of communicating in a
larger group of audience comfortably and flawlessly.

10REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Secondly, Along this some professional communication development course
undertaking advanced post-graduate communication courses at CQU can build up the
fundamental structure of my communicational efficiency for both professional and personal
interaction. Most of the time these courses are often linked with the self reflection and
learning cycle of communicational improvement that can enhance the ability to grasp the
conceptual interpretation (Moon, 2013).
In third action plan, along with this part time and full time training and development
courses regular reading plan to acquire conceptual knowledge including specific
communication texts and self-help books can improve my ability to implement the learned
techniques and concepts in regular practices. It will also help me to keep my knowledge
updated while revises my previously learned communication strategies and techniques.
Fourthly, Maintaining of personal journals reflecting on communication interactions
is a widely known activity that can effectively build up my communication ability with the
help of regular self reflection and evaluation cycle.
The following Timeline will help to build up my efficient and desired
communicational efficiency that will enhance my potentiality to be a successful business
communicator or professional communicator.
Activity 1st
month
2nd
month
3rd
month
4th
month
5th
month
6th
month
7th
month
8th
month
Collecting information
about effective course
SMART planning for
communicational
improvement
Communicate with Course
arranger and training

11REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
providers
Subscribing multiple short
online courses on
communication
Communication courses at
CQU
Regular reading the self
help books on
communication
Maintaining personal
journals for self reflection

12REFLECTIVE PRACTICE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
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