BUSN20017 Reflective Essay: Effective Business Communication Skills

This reflective essay discusses the importance of non-verbal and listening communication skills in effective business communication, as learned from the BUSN20017 module. It highlights how non-verbal communication helps in conveying identity and emotions, while listening aids in understanding others' perspectives. The essay references various authors who define and differentiate between verbal and non-verbal communication, emphasizing the role of proxemics, kinesics, and paralanguage. It also explores the challenges in active listening and the skills required for it. The student aims to apply these skills, particularly non-verbal and interpersonal communication, to achieve career goals in HR management, fostering better employee relations through improved communication patterns. The essay concludes that these skills are crucial for future professional success.

STUDENT NAME:
STUDENT NUMBER:
RESIDENT CAMPUS:
LECTURE NAME:
REFLECTIVE ESSAY

1
The primary purpose of the paper is to provide my view regarding one of the concepts that have been
discussed in the module of effective business communication. From this weekly module, I have learned
that non-verbal and listening communication skills are an essential aspect of communication that helps
me to communicate easily with others. Furthermore, the paper will also provide a literature review in
concerning to these communication skills and its importance over my performance. The paper will
discuss two communication skills, non-verbal and interpersonal mode because both this skills help me to
achieve my career goals in the future. Moreover, the reason for choosing both these communication skills
are also further discussed in this context.
From the module of week one to ten, I have considered that non-verbal communication, as well as
listening, is an essential aspect of communication that helps me to interact with people easily. The module
helps me to gain knowledge about non-verbal communication skill which defines convey of messages
through non-verbal sources. On the other hand, listening is the process that simply involves psychological
and physiological procedures of an individual (Nicholas, Hunsaker, & Guarino, 2017). From this module,
I have gained that non-verbal message constitute identity message of an individual that means it simply
conveys the identity of the particular person. Thus according to me, it helps a person to communicate
easily with another person without any difficulty. If the person enables to provide his view to the other
individual through non-verbal communication, then it became easier for him to demonstrate the problem
easily (Leeming, Swann, Coupe, & Mittler, 2018). In other words, non-verbal communication helps me
to define myself in front of others without any hesitation. Besides this, it also helps me to convey my
emotions in front of another individual.
After learning this module, I have gained that non-verbal communication mainly related to the expression
of an individual. Thus it is exceedingly more comfortable for a person to express his emotions through
this non-verbal communication procedure. Hence from this, I can say that non-verbal communication not
only helps me to convey my identity in front of other people, but it also helps me to express my emotions
in front of them. In other words, listening includes the information received from the environment, and it
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interprets, attends and to respond to a sound that coming from the environment (Mathrick, Meagher, &
Norbury, 2017). Also, listening also helps me to know the thinking ability of other people, and it also
helps me to engage with another individual opinion. Thus from this module, I am cleared that listening
does not include to focus on someone's judgment but also help a person to gain knowledge from them.
Hence I know that this module of non-verbal communication and listening are an important aspect that
allows me to communicate as well as gain experience from another person through the listening process.
Therefore, according to me, this concept is essential from all these ten modules of effective business
communication skills.
After learning all these effective business communication modules,s I have concluded that non-verbal
communication and listening are the vital communication concept that can help me a lot in my work
environment in the future. According to the author Mavridis, (2015), non-verbal communication is
defined merely as conveying of messages through non-verbal procedures. In other words, the author
demonstrates that it was another way of communication that represents the identity of an individual
without possessing any verbal mode of interaction. With the help of non-verbal communication, people
interpret as well as attributions over the certain matter and describe it on their point of view. In the words
of Canale, (2014), non-verbal communications also help a person to communicate their emotions in front
of others. Also, the author suggested that non-verbal communication is an essential aspect of conveying
expression that means the degree of emotions can easily be expressed through this communication
procedure. In other words, non-verbal communication is quite different from that of verbal
communication.
In the opinion of Nicholas et al., (2017), non-verbal communication was considered as multiple channeled
medium of communication while verbal communication was regarded as the single mode of the
interaction process. Also, if someone expresses his emotions through face and eyes, then it considers
being a non-verbal mode of communication while in verbal mode no one can express their feelings or
emotions by such means. The author also differentiates between this two modes of communication skills
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through the unit of talking process. As stated by Leeming et al., (2018), non-verbal communication mode
become consider as a continuous process while the verbal method is a discrete process that means the
person can easily interact with another person through verbal communication but while introducing
himself he may choose the non-verbal method of communication. A significant difference of both this
communication skills was that while interacting through verbal communication the person had to be
conscious about his message, but non-verbal communication was free ease of interaction where people
often unconscious about their messages (Kourmousi, Amanaki, Tzavara, & Koutras, 2017). Hence it can
be said that it is a communication skill where an individual can freely interact with others without any
hesitation.
As evaluated by Mathrick et al., (2017), there are three sources of using non-verbal communication
procedure, and these are proxemics, kinesics and paralanguage or vocalists. Proxemics means merely the
process by which an individual interprets and use space while communicating with others. It merely
expresses through the area around the body in concerning to public places and semi-public space.
Kinesics defines merely non-verbal communication using body language and facial expressions while
paralanguage establishes the frequency, intensity, fluency, and timings of a person in concerning non-
verbal communication. In the words of Gregory, & Bryan, (2015), listening was also a significant aspect
of communication that helps an individual to learn something effectively from others. The author
suggested that it was a process of receiving information psychologically from the environment and
interpret this message to learn something from it. Listening was ability if evaluate and responding on a
message in concerning to the sound coming from others. In the opinion of Petrovici, & Dobrescu, (2014),
listening was the tough way of communication aspect as a higher number of individual faces problem to
listen to others.
According to this author, listening to someone's words needs concentration, and it was not easy for every
individual to concentrate on someone’s talk. The author suggested that active listener was one who had
the mentality to listen to others. In this active listener attending skills of non-verbal communication,
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quality was also must be present. Also, this an attending skills was an essential aspect of listening quality,
and it relates mainly to the posture of an individual. Posture can express that whether the person was
listening or not. According to the author Sabee, (2015), following skills was also considered as a part of
active listening mode that mainly used in maintaining and relating the conversation both. This skill was
simply defined as the listening procedure through a sustained manner, and it was also known as door-
opening communication prompts. In other words, the author suggested that reflective responding skills
were also consider as active listening skills that help the person to listen to others person context by
emotional and conceptual content. Hence from this study, it is clear that non-verbal and listening both
consider as an essential aspect of effective business communication procedure (Bodie, Vickery, Cannava,
& Jones, 2015).
From the ten module of effective business communication, both non-verbal and interpersonal
communication skills are necessary for me to meet my career goals. After gaining tremendous knowledge
regarding these communication skills, I can found myself sitting on a chair as a manager in the HR
department of an IT firm after five years from now. According to my view, the non-verbal
communication comprises the interacting skills that involved through body language, posture, and
appearance. In other words, it helps to communicate with the people in my workplace without hesitation
in concerning to facial expression, gesture and eye contact (Georgescu, Kuzmanovic, Roth, Bente, &
Vogeley, 2014).
Besides this, being a manager, I have to make good communication with my employees and for this non-
verbal communication skills is consider the best aspect. With the help of this communication pattern I can
easily interact with the employees regarding any work related matter, and this will decrease their
hesitation level while interacting with me. Also, interpersonal communication skills also help to
communicate efficiently with the juniors and seniors both (Little, White, Kelly, Everitt, & Mercer, 2015).
In other words, from this module, I can demonstrate that interpersonal skills often make successful in
both of their personal and professional life. Besides this, the capabilities also help me to work well in a
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group or team as this communication skill is mainly centered in understanding people’s body language.
Hence I can say that both these communication skills will help me to achieve my career goals in the
future.
The paper concluded that non-verbal communication skills and listening mode are the significant
concepts that I have learned from this module of effective business communication. From the literature
review, it is clear that non-verbal communication defines the identity of an individual and it became a
continuous process. In other words, listening is an aspect by which an individual effective learn from
others. Besides this, two modes of communication skills like non-verbal and interpersonal mode both are
the significant aspect that helps me to achieve my career goals in the future.
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References
Bodie, G. D., Vickery, A. J., Cannava, K., & Jones, S. M. (2015). The role of “active listening” in
informal helping conversations: Impact on perceptions of listener helpfulness, sensitivity, and
supportiveness and discloser emotional improvement. Western Journal of Communication, 79(2),
151-173.
Canale, M. (2014). From communicative competence to communicative language pedagogy.
In Language and communication (pp. 14-40). Routledge.
Georgescu, A. L., Kuzmanovic, B., Roth, D., Bente, G., & Vogeley, K. (2014). The use of virtual
characters to assess and train non-verbal communication in high-functioning autism. Frontiers in
human neuroscience, 8, 807.
Gregory, J., & Bryan, K. (2015). Speech and language therapy intervention with a group of persistent and
prolific young offenders in a non-custodial setting with previously undiagnosed speech, language
and communication difficulties. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders,
1-14.
Kourmousi, N., Amanaki, E., Tzavara, C., & Koutras, V. (2017). Active Listening Attitude Scale
(ALAS): Reliability and Validity in a Nationwide Sample of Greek Educators. Social
Sciences, 6(1), 28.
Leeming, K., Swann, W., Coupe, J., & Mittler, P. (2018). Non-verbal communication. In Teaching
Language and Communication to the Mentally Handicapped (pp. 238-267). Routledge.
Little, P., White, P., Kelly, J., Everitt, H., & Mercer, S. (2015). Randomised controlled trial of a brief
intervention targeting predominantly non-verbal communication in general practice
consultations. Br J Gen Pract, 65(635), e351-e356.
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Mathrick, R., Meagher, T., & Norbury, C. F. (2017). Evaluation of an interview skills training package
for adolescents with speech, language and communication needs. International journal of
language & communication disorders, 52(6), 786-799.
Mavridis, N. (2015). A review of verbal and non-verbal human-robot interactive communication.
Robotics and Autonomous Systems, 63, 22-35.
Nicholas, M., Hunsaker, E., & Guarino, A. J. (2017). The relation between language, non-verbal
cognition, and quality of life in people with aphasia. Aphasiology, 31(6), 688-702.
Petrovici, A., & Dobrescu, T. (2014). The role of emotional intelligence in building interpersonal
communication skills. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 116, 1405-1410.
Sabee, C. M. (2015). Interpersonal Communication Skill/Competence. The International Encyclopedia of
Interpersonal Communication, 1-9.
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