Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Towards Logic Sustainability Communication -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Towards Logic Sustainability Communication? Answer: Introducation Effective communication skills in business are important as it facilitates sharing of information between people substantially contributing to commercial success. The following paper will provide me an opportunity to understand my communication skills and further scope for improvement. The paper will also provide literature review and action plan based on my communication skills. The first tool is nonverbal immediacy scale self-report (NIS-S) that help to understand cues or behaviours signalling positive feelings towards other people. This test comprises of 97% non-verbal communication and help to measure individual differences in nonverbal immediacy expression (Zhang and Witt 2016). There are twenty six behaviours for one to rate on how often a person exhibits taking 4 to 8 minutes to complete. The numbers range from one to five comprising of never (1), rarely (2), occasionally (3), often (4) and very often (5). After adding the scores of twenty six statements describing how I behave or talk with others, the scores are added as per the given statement numbers in step 1 and step 2. In the final step, 78 are added to step 1 minus step 2 and final score is obtained. The result norms for females show that score more than 112 shows high nonverbal immediacy and below 92 shows low nonverbal immediacy. For males, a score above 104 shows high immediacy levels and sco re below 83 shows low levels. After I conducted the test, I scored 85 marks. This score illustrated that I have moderate level of nonverbal immediacy and depicts that I use body language and gestures while communicating with others and at the same time I try to maintain eye contact while talking to others. The second tool is Personal report of public speaking anxiety (PRPSA) that works on communication apprehension. The test data are reliable and greatly focus on public speaking anxiety being an excellent measure that centres anxiety during public speaking that is described through 34 statements that one make about themselves (Niles et al. 2015). The numbers range from strongly disagree (1), disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4) and strongly agree (5). In the step 1 and 2, item scores are added as per the statement numbers given in step 1 and 2. In the final step, the total in step 2 is subtracted from 72 and step 1 total is added to it. The moderate levels are 98-131, low levels are below 98 and high levels are above 131. After I conducted the test, I got 99 marks that indicated moderate level of public speaking anxiety. This result show that I am not so anxious and emotional and physical emotions does not interfere while I present speech or presentation scoring moderate levels. Howeve r, I need to develop my communication skills to overcome central fear of being evaluated or scrutinized by others. The third communication tool test that I undertook was talkaholic scale. This scale is used for measuring compulsive communication. This tool helps to measure ones ability to talk depicting highly verbal and being less talkative in presence of others (Malachowski, Martin and Vallade 2013). The tool designates people being highly talkative in qualitative form that make people ineffective or effective communicators evaluated by others. People who score high are designated as leader being more competent and having more positive perception on others. The scoring is done from one to five ranging from strongly disagree, disagree, neural, agree and strongly agree. There are 16 questions and scoring is done accordingly in step 1 and step 2 for the prescribed items to be added. In the final step, the total score is obtained when 12 is added to step 1 score and finally subtracted from step 2 total. The result norms include score between 30 and 39 being borderline talkaholics who are able to co ntrol their talking and above 40 show true compulsive communicators. After I conducted the test, I got a score of 17 that is below the range of 30-39. This depicts that I have low compulsive talking depicting my ability to control my talking most of the time avoiding situations when it is difficult to control talking. The fourth communication tool that I undertook was Personal report of intercultural communication apprehension (PRICA). This tool is designed to address ones communication apprehension in the context of intercultural competence (Blume, Baldwin and Ryan 2013). In the general communication apprehension, intercultural communication competence is important as in todays world, business is going global and people need to interact with others from different cultural backgrounds. In this tool, there are 14 statements that frequently measure communication competency to converse with people belonging to different cultures. The scoring ranges from strongly disagree to strongly agree followed by disagree, neutral and agree. For computing PRICA tool, scores are added as per statement numbers in step 1 and 2. In the final step, from step 1 score, 42 is deducted and added to step 2 total score. The scoring ranges from 14 to 70 and score below 32 indicates low intercultural communication competency. High intercultural communication is obtained above 52 and range between 32 and 52 indicates moderate intercultural communication levels. After conducting the test, I scored 29 in total that indicates low intercultural communication competency. This result showed that I am not able to communicate well with people from other cultural backgrounds with low cultural insensitivity and require development of intercultural communication competency skills. The last tool is Self-perceived communication competence scale (SPCC). This tool help to measure the ability of an individual to communicate effectively in various situations as same person may be competent to communicate in some situation as compared to others (Rasekh, Zabihi and Rezazadeh 2012). There are twelve statements that indicate situations where one communicate with people in various situations as per competence. Presumption includes zero being completely incompetent and 100 being competent. The situations include public, meeting, group, dyad, stranger, acquaintance and friend that are important contexts in business where people interact with various alliances in varied situations. The SPCC score computation is done by adding the subscores for the above mentioned situations and total obtained is divided by 3. High SPCC scores obtained indicate higher self-perceived communication competence in communication contexts like meeting, public, dyad and group and receivers like acq uaintance, strangers and friend. After I conducted the test, I analyzed that I got moderate results in SPCC scores and after adding mean score was 73.2. This score depicts that I need to develop my self-perceived communication competency to interact with people in various situations in business. After conducting the communication tool tests, I realized that I lack skills while interacting with people from intercultural backgrounds and low self-perceived communication competency. The first issue is that I lack cross-cultural communication skills in intercultural interpretations and in understanding individuals from other cultural backgrounds in business context. I lack the ability and subscribe to idea that people coming from across the globe require cultural sensitivity while conducting business on a global scale. The second issue that I face is lack of self-perceived communication competence where I fail to interact with people in various communication contexts as well as with variety of receivers. I scored moderate in all the communication contexts and need to develop my communication skills so that I communicate effectively in different business contexts. The two recent professional interactions that I witnessed in last 12 months that made me analyze my key communications issues requiring development is discussed in the subsequent sections. During my placement, I was assigned to work with a team who came from China. I was assigned with the duty to interact with them and lead the team. While interacting, I noticed that I was unable to approach them in understanding their concerns that left them devastated and frustrated. I was unable to socialize with them and establish relationships that made them comfortable with the team. I lacked empathetic listening skills that affected my performance during the placement. This situation made me realize that I am not cross culturally aware in communication with people that gave rise to offence and misunderstandings causing a breakdown in communication. Therefore, I realized that I need to develop my intercultural communication skills as it affects my job performance and break down the communication crucially affecting business relations on shared culture. During my placement period, I was assigned to give a presentation in meeting summit. The meeting comprised of 15 people held in the conference room comprising of people from other countries. During the meeting, I was unable to deliver my presentation properly. I fidgeted and stammered in between the lines and avoided eye contact with the audience. I lacked the ability to get connected with the audience and froze in one spot during the meeting presentation. I was not at all comfortable while delivering my presentation forgetting about the needs of audience. I was very nervous and as I stammered, the audience did not get a clear idea of what is being discussed or expected from the meeting. I was speaking incoherently and require further development and practice. Therefore, from this instance, I realized that I need to develop my self-perceived communication competency to interact with people during meetings, group discussion and conversing with friends, strangers and acquaintances. Communication skills are important aspects in communication. Depending on the nature of business, one needs to interact with people or customers around the globe. Many situations come up in daily business life where one need to negotiate and this communication style reflecting ones business negotiation and best presentation skills. As per the communication models developed, it states that this process involves sending messages, encoding, receiving and decoding with synthesis of information and meaning. Effective communication permeates every level of experiences and behaviour of human that makes them a good orator speaking to audiences. According to Shannon and Weavers Model, called the mother of all models, there are three elements in communication comprising of sender, channel and receiver that is two-way communication and effective between sender and receiver (McQuail and Windahl 2015). Another model, Schramm model of communication, communication is a two way process where sender and receiver get involved in sending and receiving messages taking turns. The model explains that after encoding, a message is sent to the receiver who decodes being the decoder (Nwagbara and Reid 2013). The model suggests that process of encoding and decoding are important aspects in communication process. Encoding involves converting of data to information sent to receiver. After data reaches receiver, it is being decoded and data interpretation takes place. This data is called message transmitted through medium. The above two model illustrates that effective communication is required from both ends; sender and receiver. If sender lacks in conversing, this results in failure to establish relationships that may affect message that is being conveyed. From these models, it is clear that intercultural communication and self-perceived communication competency are important in effective communication. Intercultural communication skills are important in business, advertising and marketing. As business is going global, it is important to have effective cross cultural communication allowing working with people from different cultures working together as a group (Shuter 2012). Intercultural communication theories are stated that distinguish various strands with effective outcomes. Co-cultural Theory referred as co-cultural communication is interactions with co-cultural members while communicating with others (Castle Bell et al. 2015). This theory lays the foundation for intercultural business communication focusing on effectiveness of sender or speaker in fulfilling intentions for achieving organization outcomes through social interactions. Cultural dimension theory by Geert Hofstede promotes cultural communication highlighting that cultural conflicts arise during global business communication (Minkov and Hofstede 2012). In todays global world, behaviour and way of thinking of people are different as culture is conditioning. Culture is rooted in peoples background distinguishing one group from others. This theory provides theoretical framework for analysing cultural differences (Minkov and Hofstede 2012). Five dimensions like individualism vs collectivism, power distance, masculinity vs femininity, uncertainty avoidance and long-term vs short-term orientation are stated in this theory to understand the factors underpinning cultural differences. According to DrÃ… ¾aji? (2015) intercultural communication business is an important issue in global business and requires international cooperation between the organizations. Global business becomes successful when people are well acquainted with intercultural competency skills reaching proficiency in foreign languages in the professional arena. As the global economies are evolving, business need to be done with variety of cultures becoming an irreversible necessity. Therefore, it is important to put an emphasis on cross cultural communication and cultural sensitivity enhancing success and productivity of business (Penbek, Yurdakul ?ahin and Cerit 2012). Intercultural communication competence (ICC) and sensitivity help people to respect other cultures and in improving level of engagement in the international business interactions. A study conducted by Okoro (2012) stated that corporations can compete successfully in the global marketplace as they sustain their competitive advantage through adequate demonstration of acculturation or cultural imperialism. When employees are trained in group or interpersonal relationship communication and most importantly, intercultural negotiation skills, it helped to maintain competitiveness in the global business world. Deficiencies in intercultural etiquette through sensitivity, cultural awareness and reciprocity help to achieve adequate success in global business (Washington, Okoro and Thomas 2012). According to Stahl and Tung (2015) in international business, cultural insensitivity can result in adverse outcomes affecting business relations and productivity. It is crucial for business organizations to emphasize on various cultural aspects helping organizations to achieve organizational goals and success. As stated by Bargiela-Chiappini, Nickerson and Planken (2013) in business organizations, types of communication and involved entities are crucial while conversing with delegates. Proper understanding and use of language required during business help to achieve competitive advantage and organizational goals. According to Martin (2015) intercultural communication is not only homogenous and has implications on culture conceptualizations acknowledging contested culture natures, intercultural interactions and multi-cultural identities. Intercultural encounter is being explained in this paper stating that experiences taking place between people coming from different countries require interpersonal cross-cultural skills (Martin and Nakayama 2015). A cultural dialectical perspective helps in better understanding of cross cultural conflicts that different people face in business world. A proper understanding of cultural competency undertaking dialectical perspective is crucial in enhancing cultural sensitivity and tolerance. The application of above mentioned theories or behavioural aspects can be done in a way as it helps to explore intersections of communication, power and culture. According to Orbe and Roberts (2012) the intercultural communication theories shape an individuals behaviour and provide a critical-interpretive framework in understanding various contemporary norms of cross-cultural communication. According to Neuliep (2012) measures of ethnocentrism and intercultural communication apprehension are significant parameters and are negatively correlated with communication satisfaction and uncertainty reduction measurement. These significant factors are important in intercultural interaction that takes place during business process. Oommen (2014) published a paper stating that highlighting the fact that in context to cultural adaptation, intercultural communication apprehension and social support influence intercultural communication alleviating psychological stress due to acculturation having implications for cross-cultural business communication. From the above literature review on intercultural business communication, it can be concluded that cross-cultural communication is crucial in global business that impact business and communication across cultures. In the similar way, self-perceived communication competence is also important in effective business communication that is discussed in the next section. Self-perceived prediction and beliefs greatly influence ones performance and abilities to communicate in various business contexts as suggested in literature. Communication is a broad scenario where there are various variables and elements that impact the communicational competence of the different individuals. In addition, among the different communicational patterns and attributes, self- perceived communication is a very important personality trait that helps in both your personal and professional development. According to the Carbaugh (2013), it has to be understood that self- perceived communication traits involve a lot of elements and overlapping traits itself and hence having efficient self perceived communication can be tricky for many. On a more elaborative note, self perceived communication could be very broadly defined as the competence levels of an individual to a variety of different communicational contexts and situations. For instance, self perceived communication judges the ability of an individual to communicate in different collective and individualistic settings, elaborating how effectively one can communicate in settings like professional meetings, or personal gatherings along with one to one communicational skills. For example, considering the corporate point of view, this attribute will judge how one can perform confident and assertive communication in professional groups, along with engaging conversational communication with professional acquaintances on a one to one level (Teven et al. 2010). According to the theory of self- perception, the attitude of the individuals in different situation and settings are crucially indicative of the contextual communication skills that the particular individual is privy to. According to the Shahbaz et al. (2016), the link between the attitude and response to different contextual situations is the foundation of the communication that the individual will be able to engage in. Hence, the personality traits or attributes like self- confidence, critical analytical thinking and assertive communication is the basic elements of variables that dictate the level of self- perceived communication that in might have. Hence, it can be safely deduced that the low or moderate self- perceived communication is directly related with low or moderate self confidence, critical analytical thinking and assertive communication skills (Croucher 2013). According to the interpersonal communication theory, the ability of a particular individual to communicate effec tively and efficiently depends on the perception of the contextual setting by the individuals involved in the communication. Hence, according to the Scollon, Scollon and Jones (2011), the method of social exchange will depend completely upon the perception of the communicator and his ability to align his perception of the communication need and his confidence and assertive or engaging conversational skills (Ga?ajda 2012). Hence, on a concluding note, it can be mentioned that the self- perception of the contextual settings are extremely important for the any corporate professional for optimal career growth and development. Moreover, the three elements required to build this ability optimally will require the individual to build on the set of three key soft skills, confidence, critical analytical thinking and assertive or engaging conversational prowess (Shahbaz et al. 2016). And the professional development plan of action for building on the self perceived communication skills must focus on improving these specific traits individually. Action Plan Skills that need to be developed specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Timeframe The lowest of the scores received in the self evaluation tool has been the intercultural communication, indicating that the most flawed quality in me is the lack of abilities to undertake efficient intercultural communication hence the most important personal developmental goal for me is to enhance my intercultural communication skills The most important fact associated with the concept of intercultural communication is the understanding and respect for different cultures and their customs (Samovar et al. 2014). Hence, the specific strategy for this development al goal is for me research different cultures and their traditional underpinnings to understand and respect different cultures. In order to undertake a thorough extensive research on the cultural diversity, I will utilize different journal articles on effective intercultural communication and cultural competence. After the extensive research, I hope to be able to underpin a number of key qualities and variables, which I then plan to implement on the workplace scenarios that I encounter. I will attempt to have a personal feedback session from my co-workers to measure the progress that I am making. I would like to mention that the feedback will be easy to attain through weakly communication and the researching is also easily attainable for me. The relevance of the strategies are optimal as the researching will enhance my knowledge and understanding of the different cultural backgrounds and how to incorporate culturally competent practice that I can implemented in the organizational culture (Scollon, Scollon and Jones 2011). Along with that, it has to be mentioned that the researching can be done in the leisure times hence it will by no means affect my everyday performance and productivity. Achieving this developmental goal will take me 2 to 3 months to complete it. According to the self evaluation tool, the self perceived communication is the section where I scored very moderate in. Hence the next developmental goal will focus on enhancing my self-perceived communication. Self perceived communication can be enhanced with emphasizing on different responses on differential communicational contexts (Neuliep 2017). The lowest scores received by me were in the meetings, communication with strangers and acquaintances. Hence the I will undertake specific online courses to enhance my confidence and assertive communication skills. I will attempt to maintain a documented track on my progress in these two attributes along the courses, so that my development can be measurable. I think this developmental goal and its corresponding strategies are attainable as the online courses will not affect my job responsibilities and will be completed in my weekly offs. The lack of confidence and assertive communication are soft skills that can only be developed with professional assistance (Samovar et al. 2014). Hence, the strategies are completely relevant and will help me overcome my shortcomings in my personality traits effectively and rapidly (Neuliep 2017). This development goal can be easily achieved by me within 5 to 6 months. Gantt chart: Activities Week 1 Week 3 Week 5 Week 8 Week 12 Week 16 Documentation of progress with reflective journal writing Researching Taking online communication courses Taking feedback from the co-workers Start implementing on personal and professional life Table 1: Gantt chart (Source: Self-developed) References Bargiela-Chiappini, F., Nickerson, C. and Planken, B., 2013. What is Business Discourse?. InBusiness Discourse(pp. 3-44). Palgrave Macmillan, London. Blume, B.D., Baldwin, T.T. and Ryan, K.C., 2013. 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