BUSN20017 Effective Business Communications

Identify and explain the two issues from your diagnosis and reflection. You are to define the concepts, outline key models and or behaviours that need to be developed so as to demonstrate effective practice. This literature review needs to outline both the conceptually (theoretical) and behavioural (interpersonal skills) that you need to acquire to demonstrate competence in your chose area of communication.

Communication is an element that individuals use on a regular basis to interact with one another. People who communicate to each often have an objective or need they intend to achieve from the communication process. Communication can either be verbal or nonverbal, verbal communication is communication by use of speech, whereas nonverbal communication involves communication by use of signals but not limited to use or arts or writings. Effective communication can only be achieved through the portrayal of dynamic communication characteristics like  confidence and high level of self-assertiveness (Bass et al., 2013).

 The aim of this paper is to reflect on the use of different communication techniques, a literature review of the communication tools and to provide an action plan that is geared towards achieving efficient communication. The intensity to good communication skills is reliant on communication diagnostic tools. Communication diagnostic tools are approaches that professionals and organizations from different departments use to develop excellent communication skills (Swineford et al..2014). The frequently applicable communication diagnostic paraphernalia are Johari Window, communication style questionnaire, role play activity, practice and assertive questionnaires.  Communication diagnostic paraphernalia can be used both in the official and in the casual sectors. The primary intent of the communication diagnostics tools is to facilitate participants assertiveness, confidence and self-esteem build up throughout an interaction period (Suleiman et al.2014).

Communication diagnosis in the field of business is made possible by use of communication diagnosis tools as discussed below

2.1. Johari Window

The Johari Window is a communication diagnostic tool which serves the purposes of promoting understanding among two or more individuals in a communication channel (Bahadori et al., 2015).  Johari Window is a communication diagnostic technique that is based on two essential principles. The first principle states that; closely related individuals who are sharing common goals  are at ease of revealing information concerning themselves as opposed to persons who share different goals.

The second Johari window principle argues that; the feedback individuals receive from other people during the communication, plays a significant role in assisting people to develop and improve their communication skills. Most people often prefer expert feedback as it helps people build on their communication knowledge thus promoting personal communication problem-solving approach. The main advantage of this diagnostic tool is that it can be used both in the formal and non-formal setup. In business communications, The Johari window is often used by entrepreneurs to facilitate a better understanding between them and their customers. Through Johari Window, a producer can understand the needs of their clients, gather feedback on the product validity to its client and improve on the downfalls.

2.2 Communication Style Questionnaire 

Communication style surveys serve the purpose of helping people sharpen and improve on the communication techniques that are already known to them (Cummings, 2014).  More often, communication style questionnaire is usually used in testing communication quality at an individual level. Communication style quiz is a straightforward and easy to use diagnostic tools as it does not require an expert's knowledge to analyze the interaction results. This is because the technique can also be used to determine communication patterns of other individuals.  Communication questionnaires serve purposes such as helping people build on their perspectives. The technology also acts as a link that enhances personal understanding capacity, and it also enables people to understand the learning strengths that may precipitate goal accomplishment.Communication questionnaire is of significance as they allow people to improve their interactions with other people and enables them to identify and understand foreign and native communication patterns  (Gee, 2014).

2.3 Assertive Questionnaires 

Assertive questionnaires assist people develop  self-esteem,  self-understanding, and confidence. These surveys help people practice self-esteem and confidence through encouraging people to speak for themselves rather than depending on other people to speak for them. Through an assertive questionnaire, individuals learn to be aggressive by helping them to focus on their goals. Assertive questionnaires are more commonly used in a formal set up. For instance, the questionnaire may be more appropriate in a business set up a scenario where entrepreneurs are expected to represent their ideologies to their customers. The assertive questionnaire, therefore, requires people within the formal set up to exercise the highest level of professionalism through expressing themselves in a way that they can be clearly understood.

2.4  Role Play Activity

The primary goal of a role play activity is to equip individuals with strategies for dealing with difficult conversations.  Role plays usually occur between more than two people who express their interest in learning the strategies to an awkward conversation through acting.  Role play requires close monitoring of experts through supervising individuals involved in the  learning process, professionals aid in the correction of mistakes and motivation of the individuals participating in the learning process (Baker et al.,2015). In a business content, role play helps  business persons to prepare for difficult conversations with their clients. Examples of difficult conversations in a business field may involve discussions on major projects or with much bigger companies. Role play is often used in a systematic order as follows.

2.5   Practice

Practice is a communication diagnostic approach that helps people develop better communication skills through exposing to either manual or automatically appropriate strategies that will enhance better communication. The most appropriate applicable practice method hat increases communication training and supervision (Stewart, 2014).

2.6 Results and Application of the Communication Diagnostic Tools

Through the research, I have discovered that Johari window can be used both as a  nonverbal and as a verbal communication technique. This is because it   promotes active listening. The diagnostic tool is not discriminating against  certain individuals as it can be used by anyone. Johari Window uniqueness is its ability to allow users get feedback thus enabling individuals to build on their weaknesses and enhance their strength (Quinn et al. 2014). Johari Window also hastens the learning process as it makes it easier for individuals to grow their communication skills due feedbacks.

Communication style and assertive questionnaires will help me develop confidence and build on my self-esteem. Confidence will enable me to present myself in front of people without fear of being looked down on; confidence will also allow me to give my ideas both in verbal and nonverbal forms of communication.  Communication style questionnaire enables me to exercise tolerance and patience with other people (Daft and Richard et al2013).

Role play activity and practice have allowed me to develop confidence, high self-esteem, and aggressiveness. Through acting during a role play learning process, I have been able to develop self-experience. The practice has enabled me to develop verbal and non-verbal communication skills. I believe that practice will also model my self-esteem and assertiveness. Active practice will give me the confidence to evaluate myself and learn from other people feedback.

2.7  Communication Issues That Requires Development 

   Practice and role play are the two major communication issues that need to be developed. Practice communication tools should be adjusted in a way that they can match the modern communication trends; this should be influenced by technological changes that require individual to be acquinted with the current systems (Cornelissen, 2014).   Roleplay should be designed to suit expert principles, during role play; only qualified and competent people should be permitted to mentor and supervise the actors.

2.8 My Recent Professional Interaction 

I  recently represented my school in a global science congress competition and was fortunate enough as this was an opportune moment for me to showcase my communication skills through  public speaking. I also had an opportunity to work  as an IT intern for a mobile firm. My responsibility was to listen to clients' complaints and feedback regarding the mobile software.   My professional interactions enabled me to realize that I had poor communication skills and needed more practice, especially  in ideology presentation. I also realized that practice went hand in hand with technological advancements that keep on changing. I, therefore, have to make sure that I have updated information regarding any technological advancements.

During my interactions with students at the science congress, I realized that most of the participants were less organized thus needed guidance to help them in organizing their projects appropriately before the presentation. Through my two professional interactions, I realized that practice was relevant as it equips one with skills on how to be patient, tolerates and understanding to the different groups of people.Role play also played a crucial role in helping me to prepare for my future career. Through role play, I was able to interact and thus sharpen my communication skills.

Concepts of Practice

Practice  communication  concepts include; relatability, emphasis, active listening, asking questions, availability and communication customization.   Relatability is showing concern and care to other individuals.  Relatable activity is a practice that is aimed towards having knowledge of colleagues or team members welfare beyond the professional regime. In other words, relatability is about knowing your colleagues at a personal level.  A relatable person is an individual who is concerned for the welfare of his/her teammates (Gasparini, 2014).   Employers within a business organization can promote relatability through planning for employees retreat, house wellness visit or even involvement in charity work.  Planning for social activities outside the office often gives the employees and the employer a better chance to learn about the non professional traits about their colleagues. Having knowledge concerning an individual personality trait promotes a friendly working environment as staff can better understand and tolerate the different existent behaviors within the organization.

Emphasis requires the use of both verbal and nonverbal communication skills so as to build impact on significant information that requires a full attention of the individual whom the information is being relaid to, emphasis promotes understanding of appropriate communication as well as enhancing confidence development. Habitually, focus draws the attention of the audience and position them in a scenario of thinking out of the box concerning the issue that is being emphasized on. Active listening is a communication pattern that requires individual to listen more and to talk less. Alternatively, active listening communicates tolerance and respect to the communicator.  Through active listening, individuals can understand and gain better clarification  on the subject of communication and at the same time

 develop confidence as they can clearly explain what they have heard when asked to.

Customization of communication is more applicable in a work environment where employees mode of conduct is governed by the company policies.  Communication strategies put in place should promote diversity and encourage equity as employees are from different backgrounds  (O'Sullivan & Partridge, 2016).  Customized communication is also aimed towards ensuring that the language used in communicating to staff members within an office is well understood by everybody.  A customized communication should always guarantee the comfortability of audience.  Ensuring audience comfortability implies the use of suitable communication model in communicating to the public, this should be done in a way that draws audience more closer and making the interactions between the communicating parties more informal rather than formal.

Availability is a concept that requires an individual to be available either for training or practice of the communication skills. Availability is often encouraged as some skills can only be learned through observations. Availability also gives an individual the opportunity to acquire first-hand information, erase doubts that they have concerning an issue by asking for clarification.

 Asking a question is a useful concept whose goal is to ensure that individuals gain a clear understanding of the subject under study.  Questions are often asked for clarification purposes.  Asking questions on areas that one have no knowledge of  help them to better understand the information being communicated to them and  gain clarifications on various issues. Asking questions can also mean the use of simpler language that is well understood by the audience to measure their understanding of the area under study (Baker & Omilion, 2014).      

3.2 Role Play Activity Concepts

Role play is a communication model that requires an individual involvement in a more verbal communication design. Role play enhances effective communication as individuals have the liberal  opportunity to express themselves through speech and on a one to one personal interaction basis ( Light & McNaughton, 2014).   Through speech and one to one interaction, people can learn about other feelings through  analyzing their non verbal expression and the tone in which an individual as communicating information.  During a role play, an individual is expected to fix themselves in an imaginary scenario and act as if a certain issue was affecting them.  Role play generates greater significance as it promotes the development of self-confidence in an individual  ( key, 2016). Confidence developed in an individual as a result of role play often emerge from continuous practice.

Role play consists of two major practical aspects which are acting and a theoretical concept. Acting is an approach where an individual places themselves in an imaginary scenario and uses speech and action to explain the dilemma that has to befall him or her.  Role plays theoretical concept usually concerned with applied theory utilization. Applied concepts in theoretical role play involve practices such as teaching people, supervising special acitivities and training. Acting enables people to gain confidence and eliminate crowd conversation fear, through acting people can acquire strong communication skills such as patience, self-control, and tolerance.  A good example of a role play theoretical concept is the participation of individuals in the commemorative and appealing   activities such as a poem, memorizing and narrative citations through acting. Besides being a  fun and entertaining activity, role play promotes understanding and behavior adaptation among people as role play enables people to adapt to appropriate communication behavioral skills. In business management scenarios, role play often helps individuals to solve and avoid conflict that arises due to miscommunications. Through role play,  entrepreneurs can identify conflicts and develop appropriate conflict resolution strategies  (Baile & Blatner, 2014).

I intend to begin a communication training academy to teach individuals on effective communication skills short courses that will run for a minimum period of six months and a maximum period of one year. The communication practice that would be offered to students who wish to improve their communication skills will be based on training through the use of both formal and informal approaches so as to help all students understand the basis of acquiring  effective communication skills. The formal training program will be divided into three categories. The bronze, silver and gold levels. The bronze level is  meant for individuals with poor communication skills and has expressed a desire to develop their communication skills. This program is mainly meant to help the young stars who are venturing into the career market to overcome communication problems and develop effective communication skills that will assist in growing their careers.  The Silver level is for individuals with  slightly average communication skills but wishes to develop it to perfection.

 The gold level  shall be a mentor level where individuals with excellent communication skills are trained to guide other people of the same age group on better communication skills.  Student representation at the gold level will be chosen based on professionalism, experience, and career background.  Each of the bronze and silver training methods will successfully run for six months whereby students will be expected to do both practical and theory examination to test their understanding of the communication skills. The gold level program shall run for one year, during this schedule a mentor shall be allocated a student to mentor through the studies and six months after the student has completed their studies. Mentorship shall be based on a voluntary basis.  

The natural short courses, on the other hand, will run for three months and will involve people with low income and education level. The informal training shall be conducted through acting, use of skates and narrative citations whereby individuals shall be expected to listen and observe the communications skills and barriers arising from the act then develop a better communication strategy. During the informal training, there shall be supervisions from professionals who will explain to the students the relevance of each role practice in enhancing communication patterns.   

Students enrolled in the formal training shall be provided with books, articles magazines, and journals to enhance their research on communication skills. Both students in formal and informal training will be provided with audios and videos on communication to listen to and watch. This is because; reading, television watching and listening to audios  are considered as effective practice to acquiring better communication skills  (Fischer & O'Connor, 2014).  At the end of training program all students will be expected to form a group and write reports on what they have learned and the changes to be amended b y the academy. Such feedback will help the organization create better techniques that will promote effective communication.

During the training period in the academy, students shall be provided with journals and diaries where they will be updating new information based on what they have learned. Students will also be expected to watch, read or listen to research from various sources then identify a role activity which they will present to other students through acting, public speaking, skits or any other presentation method that the student would have chosen.  Research gathering and demonstration of the outcomes through role play. Role  plays are significant role as it helps students to quickly reflect, remember, understand and place emphasis on the topic of concern  (Luna, 2015).  

Students enrolled in the formal short course training program will also be provided with self-help books from different authors so as to acquaint them with ideas that will help them expound on their thinking and imaginary process. Students are provided with self-help books because they act as motivation. Some students also have people who they view as role models, delivering such students with these books will enable them to learn  from the success and failure of such individuals and thus help them in making concrete communication decisions.

 Selection of individuals Program Exit

for the training program  Assessment test     Examination &role play activities

Commercement  of training

Practice Sessions

5^th to 28^th February 28thApril to 31^st May

3^rd to 25^th to 25^th June

1^st to 29^th March

31^st March to 25^th April

15^th to 30 january

5. References

Akey, B. C. A., Jiang, X., Antwi, H. A., & Torku, E. (2016). Evolution of Diversifying Management projects Among International Firms: Lessons from Developing Economies.

Bahadori, M., Shiri, A., & Mahdizade, H. (2015). Ranking Feedback and Disclosure Approaches based on Johari Window Model to Enhance Organizational Communications.

Baile, W. F., & Blatner, A. (2014).  Communication skills techniques applicable during teaching: using action methods to enhance role-play in problem-based learning.  Healthcare Simulation, 9(4), 220-227.

Barber, Saffo, Gilpin, Craft & Goldstein, H. (2016). Peers as clinicians: Examining the Impact of Role Play Talk on social communication in young preschoolers with autism. Journal of communication disorders, 59, 1-15.

Barker, D., Quennerstedt, M., & Annerstedt, C. (2015). Interaction among and student learning in health and physical education: A post-Vygotskian analysis. Sports and Sports Pedagogy, 20(4), 409-426.

Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2013). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Sage.

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

Daft, Richard L., and Dorothy Marcic. Building management skills: An action-first approach. Cengage Learning, 2013.

Fischer, C., & O'Connor, B. N. (2014). Informal learning at workplaces: Understanding learning culture as a challenge for organizational and individual development. In Discourses on Professional Learning (pp. 11-24). Springer Netherlands.

Gasparini, D. H. (2014). Self-Advocacy; The relevance of Building Interpersonal-Communication and Help-Seeking Skills in Elementary School Children.

Gee, J. P. (2014). An introduction to an analysis of discourse: Theory and method. Routledge.

Light, J., & McNaughton, D. (2014). Communicative competence for individuals in need of augmentative and alternative communication: A new definition for a new era of communication.

Luna Scott, C. (2015). The Futures of Learning 3: pedagogies type for the 21st century.

Omilion-Hodges, L. M., & Baker, C. R. (2014). Daily talk and convincing conversations: Utilizing strategic internal communication. Business Horizons, 57(3), 435-445.

O'Sullivan, C., & Partridge, H. (2016). Organizational Change and Renewal: Application of Strategic Communication Methods in relieving the Pain. A Case Study from the University of Southern Queensland. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 22(2-3), 282-293.

Quinn, R. E., Bright, D., Faerman, S. R., Thompson, M. P., & McGrath, M. R. (2014). Becoming the leading manager: A competing values approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Reece, B., & Reece, M. (2016). Effective human relations: Interpersonal and organizational applications. Cengage Learning.

Stewart, C. (2014). Transforming professional development to professional learning. Journal of Adult Education,  43(1), 28.

Sulaiman Al Jahwari, D., Sulaiman Al Jahwari, D., Sirakaya-Turk, E., Sirakaya-Turk, E., Altintas, V., & Altintas, V. (2016). Evaluating communication competence of tour guides using a modified importance-performance analysis (MIPA). International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), 195-218.

Swineford, Thurm, Baird, Wetherby & Swedo, S. (2014). Social communication disorder: a research review of this new DSM-5 diagnostic category. Journal of neuron developmental disorders, 6(1), 41.