COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNICATIONS

Research tells us that poor communication is the most frequently cited source of interpersonal conflict. Those individuals who
are good at communicating are setting themselves up for success.

ORGANIZATIONS

Have rules and processes that employees must follow, communicated to workers to keep order and equity operating within the
system.

This is an example of an organization leveraging their communication processes to keeo order and ensure grievances are heard
fairly.

MOTIVATIONS

Goals, feedback and reinforcement are among those items communicated to employees to improve performance and stimulate
motivation.

Feedback and reinforcement can also be a formal controlled process but it can also occur in informal ways.

INFORMATION

Organizations need to keep their employees informed of their goals, industry information, preferred processes, new
developments and technology,etc, in order that they can do their jobs correctly and efficiently.

EMOTIONAL EXPRESSION

Communication is the means by which employees express themselves, air their grievances, and interact socially.

SEVEN PILLARS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

1.CLEAR- Their messages should be easily understood

2.CONCISE- Their message should be feature only necessary information.

3.OBJECTIVE - Their messages should be impartial

4.CONSISTENT - Their messages, when communicated more than once, should always be the same

5.COMPLETE- Their messages should feature all the necessary information.

6.RELEVANT- Their messages should have meaning to its receiver

7.UNDERSTANDING OF AUDIENCE KNOWLEDGE - Their messages should consider what the receiver already knows about the
situation, and not assume too much or too little.

WHAT IS COMPETENCE?

- Is how well a person can communicate their thoughts and ideas to others.
- Is the knowledge a person has on the rules of grammar, syntax, and nonverbal cues and when to apply them in various
social contexts.

1. UNCONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE

Is when you don't know how to improve your communication ang you're not aware you're not communicating competently
 2. CONSCIOUS INCOMPETENCE

Is when you're aware you're not communicating competently after you've learned the concepts, but you haven't applied them
in your social interactions yet.

3.CONSCIOUS COMPETENCE

Is when you know that you're communicating well at the moment.

4. UNCONSCIOUS COMPETENCE

Is when you're able to communicate competently without thinking about it too much or at all.

4 BENEFITS OF COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

1. Accomplishing communication goals

One benefit of having communication competence is you're able to accomplish your communication goals. You can
communicate you goals verbally and non verbally.

-Self presentation goals

Having a self-presentation communication goals means showing who you are and how you want others around you to perceive
you

-Relational goals

Are how you develop and maintain relationships with your friends, significant others, colleagues, and acquaintances.

-Instrumental goals

Are how you manage interpersonal conflicts, your ability to influence others when you're speaking with them and your ability
to persuade others.

2. IDENTIFYING MISINFORMATION

You may identify misinformation when you're in a social setting. When you use your communication competence, you can use
context clues to learn more about the conversation you're having.

3. AVOIDING STEREOTYPES OR OTHER OFFENSIVE TERMINOLOGY

Another benefit of working on your communication competency is you can avoid any stereotype language and other offensive
terminology in your vocabulary.

4. MINIMIZING CONFLICT

You can learn how to minimize conflict in your interpersonal relations when you have competency in communication because
you're able to diffuse high - tension situations. You can also try to diffuse the conflict in the conversation by acknowledging the
opposing viewpoint.

6 STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

1. DEVELOP FLEXIBILITY

You can improve your communication competency by becoming flexible in your social interactions. There are six factors you can
use to help you be adaptive in your communication based on your surroundings.
-Experience

If you've taken part in various social experiences, you can use your past interactions as a guide for your current ones.

-Composure

When you're in social interactions, notice how your feeling and reacting to the situation. It's helpful to remain calm and
accurate in most situations when you're communicating.

-Confirmation

If you're listening to others in a social interactions, you can acknowledge their communication goal when they're speaking.

-Disclosure

A social interaction, either a conversation with another person or a presentation to an audience, it helpful to remain sensitive
to the information you're sharing, including how much you're sharing.

-Articulation

Working on the articulation of your ideas

- Wit

You can use your wit or appropriate humor to help ease tensions in a conversation if they were to arise. Adapting your type of
humor based on the social situation can help you diffuse conflict and help develop your interpersonal relationships.

2. Remain involved

When you're trying to improve your communication competency, you can take notice of how you’re involving yourself in social
interactions.

- Response

Understand your role in the conversation, what to say to the other person and how to interact with the other person

- Perception

Consider how the other person you’re speaking with is perceiving you and if it's the perception you want to exhibit.

- Attention:

Recognize where your attention is during a conversation. Make sure you're listening to the other person and hearing what
they're saying.

3. Conduct your conversation

Management Conversation management is how well you're able to maintain a conversation, such as how you handle topic
changes and how you adapt to the surrounding environment.

4. Show empathy

Empathy is a person's ability to understand the emotions of other people. When you're having a conversation with another
person, you can show empathy to how they're feeling based on what they're saying or their nonverbal communication.

4. Show empathy

It's about understanding the person's emotions rather than trying to help them solve their challenges. Offering empathy can
help strengthen the interpersonal relationship and develop trust between you and the other person

5. Measure the effectiveness of the interaction

After you've had a conversation, you can think about if it was effective. You can ask yourself questions, such as if you and the
other person achieved the objectives of the conversation or if you accomplished your personal goals. If you find that you ' re
having effective conversations frequently, you might improve your communication competency skills

6. Use appropriateness vocabulary and nonverbal communication

You can measure the appropriateness of your communication during and after the conversation. You can determine this by
assessing nonverbal cues, facial expressions and the actual words the other person is saying.

THE WHAT AND WHY OF COMMUNICATION

INTRODUCTION

- Communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to another.

- Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents which share a repertoire of
signs and semiotic rules.
- Communication is commonly defined as "the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by
speech, writing, or signs". Communication can be perceived as a two-way process in which there is an exchange and
progression of thoughts, feelings or ideas towards a mutually accepted goal or direction.

COMMUNICATION PROCESS

1. SOURCE

As the source of the message, you need to be clear about why you're communicating, and what you want to communicate. You
also need to be confident that the information you're communicating is useful and accurate.

2.MESSAGE

The message is the information that you want to communicate.

- ENCODING

This is the process of transferring the information you want to communicate into a form that can be sent and correctly
decoded at the other end. (for example, cultural issues, mistaken assumptions, and missing information.) A key part of this
is knowing your audience: Failure to understand who you are communicating with will result in delivering messages that are
misunderstood.

- CHANNEL

Messages are conveyed through channels, with verbal channels including face-to-face meetings, telephone and
videoconferencing; and written channels including letters, emails, memos and reports.

- DECODING

Just as successful encoding is a skill, so is successful decoding (involving, for example, taking the time to read a message
carefully, or listen actively to it.) Just as confusion can arise from errors in encoding, it can also arise from decoding errors. This
is particularly the case if the decoder doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the message

- RECEIVER

-Your message is delivered to individual members of your audience.

-To be a successful communicator, you should consider these before delivering your message,and act appropriately.

- FEEDBACK

Your audience will provide you with feedback, as verbal and nonverbal reactions to your communicated message. Pay close
attention to this feedback, as it is the only thing that can give you confidence that your audience has understood your message.

- CONTEXT

The situation in which your message is delivered is the context. This may include the surrounding environment or broader
culture (corporate culture, international cultures, and so on).

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
 - refers to any form of communication that is not transmitted through spoken word.

VERBAL COMMUNICATION

- is any form of communication that occurs through spoken word. Its key strength is that it tends to be perceived as a
trusted and authentic form of communication.

EXAMPLE

Conversations: Speaking with others in person, over the phone, or through video conferencing.

Presentations: Delivering speeches, lectures, video conferences, or other formal talks to an audience.

Written correspondence: Communicating through letters, emails, memos, text messages, or other written forms of
communication.

Face-to-Face Interviews: Answering questions posed by a potential employer in a face-to-face interview context.

Video and Podcast: Video and podcast media generally also contain verbal communication, such as a person telling a story or a
recording of a conversation between characters.

VISUAL COMMUNICATION

- means the transfer of information to a person in a format that can be read or viewed.

EXAMPLES

Infographics: Presenting complex information, data, or knowledge in a visually engaging and easy-to- understand format using
charts, graphs, and illustrations.

Slide Presentations: Conveying information, ideas, or concepts through a combination of text, images, and design elements in a
slideshow format, often during meetings or conferences.

Graphs and Charts: Visualizing data, trends, or comparisons through various graphical representations such as bar charts, pie
charts, line graphs, and flowcharts.

Videos and Animations: Using moving images, graphics, and visual storytelling techniques to convey a message or concept in
an engaging and informative manner.

Graphic Design and Branding: Employing design elements like logos, color schemes, and typography to create a visual identity
for a product, company, or organization, which can be consistently applied across various media and platforms

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

- involves the use of words, sentences, and paragraphs encoded in text in order to communicate.
- Prior to the advent of audiovisual recording devices, written text was the key format for recording data.

EXAMPLE

Emails and Letters: Exchanging information, ideas, or requests through written messages in a formal or informal tone, sent
electronically or through postal services.

·Reports and Documents: Compiling research, analysis, or project updates into structured written formats to inform, persuade,
or provide recommendations to an audience.

·Blog Posts and Articles: Sharing knowledge, opinions, or experiences on a specific topic through written content published on
websites, newspapers, or magazines.

·Books and eBooks: Conveying narratives, ideas, or educational content in a longer written format, distributed in print or
digitally for readers to consume and engage with.

Academic Writing: This is used to present facts and evidence in the form of essays, research papers, and other publications.
INTRAPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

- is an individual’s own personal dialogue and reflection within themselves.

EXAMPLE

·Self-Reflection: Engaging in an internal dialogue to assess one’s thoughts, emotions, or actions in a specific situation or over
time.

·Goal Setting: Identifying personal objectives and desired outcomes, along with outlining a plan to achieve those targets
through internal communication.

·Mental Rehearsals: Mentally practicing an upcoming task,speech, or performance in one’s mind to improve preparedness and
reduce anxiety.

·Mindfulness and Meditation: Focusing on the present moment, breathing, and internal sensations to cultivate self-awareness,
emotional regulation, and mental clarity.

·Daydreaming and Visualization: Using one’s imagination to explore scenarios, potential outcomes, or aspirations as a form of
internal dialogue and problem-solving.

INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

- simply refers to communication between two or more people.

EXAMPLE

·Casual Conversations: Engaging in informal dialogue with friends, family, or colleagues to share experiences, thoughts, and
emotions.

·Active Listening: Demonstrating empathy and understanding by attentively listening to another person’s ideas or concerns,
and providing appropriate responses or feedback.

·Conflict Resolution: Addressing disagreements or misunderstandings between individuals by discussing the issues, identifying
solutions, and finding common ground.

Group Discussions: Collaborating with multiple individuals to exchange ideas, solve problems, or make decisions through open
and respectful communication.

·Nonverbal Communication: Conveying meaning or expressing emotions through body language, facial expressions, gestures,
and tone of voice, in conjunction with verbal exchanges.

MASS COMMUNICATION

- refers to communication at a social scale that is facilitated by broadcast media such as radio, television, or the internet.
- is hugely beneficial for public health and safety, the spread of cultural values, and the spread of important news and
information.

EXAMPLES

Newspapers: For many centuries, daily and weekly newspapers were the key way in which people received current affairs
information.

Books: Often under-recognized, books are still one of the major forms of mass communication.

Radio: Radio gives people instant access to audio information and entertainment.

Television: Television was the first form of mass communication

SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION

- refers to real-time interaction between individuals, allowing for immediate feedback and dynamic exchanges.
- allows for rapid problem-solving, collaboration, and increased understanding among participants by enabling instant
clarification of ideas and immediate response to questions

EXAMPLES

·In-person meetings: Collaborating face-to-face to discuss ideas, share updates, or make decisions.

·Phone calls: Engaging in real-time conversations to convey information, provide support, or build relationships.

·Video conferences: Connecting remotely with others using audio and visual technologies to facilitate communication and
collaboration.

ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION

- involves the exchange of messages or information without the requirement for participants to be simultaneously
present or engaged.

EXAMPLES

Emails: Sending and receiving messages with attachments, allowing recipients to respond at their convenience.

Discussion boards: Posting and replying to topics in online forums, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Recorded video messages: Creating and sharing pre- recorded videos, providing visual information to be viewed at a later time.

Collaborative documents: Sharing and editing files with others asynchronously, enabling teamwork and collective input.

Social media posts: Crafting and sharing content, allowing followers to engage and respond in their own time.

FORMAL COMMUNICATION

- Refers to structured and professional exchanges that follow established rules, guidelines, and etiquette.
- often involves the use of proper language, clear structure, and respectful tone, ensuring clarity and credibility in the
message being conveyed.

EXAMPLES

Business letters: Crafting well-structured and professionally formatted correspondence for official purposes.

Presentations: Delivering well-organized and polished speeches or lectures to an audience, using appropriate language and
visual aids.

Reports: Writing comprehensive and coherent documents to present research findings.

Agendas and meeting minutes: Creating and distributing structured outlines of topics to be discussed.

Formal invitations: Sending carefully crafted and elegantly designed invitations for events, such as weddings, conferences, or
award ceremonies.

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION

- involves casual and spontaneous exchanges between individuals, often characterized by a relaxed tone and the use of
colloquial language.

EXAMPLES
Casual conversations: Engaging in unstructured and relaxed dialogues with friends, family, or colleagues.

Text messages: Sending and receiving brief, colloquial messages to share updates, ask questions, or coordinate plans.

Social media comments: Interacting with others through likes, shares, and comments on various platforms, such as Facebook,
Twitter, or Instagram.

Informal emails: Writing casual and conversational messages, often using abbreviated language and emoticons.

Comedy Shows: Comedians tend to employ informal communication in order to send signals to the audience that they are in a
space designed to make light of social situatios.

METACOMMUNICATION

refers to communication about communication. It generally refers to statements or non-verbal cues during a conversation used
to check in about how the conversation is going. For example, you might pause to reflect on what you said by saying “did that
make sense to you?” This specific type of metacommunication is called metacommentary.

EXAMPLES

Clarifying yourself: Saying in text or verbally, “that was a joke, by the way.”

Voice inflection: Going up at the end of a sentence can indicate you’re asking a question.

Metacommentary: Making a comment about what you’re saying, like, “wow, I’m going around in circles aren’t I?”

.Paraphrasing: After a long speech, consciously paraphrasing what you said to recap the key

points.

Signposting: When giving a speech, starting by signposting what you will say and the order in which it will be said to help
people follow your speech.

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

Language is symbolic– elements create symbols (words and other symbols)

Sign language is symbolic, linguistic.

Symbols are the way we expressed to the world people, not in words

Rules of Language

LANGUAGE IS RULE –GOVERNED

- understanding rules help us understand each other.

Phonological rule

- the context in which a sound change takes place

Syntactic Rule

- how words and symbols are arranged rules used in communication to describe how things are organized or ordered,
how words or symbols are arranged

Semantic rule

- is the study of the relationship between words and how we draw mean informs those words.
- the specific meaning of words.

Pragmatic rule

- how people use language in everyday interaction governs interpretation based on context

THE POWER OF LANGUAGE

Language Shapes Attitudes :

- Naming
- Credibility
- Social and sexual
- Preferences
- Status
- Racism and Sexism
-

Power and Affiliation

Convergence – happens when an individual adjusts his speech patterns to match those of people belonging to another group or
social identity

Divergence – happens when an individual adjusts his speech patterns to be distinct from those people belonging to another
group or social ident

Language convergence – a type of language contact induced change whereby languages with many bilingual speakers mutually
borrow morphological and syntactic features making their typology more similar

Attraction and Interest

-demonstrative pronouns,

-negation and placement

Demonstrative Pronouns
 - are pronouns used to replace nouns or noun phrases in a sentence, representing that which is nearby or far away in
space or time.
- BPO industries conduct employee engagement surveys.

Negation

- the contradiction or denial of something the absence or opposite of something actual or positive a negative statement,
judgment, or doctrine

IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT

- Managing other’s view of oneself.

- Influencing how others think of something or someone else.
- It also involves issues of honesty or dishonesty.
- Choices of faces and impressions
- Choices of words and tones
- Our perception of others shape the way we communicate with them and vice versa

HOW DO WE MANAGE IMPRESSIONS?

MANNER

- The way we talk (volume, pace, tone, intonation, language used, pitch and pronunciation) affect the way we impress
on others.

CONTENT

- This is what one talks about or what one is capable of talking or discussion about

APPEARANCE

- Our physical appearance, including our gestures, mannerisms and eye contact influences the impression we make on
others.

SETTING

- Where we deliver our message also influences the impression we make on others.

MISUNDERSTANDING IN LANGUAGE

Equivocal words

- can be pronounced in two different ways, meaning two different things.

Relative words

- words that do not have an exact definition, and can change depending on the context and is very subjective.

Slang

- an informal nonstandard vocabulary

Jargon

- the language, especially the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group

Emotive language

- one which uses words that will evoke the emotions of someone
Evasive language

- Euphemism -substituting words to soften a possible negative meaning.

Equivocation

- deliberate vague statement to avoid embarrassment or negative message.

TELEPHONE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Phone Etiquette

1. Answer a call within three rings

- If your position entails always being available to callers, you should actually be available.

2. Immediately introduce yourself

Upon picking up the phone, you should confirm with the person whom they have called.

3. Speak clearly.

- Phone calls, while a great option for those who detest in-person interaction, do require very strong communication skills

4. Only use speakerphone when necessary

- We all know the trials of speakerphone. It's easier for you because you can use your hands to multitask.

5. Actively listen, and take notes.

- Speaking of paying attention to your customers, it's essential that you're actively listening to them throughout the
conversation.

6. Use proper language.

- A key difference between professional and personal phone calls is obvious — the language.

7. Remain cheerful.

- You never know when a customer is having a bad day.

8. Ask before putting someone on hold or transferring a call.

There's often nothing more infuriating than being put on hold.

9. Be honest if you don't know the answer.

You might need to put a customer on hold or transfer their call if the dreaded occurs — you don't know the solution

10. Be mindful of your volume.

- You may be so focused on your phone call with a customer that you're barely paying attention to your present setting.

Customer Service Phone Etiquette

1. The customer is asking you to do something that you can't.

- The only "downside" to providing great customer service is that sometimes your customers expect too much from you.

2. The customer insists on staying on the phone until their problem is resolved.

- Customers are dedicated to reaching their goals and some will do nearly anything to achieve success

3. The customer is demanding to speak with a manager.

- Many customers think that demanding to speak with management will help resolve their case faster.

4. The customer doesn't understand your explanation.

- Phones are great for providing immediate support for simple and easy-to-fix issues but they can be tricky to work on when
cases become more complex.

5. The customer is keeping you on the phone for too long.

- Customers value their time, but so do customer service reps.

 CALL FLOW

- is used by contact and call centers of all sizes.

Greeting

- This is a very important part of the call flow because it is the very first thing a live agent should say to a customer.

Authentication

- This is also a critical component of a call flow. This step involves verifying the customer’s identity to prevent fraudulent
behavior.

Find the Driver

- During this stage the purpose of the call is determined. It is also a point from which the call can go in many directions.

Empathy

- After the agent determines the driver of the call, they are expected to show genuine empathy to the caller.

Transition

- At this stage of the call flow, agent have determined the driver of the call

Troubleshooting

- -In a call flow, this is where the agent takes steps to resolve the issue the customer is facing

Recap

- After resolving this issue, a recap about the call must be given to the customer.

Branding the Call

- In a call flow, finishing strong is important.

Importance of Global Business

- Going global a company can enjoy a lot of benefits.
- International business is a fact that helped companies to earn profits not only at the national level but globally. There
is various importance as so companies opt for international business
BENEFITS OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

Global Opportunities

- Global business provides global opportunities to business organizations.

- The international market provides access to diversified customers, their diversified taste, preferences, need, and wants
are the opportunities for the companies.

Increased Revenue

- In international business, one thing is clear companies involved in such businesses for

earning more profits.

Market Expansion

- Just look at multinational companies such as Coca-Cola, Apple, Microsoft, etc.

- Companies get a chance to explore and expand their stake in the new market and place.

Quality Product

- Have you heard of quality war or price war? International business promotes it. The global business flooded a
particular market with a variety of substitute products. Quality Produc

Global Image

- To become a global image and brand, most companies reason to enter into international commerce. It helps them to
become a global brand but depends upon them how they have served the foreign nations.

Economies of Scale

- The global business also helps companies to achieve economies of scale.

Earning Foreign Money

- It is very fact that companies involved in global business mainly participate in exporting goods or services they
produce.

Cost Advantage

- One of the most popular benefits of international business is that it helps companies to get a cost advantage.
- It is because their labor cost is low.

Networking

- By doing international business companies also build networks with different foreign companies.
- Due to this, the movement of international products is possible from country to country.

Economic Development

- A nation’s economy is called strong when it exports more than imports or produce enough itself.

Government Support

- The international business operates in a free-market economy. Meaning that government has no direct right to stop
global trade but rather government facilities and regulates.

Employment Opportunities

- Last but not least, the importance of international business is that it also provides various employment opportunities.

Sources of Workplace Diversity

Workforce Diversity

- The work force diversity is defined as difference between employees of the organization on the basis of functional
specialty, age, sexual orientation, lifestyle and geographic origin etc.
- Normally there are two broad sources of workforce diversity that result in variations among people.
-
- In modern age, the diversity is much more than simple differences in skin color and gender.

Racial and Ethical Groups

- Mostly employees with color differences are marked as employees belonging to different groups.

Older Workers

- It is a big fact that the overall population of the world is growing older which has also directly affected the workforce in
the organizations.

Gender

- In large organizations only 11.9% of the corporate officers are represented by the women.

Education

- The educational level of employees is also- becoming a source of workforce diversity within organizations.

Dual Career Families

- Dual Career families affect the organizations as both opportunities and challenges.

Religion and Culture

- As the world is changing into a global village, there emerges a new kind of diversity in the form of difference of religion
and culture among employees.

Persons with Disabilities

- Usually a disabled person is not considered as an effective worker and it is assumed that his disability becomes an
obstacle for his effective work.

Immigrants

- The immigrants in different developed countries are increasing in their number including more educated, skilled
workers and low educated, unskilled workers.

Young Individuals with Limited Skills and Education

- Young unskilled and uneducated individuals are hired by many organizations during the peak seasonal periods which
would create a diversified environment and many other performance issues for the HR department of the
organization.

Competitive Advantage with Diverse Workforce

- In the old days, the organizations kept a diverse workforce due to legal and social aspects.
- The workers in the labor market also consider such organizations as favorable for them.

Marketing

- The diverse workforce can be helpful for the organizations in understanding about the diverse customers that are
located in different geographical areas.

Innovation, Creativity and Problem Solving

- Innovation and creativity is promoted with the diverse workforce because people with different backgrounds have
different perspectives for certain problems.
- When this team makes an effort to solve the problems, it can develop more innovative options and solutions that
cannot be considered by the homogeneous workforce.
Successful Intercultural Communicators

- First, intercultural communication is so crucial because each employee’s unique background, life experiences and
skillsets influence their work performance.
- Without a company culture that welcomes people of all backgrounds and fosters positive communication across
cultures, you’ll be less likely to form a diverse and inclusive workplace.
- How to Achieve Effective Intercultural Communication

Adopt an Adaptive Leadership Style

- If you want intercultural communication to be a permanent part of your company culture, it’s got to start from the top
down.
- Adopting the right leadership style encourages strong team relationships, and that, in turn, makes it easier to
introduce concepts like intercultural communication.

Educate Yourself

- If you want to take your intercultural communication skills to the next level, you should absolutely do some self-
education.

Practice Active Listening

- Active listeners focus entirely on the speaker and respond thoughtfully when in conversation.

Be Patient

- Solid intercultural communication isn’t going to happen overnight. Patience is key.

- Ultimately, you want to give yourself and your team time to grow their intercultural communication skills.