INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Self-reflection Essay on Interpersonal Communication

Student’s Name

Institution

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 2
Communication is key in any business department including the marketing team that
needs to possess outstanding skills to attract a bigger market share. Firms need to analyze and
evaluate communication skills to improve their weaknesses. This self-reflection essay covers a
comprehensive analysis of my communication skills.

Self-reflection on Interpersonal Communication

The communication analysis will be based on the generated information from the five
diagnostic tools presented. I will evaluate my weaknesses and how I can improve on them. From
my analysis, the two communication issues or weaknesses that I need to improve are: willingness
to listen to diagnostic and Talkaholic. Also, the essay will include literature review relating to the
main themes and concepts of communication to support my essay. I have acquired skills and
knowledge of activities that I can apply to my communication. I have displayed issues of these
activities using an action plan diagram.
The marketing team needs to possess good communication skills for a firm to gain a large
market share. It calls for the need of analyzing and evaluating once communication skills to
reinforce the strengths and improve on the weaknesses. Through my analysis, I have applied five
different diagnostic communication tools to evaluate my communication skills in different
circumstances. One of the tools I applied was the self-perceived communication competence
questionnaire which analyses the communication capability of people when challenged with a
surplus of communication condition to a range of receivers (McCroskey & Wheeless, 1976). It is
a diagnostic tool that intends to let the respondent define communication competence.
The second tool that I applied was the personal report of communication which measures
the feelings of an individual towards communication. The tool uses diversified situations of
communication to analyze the individual whereby a person’s behavior is evaluated in different

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 3
communication contexts (Bevan, 2009). This tool usually consists of twenty-four statements
concerning personal feelings towards communication with others. The other tool of
communication competence analysis is the willingness to listen diagnostic. The tool measures
the attention to detail, ability to listen and the desire to listen. It also shows the level of the
diagnostic test of the impression (Vickery, 2017). Another tool is the Talkaholic scale- a method
that is used to identify individuals who are aware of their habits to over-communicate in a
compulsive and consistent manner (Worthington, 2017). While using the scale, People who score
above two standard deviations beyond the mean are considered to be Talkaholics. This tool has
a high face validity as it is unidimensional and possesses good test-retest and internal reliability.
The last tool of analyzing in communication competence is the Non-Verbal Immediacy Scale-
self report (NIS-S) which is based on how people are passionate about communication (Walcott,
2007. This tool is considered to be the most up-to-date measure of the non-verbal immediacy.
The tools of analyzing communication competence of the individual possess a high level
of validity, and the results from the questionnaires in all test were accurate to the standards, and I
recognize my preferences and communication styles from them. All the five-tool has displayed
enough face validity for their results to be accepted. From the results of self-perceived
communication competence, it displayed that I am free and comfortable when communicating
through one-to-one interaction with friends. From the scale, it indicated a score of 87 points
when talking with friends which is an indication of high self-perceived communication
competence which is higher compared to other communication contexts such as public, meeting,
group, dyad, strangers, and acquaintance. From the results, the level of self-perceived
communication is at a minimum while talking to strangers and at maximum while talking to
friends. On the results of the personal report of intercultural communication apprehension, I had

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 4
an overall score of 53 which indicates a high intercultural communication apprehension (CA).
The results of non-verbal immediacy scale self-report (NIS-S) I scored 115 pointss which
reflects a high nonverbal immediacy scale for the females. On the issue of willingness to listen, I
scored a bit poor, and I considered this as one of my weakness on matters pertaining
communication competence. Talkaholic scale displayed results which indicated that I have the
challenge to solve it. Research has revealed that the more individual talks, the more interesting a
person are evaluated by others unless the person is talking things that irritating (BEVAN, 2009).
I am not good at talking, and I always find myself silent when I am supposed to communicate. It
is possibly the cause of my poor score on this test, and I think I need to work on it.
I found the willingness to listen and Talkaholic to be my weak points on matters relating
to communication competence. As a result, I perceive myself demanding to work on these fields
which I found to be my weaknesses. By improving on the weak points, I feel that it will be of
great benefit to my communication competence for my business communication. One of them is
to increase my network. On the issue of willingness to listen, I always find my attention carried
away when listening to other people as they talk either during organization meetings or
discussion. To come up with the best organization decision, a joint involvement of all members
of the team is significant. Also, listening other peoples opinion is very important before you raise
your idea and for this reason I found it necessary for me to work on this issue.
Reflecting on the issue of Talkaholic, I have a personal experience that I can share as an
example. When I was working in a clothing store business, as a marketing manager the
organization was under the process of developing a new product. As the marketing manager, I
was allocated various roles to perform, and one of the primary function was to carry out a market
research. I was to undertake a market analysis of how the new product will meet the customer’s

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 5
need and then present the findings to the management board for implementation of the new idea.
As I was carrying out the research, I was to interview customers in the market randomly. During
the interview I found myself keeping quiet when I was supposed to request for more clarification
from the clients and this lead to reduced accuracy from my research. Besides, I was unable to
make the interview interesting since I did not use more interesting words in the interview
(Amazon.com. (2017), though I had a good strategy of gathering the information I was unable to
implement it precisely.
The other example relates to the issue of willingness to listen which requires an
individual to pay attention to the speaker. The case took place in another big company that used
to sell fast foods, and I was the marketing manager (Gardner, Milne, Stringer, & Whiting, 2005).
The company wanted to improve the service and products it was offering to the customers, and it
selected a team that will lead to the new improvements. In the quality improvement team, I was
elected as their secretary, and I was supposed to note down all what was discussed during the
meetings. Due to poor listening skills, I found myself hanging as I wrote the minutes of the
meetings. As a secretary, you need to possess good listening traits and have the willingness to
listen to get every important word that is altered in the meetings (McCroskey, Richmond, &
Stewart, 1986). The members used to complain that some points were left unnoted which was a
big challenge to my role in the team.

Literature Review

Communication plays a significant role in the business and organization need to take it
serious. According to Shockely-Zalabak (1999), communication serves as the basis for
coordination and controlling the organization. Besides that, it supplies necessary information for
attainment of organization goals and objectives. Through effective communication, people in a

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 6
company are able to coordinate their actions and efforts toward achievements of the organization
set goals and objectives. To attain the organization effectiveness and efficiency, the firm must
have the ability to consider and integrate simultaneously three perspectives: Human factor, flow
and design. Human factor is highly associated with the way information flows across the
organization. There should be a flat platform that enhances two-way flow of the information
across the company.
Through the study and evaluation of communication in the organization, it acts as a
central point for improving on interactions at the workplace either through serving the customers
or production process (Shockey- Zalabak, 1999). For an effective communication, the parties
involved must provide a suitable environment by showing the willingness and paying attention to
the speaker. Customers are more attracted to or interested with someone who is creative and
imaginative. They need frequent and regular contact to maintain the significant market share. For
the business to prosper, it needs to give an ear to its customers’ complaints and feedback. Two-
way communication is necessary for a business that wants to maintain a continuous improvement
on its products and services (Beatty, McCroskey, & Valencic, 2001). Talakholic is also
necessary to the organization marketing department since product promotion activities requires
an individual to possess more talkative skills. As a manager the ability to put ideas and
information across clearly is significant to the success of the marketing department.
Communication apprehension (CA) is defined as the level of anxiety or fear of an
individual associated with anticipated or real communication with persons or individual (Russ,
2013). It is mostly determined by the level of the communication skills possessed by the speaker
or the experience of the speaker. Because of the negative associations toward communication, a
person with high levels of communication apprehension will tend to voluntary abstain from

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 7
engaging oneself in verbal communication. Moreover, McCroskey (2001) from his research
found four types of communication apprehension which include: situation, trait, context, and
audience. Trait elated to Talkaholic refers to the individual who is avoiding much talking, and
instead, the person keeps quiet due to lack of enough knowledge of what the individual is saying
or low level of confidence to air out the words fully (Worthington, 2017).
This issue of Talkaholic may be associated with the low experience of the speaker to
address the type of audience listening, the context of communication or the medium of
communication which is a distinct conceptual from the communication apprehension; However,
there are some close negative connections between the two. The primary cause of this negative
relationship is considered to be the individual’s ability to be creative while constructing
statements for communication (Walcott, 2007). By developing this trait, the individual will be
able to overcome the issue of Talkaholic which is very significant in marketing.
Willingness to listen and paying attention to the speaker is very crucial in business life as
it is known that communication is everything to the firm. Besides having the willingness and
attention to listen, also it is important to possess excellent communication skills. The level of
communication apprehension is significant, and it affects the interpersonal relationships at the
workplace (Roberts & Vinson, 1998). Moreover, it affects the effectiveness and efficiency of the
organization at large. According to the research conducted by Russ (2013), identified that top
management who possess prominent levels of CA, are less likely to collaborate with
subordinates, and they are a high chance of not including others in their decision-making
process. A collaborative decision-making process is significant in coming up with a good and
informed decision of the organization (In Worthington & In Bodie, 2017). The conclusion of this
research results it is clear that the level of CA has an impact on the individual’s actions.

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 8
Although too much communication may have a disadvantageous effects on the organization, it is
good to maintain direct communication with all stakeholders of the organization.
On the issue of willingness to listen, the theoretical framework shows that there are many
factors affecting the CA of the individuals. There are some factors associated with less
willingness to listen at the workplace which includes emotions, beliefs, experience and the
environmental conditions among others (Lustig & Koester, 2017). The mode of communication
plays a significant role when it comes to the willingness and attention of the listener (Thompson,
2011). Using different verbal communication styles was identified to affect the communication.
Factors such as supportiveness, assuredness, expressiveness, and preciseness have an impact on
the business as it determines the relationship between the managers and the workers (Jia, Cheng,
& Hale, 2016). According to Hartman and McCambridge (2011), communication effectiveness
of individuals is a factor that is considered by many organizations during the promotion process.
He added that communicating using different styles and in various circumstances, one can
recognize the needs of the listeners hence alter the style of communication accordingly.
Moreover, course on emotional intelligence will help me gain knowledge on emotional
awareness and control. Emotional intelligence refers to understanding, knowing and reacting to
feelings, being conscious of how your actions and statements have emotional impact on others
and overcoming stress (Furnham, 2012). The capacity to be sensitively alert with one’s emotions
as well as having a sound situation consciousness can be a dependable instrument of managing a
group in businesses. To be Talkaholic, it needs an individual to have self-awareness of what to
talk about to avoid breaks during communication. This course will also improve on my internal
calmness that will help me gain listening appetite. According to Russ, T. L. (2012) as a manager,
effective communication to subordinate and maintaining a strong work relationship is essential

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 9
toward attaining the vision of the organization. Ability of a manager to provide a free and open
environment where the ideas can be shared freely is an important instrument for success in an
organization.

Action Plan

Through the analysis, I identified my weak points that I need to improve and I have
developed ways on how to improve on my weak areas of communication. I will come up with an
action plan that I should apply in the next six months to overcome the issues (Russ, 2012). First I
will keep a personal journal that would help me to keep track of my progress and note what I
have achieved. The journal will be a useful tool for evaluating my improvement thereby acting as
a basis for future improvement. Besides, I will use a mentor to overlook the process of
improvement and then apply the skills and the expertise of the trainer to overcome the challenge
of Talkaholic. The mentor will provide guidance in the whole process through sharing his
experience and vast communication knowledge to me. I will use online mentoring or tele
mentorship from recognized mentors who have skills in communication coaching, and have
attained enough knowledge to help me achieve my goals of the process (Hupert, 2000). The
online mentorship will be cheap and easy for me to access as it is readily available. The coaching
program will allocate it around five weeks of training where I will improve on the willingness to
listen and Talkaholic.
According to Moulton, Luu & Cil (2014), mental practices and strategies have been
applied successfully by many individuals such as athletes who improved their performance
through mentorship. Due to this identified evidence, I feel that I need to integrate these practices
into my action plan of improvement (Cocks, Moulton, Luu, & Cil, 2014). I also feel that I need
to familiarize with various literature related to Talkaholic and willingness to listen. This will

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 10
involve doing regular practice on listening skills. I will undertake a communication course which
will help me change on the issue of Talkaholic in diverse situation, which is considered to be of
great importance to managers in the company. Moreover, the course will help me change my
willingness to listen and the ability to listen.
The best way that will work to evaluate my progress after completing the six months
action plan will be the future performance on the willingness to listen and the ability to pay
attention and getting feedback from the audience on how Talkaholic I have been.
Communication is a lifelong process that needs regular evaluation, and interpersonal
communication skill should frequently be practiced.
Fig: Six-month Action plan
Time and activity 1 st month

2 nd month 3 rd month 4 th month 5 th month 6 th month

Personal journal (to
keep track record)
Mental practices (to
improve on my
performance)
Online mentorship
(to acquire necessary
skills)
Listening practice (to
increase listen
attention)
Emotional
intelligence course
Communication
course(to improve on
my overall skills)

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 11

In conclusion, the five communication diagnostic tools I used to gather information were
reliable, and the essay has explained my communication issues based on the results. After careful
analysis and evaluation of the results, I found the two fundamental issues of communication as
Talkaholic and willingness to listen diagnostic which are related to communication
apprehension. On the literature review, I focused on the verbal and non-verbal communication,
listening and communications emotions whereas, on the other hand, the communication
apprehension addressed the noticeable types of CA and the ability to listen and talk effectively
(De Vries, Bakker-Pieper, & Oostenveld, 2009).

SELF-REFLECTION ESSAY ON INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION 12

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