COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

PREPARED BY PROF (DR) SHEFALI BAKSHI DY DIRECTOR (ASL) AMITY UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW CAMPUS

COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE
Communication competence is the ability to choose a communication behavior that is both appropriate and effective for a given situation. Interpersonal competency allows one to achieve their communication goals without causing the other party to lose face.

Dr. Lanes Perspective

Communication competence is the degree to which a communicators goals are achieved through effective and appropriate interaction.

Communication Goal
A goal is nothing more than something you want to achieve. Communication goals are linked to another persons thoughts and feelings. There are at least three general types of communication goals:

Goals continued
1) Self Presentation Goals (who we are and how we want to be perceived), 2) Relational Goals (how we develop, maintain, and terminate relationships), and 3) Instrumental Goals (how we manipulate others, gain compliance, manage interpersonal conflict, use and recognize interpersonal influence strategies (anchoring and contrast effects, reciprocity, commitment, liking, social proof, authority, and scarcity), etc.)

It may be more comforting for some people to substitute needs for goals as did psychologist Schutz (1966) when he identified three unique interpersonal needs that all of us have:

A. affection (a desire to express and to receive love), B. inclusion (a desire to be in the company of other people) and C. control (a desire to influence the events and people around us).

COMPONENT MODEL
The model most often used to describe competence is the component model (Spitzberg & Cupach, 1984) which includes three components: 1) knowledge 2) skill 3) motivation. Knowledge simply means knowing what behavior is best suited for a given situation. Skill is having the ability to apply that behavior in the given context. Motivation is having the desire to communicate in a competent manner.

Individual Interpretations:
The component model's three parts requires that a communicator be able to 1) recognize what communication practice is appropriate (knowledge), 2) have the ability to perform that practice (skill), 3) want to communicate in an effective and appropriate manner (motivation).

What is communication competence?

Initially, Spitzberg (1988) defined communication competence as "the ability to interact well with others" (p.68). He explains, "the term 'well' refers to accuracy, clarity, comprehensibility, coherence, expertise, effectiveness and appropriateness" (p. 68).

 A much more complete operation is provided by Friedrich (1994) when he suggests that communication competence is best understood as "a situational ability to set realistic and appropriate goals and to maximize their achievement by using knowledge of self, other, context, and communication theory to generate adaptive communication performances."

MEASURING COMM COMP

Communicative competence is measured by determining if, and to what degree, the goals of interaction are achieved. As stated earlier, the function of communication is to maximize the achievement of shared meaning. Parks (1985) emphasizes three interdependent themes: control, responsibility, and foresight; and argues that to be competent, we must "not only 'know' and 'know how,' we must also 'do' and 'know that we did'" (p. 174). He defines communicative competence as "the degree to which individuals perceive they have satisfied their goals in a given social situation without jeopardizing their ability or opportunity to pursue their other subjectively more important goals"

SIX CRITERIA FOR ASSESSING COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

1. Adaptability (flexibility) a. The ability to change behaviors and goals to meet the needs of interaction b. Comprised of six factors 1. Social experience - participation in various social interactions 2. Social composure - refers to keeping calm through accurate perception 3. Social confirmation - refers to acknowledgment of partners goals 4. Appropriate disclosure - being sensitive to amount and type of info 5. Articulation - ability to express ideas through language 6. Wit - ability to use humor in adapting to social situations; ease tensions

2. Conversational Involvement
a. Behavioral and cognitive activity b. Cognitive involvement demonstrated through interaction behaviors c. Assessed according to three factors 1. Responsiveness - knowing what to say, know roles, interact 2. Perceptiveness - be aware of how others perceive you 3. Attentiveness - listen, dont be pre-occupied

3. Conversational Management
a. How communicators regulate their interactions b. Adaptation and control of social situations c. Who controls the interaction ebb and flow and how smoothly the interaction proceeds d. How topics proceed and change

4. Empathy
a. The ability to demonstrate understanding and share emotional reactions to the situation b. Need not lead to helping the other person c. Cognitive understanding d. Parallel emotions

5. Effectiveness
a. Achieving the objectives of the conversation b. Achieving personal goals c. A fundamental criteria for determining competence

6. Appropriateness
a. Upholding the expectations for a given situation b. A fundamental criteria for determining competence

Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC)

Intercultural communication (ICC) competence (or related constructs such as, effectiveness, success, adaptation) has been the focus of a number of studies since the term was probably introduced by researchers interested in overseas technical assistants and Peace Corps volunteers (Gardner, 1962; Hoselitz, 1954).

Conceptualization of Intercultural Communication Competence

ICC competence has been conceptualized in a variety of ways. Early in the history of scholarship on the construct, the conceptualizations varied according to the researchers theoretical orientation or specific sample being studied. Some of these conceptualizations were labeled as crosscultural adjustment, cross-cultural adaptation, intercultural understanding, overseas success, personal growth/adjustment, crosscultural effectiveness, and satisfaction with overseas experience (see, for example, Guthrie & Zektick, 1967; Harris, 1975; Ruben & Kealey, 1979). In the last two decades, there has been a growing consensus on a conceptualization of ICC competence. As a reflection of this consensus and for the purposes of this essay, ICC competence involves the knowledge, motivation, and skills to interact effectively and appropriately with members of different cultures. There are a number of implications entailed in this conceptualization.

Different Cultures
defining culture and typically use characteristics such as race, nationality, ethnicity, or geographic region to operationalized culture Other scholars focus on culture as a learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, and norms, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people

The two criteria of effectiveness and appropriateness combine to influence the quality of the interaction.
(1) Minimizing communication is both inappropriate and ineffective, and would obviously be of a low communicative quality. (2) Sufficing communication is appropriate but ineffective, that is, it is highly accommodating and does nothing objectionable, but also accomplishes no personal objectives. Here, Spitzberg suggested that the sufficing style is sufficient to meet the basic demands of the context, but accomplishes nothing more. (3) Maximizing communication occurs when an individual is effective in achieving personal goals, but at the cost of being highly inappropriate contextually. This style may include verbal aggression, Machiavellian behavior, deception, the infringement of others rights, or the degradation of others. (4) Optimizing communication occurs when interactants simultaneously achieve their personal goals and fulfill the normative expectations of the context. While this two-by-two analysis of discrete, binary combinations of the two criteria may be a bit simplistic, it helps to provide insight into the dialectics of the competence criteria in social episodes.

Competent Communicators
When communicators interact, they are co-orienting and coordinating their behaviors (verbal and nonverbal) to accomplish social functions, obtain personal goals, and conform to the normative expectations of the situation. To the extent that the communicators do these activities effectively and appropriately, they are considered competent communicators.

Meta-Theories and Theories

A meta-theory is a set of assumptions that a researcher makes regarding the nature of the concept (ontology), what is important about the concept and its relationship with other human phenomena (axiology), and how the concept should be investigated (epistemology).

Three Major Meta-theories

The three major meta-theories characterize communication research: the covering laws, systems, human action perspectives

There are a number of common assumptions made by covering laws scholars (1) Phenomena can be known through empirical means; that is, they are observable, measurable, and quantifiable. (2) There are regularities in our physical and social environments that can be observed or discovered. These regularities often transcend time, culture, and situation, and are known as laws (Berger, 1977). (3) Underlying these regularities is the notion of causality, namely, causeand-effect relationships. In order to explain or predict phenomena, we need to understand the causes or, at least, the antecedents to those phenomena. (4) The goal of covering laws research is to discover regularities (laws) that have maximum generalizability.

A number of sensitizing concepts are important:

(1) Communication systems are open systems, i.e., they interact with their social and physical environments. (2) Communication is hierarchical, i.e., it consists of subsystems and suprasystems. (3) Systems strive for balance or homeostasis. Changes in the environment or within the system create a drive in the system to restore balance. (4) Systems are teleological, that is, they are programmed to obtain specific goals. One strength of systems meta-theory is that it attempts to focus on a broad range of interactions and relationships within a communication event in order to better understand the event.

DIFFERENT THEORIES
Covering Laws Theories Systems Theories Human Action Theories

Methodological Issues
Methodology involves ones decisions about what to investigate, how to design the line of inquiry, what data collection techniques to utilize, on whom to collect data, and what sense to make of the data. Obviously, ones conceptualization of the topic of research, ones meta-theoretical orientation (ontology, axiology, and, especially, epistemology), and ones particular substantive theoretical approach, all influence the choices the researcher makes. This section of the essay explores some of the options available in making decisions about methodology

Constructs Related to Intercultural Communication Competence

The knowledge component of competence is conceptualized as the information necessary to interact appropriately and effectively, and the requisite cognitive orientation to facilitate the acquisition of such information. In terms of the necessary information, research has found positive associations between ICC competence and awareness of the other culture

Continued
These forms of knowledge increase the intercultural communicators understanding of other and self in order to facilitate making accurate predictions and attributions. Favorable cognitive orientations have been found in terms of open-mindedness (Adler, 1975), non judgmentalness (Ruben, 1976), self-monitoring ability (Snyder, 1987), problem-solving ability (Brislin, 1981), and cognitive complexity (Wiseman & Abe, 1985). These orientations facilitate perspective-taking and adaptation to new information. The final componentskillof ICC competence reflects the needed behaviors to interact appropriately and effectively with members of different cultures.

 Research has discovered several behaviors that are positively associated with ICC competence: being mindful (Gudykunst, 1992), intercultural adroitness (Chen & Starosta, 1996), interaction involvement (Cegala, 1984), recognition of nonverbal messages (Anderson, 1994), appropriate self-disclosure (Li, 1999), behavioral flexibility (Bochner & Kelly, 1974), interaction management (Wiemann, 1977), identity maintenance (Ting-Toomey, 1994), uncertainty reduction strategies (Sanders, Wiseman, & Matz, 1991), appropriate display of respect (Ruben, 1976), immediacy skills (Benson, 1978), ability to establish interpersonal relationships (Hammer, 1987), and expressing clarity and face support (M. Kim, 1993). These behaviors reflect the ability to communicate in an adaptive, flexible, and supportive manner.

Continued

This essay has attempted to explore some of the issues involved in theorizing and researching ICC competence. A researcher must make a number of decisions about the choice of a topic, its conceptualization, meta-theoretical orientations, substantive theories explaining the concept, and methodological decisions regarding the actual investigation of the concept. Hopefully, this essay will assist the researcher in making these decisions carefully and mindfully. With constructive research, productive findings and recommendations should result, thereby improving the communication and relations among the members of the cultures of our global village.

Conclusion