Define communication competence and discuss its characteristic.

COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE: Most communication experts agree that communication competence is the ability to get what we seek from others in a manner that maintains the relationship acceptable to both you and other people. CHARACTERISTICS: 1. There is no ideal way to communicate: There is no particular way of speaking. Some successful people are serious, while others use humor, some are gregarious, while others are quiet and some are diplomatic while others are straightforward. 2. Communication is situational: This means communication varies according to situations. You might deal quite skillfully with peers, for example, while feeling clumsy interacting with people much older or younger, wealthier or poorer, more or less attractive than yourself. 3. Competence has a Relational dimension: Successful communication occurs when everyone involved is satisfied. If you get what you want and leave the other person unhappy, the consequences could contaminate your short term success. The most competent strategies involve dealing the request in a way that does not offend that other person. The best communication strategy is the one that usually gets the message across without humiliating others. 4. Competence Requires Balancing Opposing Goals: Communicating competently would be challenging enough, if we all had to do was satisfy our own physical needs, identity, social and practical needs. But sometimes goal conflicts with one another and with others goals. These conflicts are dialectical tension that exists between two or more communication goals. Some of these tensions are listed here: Personal effectiveness versus approval Autonomy versus connection Openness versus privacy, intimacy versus distance Predictability versus novelty, consistency versus flexibility Short term versus long term objectives Conflicting needs in different relationships 5. Competence Can Be Learned:

Communication competence isnt really the inborn characteristics like hair color or height etc.We learn from our experiences success and failure as well as observing other mates both positive and negative. How do we clarify misconceptions about communication. Misconceptions about communication are described below: 1. Communication is not a good thing: Communication is neither good nor bad itself. Its value comes from the way it is used. Communication is similar to fire: flames in the fire place on a cold night keep you warm and create a cozy atmosphere, but the same flames can kill if they spread into the room. 2. Communication will not solve all problems: If I could just communicate better.. is the sad refrain of many unhappy people who believe that if they could just express themselves better, their relationship would improve. Though this is sometimes true, but usually through communication problems are never solved. 3. More communication is not always better: Its true that not communicating enough is a mistake and communicating too much is also a mistake. Sometimes excessive communication is unproductive. For example: when two people are angry and hurt, they may say things they dont mean and will regret. At times like these its better to stay quiet and think what to say and how to say. 4. Meaning rest in people, not in words: Meaning always rest in human nature not in words. Words do change time to time but the nature never change. 5. Communication is not simple: Many people assume that communication is an aptitude that people develop without the need for training, rather like breathing. Discuss common perceptual errors in perceiving others: PERCIEVING OTHERS: Suppose you woke up tomorrow in another persons body. Imagine how different the whole world would seem if you were fifteen years old or younger and a member of opposite sex or a different ethnic group, more or less intelligent. Attractive or ugly, healthy or weak. It does not take much imagination to understand that the world feels like a different place to each of us depending physical condition social and personal backgrounds.

COMMON PERCEPTUAL ERRORS: Once you recognize that our perceptions differ, its a small step to acknowledge that these viewpoints can make communication a challenging process. By becoming aware of these errors, we can guard against them and avoid unnecessary conflicts. There are few errors which are listed below: We often judge ourselves more charitably than others We are influenced by what is most obvious We cling to first impression, even if wrong We tend to assume others are similar to us We tend to favor negative impression over positive We blame innocent victims for their misfortune Why and how do people manage impressions: People manage impression to make their personality attractive. They manage their impression by three different fronts: manner, appearance, setting. Manner: The way you interact with people, that what is your nature of interaction means friendly or a little bit like strangers. Appearance: Your physical appearance. The way you are dressed. Setting: Physical items we use to influence how other view us. What are the faulty listening behaviors: There are various faulty listening behavior, few of them are described below: 1. Pseudo listeners: These are the listeners who give appearance of being attentive; they look at you in the eyes, nod and smile at the right point and even answer occasionally. They are day dreamers. 2. Stage hogging: A stage hoge seems to be in love with their own voices. They are not eager to listen yours, because they do all taking. 3. Selective listeners: They only respond to the parts of your communication that interest them and ignore everything else.

4. Insulated listeners: They are really a kind of subset of selective listeners. These listeners have special subject areas, they just dont seems to hear or acknowledge. 5. Defensive listeners: They take things you intended as innocent comments as personal attacks. Example: Teenager who perceive all of his/her parents questions about friends and activities as snooping. 6. Ambushing: Ambushers listen carefully, but only because therere collecting information communication to use against you. Example of this is the trial lawyers hoping to trip up the witness in the box. 7. Insensitive listeners: These are those people who really arent listening or hearing what other people have to say. Difference between interview and conversation: CONVERSATION: Informal spoken communication. Conversation is sometimes the ideal form of communication. INTERVIEW: Interview is a communication between two people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee. CONVERSATION INTERVIEW PURPOSE Conversation has no purpose behind Interviews always have a purpose. discussion. STRUCTURE It goes on with open discussion on It has several parts which are followed aimless affairs. step by step. CONTROL It does not require any guidance. It should always be acting in ways that keep the exchange moving toward present purpose. BALANCE It involves roughly the same amount of Participation ought to be in the 70% input from each person. to30%. The interviewee does most of the talking.

Highlight the responsibilities of Interviewer and Interviewee: INTERVIEWERS RESPONSIBILITIES: The interviewer has several responsibilities which are as follows: Control and focus the conversation: The interviewers job is to ensure that each stage of the conversation(opening, body and closing) takes the right amount of time and all the important content areas are covered. Help the subject feel comfortable: Here the subject means the interviewee. You should provide such environment that the interviewee should feel comfortable during the session. Probe for important information: Sometimes you first question would not give you all the information you need. At times like this it is important to probe for the facts or beliefs youre seeking by asking secondary questions. INTERVIEWEES RESPONSIBILITIES: Interviewees also have several responsibilities which are as follows: Give clear detailed answers: Put yourself in the interviewers shoes and be as specific and helpful as you hope others would be for you. Keep on the subject: Its the responsibility of interviewee to give answers to-the-point. Try not to distract the interviewer while answering. Correct any misunderstandings: Sometimes an interviewer will misinterpret your ideas. When this happens, be sure to correct the mistaken impression. Cover your agenda: Interviewees often have their own goals, which are sometimes different from those of the interviewer. Its important to keep these in mind during the session. Elaborate the tips for interviewee: Once you are in the interview itself, there are several points to keep in mind. Make a good first impression: First impressions can make or break an interview. Research shows that many interviewer make their opinion about the candidate in first three four minutes of conservation.Physical attractiveness has a major influence on

how candidate is rated, so it makes sense to do everything possible to look your best. Be well groomed and neatly dressed. Come prepared: Come prepared, bring all necessary requirement materials. Bring your resume with all your past work experience certificates, letter of recommendation etc. Follow the interviewers lead: Let the interviewer set the emotional tone of the session. If he/she is informed, than you can loosen up, but if he/she is formal and proper than you should act the same way. Come prepared to answer the interviewers questions: Whatever specific question you might be asked, the employer is always asking How you can help us? If you remember this fact you can respond in many ways that how you can meet the employers need. Keep your answers brief: Never try to give detailed answers. A good rule of thumb is to keep your responses under two minutes. Follow-up after the interview: Follow-up your meeting with a note of thanks to the interviewer. Most candidates dont take this step, which will make your response especially impressive. Functions of nonverbal communication:

There are several functions of nonverbal communication that serves and shows how nonverbal messages relate to verbal ones. Repeating: Repeating means if someone ask from you about any location so you will definitely tell verbally but you will tell the direction by your hands in repetition. Substituting: Sometimes substituting responses are more ambiguous and less intentional. For example, in the response to the question hows it going? you simply smile or frown in reply. Complementing: Sometimes nonverbal behaviors match the content of a verbal message. Much complementing behaviors consists of illustrators, nonverbal behaviors that accompany and support spoken words. You can easily judge the persons behavior by his tone of voice, facial expression, and so on. Accenting: Just as we use italics to highlight an idea in print, we use nonverbal devices to emphasize oral messages. Pointing an finger adds emphasis to criticism.

 Regulating: Nonverbal behaviors can control the flow of verbal communication. As if someone is ignoring you message of interrupting in your communication, so you can stop him by taking a deep audible breath. Contradicting: It means mixed messages. There verbal messages and nonverbal messages differ from each other. For example, someone with red face and yelling, and when you asked that are you angry? and he replies, no, Im not. .