A Contingency Approach to Communication Skill Importance: The Impact of Occupation, Direction, and Position

Abstract

In an attempt to identify the important communication activities in organizations, researchers have conducted a plethora of studies; these studies, however, lack integration and are marked by major contradictions. This project was undertaken to determine whether such inconsistencies between the studies were due to methodological issues or to the lack of a multidimensional approach—one that recognizes important contingencies in the organizational context . This investigation examines the impact of direction and occupation on communication skill importance for entry-level positions in finance, management, engineering, and law. The results substantiate a three-dimensional model, based on direction, occupation, and position, for the examination and application of communication skill importance in organizations.AN OVERABUNDANCE OF STUDIES HAVE sought to identify the specific communication activities that are important in organizational life. While these studies have generated lists upon lists of significant communication activities in organizations, they lack integration and a system of organizing the information in a meaningful or useful way. Further, a comparison of these investigations reveals seeming contradictions. These contradictions may result from methodological differences or from a too limited theoretical orientation which ignores significant contextual contingencies. Our investigation was completed to determine whether current conflicting results regarding communication skill importance are due to mere artifacts of operationalization or whether a multidimensional contingency approach to understanding skill requirements is more theoretically reasonable. The information gathered may be used to form guidelines for communication competence curriculum and training program design and for selection and promotion decisions. Di Salvo (1980) and Di Salvo, Dunning, and Homan (1982) reviewed over 40 studies that attempted to identify salient communication skills for organizational members. These reviews identified major differences between individual studies.

Developing Listening and Oral Expression Skills: Pillars of Influential Oral Communication

“…While there are some exceptions in the literature (Reinsch & Shelby, 1997; Stevens, 2005), most studies conclude that listening is more important in the workplace than is oral expression (Brink & Costigan, 2015; Conrad & Newberry, 2011; Di Salvo & Larsen, 1987; Gray, 2010; Maes et al, 1997; Waner, 1995). In fact, the effects of listening on influencing have been shown to be significant after controlling for the effects of verbal expression (Ames et al, 2012).…”

The Influence of Communication Competence on Software Development Management Practices

“…In the communication competence study, there were a number of studies about the communication competences with the difference notions [15]. Most of researches defined the communication competence as knowledge of communicator's language and/or communication skills in various situations [15]- [18].…”

The Interview as a Communication Event: A Field Examination of Demographic Effects on Interview Outcomes

“…The reason for examining communication patterns occurring during employment interviews stems from the importance that communication has on interview outcomes (DiSalvo & Larsen, 1987;Hollandsworth, Kazelskis, Stevens, & Dressel, 1979). For example, Bjorkquist (1987) suggests that the most influential factor affecting applicant success is oral communication skills.…”

“…By adopting this position, researchers have dismissed the importance of activities that occur during the interview (DiSalvo & Larsen, 1987;Ugbah & Majors, 1992). Graves (1993) contends that individual difference factors may affect interviewer decision-making processes.…”