Pertanika J. Soc. Sci. & Hum. 8(1): 19- 25 (2000) 1SSN: 0128-7702© Universiti Putra Malaysia Press

The Importance of Oral Communications Among UPM Business Students

LAILAWATI MOHD SALLEHI & SIDEK MOHD. NOAWIFaculty of Economics & Management

Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM,Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

2Faculty of Educational StudiesUniversiti Putra Malaysia

43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRAK

Kajian ini berdasarkan maklum balas pelajar bidang perniagaan dari Universiti Putra Malaysiatentang soalan yang berkaitan dengan kepentingan komunikasi percakapan. Juga persoalantentang tahap penggunaan kemahiran ini di dalam perhubungan dan cara mana kemahiran inididapati. Keputusan kajian menunjukkan yang pelajar prihatin ten tang kepentingan kemahiranperhubungan dan menggunakannya semasa berkomunikasi. Juga didapati mereka mendapatkemahiran ini melalui televisyen, video, mendengar ucapan, buku komunikasi dan teguran darikawan.

ABSTRACT

In this short study, business students in Universiti Putra Malaysia were requested to respond toa set of questionnaires pertaining to their awareness of the importance of oral communication.Also, there were questions on their use of these skills when conveying messages and otherinformation on how they acquired these skills. Results of the study show that business studentsin Universiti Putra Malaysia are aware of the importance of these skills and in fact, they use theseskills when communicating. The study also revealed that they had acquired the skills fromwatching television, videos, real life speeches; communication books and, comments from friends.

INTRODUCTION

To compete well in the job market today,graduates must be equipped with the skills andknowledge required by the employers, a roletypically entrusted to educators. It is thereforeimportant that institutions understand therelative importance of specific knowledge whichthe employers place on different recruitmentcriteria when hiring graduates (Floyd andGordon 1998). A number of earlier studies haveidentified communication skills as one of theemployers' skill preferences when recruiting anemployee for business positions (Beamish andCalof 1989; Deckinger et al. 1990; Ducoffe andDucoffe 1990; Gifford and Maggard 1975; Haferand Hoth 1981; Joby and Needel 1989; Kelleyand Gaedeke 1990; Kim et al. 1993; McKendrick1986; Neelankavil 1994; Scott and Frontczak1996).

As more 'soft' skills are needed in keepingorganizations going and producing, employersare now looking for recruits who can effectivelymanage people, work with people andcommunicate with people. This is because in theworkplace, managers spend 75% of their timecommunicating some messages to an other.When conveying messages, people prefer oralcommunication channels compared to writtenones. The reason is because talking takes lesstime and needs no computing, keyboarding,rewriting, duplicating or distributing. Moreimportantly, it provides the opportunity forfeedback. When people communicate orally, theycan ask questions, share ideas and clarify doubtsand work together to solve problems. It is alsothe best channel if there is an emotionalcomponent in the message.

Lailawati Mohd Salleh & Sidek Mohd. Noah

It is the authors' interest to find out whetherbusiness students are aware of the importanceof oral communication skills during a recruitmentprocess and in the workplace. This paper reportspreliminary findings on students' awareness ofthe importance of oral communication and thesources of these skills. A look at their backgroundcould spur some ideas as to what could be thecontributing factor to these skills. It is hopedthat from the findings in this study, furtherresearch would be done to reveal the factorsthat contribute to these skills and thus provideto organizations an important input to developcommunication-training modules for theiremployees.

UTERATURE REVIEW

Many studies were done to identify the skillsrequired in managerial positions. Fayol (1949)identified the five management functions;planning, organizing, commanding, controllingand coordinating as the basic roles of managers.Katz (l974) classified managerial skills astechnical, human and conceptual. Stewart (1967)reported that people skills are needed asmanagers spend the majority of their timeinteracting with other people. Then, Mintzberg(1973) proposed ten managerial roles, five ofwhich clearly represent communicationcapabilities: liasion, monitor, disseminator,spokesperson and negotiator. The other fiveroles (figurehead, leadership, entrepreneur,disturbance handler and resource allocator) areextricably dependant upon communication skillsas suggested by Penley et al. (l991).

A typical day for a manager includes doingdesk work, attending scheduled and unscheduledmeetings, placing and receiving telephone calls,reading and answering correspondence, andtours (Griffin 2000). Most of these activitiesinvolve communication. In fact, managers spendmore than half of their time on some form ofcommunication.

What then is communication? There areseveral communication theories that intrinsicallyyield their own definition of communication.For example, by using semiotic linguistic theory,Liska and Cronkhite (l995: 22) definedcommunication as "the exchange of certain typesof signs". There are six other generalcommunication theories defined respectively asinformation, argument, chaining fantasies,question-asking and disclosing, story-telling and

the talk of diffusing novel ideas (Cragan andShields 1998). However, for the purpose of thisstudy, we will use the general definition used inmost Business Communication books which is,"a process of sending and receiving messages(Bovee and Thill 2000)".

Communication is generally either oral orwritten. Oral communication takes place face-to­face, in group discussions, during telephonecalls, and other circumstances in which thespoken words are used to express meaning.Written communication on the other hand isdone through letters, memos, reports andproposals.

Buckley et at. (1989) compared the resultsof two studies conducted in 1975 and 1983 thatinvestigated the importance of specific applicantqualification in hiring decisions. Resultsillustrated how the importance of certainqualifications changed between 1975 and 1983.In 1975, oral and written communication werenot among the five most important qualificationsbut, eight years later, communication was thetop ranking qualifier, followed by work habits,which moved from the fifth ranked qualificationto second. The authors anticipated that as theeconomy moved toward service-orientedbusinesses the importance of communication islikely to increase.

In a study on oral communicationcompetency, Maes et al. (1997) found thatcompetency in oral communication was rankedin the top five by 231 out of 354 managers(number 1 by 65, and in the top 3 by 163) andreceived the largest weight score (ws=2237). Astudy by Bednar and Olney (1987) discoveredthat oral communication skills are mandatoryand 64% of the time are spend in oralcommunication in today's organizations. Theyrecommended that educators continually updatethe business communication curriculum to focuson these skills.

Min tzberg (1973) discovered that mostmanagers spend between 50 and 90 percent oftheir time talking to people. In another survey,55% of the executives sampled believed thattheir own written communication skills were fairor poor, so they chose oral communication toavoid embarrassment (Griffin 2000). A similarsurvey indicated that the written communicationmanagers received were of fair or poor quality.A survey on a sample of managers revealed thatonly 13% of the mail they received was of

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The Importance of Oral Communications Among UPM Business Students

immediate use to them (Mintzberg 1973) whilemore than 80% of the managers who respondedto another survey indicated that the writtencommunication they received were of fair orpoor quality.

Recognizing the importance of effectivecommunication, many companies today recruitpeople who have communication skills and trainthose who are already in the workplace. Variousstudies done on employer criteria for newrecruitment place emphasis are the importanceof oral communication skills. Are students awareof this? Do they realise that sending messagesusing appropriate gestures and words may give amore positive outcome compared to not usingthese skills? With these questions in mind wehave the statement of the problem.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Many studies have been done to discover themost important skills employers look for in theirrecruitment process. Are the ten managerialskills, as proposed by Mintzberg (1973), still thepriority in employee selection in today's worldof global information technology? Recentresearch indicates a shift from technicalcompetence to the more 'soft' skills such asinterpersonal and communication skills. In fact,Maes et al. (1997) found that competency in oralcommunication was ranked the top five by 231out of 354 managers.

Considering this development, a fewquestions are highlighted:• Are graduates seeking employment aware

that oral communication is an importantskill to acquire?

• Are there any differences in awareness oforal communication between gender andbetween ethnic groups?

• How do they acquire these skills? What arethe sources?

This paper attempts to find answers to thesequestions by investigating business students ofUniversiti Putra Malaysia.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

The main purpose of this study is to discoverstudents' awareness of the importance of oralcommunication and the use of these skills intheir communication. Other research objectivesare:

1) To find out whether students have effectivecommunication skills.

2) To investigate the sources of acquiring theseskills.

3) To determine the relationship betweenawareness of the importance of oralcommunication and the sources of skills.

4) To determine any significant difference interms of awareness between the twocategories of gender.

5) To determine any significant difference intenns of awareness between the ethnic groups.

METHODOLOGY

Instrumentation

A questionnaire was developed to solicitinformation for the current study. It was dividedinto three sections: Section A is on awareness ofthe importance of oral communication. In thissection respondents had to answer questionsthat relate to the elements of oral communicationlike gestures, voice qualities and body language.Some general questions such as respondents'perception on the use of oral communicationskills were also given. Section B refers to thesources of skills. This section investigates howand where students acquire their oralcommunication skills. And finally, the last section,asked for respondents' demographic profile andsome information on childhood back-ground.

Validity and Reliability of the Instruments

A pilot study was conducted to test the adequacyof the instrument and based on the responsesfrom 30 students, the questionnaire was revisedto discard confusing questions and to replacethem with two new items. Students whoparticipated in the pilot study were eliminatedfrom participation in the subsequent study. Areliability analysis was run for each section andthe Cronbach alpha coefficient was .82 forawareness, .83 for source of skills and .90 foroverall reliability.

The questionnaire was administrated to thirtyBachelor of Economics students, sixty Bachelorof Accounting students and four Bachelor ofBusiness Administration students all of whomare in their second or final year. Of the 100questionnaires distributed, 5 were discarded dueto missing information resulting in a responserate of 95%. Out of the 95 respondents, 13 weremale and 82 female with 48 Malays, 40 Chinese,six Indians and one Others (Table 1).

PertanikaJ. Soc. Sci. & Hum. Vol. 8 ' 0 . 1 2000 21

Lailawati Mohd Salleh & Sidek Mohd. Noah

TABLE 1Demographic profile of respondents

Variables

ProgramBachelor of EconomicsBachelor of Accounting (or Accounting with Education)Bachelor of Business Administration

Pre-School YearsKindergartenNurseryHomeWith grandparentsMissing value

Brought up inTown area onlyVillage area onlyBoth town and village areasMostly town areaMostly village areaMissing value

Ethnic GroupMalayChineseIndianOthers

GenderMaleFemale

Frequency (y)

N = 9530614

532

3514

251937102

12

484061

1382

Statistical Analysis

A t-test of two independent samples was carriedout to see whether there exists any significantdifference for awareness between male andfemale students. On the other hand, the one­way ANOVA was used to see if there exists anysignificant differences for awareness between thethree major ethnic groups: the Malay, Chineseand Indian business students of Universiti Putra

Malaysia. The Pearson correlation was todetermine the relationship between awarenessand sources of skills.

FINDINGS

Two statistical analysis were run for awareness ofimportance of oral communication and sourcesof skills, and awareness of importance and useof oral communication (Table 2). The results

Descriptive Statistics

Awareness of Importance of OralCommunication and Source oj SkillAwarenessSource of skill

Awareness of Importance and Use ojOral CommunicationImportanceUse

TABLE 2Statistical analysis

Maximum Score

9040

4550

Mean

59.3328.61

31.6127.72

Standard Deviation

8.505.35

4.884.29

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The Importance of Oral Communications Among UPM Business Students

Note: not significant at .05 level oj significance

** CO/relation is significant at the 0.01 levet oj significance

Table 5Awareness of importance of oral communication

skill between male and female

Difference of Awareness between Male and Female

As for awareness between male and female, thereis no significant difference [t (93) = 0.976, p>0.05J as can be seen from Table 5. Both maleand female know the importance of these skills,in the same manner.

Sig rr

df t value Sig. t

93 0.976 .332

df

94 .823 .000* .677

SD

6.118.79

6.118.79

Mean Sourcesof Skill

61.4658.98

Mean

61.4658.98

MeanAwareness

MaleFemale

Gender

DISCUSSION

The findings of this SL~jy were stimulating. Wecan conclude that most of the business studentsof Universiti Putra Malaysia, regardless of gender.and ethnic group, are aware of the importanceof oral communication. This indicates thatinstructors of communication at Universiti PutraMalaysia would be one step ahead when teachingthese courses. They can now concentrate onmotivating students rather than creating

Difference of Awareness between Ethnic Groups

There is no significant difference of awarenessbetween ethnic groups [F(3, 91) =1.063, p>0.05)as can be seen in Table 6. This shows thatbusiness students of Universiti Putra Malaysiafrom all ethnic groups - Malay, Chinese, Indianand others - are aware of the importance of oralcommunication.

sources of skills [r (94) = .823, P< O.OlJ. Thisindicates that students who are aware of theimportance of oral communication are likely toacquire their skills through practising, watchingpresentations on television and videos, readingbooks and training from their lecturers.

TABLE 4Correlation between awareness and sources of skills

Sources of Skills Number of %Responses

Courses in campus 47 49Books 58 61Renowned speakers 49 52Teachers and lecturers 54 57Friends 57 60Television, video andreal life speeches 75 79Practices 69 73

INFERENTIAL ANALYSIS

C01Telation between Awareness and Sources of Skills

Result in Table 4 shows that there is a significantrelationship between students' awareness of theimportance of oral communication and the

show that 68% of the responses had a scorebetween 51 and 67 for awareness of theimportance of oral communication and between24 and 34 for sources of skills. This indicatesrespondents are aware of the use and importanceof oral communication symbols when conveyingmessages and many acquired their skills throughthe courses they took in campus, teachers andlectures, books, listening to renowned speakers,watching television from videos and practicing.

Results show that 68% of respondents whoare aware of the importance of oralcommunication had a score between 27 and 37while those using the skill had a score between24 and 32 respectively. This indicates that whenthe questionnaires were run for statistical testingon groups of questions for awareness on theimportance and the use of oral communicationskills, more than 68% are aware of theim portance of oral communication whenconveying messages and they use these skillswhen communicating.

Two sources of skills (Table 3) were rankedhighest: watching television, video and real lifespeeches (79%) and, practice (73%). Courses incampus were the lowest (49%) probably becausethese are elective courses and students have theoption whether or not to take it. Also, listeningto speeches by renowned speakers (52% ) waslow. This could be due to the lack ofopportunities students have in attending seminarsor conferences during their college days.

TABLE 3Respondents' response on sources of skills

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Lailawati Mohd Salleh & Sidek Mohd. Noah

TABLE 6Difference between awareness and respondents' ethnic groups

Variable Source Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. F

Awareness Between groups 229.597 3 76.532 1.063 369Within groups 6549.287 91 71.970

Total 6778.884

Note: not significant at .05 level of significance

awareness for communication courses.Also, the results on sources of skills could

be used when developing such courses.Televisions, videos, books, communication classesand practices would enhance the teaching oforal communication courses so instructors haveto consider incorporating them into the teachingmodules. Some researchers like Wardrope andBayless (1994) have attempted to investigatehow instructors of business communication teachoral communication skills in their classes. Theydiscovered that the degree to which oralcommunication skills are taught in the businessclassroom is contingent upon class timeconstraints, instructor preparation, and readinessto discuss various aspects of oral communication.

IMPUCATIONS

Findings from this study are consistent with thestudies that have been done concerning theimportance of oral communication. Businessstudents of Universiti Putra Malaysia are awarethat oral communication is important and theyapply these skills when they communicate.Gender and ethnic groups show no significantdifferences in terms of their awareness of theimportance of these skills because they believethat oral communication is an important tool ingetting work done. As Williams (1978) says,"There is a strong connection betweencommunication effectiveness and organizationaleffectiveness. "

The results of this study give a positiveindication that business students at UniversitiPutra Malaysia are ready for oral communicationtraining. Teachers of communication coursessuch as Business Communication could use thisinformation to investigate further as to how andwhere students acquire these skills. Then byusing these findings, they can promote andenhance the teaching of BusinessCommunication in their classes.

CONCLUSION

The findings in this study show that businessstudents of Universiti Putra Malaysia are awarethat they should have oral communication skillsbefore going into the job market. Although thisis a preliminary study on investigating students'awareness on the importance of oralcommunication, the results obtained give a goodindication on the area for future research. It isfound that students are aware that oralcommunication is important, so researcherscould now focus their future studies on findingout what other sources students use to acquirethese skills, and the availability of these sourcesto students. When these sources are uncovered,instructors of communication courses could thendesign teaching methods that suit thecharacteristics and limitations of the sources.This study could also be extended to otherhigher learning institutions. Future studies couldalso focus on investigating factors that relate toawareness of oral communication, such as familybackground, and how this knowledge could beused to enhance the teaching of oralcommunication.

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