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Managers' communication competence

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METALURGIA INTERNATIONAL vol. XVII no. 7

MANAGERS’ COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE

1
Dragana BJEKIĆ, 2Milevica BOJOVIĆ, 3Lidija ZLATIĆ, and 1Milena STANISAVLJEVIĆ
1)
Technical Faculty in Čačak, 2)Faculty of Agronomy in Čačak, 3)Faculty of Teacher Education in Užice
1,2,3)
University of Kragujevac, Serbia

Key words: communication competence, interaction involvement, conflict resolving style, manager education.

Prof. Ph.D. of Psychology Lecturer, MA in Philology Assist. Prof. Ph.D. Psychology Teaching ass. BA of Ecc
Dragana BJEKIĆ Milevica BOJOVIĆ Lidija ZLATIĆ Milena STANISAVLJEVIČ

Abstract: The paper focuses on communication competence as one of the most significant competencies enabling efficient realization
of managers’ professional activities. Distinctions between social and communication competence are elaborated. Two representative
components of middle managers’ communication competence, interaction involvement and conflict resolving styles, are examined in
the research. The research involves 60 middle managers of engineering professions (previously graduated at technical universities).
The results: managers manifest moderate level of interaction involvement. They mostly choose integrative conflict resolving style
while avoiding style is least applied. Positive correlation between attentiveness as interaction involvement component and integrative
conflict resolving style is determined as well as negative correlations between attentiveness and obliging conflict resolving style. The
model of educating communication competent managers is suggested in the paper concluding section.

1. INTRODUCTION: GENERAL CONCEPT OF
MANAGER’S COMPETENCE AND ROLES
How can we describe a competent manager? It is now a
leading company strategy to apply competency models for
identifying and developing capabilities of their manager [1].
The terms “competency” and “competence” have just
recently entered the psychology lexis, for a long period, only
such terms as aptitudes, skills or abilities being used [2]. The
changes of the discourse referring to education and training at
the end of the 20th century influenced the increasing interest
in the constructs of competence and competency; they also
influenced building relations with knowledge application and
skill development within education programmes so that
knowledge application has become significant component of
competence. In the 1980s competence was considered as
ability/skill necessary to perform a certain activity according
to the requirements. In other words, competence is a person’s
characteristic relating to the specific domain of activity. It
means the system of knowledge, abilities, skills, motivational
dispositions and attitudes, all mutually and hierarchically
related, which enable performing certain activity [3].
The structure of managers’ professional competence
becomes more complex; manager effectiveness depends on
manager roles and functions integration [4], [5] as well as
management levels.
1.1. Manager roles
While performing, the manager takes different roles in
which his/her communication competence is decisive. A
manager role is a set of specific tasks that a manager is
expected to perform because of the position he or she holds
in an organization [6]. Henry Mintzberg [7], [8], [9] classifies
the roles that the manager must play into three categories:
interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles. Managers
play each of these roles to influence the behaviour of
individuals and groups inside (other managers and
employees) and outside of the organization (shareholders,
customers, suppliers, the local community).
 Interpersonal roles. Managers assume interpersonal roles
to provide direction and supervision for both employees
and the organization as a whole. These include roles of
figurehead, leader and liaison. As a figurehead, manager
is a person who symbolizes an organization or a
department. He informs employees and other interested
parties about what the organization mission is and what
it is seeking to achieve. Manager is obligated to perform
a number of routine duties of a legal or social nature like
greeting visitors, signing legal documents, etc. As a
leader, manager is responsible for the motivation and
activation of employees. He should provide an example
to employees to follow, enable training, counselling in
order to help them to reach their full potential. As a
liaison, manager coordinates the activities of people and
groups both inside and outside the organization. He
maintains self-developed network of outside contacts
and informers who provide favours and information.
 Informational roles. This is a group of managerial roles
which provide processing information necessary for the
normal functioning of the organization. These roles
include roles of monitor, disseminator, or spokesperson.
As a monitor, manager seeks and receives wide variety
of information to develop thorough understanding of

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METALURGIA INTERNATIONAL
organization and environment. In order to perform this
role, he reads periodicals and reports, maintains personal
contacts. As a disseminator, manager transmits
information to employees in order to influence their
work attitudes and behaviour. As a spokesperson,
manager promotes the organization so people inside and
outside the organization respond positively to it. He
transmits information to outsiders on the organization’s
plans, policies, actions, results, etc.
 Decisional roles. They are closely associated with the
method managers use to plan strategy and utilize
resources. As an entrepreneur, manager searches the
organization and its environment for opportunities and
initiates improvement projects to bring about change. He
creates ideas, observes chances and starts new activities.
As a disturbance handler, he manages the unexpected
event or crisis that threatens the organization and he is
responsible for corrective action. As a resource allocator,
manager is responsible for the allocation of
organizational recourses of all kind. He needs to decide
what the best way is to use people and other resources to
increase organizational performances. As a negotiator,
manager reaches agreement with other managers of
groups claiming the first right to resources, or with the
organization and outside groups such as suppliers or
customers.
1.2. Structure of manager competence
There are several useful manager competency models [1],
[10], [11]. The manager competency model [1], [10] contains
6 clusters of manager competency and there are several
detailed managerial competencies within each cluster of the
manager competency model (Table 1). Description of
manager competence is divided into three classes ([1]: senior
manager, middle manager, and first-line manager.
Table 1. Condition attributes
of manager competency model [1]
Clasters
1. The Communication Competency
Informal communication
Formal communication
Negotiation
2. The Planning and Administration Competency
Information gathering, analysis, problem solving
Planning and organizing projects
Time management
Budgeting and financial management
3. The Teamwork competency
Designing team
Creating a supportive environments
Managing team dynamics
4. The Strategic Action competency
Understanding the industry
Understanding the organization
Taking strategic action
5. The Global Awareness competency
Integrity and ethical conduct
Cultural openness and sensitivity
6. The Self-Management competency
Cultural knowledge and understanding
Personal drive and resilience
Self-awareness and development
Reducing the prior manager competency model, Wu et al. [1]
derived four competency clusters: Communication, Planning and
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vol. XVII no. 7
Administration, Global Awareness and Self-Management. Self-
management competency is the most indispensable attribute to a
manager competency model. Concerning the opinions of which
detailed competency is most required, it is rather varied due to
different management level:
 competency model of senior manager considers the
following competency elements: negotiation, creating a
supportive environment, managing team dynamics;
understanding the organization and taking strategic
action;
 competency model of middle managers considers the
following competency elements: informal
communication, personal drive and resilience, self-
awareness and development;
 competency model of first-line manager considers the
following competency elements: information gathering,
analysis and problem solving, budgeting and financial
management, understanding the industry and cultural
openness and sensitivity.
Communication competence is considered essential to
managing, both in terms of its theoretical role in management
and in observations of the communication behaviours of
managers [12]. One of the investigations of manager
communication competence (Maxwell, according to [8]) ranks
the manager’s ability to communicate efficiently first in
importance, with a rate of 38%, and the other components are
lower: creation - 31%, management knowledge - 19%, and
relations - 12%.
Manager ICT competencies or manager e-competence is the
important part of manager competence, too. However, manager
ICT/e-competencies are not considered in this paper as particular
competencies. E-competencies (or ICT competencies) are partly
integrated in other aspects of communication competence or are
tools for their realization. At the same time, much attention has
been paid to these competencies both within specific researches
on managers’ profession and within researches on many other
professional groups having managerial functions as teacher
profession is [13].
2. MANAGERS’ SOCIAL AND
COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE
Some authors’ point of view that “management is the art and
skill of performing the tasks by using other people, not
performing the task by themselves” [7], emphasizes social
interaction as constituent element of manager presence and
functioning; therefore, communication is a process by which
social interaction and management functions are realized. To a
manager, communication is the means to persuade, inform,
motivate and lead the individuals - group or organization
members – toward the group target. The realization of group
targets requires group activities and cooperation where
communication is the process which shapes and directs
cooperation. Unsuccessful cooperation within the group worsen
the interaction and hence the human relationships; on the other
side, successful communication improves them.
Many reviews of the skills used by a successful manager
determine the following four groups of skills: technical,
interpersonal, conceptual and communication skills, where
communication skills are “the most important skills for optimal
business management at all levels” [7]. Developed
communication system is necessary both within the organization
and between the organization and environment so that the
organization can act as united, integrated unit directed at
common goals [14], [15].
As with the teachers [16], [17], professional manager
competencies are determined by social and interaction
METALURGIA INTERNATIONAL
characteristics of professional performance. The managerial
communication process becomes more and more complex as the
complexity of the company activities and that of the manager’s
responsibilities increases. Managers’ communication
competence in different social contexts is relatively different, too
[18], [19], [20]. Their work communication depends on their
personal demographic and professional characteristics, too [21].
In the context of professional development of various social
professions (teachers, managers, social workers, psychologists,
medical workers, etc.) the meaning of the term “communication
competence” does not differ from the term “social competence”
in everyday use [22]. This everyday use, which became the part
of professional terminology in projecting professional
development, requires determining the relations between
communication and social competence [23].
Social competence, or interpersonal competence as its
synonymous term [24], has become dominant psychological
construct in examining interpersonal relations since 1980s. It is
conceived as practical efficiency of an individual functioning in
social context. Social competence means the interaction of
individual characteristics, social requirements and situation
features. As the product or effect of social competence the
following issues are most frequently dealt with: professional
achievement or success, academic achievement, quality of social
interaction in relevant social groups. Social competence is not
only the term used in social sciences, but is also included in
strategic documents of international institutions and
organizations as one of the most crucial competencies of
contemporary civil community (documents of European
Commission on most important competencies [25]).
Social competence is subject to experience and learning; it
also means modification of present behaviour forms and
development of new more functional ones on the basis of
personal insights and the effects of social feedback.
From the review of evaluation measures of social
competence by Spitzberg and Cupach [24] and Rebecca Rubin et
al. [26], [27], we can emphasize the tendency to study social
competence by studying sign communication and symbolic
forms of behaviour manifested in interpersonal context.
Communication competence has become dominant construct in
the researches dealing with the features of human functioning in
social context [22].
Communication competence is narrower, but widely
overlapping construct with the basic construct of social
competence [24]. It is considered to be the central aspect of
social competence [22]. However, it would be wrong to put
equation sign between these two constructs, which is the
frequent case in current research approaches.
A more contextually sensitive definition of communication
competence within organizations would extend the original
Spitzberg and Cupach model [24] and define organizational
communication competence as the evaluative impression of the
quality of interaction moderated by organizational norms and
rules. Communication competence in organizations involves
“knowledge of the organization and of communication, ability to
carry out skilled behaviours, and one's motivation to perform
competently” [12].
Cyphert and Wurtz [28] considered communication
competence as wide concept. Where specific communication
competencies are defined, they can be categorized as one of four
general types of competence [28]: (a) knowledge/information of
specific communication practices, resources or content material,
(b) mental skill/capacity to perform specific communication
behaviour, (c) attitude/value that support or motivate targeted
communication behaviours or practices, (d) performance/
behaviour that is observed by assessors. Although
communication competence definitions vary widely and the task
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vol. XVII no. 7
of defining communication competence is difficult, some
definitions are constructed in terms of control over the
environment through effective interactions [29].
According to number of models of communication
competence [3], [16], [27], [30], [31], [32], description of a
communication competent manager is developed. A
communication competent manager (according [27]: is adaptable
and flexible; is involved in conversation – he/she manifests the
involvement in conversation by behavioural manifestations
(gestures, visual direction) and by cognitive activities
(concluding, repeating key sentences, paraphrasing); has skills to
manage conversation (to regulate interaction and control social
situations, define and change the aims of conversation);
considers the social relations and makes a plan of the
engagement; has developed empathy; is effective in
communication process – sustain the aims of conversation and
personal aims; has expectations coordinated to the situation; is
ready to team work; is learning continually about communication
process, and is gaining insights about communication situation;
he/she is aware of his/her own behaviour; continually develops
communication skills, train and test exchange of messages;
continually masters the use of different communication means.
The system of interpersonal relationship and personal
characteristics of communicator and recipient affects
communication as the manifestation form of social interaction.
Social psychology researches (the field of social perception,
group psychology, etc.) confirm the significance of social
intelligence, empathy, verbal intellectual abilities, self-respect
and respect to others, emotional balance, extroverted-introverted
dispositions, aggressiveness, flexibility to communicate
successfully.
3. EMPIRICAL RESEARCH OF SOME
MANAGER COMMUNICATION
COMPETENCIES
Communication competence is most directly recognized in
the contexts of direct interpersonal communication during
conversation and of interpersonal conflicts. Some authors [33],
[34], [35], [36], [37] selected and developed various instruments
for measuring two components of communication competence
manifested in such situations: (a) interaction involvement and (b)
conflict resolving style.
Interaction involvement, as a skill of communication
competence, explains interpersonal communication as a
transactional relationship involving the elements of self, others,
and situations. Cegala et al. [33] derived three components of
interaction involvement: attentiveness, perceptiveness and
responsiveness. Therefore interaction involvement can be
viewed as a multidimensional construct involving the awareness
of self-behaviour and awareness of other people behaviour.
Interaction involvement is a complex concept: it is “the extent to
which an individual participates with another in conversation”
[33].
Highly involved people integrate feelings, thoughts and
experiences with the ongoing interaction; their consciousness is
directed toward the self, others and conversation topic; their
speech can be marked as consistency and understanding; they
have focus on the message meanings and importance; they are
more effective to take information. Description of interaction
involvement components [33], [34]:
 Attentiveness is the extent to which an individual heeds
in the immediate social environment. It denotes to what
extent a certain individual tends to pay attention to the
signs in the immediate social environment, particularly in
relation to the collocutor – hence it involves the
METALURGIA INTERNATIONAL
comprehension of communication behaviour of the
others.
 Perceptiveness is an individual’s sensitivity about what
meanings should be applied to the others’ behaviour and
what meaning the others apply to their own behaviour.
 Responsiveness relates to an individual’s certainty about
how to respond in a social situation. This is the tendency
to react to the particular social circumstance and to
modify reaction by knowing what and when to say.
The skills of non-violent communication and conflict
resolving are the components of the manager’s communication
competence. The manager should be mediator in social
interaction. He/she is interested in constructive conflict resolving
and increasing awareness of the strategy of resolving
interpersonal conflicts.
There are two dimensions of the resolving interpersonal
conflict styles, and four basic styles [39]: integrating,
dominating, obliging and avoiding style; the special aspect is the
compromising style. Managers resolve conflicts differently,
according to their personal characteristics.
Rahim developed inventory for measuring conflict resolving
style ROCI-II (Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory II) [35].
The ROCI-II, as one of the more recently developed instruments;
it is distinguished by its emphasis on individual predispositions,
its belief in maintaining a balance in the amount of conflict in the
organization, and its concern for effectiveness in managing
conflicts [38]. The scale treats communication implicitly as a set
of strategies used to achieve interpersonal goals and as a way of
equalizing the amount of conflict in the system. Description of
conflict resolving styles are [36]:
 Integrating (high concern for self and others) style
involves openness, exchange of information and
examination of differences to reach an effective solution
acceptable to both parties. It is associated with problem
solving, which may lead to creative solutions.
 Dominating (high concern for self and low concern for
others) style has been identified with win-lose
orientation or with forcing behaviour to win one’s
position.
 Obliging (low concern for the self and high concern for
others) style is associated with attempting to play down
the differences and emphasizing commonalities to satisfy
the concern of the other party.
 Avoiding (low concern for self and others) style has been
associated with withdrawal, buck-passing, or
sidestepping situations.
 Compromising (intermediate in concern for self and
others) style involves give-and-take whereby both parties
give up something to make a mutually acceptable
decision.
3.1. Methodology
The research (as a part of wider comparative longitudinal
study – [3, 16] investigated two aspects of middle level
managers communication competence.
The variables are:
 Interaction involvement - characteristic of the person
who makes the personal interaction with the other person
(the manner of participation with another in
conversation); it consists of three components [33]:
 attentiveness – awareness of communication behaviour
of the other person in interaction process (awareness
of the signs in social environment);
 perceptiveness – knowledge of the meanings which
person contribute to its own behaviour and behaviour
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vol. XVII no. 7
of communication participants based on listening and
perceiving;
 responsiveness (cognitive responsiveness) – tendency
to react mentally to the social circumstances and adapt
by knowing what to say and when to say it.
 Conflict resolving style – dominant manner to resolve
interpersonal conflict; Rahim [34] differed five conflict
resolution styles and created instrument to measure
styles (ROCI-II); Pokrajac and Kardum [39] confirmed
four conflict resolving styles: integrating, dominating,
obliging and avoiding style.
Research instruments:
 IIS – Interaction Involvement Scale [27], [33]
constructed to assess components of interaction
involvement (A, P, R). The self-assessment scale
consists of 18 items to assess one’s interaction
involvement – one’s behaviour and emotion in
conversation process. The five-level scale is used in the
investigation.
 ROCI II – Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory II
[35], [36], [39], measures independent dimensions of
interpersonal conflict managing styles: integrating,
negotiating, dominating, avoiding (indulgence). It
consists of 27 items for the self-assessment of styles of
managing interpersonal conflicts.
 SDE inventory – Inventory of socio-demographic and
educational characteristics.
For data processing, measures of descriptive and
correlation statistics in SPSS were used.
The sample: 60 university educated engineers on the
positon of middle-level manager in different types of
organization (industrial companies, schools, agencies etc).
The average of the working time is 15 years. The subjects
answered individually.
3.2. Results of the empirical research and discussion
The managers manifest moderate level of interaction
involvement - aspect of conversation and verbal
communication (Figure 1). The level is relatively low for
managerial process and activities.
M
Fig. 1. Interaction Involvement of middle level managers
They assessed particular components of interaction
involvement by applying self-assessment scale. According to
the obtained results these aspects of their communication
competence are moderately high in their professional
performance (Table 2); they recognize them in their own
behaviour - they are aware of attentiveness, perceptiveness
and cognitive responsiveness in their own behaviour.
 METALURGIA INTERNATIONAL vol. XVII no. 7

Table 2. Managers’ interaction involvement Table 4. Correlation of Managers’ conflict resolving style and
Conflict Possible M on the Interaction Involvement (r-Pearson coefficient)
M SD
resolving style results scale 1-5 Conflict Interaction Involvement
IIS - Interaction resolving Attenti- Percepti- Responsi- Sum
18-90 69.73 5.85 3.87
involvement style veness veness veness
Attentiveness 6-30 22.78 3.03 3.80 Integrating 0.37** 0.15 -0.13 0.16
Perceptiveness 4-20 15.37 1.69 3.84
Responsiveness Dominating 0.13 0.12 -0.16 0.19
8-40 31.58 3.17 3.95
Obliging -0.29* 0.10 -0.23 -0.25
N=60 M – Mean, SD – Standard Deviation
Avoiding -0.08 0.22 -0.14 -0.06
Considering the significance of non-violent N=60 ** p<0.01 *<0.05
communication in manager profession and of selection of
adequate conflict resolving strategy and style, middle level Generally there is no correlation between interaction
managers opt for integrating conflict resolving style as the involvement (total scale score and particular components)
primary one (Table 3). and conflict resolving style. Correlation analysis determined
that there are positive correlation between integrating conflict
Table 3. Managers’ conflict resolving style resolving style and attentiveness (r=0.37, p<0.01). At the
same time, there is negative correlation between obliging
Conflict
Possible M on the conflict styles and attentiveness (r=-0.29, p<0.05). This
resolving M SD
results scale 1-5 means that managers, who tends to take care more of
style
communication signs in their immediate environment,
Integrating 7-35 28.25 3.52 4.04 especially of the communication signs of their collocutors,
Dominating 7-35 22.18 4.39 3.17 and are focused on having knowledge of other people
Obliging 7-35 22.07 5.54 3.15 communication behaviour, are at the same time more ready
Avoiding 6-30 16.53 3.60 2.76 to choose integrating conflict resolving style, which means
N=60 M – Mean, SD – Standard Deviation high concern both for others and self. Also, at higher level of
attentiveness managers choose obliging conflict resolving
So, middle level managers are aware of functionality of style more rarely because it requires low concern for self and
integrating conflict resolving style and are positively oriented high concern for others.
towards its application, though this research based on self-
assessment does not offer the insight how much they really 4. INSTEAD CONCLUSION: EDUCATION OF
applied it. Middle level mangers are concerned highly for self COMMUNICATION COMPETENT
and others and they are open to new social situations, ready MANAGER
to examine effective solution acceptable to both parties.
Flexibility as an important personal feature is in the core of Communication competence is unavoidable aspect of
such behaviour since flexible persons are ready to modify manager professional competence. However, some
their own behaviour by knowing the circumstances; they components of manager communication competence are not
remarkably depend on their emotional and cognitive sufficiently developed and modified according to the
openness, ability to assess the circumstances, readiness to demands of professional performance. Interaction
change and evolve, and on autonomy achieved so far. To be involvement and conflict resolving styles, also examined in
flexible in communication, an individual should always be this paper, are components of communication competence
aware of the situation, self and others. Awareness involves which should be strengthen.
having knowledge of environment, responsibility for making Developed empirical and frequent experimental
choices, acceptance of and ability to contact. investigations of the professional performance and
Dominating conflict resolving style and obliging conflict communication competences confirmed the following: there
resolving style (with negotiating behaviour) are chosen on is the causal link between the learning and training of
the same level. Managers choose avoiding style at adequate communication behaviours, and the effectiveness in
remarkably lower degree than the previously mentioned ones. professional performance [16]. Since communication
In the research [16], comparing conflict resolving styles competence is formative for the entire manager’s successful
between teachers (which is also the profession with professional performance, it is necessary to strengthen these
managerial elements) and engineers-managers, the obtained competences in a systematic way by organizing suitable
data show that there are some differences between middle training programmes for in-service managers as well as
level managers (engineers on the manager position) and future managers-students of management during their initial
secondary school teachers (engineers who work in secondary education.
vocational school): managers choose avoiding conflict Current educational issues lead to the improvement of
resolving style much more rarely than their colleagues in the communication competence syllabus/curriculum in manager
secondary school. pre-service education and the programmes in in-service
Cegala’s research [34], which showed that highly education.
involved persons felt more positive and less negative during a The contents and courses in the fields of communicology
competitive negotiation than low-involved persons, suggests have been involved in the process of manager education since
correlation analysis of interaction involvement and conflict the mid-20th century. Learning communication skills became
resolving style. Therefore their correlation is examined, the segment of their improvement initiated by the needs of
measured by self-assessment (Table 4). business systems; and only later it was included regularly in
education process. These contents became the part of
university education in the mid-1900s [40, 41], having
autonomous courses under the title “communication”

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emphasizing the skill element. At the end of the 20th century,
when communicology became the independent science, the
courses got the title “communicology”, while many other
courses are called “communication skills”. The
“communicology” course focuses much more on getting
knowledge of the system of the science, communication
theory, types of communication and then on communication
skills. The courses whose title refers to specific
communication field focus on acquiring practical knowledge
and communication skills.
Fundamental assumptions on which programmes for
acquiring communication knowledge and skills are based are
as follows [3]: (a) for an individual, communication is
important mode of behaviour which distinguishes an
individual from other individuals, and is the basis of
symbolic interaction; (b) learning of communication
behaviour should be continual as well as a constituent
element of teaching process and school system;
(c) improvement of two basic communication skills –
speaking and listening – is the task of the whole education
community; (d) specialized communication courses improve
social and cognitive development of an individual.
There are several significant areas of concern for
communication skills education at the university level.
Cyphert and Wurtz [28] mention various approaches to
education of communication competent manager from
training, academic, and management perspectives. They
suggested that “communication for professional purposes
might be best addressed as an interactive system of context-
specific skill, cultural and rhetorical norms, and
organizational management that extends along a lifespan of
communication learning” [28].
Although there is not intersubjective agreement about
contents of communication courses in manager education,
there are similar structures of these courses as well as similar
goals [42]. Based on the communication programmes [37],
[41], [43], [44], [45], the theoretical communicology
programmes [46], [47], the programmes of teacher
communication education [3], [16], [23], [48] and the
comparative review [23], [49], we suggest the following
structure of curriculum for manager communication
education:
 theoretical aspect: basic concepts in communicology,
models of communication process, theoretical framework
of communication, types of signs, types of
communication (verbal and nonverbal communication and
other classifications), communication channel, psycho-
social context of communication; structure of
communication competencies (and skills); general
communication rules;
 communicational practical aspect - development of
communication skills: speaking competencies, delivery
competencies, listening competencies, reflecting
competencies; writing communication competencies;
development basic conversational skills as a part of
conversational competencies;
 socio-interpersonal communicational practical aspect -
development of widely social competencies demonstrated
through communication process or interpersonal and
group communication skills: analysis of social situations
and group and team communication; relationship
management and conflict resolution; development of
conversational strategies and discussion management;
development of group presentation skills; recognition and
mastering boundaries of communication; persuasion,
assertiveness, empathy; teaching communication styles;
public relations communication;
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vol. XVII no. 7
 evaluative aspect - development of competencies of
communication evaluation: evaluation of different
communication process (especially team communication,
PR communication, marketing communication).
Acknowledgement: The paper in its final phase is developed
as a part of the project 179026 “Teaching and learning –
problems, goals and perspective”, funded by Ministry of
Education and Science of Republic of Serbia.
5. REFERENCES
[1] W. W. Wu, Y. T. Lee & G. H. Tzeng, G. H. Simplifying
the Manager Competency Model of Using the Rough Set
Approach, Lecture Notes in Computer Science Proceeding of
Rough Sets, Fuzzy Sets, Data Mining, and Granular
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Correspondence to
Dragana BJEKIĆ
e-mail: dbjekic@tfc.kg.ac.rs Technical Faculty Čačak -
University of Kragujevac, Serbia
Milevica BOJOVIĆ
e-mail: milevicabojovic@gmail.com Faculty of Agronomy
Čačak – University of Kragujevac, Serbia
Lidija ZLATIĆ
e-mail: lzlatic@ptt.rs Faculty of Teacher Education Užice
– University of Kragujevac, Serbia
Milena STANISAVLJEVIĆ
e-mail: Milena.Stanisavljevic@fondmt.rs Technical
Faculty Čačak - University of Kragujevac, Serbia