Taking a step back to move forward: understanding communication skills and their characteristics in the workplace

ABSTRACT Soft skills have been increasingly recognised as important in the workplace. They have been incorporated, moreover, in education and training curricula internationally. However, their conceptualisation lacks in theoretical grounding. This study fills this gap by taking a skills-utilisation approach (rather than a skills-requirements approach) and studying communication skills in the Human Resource function of two organisations, Flow and Energy. Key informants were participants in the events that were theoretically sampled (e.g. employees, candidates). Observations of interactions between HR professionals and their interlocutors, combined with conversations, interviews and organisational documents provided the data corpus. The analysis combined the key mechanics of grounded theory and discourse analysis. The conceptual framework drew on situated learning. Results indicate that communication skills should not be seen as decontextualised communication behaviours. Instead, communication skills require constant manoeuvring and alignment of communication behaviour (what people do) with the following three factors: the aim of the communication encounter, the actors’ positional identities and the various forms of knowing they bring to the practice. This view unveils the tentative and elusive (rather than transferrable and universally applicable) nature of communication skills. Such an evidence-driven conceptualisation has implications for how soft skills should be researched, understood and developed/accredited.


Introduction
Increasing skills supply among students, apprentices and incumbents have formed a significant priority internationally for policymakers, educational stakeholders, and organisations (Burke et al. 2020;LINCS 2020;OECD 2016;WEF 2015); in higher education and more recently in continuing professional education (Andrews and Higson 2008;Anthony and Garner 2016;Fixsen, Cranfield, and Ridge 2018;Succi and Canovi 2020; Against this background, arguably, one should take a step back from a cognitive/individualistic view of learning and skills and more towards a situated or developmental view (see Konkola et al. 2007). In this paper the focus is on communication skills specifically (as an example of soft skills) employing a situated perspective. Accordingly, it is proposed that communication skills can be best understood through a skills-utilisation approach (rather than a skills-requirements approach) that allows studying them in practice, where they accrue their value and meaning.
It is posited here that studying what counts as skills in communication practice and what determines skill in information-rich environments can advance our understanding about communication skills and the best approach to develop and accredit theman approach different to what has been employed so far (Touloumakos 2011). With the aim to understand communication skills in practice two research questions were devised: What counts as communication skills as human resource (HR) professionals engage in their practice?
What are the characteristics of communication skills in use, which can inform curriculum development?

Methodology
This work draws on data generated and analysis conducted for the purposes of a doctoral research in a UK University, in two large organisations (over 10000 employees each). The stance taken in this study towards understanding communication skills was explorative using an in-depth qualitative approach, involving spending extended times within the organisations and using flexibly individual and combinations of qualitative methods (observations, interviews, etc.) to ensure richness and detail of data generated. The openness and flexibility such an approach offers, however, was not meant to be at the expense of research rigour.

Sampling
Human resource was thought to provide a rich and, therefore, instrumental environment in which to study and understand communication skills. In Stake's (2000) terms, an instrumental case is a study of a case (person, department etc.) that is deemed instrumental in gaining an insight into a particular issue and building theory. The HR environment, in this study, was thought to provide this instrumental space (Stake refers to it as an instrumental case) to enable insights and building theory around what counts as communication skills and what are their characteristics. Accordingly, the HR functions of two organisations, Flow and Energy, had been purposefully selected (Patton 2002) ensuring the variation of HR practices sought (see Table 1). The two organisations did business in different sectors, had internal, active, well-organised, and very diverse (between them) human resource functions.
Accessing Flow and Energy was the outcome of a 10-month process where numerous email-invitations were sent, and meetings were held with different 'gatekeepers' (Andoh-Arthur 2019) such as the head of HR or the head of the apprentices' programme in different organisations. Gatekeepers were drawn primarily from the list of collaborators of the research centre in which this study was conducted. Understandably, gatekeepers' reactions to having an outsider observer in their workplace ranged in most cases from hesitant to negative. Flow and Energy were willing to participate and allow observations for long periods of time and interviewingconversing with the key informants during these times. Discussions with the head of HR function in each organisation lead to the selection of events/activities to be observed (for example, assessment centres, training modules, etc.) following the premises of theoretical sampling (Eisenhardt and Graebner 2007). Multiple short meetings with the head of HR in each organisation at different points in time during data generation allowed sampling the events/activities that best served the research needs at the time; it also allowed recalibrating the research approach to ensure that work in both organisations went uninterrupted. Key informants in each organisation were the people who participated in the selected events/activities and included the gatekeepers, HR managers, trainers, candidates for the graduate programmes, apprentices, employees or other (see Table 1 for more details).

Data generation
Methods of data generation were used in combination and independently in response to fieldwork needs. Observations 2 were primarily used and thought to give access to knowledge HR practitioners hold about communication skills and which was reflected in their work (in this paper I focus on such observations). Interviews revealed crucial personal and contextual background information (Hammersley and Atkinson 2007). Conversational interviewing (Given 2008) proved a valuable method in clarifying issues about preceding or imminent observations. Documents used in different events such as meetings or training sessions, alongside interviews and conversations prior or after the observations provided context and useful information about how work was organised. Data were recorded through extensive and detailed field notes and accounts during or following the observations.

Ethics
The project was reviewed and did receive full ethical approval (Ref. No: SSD/CUREC1/ 08-066). Matters of confidentiality and anonymity were discussed and decided on an individual basis with each organisation. British Educational Research Association codes of ethical research (BERA 2004) served as a platform in making all decisions.

Conceptual framework
Employing a constructivist approach, this study sought to identify communication skills in use and understand their characteristics. Situated learning theory (SLT) offered a valuable conceptual framework for this investigation, because it shifts the focus of learning, thinking, and acting from the individual mental level to the relational levelstressing the role of the community, participation, and working together (Anderson, Reder, and Simon 1996;Stein 1998). Accordingly, this approach allows to consider expertise and knowledgeable skill not as a matter of personal capability but as a matter of transformation through membership in a community of practice (Lave 1991;Lave and Wenger 1991). This view highlights the social aspects of competence. In this study, this framework is used to capture what and how communication skills are enacted in the context of HR practice that involves specific routines, norms, tools, rules and criteria for skill and expertise. Factors that can help identify and characterise communication skills are thought to lie in the interactions and transactions among agents and agents and the context.

Analytic methods
Data generated were treated as an integrated whole (Cunningham 2004), and analysis balanced between 'what the data were telling me' and 'what was it that I wanted to know' (Srivastava and Hopwood 2009, 78). This approach was inductive (Patton 2002;Znaniechi 1934). An iterative process took place, between immersing with/analysing the data and subsequent engagement and use of the theoretical concepts. Theory helped focusing on how to make meaning of the data and backed up most of the codes and definitions under development (Touloumakos 2011).The approach followed in the analysis integrated line-by-line coding and the basic steps of the constant comparative method (Glaser 1965;Glaser and Strauss 1967) with discourse analysis (Fairhurst and Putnam 2019). Steps taken were as follows: (a) Categories were generated (for example, actions or arguments) through comparing chunks of the datathe emphasis was on what was done by HR professionals' sayings and what these doings were doing (Gherardi 2010); (b) Properties and characteristics of categories were developed and delineated (a set of rules was devised and guided this process); and (c) Categories were linked to explore plausible answers to the research questions.

Quality, authenticity, and credibility
The data-derived understanding of communication skills in practice in a quality, authentic and credible manner sought required in turn 'closeness to' and 'participating in the social reality' (Hammersley 1995, p.195) of the HR functions. Closeness was pursued through participating in various activities in multiple roles and for long periods in Flow and Energy (8 and 10 months, respectively). These activities were social dinners, informal HR meetings, or off the record conversations about the introduction and implementation of new policies. Quality was ensured, furthermore, using multiple methods of data generation that enabled 'triangulation' (Hammersley and Atkinson 2007) of both the data generated and the themes emerging through the first stages of this analysis. Finally, seeking and obtaining substantial agreement between two different coders assigning codes to a section of the data corpus (following McHugh 2012) was thought to add to the credibility and quality sought.

Analytic process
Analysis for this project was conducted along two interdependent levels: one focusing on developing an account of HR practice that featured communication skills; and a second one focusing on identifying and understanding the characteristics of communication skills as used by HR professionals in practice. The analysis at the second level becomes the focus of this paper. The two dimensions were interdependent: the completion of the analysis of HR practice (analysis at the first level) was required for the analysis of communication skills and their characteristics (analysis at the second level) to take place. The analysis at the first level finished with the identification of 'modes of work' (see Figure 1) in HR practice, with 'face-to-face communication' being recognised as ubiquitous. In line with this, communication is seen as part of and therefore, as embedded in HR practice.
The starting point of the analysis at the second level was, therefore, communication between HR practitioners and interlocutors (communication in HR practice) and led to the organisation of 'episodes of behaviour' defined in terms of the aims HR professionals sought to achieve in their interactions. Moreover, through this analysis emerged the main category code, namely, 'behaviour'(/what people do) 3 . Finally, through this analysis emerged the key factors determining what counts as communication skill in practice and helping understand communication skills' characteristics (two final steps in Figure 1).

Code key
The analysis produced, in the end, the categories presented in the Code Key summarised in Table 2 below (of note that the list of behaviours/what people do unpicked from context are indicative and not exhaustive). Code key categories, examples from the data, and theoretical concepts are combined and presented next, to address the two research questions.

RQ1
. What counts as communication skill as HR professionals engage in their practice? HR practitioners during their communications engage in behaviours (verbal and nonverbal) that fit under the five broad and general terms: 'exchanging utterances', 'questioning', 'gesturing' 'grimacing' and 'listening' (see Table 2. Column on Behaviours/What   (Bereiter 2002;Eraut 1994) people do). However, focusing on the specific behaviours (what people do) presented in Table 2 (e.g. explaining, elaborating, confronting, validating, reiterating) and calling them communication skills arbitrarily is meaningless, as evidence from this analysis suggests. Instead, understanding communication skill lies with understanding communication behaviour (what people's sayings do) as situated action; therefore action that is emergent, aligns with practice aims, enables HR professionals' positional identities, and is informed by the different forms of knowing available to themwhether context dependent or not. Each of these factors identifying communication skills are elaborated and supported with data examples next. For each factor, the presentation starts with some context and a brief description of the illustrative example of the excerpt that comes next. A summary of the analytic categories illustrated in the example presented and a conclusive comment follows the excerpt.

'Aims'
The aims pursued through the various communication episodes emerged as having a key role in identifying communication skills. During the first day of the assessment centre for the apprentices' program in Energy, Lucia the recruitment consultant leads the group exercise session. Before the candidates enter the room Lucia briefs assessors on the rules and procedures for this session as defined by the company recruitment protocols. Lucia first welcomes assessors participating in the selection of the new apprentices in lines 1-2, and then engages in explaining to them how the groups are separated (lines 2-3), and then she organises work, and delegates (line 3). Much of what she does involves giving directions, such as in lines 4-6 (instructing the assessors to first make notes and then complete the assessment forms) and questioning/seeking validation and feedback from assessors that they are clear about her instructions.
Example 1: ( Summary and conclusion: Aim of episode of behaviour: managing work (by informing the assessors/candidates on procedures, rules, use of tools, etc, in an Assessment Centre).
Although this is not the unique repertoire of behaviours that one could mobilise with the aim of managing work, all the behaviours mobilised here are oriented towards serving the purpose of managing work. In line with the proposed conceptualisation in this work, this alinement is one key factor in identifying communication skill in this context. One could potentially find a different set of behaviours (what people's sayings do) that could be identified as communication skills in a different episode, even with the same aim.

'Positional Identities'
The role of positional identity (Holland et al. 1998, p. 26), the relational aspect of agency 'that makes claims about who we are relative to one another and the nature of our relationships', emerged as a key factor in identifying communication skills. In the example that follows both the aims, and positional identities are unpicked to argue their determining role in recognising skill; emphasis is placed on positional identity. This second example comes from a meeting held in the headquarters of Energy between Jason, one of the apprentice programmes team leaders and advisors, and Matt, an apprentice. This is a progress review meeting held regularly between teamleaders/advisors and apprentices. Jason believes that team-leaders/advisors ought (FN, 23.02): to provide them [the apprentices] with some stability and a sense of belonging. And we found having these regular meetings [progress review meetings] can help accomplish that. They come to us and seek our advice, they expect we will help them, we will discuss their progress, their concerns about their progress, their plans, what potentials there are here in Energy for them. We can't let them down; it is our role and duty as team leaders to provide this.
For Jason updating/supporting people's learning and not letting his apprentices down as a (career counsellor/)advisor is enacted through: factual questioning regarding, for example, what particular training section Matt is currently at (line 2), the section coming up (line 4) and the plan for the following step (line 9); advising/guiding Matt to allow enough time to the people who will allocate him in a work group; clarifying issues that seem to be misunderstood by Matt (line 11).
(6) Jason: Right. Okay. Before you work to the workshop let people know that you are (7) heading there, yes? >They need to know so that they can assign you to a group.< (8) Matt: Yep, I am aware, I will talk to a leader next week.
(9) Jason: Which skills have you got to do? (10) Matt: All of them and 11 weeks of fitting.
(12) … Summary and conclusion: Aim of episode of behaviour: engaging & supporting people. Positional Identity of the actor: advisor/career consultant. Behaviours identified: factual questioning, advising/guiding, clarifying. In line with the argument put forward so far, behaviours (what people do) aligning with the aim of the episode and the actor's positional identity are construed as communication skills in this instance. Arguably, selecting a different repertoire of behaviours such as commanding/directing, or pausing and gesturing intensely (picking a fight) would not have enabled an advisor positional identity or the aim to engage support people's learning, as these specific behaviours (/what people did) did.
'Forms of knowing' Understanding behaviour and recognising skill cannot be done unless considering them as the practical achievements shaped by different forms of knowing (see in Example 3) such as relational knowing (Edwards 2010). The example presented next features parts of a 'selection interview' held on the second day of the graduate assessment centre in Flow. Two assessors (A1 and A2) participate in the interview with the candidate (C1). At one point during the interview the discussion focused on the candidate's previous work experience. Early in this interview, the candidate, most probably unintentionally, (line 2) states that one thing that he finds challenging is managing people. While for a moment, A1 moves on to a new issue (line 4), he comes back to it in lines 6-7 by rephrasing C1's point and probing. And he persists further, as shown next: by rephrasing/reiteration (lines 26-27), probing (lines 27, 31) and pursuing elaboration/justification (lines 20, 23-24, 27), combined with factual questioning (lines 34-35).
(5) C1: I heard and learned initially about it in company X.
(6) A1: You said before that you found challenging managing people. Can you talk Behaviour identified: rephrasing, probing, pursing elaboration/justification, factual questioning.
As suggested so far, the repeated revisiting of the same issue with the candidate, is about putting a form of knowing about the culture into actionbut also realising the examiner identity and the aim of gathering information and forming judgment. Putting his knowing about the culture into action here means understanding the characteristics of people that are good at what they do. Indeed, according to the assessment forms available 'managing people' and 'continuous improvement' are the two key competencies that the interview is designed to assess, in addition to aspects such as attitudes and personality traits (OD, 31.07). In addition to that, it is experience or knowing about personal attitudes and valuesa form of personal knowing that underlines practitioner's approach in their interview and behaviour(/what they do) (FN, 01.08, post interview with the candidate): […] A1: Such attitude towards working with and leading others won't get him far, I guarantee you that … the question is will he get better with some training? A2: That's the question … I really can't think of anyone with his profile that we have actually gotten in, can you? […] While a form of personal knowing that helps assessors make such decisions involves experience gained both within and beyond the workplace environment of Flow, knowing about the culture is embodied in this decision and it is tightly linked to the environment in Flow. Arguably, both condition and shape assessors' behaviour (what they do) towards candidates.
RQ2. What are the characteristics of communication skills in use, which can inform curriculum development? Identifying skills in relation to elements of communication in HR practice (encapsulated here by the categories of aims, positional identities and forms of knowing) is a very different process to breaking down jobs and task to behaviours then called skillsthe skills requirement approach. The latter approach and following the premises of the cognitivist/individualistic view of skill implies that soft skills are behaviours learnt, carried as toolboxes, and applied across contexts. However, as evidence from their study as part of practice suggests, communication skills are doings that align to communication aims and the way people understand themselves in relation to their interlocutors (positional identities) and shaped often by practice-dependent (as well as independent) forms of knowing. This requires doing considerably more than having available a wide gamut of communication behaviours from a repository. It requires balancing between a constant awareness of contextual cues and a decision-making process as to 'what is the appropriate action' to best meet the situational requirements (Touloumakos 2011); this, as argued here, is where skill lies.
An emergent repertoire of actions is, therefore, appropriate for each individual occasion, and for this reason, these count as 'skills' exclusively within this specific contextright there and then. This, in turn, identifies the following characteristics about communication skills: (a) they are highly contextualised: can be understood and recognised as skills only within the specific episode of interaction, (b) they are transient in nature: any specific action can be potentially construed as a communication skill in a given situation, and (c) they are elusive: a doing that can be construed as skill in one instance will not be construed necessarily as a skill in a second instance.
The embeddedness, transience, and fleetingness of communication skills is what makes it meaningless to think of them in terms of set lists of de-contextualised behaviours (that break down work activities), and what forces us to rethink the meaning of soft skills, and with them issues of abstraction and transfer. In turn, the understanding of communication skills as instances of practice in this work is key when thinking about policies and future research in this area.

Discussion
In this paper, a paradox is recognised by juxtaposing the increasing numbers of people being trained and holding qualifications on soft skills with the recurrent demand and the current gap in soft skills reported in the labour market. This paradox is attributed, at least partly in this work, to the mainstream approach to identifying soft skills in need and the associated approach to their developmentthe skills-requirements approach. Against this cognitivist/individualistic view, this work proposes the use of an evidence-based situated view of skillsthe skills-utilisation approach to their study (skills as situated actions), taking the first step, a step back rather, towards moving forward in the study of soft skills.
This situated approach reveals that communication skills cannot be recognised simply by identifying a set of decontextualised behaviours employed in the various instances and arbitrarily calling them communication skills. Communication skills, in this view, can be understood best as situated actions and, therefore, as part of practice(s), the HR practice (s) in this work. HR practices in this study involved specific routines, norms, rules for activity. It is argued here that participation in these practices meant shaping them but also understanding the different elements of practice, and that this was what enabled practitioners to navigate straightforwardly communication encounters from different positions, for different purposes and bringing into their practice their experience and various forms of knowing.
The role of purpose in human action can be traced back to Tolman (1928), and later to the work of Leont'ev (1974Leont'ev ( , 1978 and Engeström (1999) and the object as that which motivates and determines the direction of human activity, and that which distinguishes between different activities. Similarly, positional identity directs us to consider the relational aspect in the process of evaluating desires, reflecting on the potential ramifications of choices and enacting their final choice enacting their agency (Taylor 1985). Given that agency is shaped by but also produces practice (Feldman and Orlikowski 2011), positional identity also directs us to consider that how one is and sees oneself in relation to others is embodied in how one communicates as engaging with various HR practices, and therefore, it is central and inseparable from the enactment of communication skills. Finally, various forms of knowing are produced by and realised in communication skills too (for example, knowing about the HR scientific methodology, epistemic knowing by Knorr Cetina (1991), or knowing about others (Edwards 2010)). This reciprocal relationship between knowing and doing underlies communication skill, and it is reflected in the much improvising, revising, amending, and refining HR professionals engage in as part of their communication.
Taken together, these three factors were found to be key in recognising communication skills and their characteristics in this study. Because HR practitioners have experience in conducting Assessment Centres (as an example of HR practices), appreciate what the organisation looks for in a candidate, understand how to work with each other, they can work with their aim to gather information about candidates, alone examining the candidate in one instance and but also in collaboration with other HR members to form judgments about candidates. Membership in this practice, moreover, enables them to communicate as an employee-employer mediator in one instance and as an advisor in the next instance, and moving from looking to update people, to looking to support, or to manage people, often in successive encounters. This constant manoeuvering between different tasks embodies who they are and what they bring to their practice, but most importantly, it encapsulates being a member of this practice and putting knowing about the idiosyncrasies of the tasks at hand, the job, the people involved, the organisation, every time, into action. Accordingly, it encapsulates what is going on at the individual level but goes considerably beyond it.
The approach taken in this study is novel and has implications at the policy and research levels. At the policy level, an alternative research-driven understanding of communication skills is proposed (Touloumakos, under review). Against a background of studies that lead to communication skills taxonomies, this study proposes studying skills as part of communication encounters in HR practice that helps rendering intelligible where skill lies in a way that can inform how to best develop such skill, and accredit it (indicatively Ingols and Shapiro 2014;Kantrowitz 2005;Weber et al. 2013). At the research level, important is the generation of the analytic categories identifying communication skills. Clearly more research is needed to claim a robust and tested framework of the most important contextual categories/factors in identifying communication skills as part of practice. An additional study would allow solidifying these or other/more contextual aspects of practice that contribute towards understanding the nature of skill. The validation of the properties and functionality of the analytic categories developed would be valuable too, with different practices and in different contexts (national or other).

Notes
1. Examples are the SCANS in the US, or the Key Skills Qualifications in the UK. 2. Observation of various events/activities in the two organisations was primarily as a non-participant observer. In some cases, such as for example during some training courses, participant observations were used. The material presented here derives exclusively from nonparticipant observations. 3. While it is acknowledged that the term 'behaviour' resides more with an individualistic view of skills, it was maintained as an analytic category in this study, to denote a decontextualised view of what people do that needs to become contextualised before we can understand communication skills enactment and their characteristics. To highlight the need for this shift a parenthesis with the phrase 'what people do' will follow the term 'behaviour' from this point onwards.