Uncovering communication skills in virtual meetings – a situated view

The Distance LAB project provides public and private organizations in the Baltic Sea region with advanced distance working skills and business development services. One elemental part within this overall framework are communication skills in virtual work. It has been claimed that soft skills, including inter-relational skills and communication skills are even more valued in today´s work life, and particularly in remote and digital contexts. It has been suggested that communication skills cannot be understood without their contexts. This text explores how communication skills situated elements apply to virtual meetings.

Author: Heidi Myyryläinen

Communication skills are meaningful to understand as situated

Remote work has become common in many industries. Along with the digital shift, the role of soft skills, including communication skills has become even more valued than before (Castrillon 2022). But what really defines communication skills? A study by Touloumakos (2023) views effective communication skills are best understood as situated actions. More specifically, they suggest three elements shed light on communication skills. This article tries to translate how do these perspectives appear for remote workers.

The first step in understanding communication skills is recognizing that participants in a conversation have different aims and intentions (Touloumakos 2023). In their study, Touloumakos et al. identified that communication events fulfilled the aims of informing and supporting people´s learning, overseeing tasks and projects, motivating, engaging and supporting people, collecting data and making evaluations and resolving issues and finding solutions. What changes in this when communication encounters happen in technology-mediated environments? Some studies suggest that virtual meetings are experienced as less spontaneous, lacking nonverbal communication and less engaging (Lim 2023). Therefore, if meetings have other aims than providing information, the social interaction should be specifically supported. Typically, a virtual meeting is invited and led by someone, and in these kinds of meetings the organizer could give space and reserve some time for social interaction and enable participants to have voice. A study by Redlbacher and Hattke (2024) remarks that virtual meetings can be effective practices for generating also novel ideas. They note that virtual meetings have constraints, but some of these constraints can facilitate idea generation by providing structure and clarity during discussions, ensuring that each participant can contribute sequentially. They also comment that to ensure full engagement, participants should not multitask, for example check emails, during the meeting. In virtual meetings it is possible to focus on thoughtful and considered contributions, but this is not for granted.

Understanding work roles helps in effective communication

Another central element determining communication skills is according to Touloumakos (2023) are positional identities. This refers to the way individuals’ actions and behaviors are interconnected and influenced by their relationships with others. Their interaction can be understood based on their (work) role-based identities. This brings another critical point to understanding interactive events and use of communication skills. Based on our roles, expectations are different for participants if the participants represent different work roles and statuses, and this also influences on power dynamics. Understanding the quality and nature of the relationships is worthy when identifying persuasive communication strategies. Therefore, remote meeting organizers and participants should take this into account. This aspect influences on how people take responsibility and how decisions are made. However, it depends on the nature of the virtual meeting what roles do positional identities play. For example, in brainstorming sessions or some consensus building meetings all views may be equally important.

Diverse forms of knowledge open avenues for advanced communications skills

Touloumakos (2023) also reminds the interaction cannot be understood fully without acknowledging diverse knowledge forms. When people meet, they possess diverse personal, cultural, relational, and epistemic knowledge. They may have also diverse views about future. People participate relying on diverse forms of knowledge. Can all these different forms of knowledge be visible in virtual meetings? Many forms of knowledge can be expressed explicitly and formally. This type of knowledge is easy to communicate through documents and presentations. However, there are other types of knowledges that also deserve attention. In virtual teams, knowing about others and their working styles is important but this knowledge develops only over time. Cultural knowledge, for example cultural practices include also elements that are not directly communicated. Studies have claimed personal impressions and expressions, and emotional knowledge remains more hidden in virtual meetings (Behn et al. 2024). These elements are not easily available remotely, but they enrich the understanding.

To sum up, communication skills that can be best understood as situated skills. This text took the communication elements by Touloumakos (2023) and discussed them in virtual meetings. Depending on the situations and the goals, in virtual meetings, it is helpful to pay attention to communication intentions, work roles and diverse forms of knowledge of participants. Ideally, virtual meetings facilitate communication goals regardless of constraints from remoteness, or even turn the constraints into opportunities.

References

Behn, O., Leyer, M. & Iren, D. 2024. Employees’ acceptance of AI-based emotion analytics from speech on a group level in virtual meetings. Technology in Society. Vol. 76, 102466. Cited 25th Jul 2024. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.102466

Castrillon, C. 2022. Why Soft Skills Are More In Demand Than Ever. Cited 25th Jul 2024. Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2022/09/18/why-soft-skills-are-more-in-demand-than-ever/

Lim, C. 2023. Beyond Fatiguing Virtual Meetings: How Should Virtual Meetings for Workplaces Be Supported? International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print), 1–16. Cited 25th Jul 2024. Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2023.2231279

Redlbacher, F. & Hattke, F. 2024. How virtual meetings stimulate process innovations in organisations: mixed-methods evidence from emergency response providers. Innovation (North Sydney). Vol. 26(1), 1–22. Cited 25^th Jul 2024. Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/14479338.2022.2045998

Touloumakos, A. K. 2023. Taking a step back to move forward: understanding communication skills and their characteristics in the workplace. Studies in continuing education. Vol. 45 (2), 188–207. Cited 25th Jul 2024. Available at https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2022.2030698