Intercultural Communication Studies XII-4 2003 Asian Approaches to Human Communication When Shyness Is Not Incompetence: A Case of Thai Communication Competence* Suwichit Sean Chaidaroon University of Memphis Abstract Following the framework of communication competence, which consists of motivation, cognition and performance, this paper argues that Thai communication competence differs from the American or Western counterparts in all three elements. Some Thai communication competence notions include shyness, reluctance to ask for favors, as well as knowledge and awareness of seniority, social links, and Kreng Jai (being extremely considerate). Instead of being assertive, appearing to be shy or reluctant to ask for favors, being humble, and not responding too quickly in interactions are strategic mode of communication to gain social respect and recognition in Thai society. Autoethnographic data and Thai proverbs are used to demonstrate those themes of Thai communication competence. The conclusion suggests that the notion of communication competence as motivation, cognition, and performance appears to be universal and the framework is heuristic in analyzing communication competence. However, ideology and behaviors that count as being competent vary from culture to culture. Therefore, there should be more attempts to employ an interpretive approach to study communication competence. Introduction I first came to America in 1999. As a Thai student who had never been abroad before, I was excited to meet with people from other countries who look different from me and to live in a new environment. When looking back, I realize how little I knew at that time about the differences, not only in terms of the physical appearance but also the hidden assumptions about selves and lives, between other people and myself. When I was young, my parents taught me that to be Kreng Jai1, or considerate, is the best strategy when dealing with people that I first meet or even with people that I know very well. If you show your consideration to others, they will reciprocate in the same manner. So, as a part of being Kreng Jai, I try not to speak up very often in hopes that other people I meet in America would consider that I am nice and sincere to them and that they would be nice in return and grant me a favor when I need. I have to admit that I am lucky to have met nice people who try to understand my behaviors. Usually, 294 Intercultural Communication Studies XII-4 2003 Asian Approaches to Human Communication we communicate successfully but that is not always the case. One day, my American classmate asked me to join the departmental soccer team as they needed people to sign up so that they could join the university’s tournament. Even though this activity did not required a great skill and all my friends were studious students who barely knew how to play soccer, I really felt uncomfortable to join the team as I never played this kind of game before. At the same time, I did not want to refuse his wish because I was afraid that it would hurt his feeling. So I said to my friend, “I will try my best to show up at the game.” The day after the game, my friend came to talk to me again and he seemed very upset. He asked me why I did not go to the game as promised. I was speechless as I thought he should have known that I was reluctant to accept his invitation in the first place. This misunderstanding led me to question why my answer did not work in such a situation even though I had a good intention to maintain the relationship between my friend and me. I am certain that if I had said the same thing to Thai people, they would have known right away that I am refusing to play in the game. The effect of my communication strategy appeared to be one that I had not wished. My indirect answer did not seem to be an appropriate response to my friend. The effective communication strategy that I used while I was in Thailand did not work here at all. As a result of this incident, I start to be interested in investigating the differences between the notions of communication competence between Thai and Westerners. In this paper, I will first review the literature on communication competence and approaches to study this concept. With this review, three main elements, i.e. cognition, performance and motivation, will be presented as a framework to analyze communication competence. Afterwards, the framework will be used to analyze shyness as a strategic communicative behavior. In this sense, shyness can be seen as a communicatively competent behavior among the Thai. This analysis will illustrate the heuristic framework of communication competence yet highlight the different notions of communication competence between the Thai and the Westerners. Finally, I will discuss the prospect of studying communication competence from an interpretive/ethnographic standpoint in order to expand the body of knowledge in this area. Four Approaches on Communication Competence Even though the study of communication competence can be traced back in the ancient times as far as the birth of rhetoric, communication scholars have seriously studied communication competence as a construct for more than two decades and the term first appeared in a communication journal in 1974 (Rubin, 1990). Since then, there have been debates and different perspectives on investigating communication competence. I found that communication scholars 295 Intercultural Communication Studies XII-4 2003 Asian Approaches to Human Communication take four different perspectives to studying communication competence. The four approaches that appear in the literature consist of goal-oriented perspective, cognitive versus performance perspective, social and interpersonal perspective, and resources or skills based perspective. The goal-oriented, cognitive versus performance, and resources based perspectives have been conceptualized by Jablin and Sias (2001) while I found the social and interpersonal perspective emerging from my review of literature. Communication competence from the goal-oriented approach focuses on the effectiveness or situations in which competent communicators interact to achieve the desired goals. Parks’ (1994) definition of communication competence represents this approach, as he states: Communicative competence represents the degree to which individuals satisfy and perceive that they have satisfied their goals within the limits of a given social situation without jeopardizing their ability or opportunity to pursue their other subjectively more important goals (p. 595). This definition places an emphasis on the goal achievement of a competent communicator which can be observed and/or perceived by the communicator. Communication competence from this perspective suggests that persuasion or control is the key element in communication effectiveness. Along with this perspective is the definition of communication competence offered by Phillips (1983) who states that “competence would refer to understanding of situations, skill in demonstration of necessary techniques, effectiveness to goal accomplish- ments all by a particular person in a given case” (p. 31). Even though both definitions focus on the goal achievement, Phillips’ definition of competence differs from Parks’ as it suggests that effective or competent behaviors must be demonstrated and observable while Parks focuses on the perception of communicators whether or not they achieve their goals. In addition, Phillips’ definition of competence also implies that we should look at competence in a given situation and competence should not be viewed as a static trait of communicators across various cases. The second approach to view communication competence focuses on the distinction of competence and performance. McCroskey (1982) is a major scholar who advocates that competence should be viewed separately from performance. Competence is the knowledge of behaviors while performance is the actual behavior one performs in an interaction. He argues that the “accomplishment of goals (effectiveness) is neither a necessary nor sufficient condition for a judgment of competence. One may be effective without being competent and one may be competent without being effective” (p. 3). This notion suggests that we need to look at motivation as another factor in studying competence. A competent communicator who has knowledge of effective 296 Intercultural Communication Studies XII-4 2003 Asian Approaches to Human Communication communication behaviors may not be motivated to perform those behaviors in a given case. At the same time, a person who performs effective communication behaviors could be effective as a result of external factors, not his or her knowledge of communication competence. Therefore, “one may not infer competence from performance or project performance from competence. Neither is a necessary condition for the existence of the other” (McCroskey, 1984, p. 263). The third approach of communication competence is based on interpersonal and social perspectives. Bochner and Kelly (1974) posit that communication competence is the ability to relate effectively to self and other. These scholars explicitly identify that their notion of competence focuses on interpersonal interactions. They suggest that communicators develop five skills to be interpersonally competent i.e. empathic communication, descriptiveness or giving feedback, owning feelings and thoughts, self-disclosure, and behavioral flexibility. Another definition of communication competence based on social