A Listening Competence Comparison of Working Professionals

Abstract

Listening is often cited as an important component in effective business operations. Yet how listening is perceived differs between managers and staff personnel. This article utilizes the revised and validated Listening Competency Scale to examine the listening profiles of staff and managers with differing levels of experience who work full time for medium- to large-sized organizations. Based on Wolvin and Coakley's (1993) conceptualization of listening, this revised scale measures critical assessment, therapeutic, appreciative, comprehensive, and discriminative listening. Findings suggest listening competencies in critical, comprehensive, and discriminative listening progress as employees acquire managerial practices and experience; this appears to be independent of listening training. Managers and staff, however, do not differ on therapeutic and conversational content listening, indicating listening behavior could be contextually dependent.