This pilot study was conducted to identify the relationship between personality traits and communication competence among final year undergraduate students at two public universities in the Klang Valley which were Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). The purpose was to investigate the effects of personality traits on communication competence and to acquire a deeper understanding on one of the main factors of unemployment issue in Malaysia which is communication deficiency among graduates. It was found that four dimensions of personality traits which were extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness and openness to experience had significant relationships with communication competence. However, conscientiousness trait was not found to be related to students’ communication competence. Extraversion, agreeableness and openness to experience had significant and positive relationships with communication competence while neuroticism was negatively related with communication competence. It was also found that UKM students’ communication competence were significantly influenced by agreeableness trait while for UiTM students, extraversion had the strongest influence towards the communication competence. It is recommended that undergraduate students should be coached to freely express their views freely which may include their discontentment in Malaysia’s classroom settings. This exercise will prosper a healthy two-way communication between a teacher and a student and can further spark verbal exchanges especially among introverted students. Students with low level of openness to experience trait need to have the courage to imagine and explore new things where instructors can assist them in shaping this trait to build up their confidence level as well as to be spontaneous in sharing their experiences in classroom.
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In-Text Citation: (Hassan et al., 2019)
To Cite this Article: Hassan, N., Sumardi, N. A., & Aziz, R. A. (2019). The Influence of Personality Traits on Communication Competence. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 9(13), 493–505.
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