Abstract:

Mastering the achievement of a common understanding of the message, verbal or nonverbal, and the ability to persuade is a very important learning outcome in the education of future media professionals but also future managers and leaders of all profiles. However, recent research on the quality of communication skills in public space regarding the mediation of information in crises has shown that non-verbal communication skills of media workers need to be improved. This paper aims to explore whether nonverbal and verbal communication skills can be improved, in the context of adopting the Krav Maga value system, skills and tactics that we identify as self-concept, situational awareness, ability to adapt to stressful situations, quick decision making under pressure, controlled aggression, visualization and verbal self-defense? In order to achieve the goal, during March 2021 a survey was conducted. The intentional sample consists of active athletes of the Krav Maga self-defense system from a total of 22 countries (N = 102, F = 35.3%). The methodological approach of the research is quantitative. A questionnaire was created which, in addition to general information on the respondents also collected information on Krav Maga values, skills and tactics, leadership qualities and communication skills. Data were processed by descriptive statistics procedures and appropriate nonparametric methods (Man-Whitney test, hi-square test - χ2 and Spearman’s correlation coefficient). The IBM SPSS Statistics version 27 statistical package was used. For the purposes of this paper, the results related to the self-assessment of the improvement of the communication skills of the respondents will be presented. Reliability analysis was performed on 7 measurement scales containing 32 and 30 particles, respectively, and the calculated Cronbach α coefficients range between 0.90 and 0.94, which is an excellent value. The results of the hi-square test showed that the distribution of responses on the variable (V18) improvement of communication skills due to Krav Maga training deviated statistically significantly from the distribution of responses that would be obtained at random distribution (p <0.001; χ2 74.863; df = 4), and that respondents rate the improvement of their own communication skills highly. Statistically significant correlation was found between the variable (V18) and the workplace variable (V4) (p = 0.007; χ2 12.051; df = 3), with respondents from the non-managerial occupation group showing a greater improvement in communication skills based on Krav Maga system training, compared to respondents from the occupational managerial group. The application of a transcendent approach to communication and the results of the conducted research provided students with an innovative form of non-formal learning. We can conclude that the transfer of skills, knowledge and good practice was successfully realized within the teaching of graduate students of public relations in Croatia, which demonstrated the original scientific contribution of this paper.

Keywords:

Informal learning, nonverbal communication, research in teaching, verbal communication.