Communication self-assessment by public prosecutors in a north-eastern Brazilian state

Accepted: March 11, 2016 Study carried out at Ministério Público do Estado de Aracaju, Aracaju (SE), Brazil. 1Universidade Federal de Sergipe – UFS Aracaju (SE), Brazil. 2Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco – UFRPE Recife (PE), Brazil. 3ACT Comunicação Belo Horizonte (MG), Brazil. 4Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul – UFMS Campo Grande (MS), Brazil. Financial support: nothing to declare. Conflict of interests: nothing to declare. ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
The various professional categories, regardless of experience and vocal demand, evaluate the contexts of public speaking as challenging, with a frequent shift in communication and symptoms of nervousness and anxiety (1) .However, the communication is a requirement in interpersonal working relationships, especially those who need to persuade the listener.
In this sense, in recent decades, there has been greater interest of researchers in understanding the communication used by workers in general (1,2) , including the lawyer, judge and prosecutor (3)(4)(5)(6)(7) .The legal practitioner must have a communication that can persuade the listener and conveys credibility too.
Considering this, a study with 300 professionals was developed in this area, increasing the occurrence of vocal problems in these professionals.It was concluded that there is a need for speech-language pathologist to improve communication and the good performance of the profession (5) .
The Public Prosecutor, object of this study, is a public servant and acts as an inspector of the law and can enter actions and investigations, to investigate suspected crimes, such as misuse of public resources.He is employed by the State Prosecutor Office (SPO) and operates in several civil and criminal courts.The SPO is responsible for the investigation and punishment of regional crimes such as those committed by mayors and governors or the withholding tax on transactions relating to the Circulation of Goods and Provision of Interstate and Inter municipal Transportation and Communications Services, between others.In addition to the regular courts, the prosecutor is also present in the Special Justice Courts -Military, General Election, and Labour issues (8) .
Communication is an essential part of a prosecutor routine, within customer service, in person or by phone, and especially in meetings and court hearings.In hearings or in trials, they need oratory sustention to achieve success in a cause (3) .The Justice Prosecutor uses his voice professionally in a leadership manner, usually with much demand with short periods of uninterrupted speaking, using the voice to influence people with increased intensity (1,9) .
In the Prosecutor professional arena, it is necessary knowledge of the subject and conscious selection of words.The literature points out that the verbal and nonverbal communication are resources used to control the message effect on the listener and thus, dominating the speech constructed (10) .
A previous study analyzed retrospectively, 116 records of dysphonic patients at a School Clinic in the 2007-2011 period.The data on self-vocal assessment were recorded.Those assessed which uses professional voice, showed worse rates in vocal self-assessment.The authors concluded that being a professional that uses the voice for working purposes seems to negatively influence their self-assessment on the impact of dysphonia in their daily life (11) .
A small number of studies on self-assessment of the vocal communication of national Prosecutors were found.This particular study seeks to understand the context of their vocal communication and perception of it by the professionals in question.Furthermore, it may propose interventions to be included in the organizational planning strategies in order to promote assertive communication.
The goal is to describe the Prosecutor of Justice self-assessment in relation to their vocal communication and the reaction of the listener, analyzing then, the relationship of these variables with gender, age and length of work years.

Study design
This was a descriptive cross-sectional design.

Sample selection
The sample included Prosecutors, of both genders, working in various municipalities of the State of Sergipe, regardless of age, gender and professional practice time.We excluded from the sample: not respond to the questionnaire or do so incompletely; do not agree to participate in the study; and do not sign the consent.

Independent and dependents variables
The independent variables selected were: gender; age; and years of professional experience as a Prosecution.The dependent variables were: self-assessment, professional communication at work over the years, the perception of the speaker on the use of communication parameters when speaking in public, such as voice, motivation, personal interaction, assertiveness, credibility, warmth, insecurity, tension; and the listener's reaction in the speaker's impression: persuades attracts, changes ideas of other influences, generates attitudes, arouses feelings, causes expectations, induces behaviour and credibility.

Research tool and procedures
A questionnaire was constructed (see Appendix A) based on the literature (7,12,13) , adapted to this research, called Auto evaluation of communication to talk to the public Prosecutors, with closed questions and filled by the respondent in the workplace without the presence of the researcher.The questionnaire consisted of questions related to 4 analyzis category with two response options: yes or no.These were related to: 1-characterize the sample according to gender, age, current position, current location of work, professional length in the State Prosecutor's Office; 2-self-assessment as to the worsening of the voice communication over the years of professional activity; 3-self-assessment of the voice communication parameters: the presence of the voice change, motivation, investment in personal interaction, sense of assertiveness, perception that conveys credibility, warmth, insecurity talking to the public; 4-reaction of the listener in the speaker's impression: persuades, attracts, changes ideas of other influences, generates attitudes, awakens feelings, causes expectation induces behaviour conveys credibility.The average time to answer was 10 minutes per participant.In the evaluation of voice communication, it was considered only the self-assessment of the Prosecutor, since the evaluation by the speech-language pathologist was not the objective of this study.
The prosecutor Office informed a total of 126 active prosecutors distributed among the municipalities.Through active search, the questionnaires were sent in equal number to the workplaces of the Prosecutors and 33 were given back.

Data analyzis
In analyzing the data initially a database was built using Microsoft Excel.Further, the data were entered in Statistical Package Program for Social Sciences (SPSS 17.0).Descriptive statistical analyzis using simple and percentage frequencies was performed.Variables years of professional experience and age were discretized respectively for 20 years of work (≤20 years and> 20 years) and 43 years of age (≤43 years and> 43 years), the median being the criterion used for this discretization.For the analyzis of independence, it was used Fisher's exact test.The missing ones were not replaced.The significance level was 5% and the software used was R Core Team (2014).

Ethical criteria
The Ethics and Research involving human beings -Entrepreneurial Management Center approved the execution of this study under number 125/2011.After the approval from the President of the Public Prosecution Office in the State of Sergipe, all Prosecutors who agreed to participate signed the consent form, agreeing with the completion and dissemination of this research and its results, according to the Council Resolution 466/12 national Research Ethics.

RESULTS
The final sample consisted of 33 Justice Prosecutors, aged between 43 years and 20 years of work.The ratio between the genders was similar.Respondents perceive worsening of their vocal communication over the years of professional practice.
Prosecutors stated that selected vocal communication parameters were used in this study, while noting altered voice and feelings of discouragement and insecurity, tension, and not able to persuade and attract the listener.Table 1 describe the sample characteristics.
Women showed a greater proportion of deterioration in vocal communication over the years of professional experience when compared to men (p = 0.009).All women report feeling of insecurity and tension when talking to the public (p <0.001) Table 2 compares the ratio between gender and vocal communication parameters.The data show a greater proportion of vocal alteration among Prosecutors aged 43 plus years than those with less age (p = 0.007).The Table 3 shows the ratio between age and the communication parameters.
The largest proportion of insecurity-tension feeling in communication with the public, was apparent in Prosectuors with more than 20 years of professional practice compared to those under 20 years of occupation (p = 0.049).Table 4 shows the ratio between the years of professional experience with the vocal communication parameters.

DISCUSSION
In this study, most respondents referred worsening in communication over years of work and a third respondent perceived voice alteration amongst the years.The literature considers that in some professions, voice and communication suffer interference from environmental and organizational factors such as worker's lack of training on professional communication, further on the influence of biological factors, such as aging, allergies, among others (14) .
In addition to these factors, other authors consider that other variables may contribute to the development of vocal deviation, such as the personality characteristics, vocal demands, anxiety, stress (15)(16)(17) , and even signs of depression in some professional categories (18) .
Most prosecutors in this study have feelings of discouragement, insecurity, and tension when speaking in public.This result is consistent with the literature.Previous researches, investigated the prevalence and symptoms of fear and anxiety when speaking in public, among the São Paulo state population.Participated 503 individuals of both genders and diverse professions, and it was found that public speaking was among the top ten reported fears.Symptoms of anxiety in this situation were reported by 24% of respondents, the highest scores being: palpitation, trembling voice, discomfort, and xerostomia (19) .Comparing genders in this study, women showed higher proportion of deterioration in professional communication over the years than men.All women in the study feel insecurity and tension while talking in public.A previous study examined the self-assessment of public speaking and vocal skills in different professions, including nervousness and anxiety situations, according to gender and age.Participated 456 women and 244 men, average age 35 years.They concluded that the situation of public speaking is more difficult to be faced in some aspects, for women.There was influence of gender in some aspects of voice alteration, as well as the situations of nervousness and anxiety, and women showed greater deviations in its communication in public than men (1) .
With regard to the voice, in this study, the Prosecutors aged 43 years had higher proportion in their perception of vocal disorders than those aged less.This could be associated with the accumulation of vocal, physical and emotional wear in the many years of work, added to the lack of vocal care specialized.There are reports in the literature indicating that the professional category of teacher notices disorders in their voice and communication, but it is not decisive to get these alterations reduced or eliminated.The tasks and excessive professional responsibilities lead the professionals to prioritize their profession, to the detriment of their quality of life (20) .
Regarding the emotional aspect, another study qualitatively examined the effects of emotion on the voice, speech and fluency when speaking in public in four people who reported having difficulty doing so.Data were collected in a workshop situation/lecture with pre and post interviews lecture.In discourse analyzis, prior to the presentation, respondents reported fear and insecurity, and after the presentation, tranquillity and relief.All reported fear.In conclusion, the disorders in emotion interfere with communication.There was concern among respondents with both the content and in the way of speaking (21) .
Regarding the years of professional practice, Prosecutors with more than 20 years of profession showed higher proportion of insecurity and tension when speaking in public compared to those under 20 years of occupation.This can be understood by increased responsibilities when speaking to the public arising from professional maturity, including new demands in communicating and greater public exposure in social media and television With regard to the reactions that the speaker causes the listener, most of the present study respondents, realize that they do not persuaded and attracted the listener when speaking in public.Previous study analyzed expression of speech characteristics of a group of executives from perceptual and acoustic data of vocal dynamics.They found that those who used properly prosodic features passed security and were considered by the evaluators as objective, empathetic and compelling.On the other hand, those who utilized breaks in prosodic groups did not pass security and were appointed as less objectives, not empathic and unconvincing (22) .
Other authors emphasize the need to use appropriate communication strategies in each profession so that the content and form convey credibility and interaction (13,23) .In this sense, the development of an assertive communication can have a positive impact on interpersonal relations at work and also in life quality (24)(25)(26) .The self-reported impact on quality of life related to a vocal disorder is perceived similarly by men and women (27) .
A previous study found the relationship between the evaluation of the speech-language pathologist and the vocal self-assessment and the impact of dysphonia on a quality of life among 48 individuals complaining voice-altering, aged of 51 years old, and 48 without vocal complaints and healthy voice, age of 46 years.They concluded that the perception of the subject on his own voice and the impact of dysphonia on their quality of life complement the perception of clinicians in relation to the general degree of this change (28) .
The limitations of this study, highlighted by the reduced adhesion of Prosecutors taking part on the research and, consequently size of the sample, plus the lack of research on the subject area for data comparison.The data presented are intriguing and open perspectives for further research.Such information may contribute to future research with an interest in deepening the findings presented in this study, including clinical assessment of communicative competence with a control group.

CONCLUSION
Regards the self-assessment of communication to talk to the public, prosecutors in this study identified strong parameters and those that need to be developed and leveraged in their communication.The variables within the females, who are over 43 years of age and over 20 years of professional practice, influence negatively their communicative performance.In this context, the inclusion of the speech-language pathologist in graduation law school and the Public Prosecutor becomes extremely important to improve the communication the various stages on their public career.