Acquiring Business Communication Skills Necessary for Business Graduates - Essay Example

Acquiring Business Communication Skills Necessary for Business Graduates Executive Summary The researcher in this paper acts as an intern of Career Development Centre in the University of Westminster. He tries to estimate the communication skills which graduate students of the University must possess in order to excel in their professional and personal lives in future. Communication is a process via which individuals share messages, information and thoughts in several ways, like, behaviours, speeches, signals or visuals. However, it should be noted that when valuable information is transmitted smoothly, the communication process is regarded as effective. At the same time, in the process of effective communication, all participants who take part in this process must possess proper and equal knowledge, after completion of the process. So, success of information distribution and evaluation, after a communication process, implies adequacy of the concerned communication skills. Good communication skills enjoyed by an individual helps him or her to experience an enhancement in all domains of life. The context of the paper will first identify and evaluate the types of general communication skills and then, will analyze the types of business communication skills. After this, the paper will state some empirical cases, which shows that business communication has significantly helped in improving the business of certain organizations. Finally, the researcher would precisely recommend the required communication skills for students of the University. Contents Contents 3 General Communication Skills 4 Business Communication Skills 5 Empirical Study 8 Recommendations 8 Reference List 11 General Communication Skills Communication is the method through which useful and valuable information is shared between two or more individuals. To categorize generally, communication is of the following kinds: Verbal Non-Verbal Oral Historical Development Business Writing So, good general communication skills are considered to be indispensible qualities in an individual. There are primarily four types of general communication skills, there are as follows: Interpersonal Skills of Communication Interpersonal communication skills are attributes required when individuals are in a face-to-face communication process. It involves two or more individuals. Verbal communication is a type of interpersonal skill. This skill elaborates effectiveness of the speech of an individual (Nielsen, 2005). Non-verbal interpersonal skill comprises God-gifted attributes like, personal appearance and self presentation. The effectiveness of such a communication process depends on body language, gestures, facial expression, signals and physical outlook of the communicator. Apart from verbal and non-verbal communication process, good listening power is also an important interpersonal skill, which a person should harbour. Success of the communication process can only be analyzed by the communicator, if he listens to the feedback of receivers of the message. An individual always communicates effectively and is able to work efficiently in a team, with the essence of good interpersonal skills of communication. Proper decision making ability and problem solving expertise of an individual can be developed, only with the assistance of good interpersonal communication skills (Hassall, et al., 2000). Personal Skills These are the special skills, which relates to attributes of self-esteem and self-confidence. It is claimed that a person with good personal communication skills can foster an optimistic attitude in future, in all the important domains of life. Writing Skills Among all, this is the most crucial communication skill, which must be present in an individual. It is often noted that when writing skills of an individual is not good, it creates a sense of strong frustration in mind of the reader and generates a poor image about the writer, simultaneously. A person would communicate effectively through good writing process, if he has a commendable hold on grammar and spellings. Moreover, a good writer must possess skills of formal as well as informal writing. It is true that information is transmitted in the most effective fashion with the use of writing communication skills. Presentation Skills This is a communication process where the person desires to communicate information to a large number of individuals. However, it should be noted that unlike other interpersonal communication skills, presentation skills are less frequently used by individuals. If a person is able to speak naturally, effectively and appropriately on a large forum, then such a presentation process can be considered as highly successful in nature. Presentation skills not only helps in transmitting information to a wide base of listeners, but it also facilitates accomplishment of the communication process, using relatively less time compared to the other means of communication. Business Communication Skills With time, the scope and scale of commercial activities have significantly improved in nearly all modern economies. Nonetheless, it is true that in this competitive environment, success of a corporate concern substantially depends on quality of its communication process. The factors that relate or lies under the domain of business communication are: Public relations Labour force management Customer relations Management of company brand value Corporate communication process Nevertheless, various means through which business communication takes place are: Video Internet media (through e-mails) Presentations Telephonic meetings Reports (written) Face-to-face meetings It can be claimed that business communication acts as ‘glue’, which helps to amalgamate all business branches, thereby allowing the organization to operate smoothly (Gallagher, 2013). This is the era of ‘consumerism’, where all firms apply strategic business moves for satisfying needs and preferences of consumers in the most effective manner. This is feasible only with the essence of effective business communication skills (Boyd and Begley, 2002). The general talents that can be developed with the essence of good business communication skills are: Factors Implications Will to work Good ethics and morale can be developed in the workplace with help of effective business communication. It also allows a firm to efficiently accomplish the desired visions and missions. Motivation at work, environment and attitude of the workers can improve with the essence of good business communication skills. After all, an organization that houses motivated and hard working employees would surely grow in the long run and sustain all upcoming risks and challenges in business. Skill to work The progress of a business firm in the long run significantly depends on its learning curve (Burdett, 1992). Good knowledge and experience in business not only helps in increasing the overall profit of a concern, but also renders logistic process of business efficient. Under such conditions, firms’ operations get least affected by changes in the external environment. Training and knowledge building sessions are ways through which employees in an organization can enhance the skills and learning curves in business. Yet, such skills can only be developed with the assistance of good business communication skills. Thrill to work Efficient business communication helps in improving belongingness, enthusiasm, spirits, loyalty and team work in an organization. In short, the thrill of good work is augmented in an organization with the wholesome contribution of sound business communication (Conrad and Newberry, 2012). Such skills will surely enhance overall competency of the firm in future. Empirical Study The companies, like, Partners Healthcare, State Street and JPJ Morgan Chase, have realized that their business in the competitive market can only grow with the presence of effective business communication. These organizations have started to launch special soft skill improvement and internship programmes for enhancing communication skills of newly recruited staffs. Rather, even if the participants of such programmes are not recruited by the concerned companies, they are highly benefited from such skill development training sessions, before beginning their professional career. Even firms that exist in the excommunication industry have launched programmes of ‘open innovation’ to enhance their overall business productivity (Bigliardi, Dormio and Galati, 2012). It should be noted that such companies already invest large sums of money for the purpose of new research and development. Such new programmes enable them to accumulate new innovative ideas from the external world, which in turn is implemented and upgraded in their research and development segments. Therefore, telecommunication companies are utilizing such communication processes for enhancing overall business competency. Market researchers have also claimed that chartered accounting firms located in U.K. are now, on an average, more competent than those in Spanish markets, mainly because the former have adopted special means for improving business communication processes. Contemporary firms often use business communication to overcome certain atrocities in business. For instance, when the giant multinational company of Coca Cola launched its mineral water, ‘Desani’, there were several market rumours regarding purity of the product manufactured by the company (Coca Cola Company, 2013). Nonetheless, the company resisted strongly to such accusations by simply launching Public Relations campaigns in the market. Such campaigns stressed and claimed the goodness and purity of the company’s product and hence, with time, could convince consumers about falsity of the rumours. This shows that contemporary firms consider business communication as an effective tool of success in the long run. Recommendations From the above context, it can be suggested that students, in the present scenario, should consider communication talent as an indispensable tool of success for future. There are different ways through which students of Westminster can improve their required business communication skills. These are: Reading Reading is a means of amenable communication. The students in their academic life should gather adequate knowledge relating to their subject of study. In long run, they would be able to utilize this information in their individual workplace. Effectual business communication skills can be developed with the cushion of good knowledge (Smith, 2005). Writing Writing skill is the most essential skill, which a student must include in the itinerary of his university life. With such a skill, the student would not only pen down significant information in business, but would also guarantee that such information is easily transmitted to countless number of individuals. An employee in business would lack the most important message skill, if he does not acquire good writing expertise in his university life. Writing e-mails Most of the commercial performances are executed through e-mails. So, university students must know how to write emails from their college days itself. This would help to communicate problems or important information in the most precise and concise manner in future workplace. Speaking This is also a very significant communication expertise, which must be developed in the university students. Superior speaking helps students to transmit valuable information or issues in least time to a huge group of people. The students would excel in their future job interviews, only with the help of resourceful speaking quality. Listening Effective listening is also a very vital communication talent, which is necessary to be developed for achieving good business communication. If students develop the same, they would acquire the power of sound and helpful information from the others (Sarros, 1992). It can be claimed that by exhibiting the abovementioned communication attributes, students of the university would definitely excel in their future professional lives. Reference List Bigliardi, B., Dormio, A. I. and Galati, F., 2012. The adoption of open innovation within the telecommunication industry. European Journal of Innovation Management, 15(1), pp. 27 – 54. Boyd, D. P. and Begley, T. M., 2002. Moving corporate culture beyond the executive suite. Corporate Governance, 2(1), pp. 13 – 20. Burdett, J. O., 1992. A model for customer-supplier alliances. Logistics Information Management, 5(1), pp. 25 – 31. Coca Cola Company, 2013. CocaCola Journey. [online] Available at: [Accessed 11 February 2014]. Conrad, D. and Newberry, R., 2012. Identification and instruction of communication skills for graduate business education. Journal of education for business. 87(2), pp. 202-233. Gallagher, K., 2013. Skills development for business and management students study and employability. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Hassall, T., Joyce, J., Ottewill, R., Arquero, J. and Donoso, J., 2000. Communication apprehension in UK and Spanish business and accounting students. Education + Training, 42(2), pp.93 – 100. Nielsen, H. J., 2005. New media and new roles of librarianship: Illustrated by a literary website of Danish libraries. New Library World, 106(11), pp. 510 – 518. Sarros, J. C., 1992. What Leaders Say They Do: An Australian Example. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 13(5), pp. 21 – 27. Smith, G., 2005. Communication skills are critical for internal auditors. Managerial Auditing Journal, 20(5), pp. 513 – 519. Read More