Business Communication and Practice within the Early Years Environment - Research Paper Example

RESEARCH PAPER ON BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AND PRACTICE WITHIN THE EARLY YEARS ENVIRONMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………….3 Importance of Interpersonal Communication Skills ………………………………….…………..5 Own Learning and Development …………………………………………………………………8 Recommendations/Conclusion …………………………………………………………….……10 References ……………………………………………………………………………………….13 INTRODUCTION Communication is a dialogue or two way communication between two people. In fact, communication is more concerned with a dual or two way listening process among two people. The communication between the people in the organization is for the purpose of carrying out the business functions and activities, for bringing success in business. It may be oral, verbal, written and so on. A business can flourish and lead to success when its goals and targets are achieved effectively. Efficiency and better productivity of an organization will be maintained, when all the people (within and outside) of the organization must be able to convey their message properly (Penley, 1985). The exchange of ideas, opinions and understanding, within and outside the organization to achieve the business goals is known as business communication Business can be conducted through various channels of communication (Buck, 2003), including the Internet; Print Media, Radio, Television, Outdoor, and Word of mouth. Business Communication is also referred to as internal communication (Boove, 1999). It is important that internal communications are managed properly because a poorly managed message would bring hurdles and distraction in communication. There are several other methods of interaction or communicating in business communication (Beck, 2004), including: Web-based communication - for better and improved communication, anytime anywhere E-mails, which provide an instantaneous medium of written communication worldwide; Reports - important in documenting the activities of any department of the organization Presentations - very popular method of communication in every business organizations, usually involving audio and visual material, including reports, proposals and material prepared in Microsoft PowerPoint. Telephonic meetings which allow for long distance conversation and understanding speech among two people. Face to face meetings, which are personal and also succeeded by a written proposals and reports. Another thing important in business communication is called Empathy (understanding of another’s feeling). Empathy is all about placing yourself in someone elses place. It’s all about understands the needs of people as in general context and colleagues, customers and employees in context of business organization. IMPORTANCE OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS Developing interpersonal communication skills are vitally important in today’s business environment (Taylor, 2005). Even though if an individual is working in any area and contributing in the workplace, he/she will need to communicate effectively with their top management i.e. boss as well as customers. Almost all kinds of work, activities and functions of any organization require communication and interaction among their colleagues and employees. Some people communicate with their colleagues for their benefit as well as to get success at their job (Greene, 2003).  When we communicate, we dont actually exchange ideas, we exchange symbols that stand for ideas. Words are just symbols that do not have basic or inherent meaning; we simply use them in certain ways to convey an idea or give it a meaning. Communication and symbols will be delivered in words and language. Our social and cultural environment also effects communication because every culture has its own language and its own way to convey or deliver messages (Streissguth, 1997). Inter personal communication skills would be largely dependant on cultural background and unique histories. There is a reality that when two people meet each other after a long time chances will be that, they are less effective at communicating with each other than they did before. Interpersonal communication is impossible to avoid in any condition (Baxter, 2008). When we are not communicating .i.e. when we are silent towards the other person that means we are still communicating in silence. Silence has many meaning depending on the circumstances and cultures. In one Culture, it might be a positive thing to have a long pause or break before answering any question while in another culture it may be considered as a lack of intelligence. Communication is not just spoken words. Any communication is based not just on words but also on body language, culture and situation etc. Using these tactics, we constantly communicate with each other, even when you sleep, you communicate. Everyone can do a better job while communicating with others. Every one of us can benefit from improving our interpersonal skills. We have certain situations in our culture that are more difficult for us in communication skills that we would like to improve (Pearson, 1999). We can assess our own interpersonal communications skill level or can ask for feedback from others. With interpersonal skills; we can recognize our weak areas where we can improve. Communication is not standardized to all cultures and human beings are capable of huge and heavy changes. Environment places its positive and negative impact on people. In early years communication or sharing information was very difficult (Johnson, 1966). Books and way of communication were so costly that nobody could afford it. Most people never even learned to read, so the process of sharing messages or information was difficult task. Inventions brought many changes in centuries (Kynell, 1999). In fact, it is showing its several experiments in today’s environment as well. It made communication easier so that people can share information i.e. telephones, radios etc. They allow people to get informative in any area in easily and in a faster way. In early years, communication process was done through books and somewhere from type writers etc (Woods, 2005). If some people knew how to study, they read those books and then delivered or conveyed messages, to other fellows who hardly understood anything regarding communication. OWN LEARNING AND DEVELOPMNET: Learning and developing is continuous process in every one’s life. Communication also plays a vital role in learning and development of a person. It gives different areas to discover in communication and also make people understand that how we can deliver or convey messages, by using effective communication skills. As far as own learning is concerned, it’s a process in which we always learn from our past and present experiences and use those experience to minimize our mistakes and to improve our communication and interpersonal skill among us. Beliefs, attitudes, and intentions are important factors in communication and also in interpersonal skills, which is how we behave while living in the environment (Bagozzi & Davis, n.d.). In today’s environment, computer technologies have become important and an easy and effective way of faster communication. It is also an effective way of learning and development. The role of learning and development makes it easy to use the computer and to better understand its functions of communication within the environment. Inadequate learning can restrict the process of communication and can create hurdles as well. Learning is a never ending process and understanding the role of communication and interpersonal skills is very important. Training is also a necessary process in learning and development. Functions and factors of communication will be clearly understandable if, proper learning and training would be taken place. CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS Communication consists of transmitting information from one person to another. In fact, many teachers of communication use this definition, which says “who says, what to, whom in what channel, with what effect," as a means of limiting the field of communication theory and interpersonal communication skills (Proctor, 1993). Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meaning and create shared understanding. This process requires a vast collection of skills in interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. Use of these processes is developmental and transfers to all areas of life whether its home, school or workplace etc. It is through communication that concurrence and cooperation occurs There is a combine and unifying theme that crosses all disciplines, that is called communication. Communication is the basic thing in literacy and academic excellence and for better understanding of education and knowledge we should follow the effective language and process of communication. These are the capabilities that increase or enhance the potential in each person or student for the good possibilities for their future. Communication plays very important role in human behaviors and the structures of society, because communication theory remains a relatively a vast area or field that inquires and integrates itself with other disciplines such as, psychology, and sociology and so on (Rempel, 2001). These disciplines also affect our culture and environment by placing positive nag negatives impacts on their people. . Communication theory framework also places its impact on the society by considering following points and it’s also helpful to examine or monitor the communication, communication theory and also interpersonal skills: Explaining behavior mechanically means communication as a perfect transaction of a message from the sender to the receiver. Psychological, communication as the act of sending a message to a receiver, and the feelings and thoughts of the receiver while explaining the message. Social interaction, communication will be used as a product for the people who interact by means of sharing and creating meaning. Systemic way means communication can be used as a new messages that how the messages travel between sender and receiver, or what happens as the message is being interpreted or delivered when its travels through people. By Critical way, it means communication as a source of power and dominates behavior of individuals and social groups of the society. By understanding effective theory and practices of communication and interpersonal communication skills, we can improve our communication and can show our skills effectively. REFERENCES 1. Andrew Beck, Peter Bennett & Peter Wall: 2004, Communication Studies: The Essential Resource, Published by Routledge. 2. Courtland L. Bovee, John V. Thill, Geraldine E. Hynes: 1999, Business Communication Today, (5th Edition), Published by Prentice Hall. 3. D. J. 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