How to Use Planning for Decisions Regarding Management - Assignment Example

Introduction Effective communication is crucial in management and for today’s business leaders, it is important to be able to communicate to make decisions and implement business strategies. The unit strove to teach and build interpersonal and intercultural communication skills that are practical as well as strategic. The unit started off discussing communication and theory from a historical perspective. Behavioral protocols involved and the issues of ethical communication and those of emotion and gender communication were then discussed in detail. Continuing on the unit explored on team work with practical workshops to support this along with oral and online presentations and their application. Intercultural communication was also emphasized upon with on-campus workshops. The unit also sought to teach students on how to negotiate and deal with conflict and discussed how interpersonal communication skills are also important with the increasing use of online media. The last sections of the unit focused on the written and documented forms of communication highlighting the type of communication style to adopt and choose depending upon the communication activity objective and the type of messages involved (routine, positive or negative). Tasks During the course of the unit, practical tasks and assignments were allotted to the students with workshops for skill building. The tasks undertaken during the course of the unit included the following. Participating in a workshop for the formation of teams and discussing the outlines of the related projects Delivering an oral team based presentation on a specified scenario pertaining to International Ethical Communication Standards Participating in a workshop targeting cross cultural communication Conducting an article review in the field of business communication, from a provided selection Evaluation of a speech and video from a section of three provided. Attending an on-campus workshop that covered topics relating to presentation making, cross culture communication, conflict resolution and negotiation as well as using new media in communication Attending a workshop for the review of the last three sections of the unit pertaining to the different types of messages in communication Developing and designing a poster for the United Nations targeting the G8+5 world leaders and the world media. Learning Activities Week 1: In the unit started off by taking a historical perspective on business communication and went through the various theories and concepts behind the subject. The characteristics of effective communication were explored and the skills that are prevalent in competent communicating managers were observed. Week 2: The second week involved looking at business communication in context of ethics and etiquette. The behavioral patterns and the protocols of communicating in different circumstances were studied. Week 3: The third week saw us dealing with emotional intelligence and exploring how it impacts businesses and organizations. The aspects of social and personal competence were studied in relevant to emotional intelligence and how it is useful in complex decision making. Week 4: In this week focused on teamwork and how communication takes place in the face of group dynamics. The different roles of the members of the teams were discussed along with the norms of such groups. It was identified that business groups and teams tend to be highly effective. Week 5: The art of making documented as well as oral presentation was studied this week. The importance of planning, and developing a framework of the presentation in accordance with the target audience was something new learnt in this chapter Week 6: This was a topic of particular interest and much about the role of culture on the techniques and norms of business communication was studied in this module. It was interesting to notice how much culture affects business norms and perception. Week 7: The significant topic of conflict management and resolution was studied this week. The types of conflict, their causes and the possible strategies for conflict management were discussed. In particular the approaches top negotiation was explored. Week 8: The skills for interpersonal communication were studied this week along with the listening process. The aspect of non verbal communication was particularly enlightening, as this is highly dependent on the local culture of the region. Week 9: This week saw us exploring the avenue of documented communication specifically written communication. The methods and etiquettes of technical writing were studied. Week 10: In this week studied the methods of delivering routine messages and how such messages can be organized and controlled for effective response. The aspect of positive messages and requests were also explored. This was particularly useful to get to know. Week 11: Focused on negative messages, with special attention being paid to the need for such messages and the way they are developed taking ethical consideration into account. The method of crisis communication was interesting to learn about. Week 12: The last week dealt with persuasive messages and their importance in the business context. The different approached for persuasive messages were discussed along with how they can be used for motivational purposes or to influence others. Resources The primary text for the unit was a custom book by O’ Loughlin titled MMH299 Business Communication, Australia published by Cengage Learning Australia. However additional texts were also referred to. These included the following: 1. Maureen, Guirdham, Communicating Across Cultures at Work, New York: Basingstoke Palgrave Macmillan, 2005 2. Thomas, David C. and Kerr Inkson, Cultural Intelligence : People Skills For Global Business, San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2004 3. Moran, Robert T., Philip R. Harris and Sarah V. Moran, Managing Cultural Differences: Global Leadership Strategies for Cross-Cultural Business Success, Routledge, 2010 The following journal articles were read through, some of which were used to conduct the tasks assigned in the unit. Beamer, Linda, ‘Learning Intercultural Communication Competence’, Journal of Business Communication, 29.3 (1992): 285-303 Barnett, C., ‘The limits of media democratization in South Africa: politics, privatization and regulation’, Journal of Media Culture Society 21.5 (1999): 649-671 Campbell, Kim Sydow, ‘Explanations in Negative Messages: More Insights from Speech Act Theory’, Journal of Business Communication 27.4 (1990): 357-375 Dasgupta, S., S.V. Lall and D. Wheeler, ‘Policy Reform, Economic Growth, and the Digital Divide: An Econometric Analysis’, World Bank Publication Gains, Jonathan, ‘Electronic Mail - A New Style of Communication or Just a New Medium?: An Investigation into the Text Features of E-mail’, English for Specific Purposes 18.1 (1999): 81–101 Limaye, Mohan R., and David A. Victor, ‘Cross-Cultural Business Communication Research: State of the Art and Hypotheses for the 1990s’, Journal of Business Communication 28.3 (1991): 277-299 Poon, Simpson, and Paula M.C Swatman, ‘An exploratory study of small business Internet commerce issues’, Information & Management 35.1(1999): 9–18 Salerno, Douglas, ‘An Interpersonal Approach to Writing Negative Messages’, Journal of Business Communication 25.1 (1988): 41-51 Schoberth, T., J. Preece and A. Heinzl, ‘Online communities: a longitudinal analysis of communication activities’, System Sciences Proceedings of the 36th Annual Hawaii International Conference (2003) St. Amant, Kirk, ‘When Cultures and Computers Collide Rethinking Computer-Mediated Communication according to International and Intercultural Communication Expectations’, Journal of Business and Technical Communication 16.2 (2002): 196-214 Self Evaluation Team Based Evaluation and Reflection: Worked in teams for presentations and group work, and got to know first hand the different dynamics of working in groups of people. The Wexnia, Candy and Shiry were my team mates and I felt we were able to work well together. Each member contributed towards the work, and the idea generation process. However we decided to distribute tasks for the team work amongst ourselves based on our experience and competence as we felt this was the best way to go. Workshop Evaluation and Reflection: The workshops I attended were most productive for me, as I was able to discuss topics and issues, as well as get feedback from others. The responses of others on the same subject helped me broaden my perspective and perception. Individual Evaluation and Reflection: On an individual level, I feel I faced problems in dealing with context for communication. The different audiences confused me, and I used to take the same generic approach towards targeting different audiences. However, learning through the course I was able to differentiate the audience based on their characteristics and have been striving to better communicate with them keeping this in mind. Aside from this the aspect of cross cultural communication really interested me. Online Evaluation and Reflection: I found following instructions provided through online medium to be slightly confusing. I wanted more clarification and one on one communication as I feel enables me to ask questions and get instant responses. Moreover I feel I am better able to judge the nature and context of the response with the non verbal communication traits of others. The online work however was interesting and provided avenues I would like to explore. Conclusion The unit was a comprehensive course on communication in the business environment and how to use planning and observation for strategically sound decisions regarding management. The course revealed interesting things about trends in communication in high and low context cultures and how communication can be managed for success. The methods of conflict management and crisis management were particularly enlightening. Through this course have been better able to identify the audience for communication and comprehend what characteristics they have. These will be particularly useful for me as they can help me estimate their response and therefore help me achieve my communication objectives in a much better manner. Read More