The Well-Defined and Effective Business Communication Process - Essay Example

• I. Introduction
  • A. Opening

Communication is used as an important aid in both personal and professional frontiers. Business communication refers to the sharing and exchange of information and ideas among the people operating at various levels of an organization. This is aimed at achieving commercial benefits for the enterprise. Business communication can be formally defined as the relaying of information between the various vertical and horizontal levels of an enterprise. It is the way in which the management, employees, administration and other direct stakeholders of an organization communicate with the primary aim of achieving the pre-defined organizational goals.

• • B. Issues within the organization

The presence of a well-defined and effective business communication process is a pre requisite for an organization and its people to function in a value adding manner. This form of communication has become mandatory in the current corporate environment because it aids in a number of benefits for an organization. These benefits include the productive exchange of information, provision of support in the preparation of policies and plans, achievement of organizational goals, increase in employee efficiency, aid in decision making, improving corporate relations, solving problems and enhancing employee loyalty and satisfaction. A new business communication structure including specific business communication concepts is prepared for the case organization to ensure that the existing issues in the organization can be managed and the associated benefits of a robust business communication system can be achieved by the organization.

• • C. Thesis

Some of the common business communication concepts which can be considered and implemented in the case organization include active listening, strategic and tactical methods of communication, conflict resolution, cultural sensitivity, verbal and nonverbal communication processes and ethicality in the communication procedures. These concepts and methods of formal communication can be implemented and embedded in an organization through the modes of reinforcement, training and review with proper monitoring and mentoring put in place at all possible levels and strata of the organization.

• II. Nonverbal communication

The first concept which has been considered in this report for implementing business communication in the organization is nonverbal communication.

• Supporting evidence and explanation

As per a study prepared and presented by Graham, Unruh and Jennings (1991), more than 50% of respondents in the study were of the view that the verbal communication messages of the managers were not affirmed by the nonverbal communication displayed by them. This often leads to distrust, frustration, miscommunication and lack of motivation among the employees (Graham, Unruh, & Jennings, 1991). Nonverbal forms of communication play crucial roles in business communication or corporate communication. This is because of a number of reasons. Nonverbal communication is a source of significance in relation to unwritten messages and impressions which are used and read by people on a day to day basis. Also, the fact that nonverbal communication processes act as a reality of business communication makes them predominant in modern day corporate communication systems. It is important to ensure that the verbal communications used in an organizational setting are backed by the verbal communication processes and vice versa. This ensures that both the credibility and impact of these forms of communication are enhanced multiple times. Consistency and credibility of verbal and nonverbal communication processes create trustworthiness among the employees and also enhance the morale of the employees working in the company. Since, the nonverbal messages used in a communication helps to enhance the effectiveness of verbal communication, therefore, this increases the credibility, consistency and trustworthiness of the entire communication process. This in turn leads to an enhancement in the ability for accomplishment of the organizational goals triggered by the act of effective business communication.

• Implementation within the organization

Figure 1: The different types of nonverbal communication used in a business

(Source: Timm and Christopher, 2013)

The implementation of an effective nonverbal form of communication in the corporate communication structure can be done by ensuring that a structural process is followed in the modes of communication used in the organization. All the different nonverbal communication modes including electronic mails, brochures, body language, posture, physical appearance, gestures, visual communication, audio visual communications, symbols and time language or chromatics used in a designed business communication process should be complementary to one another and should display the same message so that the credibility and significance of the whole business communication process can be established. This in turn would significantly increase the motivation, morale, engagement as well as the productivity and efficiency of the receptors and communicators involved in the process.

• III. Cultural sensitivity

Cultural sensitivity awareness can go a long way in reducing the barriers among the multinational employees and also in sensitizing the employees to various sensibilities related to linguistic and cultural barriers. Cultural barriers in communication also include the facets of linguistic sensitivities related to reception, perception and expression used within different languages and cultures.

• Supporting evidence and explanation

Newman and Ober (2013) have proposed in their work that cultural sensitivity is an important concept that is to be considered in the way a business communication structure is designed and embedded within an organization. This has become especially true in the current corporate environment in which multi-cultural and heterogeneous groups of employees work in corporations across the world (Newman and Ober, 2013). Cultural sensitivity in an organization is crucial for effective and impactful business communication, especially across the interpersonal borders.

• Implementation within the organization

Cultural sensitivity as a concept of business communication can be implemented within the case organization by establishing suitable cross cultural training processes and reviewing them on a periodic basis. Developing cultural awareness and understanding, recognizing and accepting cultural differences among the internal and external stakeholder groups of a company form the basis of cultural sensitivity development. Stereotype, prejudice and ethnocentric views have to be removed from a communication system within an organization so that any form of cultural bias can be avoided. A uniform code of conduct can be developed in an enterprise that would guide the stakeholders regarding the cultural policies adopted and followed by the enterprise. The sender of a communication in the company should be trained to be aware of the cultural differences between him and the recipient, recognize and accept these cultural differences and develop his expectations as per the existing situation of cultural differences.

• IV. Active listening

Active listening and effective communication goes hand in hand because active listening forms the backbone of the business communication models. Active listening is also a significant concept for developing interpersonal relationships and for understanding and processing information relayed in corporate communication. Active listening supports the proper comprehension and decoding of the messages conveyed through a communication mode. Thus, this adds to the facets of successful communication in an organizational setting and ensures higher integrity and reliability in information flow.

• Supporting evidence and explanation

Cronen and Pearce (2002) have suggested in their work that active listening is a way of listening, comprehending and responding to a communication in a way such that it improves mutual understanding (Cronen and Pearce, 2002). Active listening is termed so because it calls for the demonstration of certain behaviors on the part of the listener or receptor in a communication process. Active listening can help to reduce conflict and frictions as well as resistances which are impertinent to all forms of human interactions. This can lead to a motivated, conflict free and team based workplace.

• • B. Implementation within the organization

In order to implement the concept of active listening within the organization, both the external and internal barriers to active listening have to be mitigated. The internal barriers within the receptor may include personal experience, judgment, bias, judging, perceptual errors, comparing, mind reading and existing pre conceived notions. The internal barriers of the speaker may be preexisting expectations, boundary setting, speaking in codes and avoidance. These barriers can be removed through the development of a suitable active listening process by ensuring proper listening, encouraging questioning to resolve understanding problems, reflecting and paraphrasing to ensure better comprehension and agreeing through the use of unbiased judgment and understanding. The main goals of active listening are to maximize the understanding of the perspective of the communicator and minimizing the defensiveness of the receptor (Dance, 2012).This can be done in an organizational setting by adopting the standard procedure of active listening which comprises of listening, questioning, reflecting and agreeing.

• V. Conflict resolution

Conflict resolution is deemed to be difficult, crucial as well as inevitable in a business domain (Verderber, 2014).

• Supporting evidence and explanation

According to the views of Chaturbedi (2004), promoting conflict resolution and managing communication form the pillars of effective business communication (Chaturbedi, 2004). Thus, conflict management should be a major part of the management of an enterprise. Since conflicts can lead to loss of productivity and morale of employees, therefore, managing any form of personal or team conflicts within a workplace setting is a necessity for the success of a company.

• Implementation within the organization

Conflict resolution can be implemented within the organization by developing five strategies for conflict management within the internal and external stakeholders of a business. These include the strategies of

• Competing and/or fighting
• Collaboration
• Negotiation or compromise
• Avoidance or denial
• Smoothing out the issue

These five strategies of conflict resolution and management can be interpreted in terms of the mapping between the concern for others and the concern for self.

Figure 2: Conflict management strategies

(Source: Chaturbedi, 2004)

• VI. Strategic facets of communication

Strategic business communication is a concept which has become highly popular since the last two decades. As per the concept of strategic business communication, words are crucial in determining the effectiveness of business communication. As such, the words used in any form of written or verbal business communication should be carefully planned, placed, performed and implemented. The words used in this form of communication should also be chosen such that these words are attractive, effective, impactful and clear in their meaning and affirmations.

• Supporting evidence and explanation

As per the work of Easton, Heidewald, Morrone, Neher and Steiner-Williams (2004), the meaning of formal communication lies in the response achieved from the implementation of the communication. This means that a company has to take the full responsibility of how much effective its communication systems are (Easton, Heidewald, Morrone, Neher and Steiner-Williams, 2004). In case the messages included in the business communication do not get across as per the primary intent of the communicator, then it is critical to look into the ways of communication so that any type of loophole or shortcoming in the same can be identified and subsequently rectified. Strategic communication has to be developed such that the response achieved from the communication is more focused on how the communication is done rather than what the communication aims at circulating i.e. the way of the communication becomes more crucial than the contents of the communication. Effective communication in a workplace calls for the use of suitable strategies so as to get across the messages in a clear, concise and impactful way (Pearce, 2004).

• Implementation within the organization

The strategic aspect of business communication can be devised in the case organization by firstly understanding the audience or receptors of the communication and identifying the differences between the communicating entities in the organization and secondly, by planning on the content as well as the way in which communications would primarily be done in the organization. Preferably, the managers in the organization should adopt a specific standardized format for communicating the business matters. The strategies of communication used in the company should also be matched with the organizational mission, vision, goals and the corporate philosophy.

• VII. Conclusion
  • Thesis statement

While communication is identified to be a natural quality of human beings, there are a number of new found concepts which can be employed in a corporate communication process to make the internal and external communications in a corporate communication system more robust and superior.

• • Synthesis

The future growth, sustainability and competitive advantage creation for a business have become highly dependent on the way ideas and information are conveyed and exchanged within an organizational setting. It is crucial to not only develop ideas but also exchange and convey them in a way such that these add to the process of achievement of organizational goals. The accomplishment of such a formal communication can be done by carefully designing a suitable and fitting business communication process while mapping the organizational issues, capabilities, tangible and intangible resources for communication and the existing business communication systems with the evolving business communication concepts and strategies.