Situation-Focused Communication Approach - Essay Example

Research Proposal Understanding Global Professional Communication: Situation Focused Communication Approach Introduction Dynamic complexities associated with global professional communication strategy and process require a situation mediated focus on cultural pluralism in information dissemination process and language as essentially independent variables in an otherwise indeterminate global business environment. This article is focused on these two independent variables in global professional communication process as primary and immediate determinants. Within the global strategic business environment communication occupies a very important place which, in turn, is determined by information and language as dynamic factors (Goodall , J. H. L. , Goodall , S., Schiefelbein, J. 2010) . The article essentially seeks to establish a paradigm of behavior that can be attributed to the culturally homogeneous workers and then their response to the heterogeneous work place environment. Analysis of the article While global communication processes in business environments have both a typology of characterization and cultural pluralism as pre-determinants, there is also a system of category constructs in an otherwise complex and dynamic situation mediated communication environments. Despite a lack of research in to information dissemination process and language as heuristics directly related to global business communication environments there is still a greater effort by serious researches to establish parameters of reference for meaningful category construct in dynamic culturally plural communication contexts. The article has invariably touched on how the workplace context determines almost virtual communication scenarios theoretical dimension apart the authors have delineated a host of cultural constructs including language and information as pre-determinants of an otherwise non cohesive and heterogeneous work environments. Despite this authors have persisted in constructing a more cohesive alternative approach to understanding work place dynamics in professional business communication processes. Their culture perspective is directly related to inter cultural communication as a dynamic relationship between and among fellow workers. The contextual influence and rational behavioral heuristics have not been ruled out by the authors either. In fact their argumentative posture on “culture-in-context” is supported by a number of other influential writers as a paradigm of professional communication in the work place context, though many such writers do not necessarily subscribe to the idea of endogenous cultural influences riding roughshod over facilitative communication needs (Zaidman, N. & Holmes, P. 2009). While the authors have successfully outlined the work place communication culture as a contextual paradigm they have also investigated the existing commonalities of the heterogeneous culture concept as against the monolithic cultural contexts. This position of the authors focuses attention on the universal dynamics of culture as a category construct that essentially predefines how best un-labeling could help dramatic shifts away from previously cast-in –the-mold approaches adopted by conventional analysts. While the paper explains how best work place communication in a professional setting takes place over time, there is also a sufficient degree of explanation on language type and style. Figures of speech such as rhetoric, metaphor, simile, irony and antithesis have also been commented on at length to show how professional business communication in the work place context becomes varied and complex as well. The authors have identified some districts cultural parameters such as principals, categories and traditions. These parameters might as well overlap so that the communication context in the work place is basically language and information centered. Therefore the article identifies a variety of dimensions as principal determinants in the communication process for example cultural values, space, time, nature and other secondary categories such as individual identities can act as primary influences on the communication process in the work place (Melton, J.H. 6 June 2008). Inter cultural communication dynamics are presented by authors to identify the social and cultural paradigms in context however both language and information have acted as exclusively influential forces in a variety of work place communication context. The research paper focuses attention on six different categories such as participants, language, style, information, topics and settings. The authors make the assumption that these six categories have an impact either on failure or success in inter cultural professional business communication context. One of the conclusions that the reader reaches is that there is a limitation of one’s national culture as a determinant of inter cultural communication. In other words such behavior is a much richer heuristic that invariably supports the language and information dynamic argument of neo-classical sociologists. The article independently seeks to establish a theoretical postulate on behavioral dynamics of interlocutor behavior in the professional work place settings with the above six variables being analyzed as inter connected influences. However the paper argues that language and information flow including the latter’s behavior altering influence determines the work place inter cultural communication process. The article also focuses attention on cultural gap bridging experiences. For example attitudes of exclusive cultural groups can be reshaped according to the type of response shown by a different cultural group. Where antagonistic feelings of one group towards the other are controlled and not openly expressed, there can be a facilitating environment for positive inter cultural communication in work place contexts. Similarly the article points out that inter cultural communication processes become friendlier when “cultural mediators “get involved in promoting the other group’s culture. However the article inevitably underlines how culture specific connotations and denotations associated with behavior, including language and expression, could highly impact on the subsequent inter cultural exchange. The article also identifies the existence of other significant cultural concepts such as religion, religious symbols and prejudices. In fact in the work place setting fellow workers belonging to different cultural groups would be willing to integrate in to a dynamic work environment only as far as their own cultural identity is preserved and not challenged. This is inevitably the most revolutionary argumentative posture adaptive by the author. Finally, the work place communication process between and among different members of different cultural groups depends on other cultural heuristics like time and the nature. Time is both specific and confluent and therefore according to the authors, fellow workers would rather prefer a specific time for a specific cultural exchange such as teaching religion and communicating on conventions and traditions. As for nature the perception is that some members of the other cultural group can be wild in nature, thus antagonizing those in the opposite group. However this writer feels that the article has failed to focus attention on “culture tolerance” as one of the most dynamic concepts in inter cultural communication in the work place context. In fact the article has failed to mention cultural accommodation and the related heuristic of positive arguments. Intercultural communication in such situations would more forcefully tend to be determined by the extent to which fellow members of a different cultural group would respond to the complexities of such complex relations (McPhail, T. L. 2006). REFERENCES 1. Goodall , J. H. L. , Goodall , S., Schiefelbein, J. (2010). Business and Professional Communication in the Global Workplace: Skills, Ethics, and Technologies (3rd Edition), Canada: Wadsworth Cengage Learning 2. Zaidman, N. & Holmes, P. (2009). Business communication as cultural text: Exchange and feedback of promotional video clips. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33(6), 535-549. 3. Melton, J.H. (6 June 2008). Professional Communication competencies in Global Training Contexts, IEEE Professional Communication Society, 51(2), 198 – 214. 4. McPhail, T. L. (2006). Global Communication: Theories, Stakeholders, and Trends, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell Read More