Concepts of Communication
Communication competency is very important in developing and maintaining relations in the case of business and management. It is very important to develop effective means of communication within the business as well as in between the employees, managers and the clients (Munro et al., 2015). This essay focuses on the various concepts underlying effective business communication. It also incorporates the issues from my perspective depending on the situations and circumstances that I as a student have faced in terms of communication. The importance of the essay lies in the exploration of communication issues using a pragmatic approach. The essay is structured to explain the various concepts following a literature review of one of the concepts. This is followed by an application of two issues of communication in my own future aspirations. In this essay, I will be thus analysing the various aspects of communication which are important for operating and running a business organisation effectively. In the following part of the essay I will be explaining the various ways by which communication issues have been faced by me.
Communication has many patterns and the usage of these patterns varies according to the situation and the context in which it is being used (Walther et al., 2015). The purpose greatly determines the degree to which the person communicating needs to adapt his/her style of communication (Bargiela-Chiappini & Nickerson, 2014). The competency of the communicator is very important in this regard. I have understood this concept clearly when I was conversing with my friends in class for academic purposes and when I was conversing with the same friends outside class for causal purposes. My way of communicating automatically changed. It changed from being a formal one inside the class premises to a casual one outside of the school premises. Proper communication skills help in increasing chances of persuading another person’s views in the professional fields (Mottet, Richmond & McCroskey, 2015). For example, when I try to convince my friends to watch a movie, the pattern effectively differs from me trying to convince my professor to work on a certain topic for a certain assignment.
Verbal communication involves the usage of sound of voice, the tone of the voice as well as the volume of the voice. However, non-verbal communication includes the information that is conveyed using only body language, signs, facial movements and other gestures. Body language can essentially be considered to be an element which is common to both verbal and non-verbal modes of communication. In my daily life I find that usage of a mixture of both verbal and non-verbal skills are necessary during class hours as well as outside. In fact, the usage of both happens together at times and at other times the usage varies. For example, sometimes I use these attributes without realisation which is termed as micro-expression.
Literature Review
Reading and writing form essential parts of business communication. Business writing is very crucial as it helps in communicating for business purposes in a formal manner. Usually the tone with which business writing is done is formal and so the reader of these written pieces should also decipher the meaning of these communication pieces in a formal manner and tone. The most common methods of formal business communications are mails and letters. There is a particular format that is followed for effective business communication through writing. On a daily basis, all of us are acquainted with writing and reading mails for different academic purposes. I personally think that one of the most important means of communicating during emergency over long distance in case of business operations is the usage of mails. I also think that this particular form of business communication is extremely less time consuming as the mails are supposed to be succinct and based completely on the subject or purpose.
The general purpose of any form of communication is essentially to persuade the audience, inform or entertain them. For example, when any professor teaches a topic, it is usually communicated in an explanatory way. However, the specific purpose of communication would be leading the discussion or conversation towards a particular direction depending on the purpose and type of communication. I feel that in case of academic writing the purpose is to majorly focus on informing, explaining and describing a particular topic and explain the details and persuade the audience about something. I also think that the specific purpose of any academic documents again varies with the purpose and the subject concerned. For me, the overall purpose of academic documents is to inform and explain how various theories evolved and to explain the happenings of a phenomenon based on the subject under consideration.
In the sixth week of my classes I was taught about a reflective essay and I learnt that the method and the format to write such an essay greatly differs from the format of all other academic documents. In this type of an essay, the content should be written in first person. The purpose of reflective essays is to portray one’s own perspective about a given topic or occurring. This essentially helps in gaining knowledge about the perspective of the author of the essay in particular.
In the next week I learnt that the use of visual effects for most forms of communication and especially for academic purposes is very important and even necessary at times. It helps the audience to better understand and retain the matter being communicated. For example, in case of business purposes too, presentations are widely used for the same purpose of better explanations.
In the successive week I learnt about the various barriers to intercultural communication, including language gap, time gap, differences in body language and differences in feelings and emotions. In the following weeks I learnt about other concepts of business communication including internal and external communication, recognising the importance of team-building and assertive communication.
Studies assert that the emotions, views and opinions that people are not able to express are often expressed by using non-verbal modes of communication like body language (Mehrabian, 2017). It is one of the most important aspects of social behaviour in human beings (Burgoon, Guerrero & Floyd, 2016). The relationship between verbal and non-verbal relationship is such that one bolsters the use of the other (Segerstrale & Molnár, 2018). The use of proper body language and gestures helps in better expressing and explaining the message being communicated in a better and easier way (Barnlund, 2017). This is so because when the audience is able to listen and watch the communicator, they are able to better perceive the purpose and notion behind the communication (Little et al., 2015). Reports also claim that the verbal modes of communication can be reinforced, emphasized on, complemented or even substituted with the usage of non-verbal modes of communication simultaneously (Hall, Horgan & Murphy, 2018). This helps in capturing the attention of the audience in terms of listening and viewing. While clarification is one of the major purposes of verbal communication, emphasis is one of the major components of non-verbal communication (Eaves & Leathers, 2017). An efficient and effective communicator will be able to use both of these components of communication in the right proportion to gain maximum reach in terms of audience understanding (Mandal, 2014). Further, in case of inter-cultural communication where there is a major problem of language gap, the use of non-verbal modes of communication including body language becomes extremely crucial. One of the most important facts about the combination of verbal and non-verbal communication is that non-verbal communication helps in repeating the content delivered verbally without using the use of verbal methods of communication. Further, non-verbal communication helps in regulating the length of verbal communication by expressing majority or minority of the portion of the content through body language, expressions and gestures (Eaves & Leathers, 2017). It has also been found that in certain cases the use of non-verbal communication helps in going against the verbal communication message (Remland, 2016). However, in majority of cases, the usage of non-verbal communication helps to complement the use of verbal communication. It helps in passing on additional information without the usage of extra time.
For example, on an everyday basis I have to interact with different students everyday and the use of body language and gestures help in easing communication gaps created due to differences in culture and languages. Further, even when using the same language, the communication gets easier when non-verbal modes of communication are used in conjunction with verbal communication.
As I am aspiring to work in the field of marketing and obtain the position of a manager gradually, the use of the concept of verbal and non-verbal communication together and the concept of visual methods of communication will be crucial. Both of these skills will help me to persuade and explain the situations of business and the qualities of the products. Further, it was also help in better customer servicing. For example, I can use presentations for different topics and portray and convey the service in an explanatory way to the clients.
Conclusion
Effective communication will always be an important and necessary part of both business and social life. The different concepts of communication tend to integrate so that there is robust sharing and understanding of information. This essay tends to outline and describe these concepts in a pragmatic way and focuses on the usage of both verbal and non-verbal communication and its importance. To conclude, it can be asserted that this concept is the most important concept that is used in every sphere of life.
References
Bargiela-Chiappini, F., & Nickerson, C. R. (2014). Writing business: Genres, media and fOR
Barnlund, D. C. (2017). A transactional model of communication. In Communication theory (pp. 47-57). Routledge.
Burgoon, J. K., Guerrero, L. K., & Floyd, K. (2016). Nonverbal communication. Routledge.
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Eaves, M., & Leathers, D. G. (2017). Successful nonverbal communication: Principles and applications. Routledge.
Hall, J. A., Horgan, T. G., & Murphy, N. A. (2018). Nonverbal Communication. Annual review of psychology, 70, 2019.
Little, P., White, P., Kelly, J., Everitt, H., & Mercer, S. (2015). Randomised controlled trial of a brief intervention targeting predominantly non-verbal communication in general practice consultations. Br J Gen Pract, 65(635), e351-e356.
Mandal, F. B. (2014). Nonverbal communication in humans. Journal of human behavior in the social environment, 24(4), 417-421.
Mehrabian, A. (2017). Nonverbal communication. Routledge.
Mottet, T., Richmond, V. P., & McCroskey, J. C. (2015). Handbook of instructional communication: Rhetorical and relational perspectives. Routledge.
Munro, M., Munro, A., Lemmer, K., & Pretorius, M. (2015). Theatre strategies to develop emotional intelligence skills in business communication: An exploratory study. Southern African Business Review, 19(2), 1-26.
Remland, M. S. (2016). Nonverbal communication in everyday life. SAGE Publications.
Segerstrale, U., & Molnár, P. (Eds.). (2018). Nonverbal communication: where nature meets culture. Routledge.
Walther, J. B., Van Der Heide, B., Ramirez Jr, A., Burgoon, J. K., & Peña, J. (2015). Interpersonal and hyperpersonal dimensions of computer-mediated communication. The handbook of the psychology of communication technology, 1, 22.
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