Section one—Identify and explain the importance of one weekly concept in terms of your work activities.
Business communication and its effectiveness is a critical element towards the growth of any organization. This essay throws light upon several business communication fundamentals that were a part of the course. Communication is important to ensure high levels of customer retention, employee retention, employee motivation, engagement and overall development of a business’s culture. Through this essay, we have aimed to understand important topics learnt in the course as well as specific topics that would have an impact in future career.
This section highlights upon significant topics learnt through every week in the duration of the course.
Week 1 was the introduction and we learnt not only about the importance of communication but also about the importance of ethical communication which must be honest, logical, clear and respectful.
Week 2 taught us several interesting things that are a part of non-verbal communication. We learnt about paralanguage which includes the elements that help in communicating using voice but without using words.
Week 3: During the third week, we focussed on written communication. As a student, the most important thing that I learnt was the art of making an effective resume and cover letter. We learnt 9 golden rules to ace the selection criteria for job requirements.
Week 4: This week taught us about academic writing and other forms of written communication within the organization. Most importantly, we learnt about correctly referencing the work of others that we include in our writings.
Week 5 helped in writing a reflection. This class was highly interesting as I was able to reflect upon my own learning.
Week 6 highlighted upon a verbal form of communication. The most important learning was that as a speaker the foremost thing to do is to identify the purpose. This can be motivating, informing, persuading or apologizing. But it is important to identify.
Week 7: During this week, we learnt about the face negotiation theory and how people from different cultures attempt to protect their personalities in various situations.
Week 8: Here we learnt about internal communication within the organization and how organizational structure and culture impact the same.
Week 9: This was the second last week which taught us about groups and teams, the process which they follow and the phases of decision making within a group.
Week 10: The last week focussed on interpersonal communications that we have with our friends, family members or peers. Most importantly I learnt about assertive communication and its importance.
Section two—Literature review of one of the concepts identified in section one
During week eight, we studied about internal communication that takes place within an organization. As much as it is essential for businesses to effectively communicate with its external stakeholders, it is equally important for organizations to ensure competent communication within the business as well. There are several factors that directly impact organizational communication. This includes the organization’s structure and culture. The level of complexity, formalization and centralization are elements of the organizations structure that impact the communication that takes place within it (Quirke, 2017).
It has been noted that internal communication within a business significantly impact the level of employee engagement in the organization (Karange, Johnston, Beatson & Lings, 2015). Enhanced level of employee engagement in the business leads to long term employee retention as well as improved organizational culture. Internal communication also significantly improved relationships among employees.
(Mazzei, 2014) States that internal communication enables employees to learn better and develop their skills. The training and development process for any employee becomes easier with effective internal communication practices adopted by the organization. Internal communication strategies adopted by businesses also enable employees to be better communicators.
Leadership plays a significant role in ensuring improved levels of internal communication within any organization (Men & Stacks, 2014). The culture of communication flows from top to bottom within any organization. If the leaders of the organization put efforts in creating transparency and openness of communication then precisely that is what will follow through the rest of the business. Many leaders have also adopted an open door policy. This policy suggests that the leaders of the organization leave their doors open in order to signify that they are available for communication at all times. The adoption of open door policy by whereas leaders has also made it easier to address difficult issues such as workplace harassment or bullying (Johnson, 2015). Therefore it is the leaders in any organization who need to take a stand and build in a culture that transpires openness in communication and transparency that leads to improved trust.
Another important change that has been witnessed within the organizations in their internal communications is the role of social media. Increasingly the use of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is being increasingly witnessed for improved internal communication. Social media communities are being formed, blogs are being posted and important information is being shared on Facebook and Twitter walls. Social media for internal communication in the organization has led to increased transparency and improved reach (Meijer & Torenvlied, 2016). Recognizing hard working employees on social media is also a source of great motivation for employees.
Section three—Application of two of the concepts for future career aspirations.
The organizational structure and culture also have a significant impact on the level and quality of internal communication taking place within the organization. A complicated organizational structure may act as a communication barrier. A decentralized organization often encourages more internal communication as opposed to a centralized organization (Ruesc et. al., 2017). On the other hand a decentralized organization may face more conflicts due to increased communication among employees. A formalized structure of organization would predominantly foster formal communication within the organization which would lead to enhanced discipline and clarity of communication. While an informal structure will lead to more informal communication leading to increased innovation and out of box thinking.
There are several factors that influence the internal communication taking place within an organization. However, it is important to ensure that employees have the freedom to communicate. It is essential that productive communication takes place within the business. Transparency in internal communication will lead to an open culture that employees can trust. At the same time, this would lead to increased levels of employee engagement and enablement. There is enormous amount of literature on the subject and it reflects upon several different attributes of internal communication. Needless to say that internal communication within the organization forms a solid backbone for the business and supports the organization in all its endeavours.
Through this course, I have been able to understand the importance of effective business communication. Within a span of the next five years, I aim to be leading a team in the field of sales and marketing with a leading organization of the Ecommerce industry. Based on this goal, I have shortlisted two topics that I believe would assist me in fulfilling my future career aspiration.
Effective business communication is for the success of any organization at large. With the advent of globalization, the flow of information, people, technology and organizations from one country to another is becoming increasingly prevalent. This has led to the establishment of global working organization. These diverse firms welcome employees from all parts of the world to come together and work towards accomplishment of shared goals. Such teams help employees in widening their horizons and offers varied perspectives and out of box thinking leading to increased productivity.
Communication in such teams is cross-cultural in nature. This course helped me understand cross cultural communication better. This topic is particularly important to me because as a future employee, I would also like to move out of the country and work somewhere else. Hence it is imperative that I am comfortable with communicating with someone from a different culture as well as I can be prepared for the challenges that I may have to face during such communication. I learnt that there are three different levels of culture. This includes visible, less visible and almost invisible. I also learnt that Australia is a low context culture wherein the message is more important than the medium. I also learnt about the Face negotiation theory and it helped me understand how people handle their own personalities in the face of conflict. Most importantly, I understood that while indulging in inter-cultural communication, there can be several barriers that hinder effectiveness of the communication process.
Weekly Topics Learnt
These barriers can be linguistic or language barriers, perceptual barriers, non-verbal or even humorous barriers. Therefore in order to ensure that I am able to overcome these barriers, I would develop cultural awareness and sensitivity towards different cultures. Understanding different styles of communication is also essential for effective communication. In order to competently communicate with people from other cultures, individuals must be flexible in their approach, break stereotypes and take complete responsibility for the communication.
The second topic that is important from my future’s perspective is communicating in teams and groups. Not only do I hope to work with a large number of teams but I also aim to lead such teams in the future. This is why this topic was essential for me to understand. I learnt about the stages of team building (forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning). I realized that even while working in a team it is important to continue having personal goals which are in line with the team’s goals. Very often it has been observed that a large number of meetings take place within organization. Through this course, I learnt the importance as well as the cost for meetings. I will ensure that I prepare for my meetings better, plan them in advance, carefully decide the delegates attending the meeting as well as the content discussed within the meeting. This would help in ensuring that the time spent of a meeting is productive and fruitful for the organization.
I also learnt about the four phases of decision emergence. This includes orientation, conflict, emergence and reinforcement. The most important thing is to manage the conflict stage in an effective manner. This would ensure that people can emerge together in an efficient manner. I would take these learnings seriously with my career and ensure an effective decision making process within my team.
Conclusion
This essay highlights upon my learnings from the effective business communication course. There are several areas of the entire communication process that would continue to help me throughout my career. The essay highlights upon the literature review of the internal communication taking place in organizations. This review helped me understand the importance of internal communication, role played by leaders as well as the growth of social media within the organization. The last section threw light upon two important topics that would be essential for my career. These are intercultural communication and communication within teams and groups. Overall the course has offered an immense learning experience. Communication forms a solid base for the success of any business and it is imperative that organizational stakeholders put efforts towards ensuring its efficiency.
References
Johnson, S. L. (2015). Workplace bullying prevention: a critical discourse analysis. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(10), 2384-2392.
Karanges, E., Johnston, K., Beatson, A., & Lings, I. (2015). The influence of internal communication on employee engagement: A pilot study. Public Relations Review, 41(1), 129-131.
Mazzei, A. (2014). Internal communication for employee enablement: Strategies in American and Italian companies. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(1), 82-95.
Meijer, A. J., & Torenvlied, R. (2016). Social media and the new organization of government communications: An empirical analysis of Twitter usage by the Dutch police. The American Review of Public Administration, 46(2), 143-161.
Men, L. R., & Stacks, D. (2014). The effects of authentic leadership on strategic internal communication and employee-organization relationships. Journal of Public Relations Research, 26(4), 301-324.
Quirke, B. (2017). Making the connections: using internal communication to turn strategy into action. Routledge. United Kingdom.
Ruesch, J., Bateson, G., Pinsker, E. C., & Combs, G. (2017). Communication: The social matrix of psychiatry. Routledge. United Kingdom.
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