Prospects of the Modern Business Communication Development

Despite the type of organization you are going to work in, information exchange will be of crucial importance. Communication is equally important both for separate people and for companies. Communication in business is mainly your relations with other people.

Many people consider oral communication as natural as breathing, eating or sleeping. They maintain that with age and experience people develop to become ‘experienced’ communicators. Yet there is evidence that without special training a person cannot use his communicative potential completely. If in your personal life you have the choice with whom you prefer to communicate, in the world of work you have to be able to communicate effectively with anybody whom you come across when doing your business. Moreover, your business effectiveness depends on whether your communication partner understands and wishes to act in the way your business will benefit.

Thus, compared with the communication model described above (see Figure 1.1), the business communication model has one more, crucially important element - acting. In business setting it is not enough that the sender formulates, codes and delivers the message, that the receiver receives, decodes and gives feedback of understanding the message. It is important that influenced by the message communicated the receiver acts on it in a certain way to have business done, to execute an order, to convey some information, etc.

So when trying to answer the question ‘Who is the main actor in the play called «Business Communication»?’ we have to admit that the main character is the Client. Whether the receiver (the client) understands the message and acts accordingly always determines his success or failure. The sender has to treat the client with ‘kid gloves’ and, in order to be able to communicate effectively, he should understand the client’s needs, expectations, strong points and weaknesses. To foresee the client’s reactions on the receiving end of the communication model we have to learn and take into account the client’s style of work, i.e. the client’s way of perceiving, mastering and applying the information.

 

The main purpose of business communications is to increase the efficiency of the client as a user of the information. One should think of providing the business partner with all relevant data so that he is able to take competent decisions for the benefit of your common business. If one wants to become an effective communicator, the business communication formula for him is to give the client the opportunity «to hear», «to understand» and «to do».

 

As J.M.Lannon (2000) maintains, ‘a truism of today’s workplace might be “nothing lasts forever”’. Quickly emerging and vanishing businesses, employers’ flexible labour strategies result in the fact that in the 21^st century ‘instead of joining a company, climbing up through the ranks, and retiring with a gold watch, and a comfortable pension, today’s college graduate can expect to have multiple employers – and careers.’ [Lannon 2000, p.7]. In order to be successful in the contemporary world of work a manager should have well developed transferable skills, the most significant of which is information worker, a professional able to locate information, verify its quality, define its meaning and adapt it for the receiver’s specific purposes.

Future development of business communication is greatly influenced by information technology (IT). IT resources such as fax, electronic and voice mail, videoconferencing, etc. give tremendous advantages to modern business communicator, as they can reach huge audience globally and quickly, enhance the speed, volume and variety of ways of transmitting information. These and many other advantages motivated businesses to invest in information technology development and to capitalise on all the benefits IT has to offer.

Information technology proves to be an effective tool of distributing information. Yet it is information that provides a basis for action. Business functions rely heavily on the quality and completeness of information which allows business people to perform tasks, solve problems, answer questions, or make decisions. Information technology provides all sorts of data (statistics, price lists, company accounts, etc.). To become information data should be filtered, evaluated, interpreted and placed in a usable context. These tasks are performed by people, whose functions have changed but not been ousted by IT development.

Information technology is just a tool, not a substitute for human interaction. Sir Roger Penrose noted, ‘intelligence cannot be present without understanding. No computer has any awareness of what it does.’ With so much information required, and so much available, no one can afford to ‘let the data speak for themselves’. People add value to information by posing and answering questions no computer can answer, for example:

-Which information is most relevant to this situation?

-Can I verify the accuracy of this source?

-What does this information mean?

-What action does it suggest

-How does this information affect me or my colleagues?

-With whom should I share it? [Lannon 2000, p.6-7]

 

Although information technology becomes more and more sophisticated, it cannot replace humans in solving various communicative problems that emerge in the workplace. John Lannon mentions at least four groups of problems a human communicator has to solve:

- the information problem (different information needs for different people performing different tasks);

- the persuasion problem (disagreement about the meaning of information and the actions to be taken);

- the ethics problem (conflict of interests of the parties involved), and

- the collaboration problem (teamwork challenges) [Lannon 2000, p.13]

Conclusion

Positive ‘social experience’ among friends does not guarantee that you will be equally successful and effective when communicating in the workplace. Before you start mastering your own communicative skills in the business setting it is important to have a basic idea about the nature and specific character of business communication. You should know its principles, forms and elements in order to be able to apply them for the benefit of your business. As the participant of the communication process you may find yourself both on the sending or receiving end of the communication model. You should thus be able to reflect on the specific features of each role and analyse your own strong and weak points when communicating as a sender or as a receiver of the information.

This brief overview of the communication process, its elements and the factors which affect it, does not claim to be comprehensive but mainly aims at drawing your attention to the first golden rule of communication - ‘think ahead’. If we can analyze and predict some of the likely problems before we communicate, we may be able to avoid them [1].

To communicate effectively you should invest some efforts in understanding yourself and your partners. With the basic theoretical knowledge you will be able to simulate the communicative process, identifying the stages of formulating, coding, decoding and receiving the message. When preparing and transmitting a message you will find practical evidence that using multiple media and channels may reinforce the message, but any lack of coordination will cause confusion.

Taking into account the specific features of business communication mentioned above we may conclude that the sender of the information is responsible for misunderstanding in communication. The motivating part of this conclusion is that business communicator has a huge potential of forms, methods, strategies and media at his disposal and with certain degree of training, practice and persistence he can control the communication process in his workplace. The challenging part of this conclusion is the necessity to master so many parameters of the communication process and the awareness of how much the error may cost to an employee or a company.

Recommended Reading:

1. Blundel R., Effective Business Communication. Principles and Practice for the Information Age. Prentice Hall. То же на русском языке: Бландел Р. Эффективные Бизнес-Коммуникации. Теория и практика в эпоху информации. – Санкт-Петербург, 2000 – C. 9-29.

2. Lahiff J.M., Penrose J.M., Business Communication: Strategies and Skills. Prentice Hall. То же на русском языке. Лэйхиф Дж.М., Пенроуз Дж.М. Бизнес-комуникации. Стратегии и навыки. - Санкт-Петербург, 2001. – C. 16-21, 49-56.

3. Lannon M.J. Technical Communication. Longman, 2000. – p. 7-18, 34-38.

4. Панфилова А.П. Деловая коммуникация в профессиональной деятельности. Санкт-Петербург, 2001. - С. 9-91.

5. Спивак В.А. Современные бизнес коммуникации. – СПб: Питер, 2002. C. 6-8.

6. Sheldon R. Business Communications.- Peter Andrew Publishing Co, 1989. – p. 1-11.

Glossary of the Terms:

Channel	the path a message follows from the sender to the receiver, a physical medium or recognised route for transmitting messages.
Communication	the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another
Communication Model	the graphic representation of the communication process
Communications	a system of channels permitting messages to be passed within the area or institution they cover.
Decode	make out the meaning of the message.
Encode	put a message into words or images.
Feedback	the giving of a response by receivers in such a way that sender knows the message has been received and understood.
Grapevine	Informal communication channel that consists of rumours, gossip, and truthful information
Human skills	the ability to interact effectively with people
Medium of expression	a particular kind of symbol, which must be understood by all parties to the communication
Message	the information that the sender wants to transmit.
Noise	anything that interferes with the communication (e.g. language barrier, stress, time, culture, stereotypes, sounds, etc.)
Receiver	the person or group for whom the communication effort is intended.
Sender	a person who initiates the communication process to transmit the message to a receiver.

 

[1] Stanton, N., p. 5.