Explain effective communication norms in a business setting

Business Management
Communication forms the crux of management and must be effective within an organizational setting. Communication is not the message or its transmission; rather, it is an exchange of mutual understanding that commences with the message’s receiver. In the absence of effective management, the fundamental management functions, namely, planning, organization, hiring, control and direction, cannot be performed effectively. Businesses have to engage continuously in information interchange. Feedback forms a key business communication facet. Today’s companies operate on a large scale and have to deal with numerous individuals (Mannan, 2013).
Business communications focus on corporate goals. Corporate policies, rules, and regulations have to be conveyed to individuals within as well as outside the company. Business communications are regulated by specific norms and rules. Initially, communication in organizations was restricted to only phone calls and paper-work, among a few other things. The present-day technological evolution, however, has brought mobile phones, satellites, video conferencing, and email into the picture, to better support organizational communication. Successful business communication facilitates development of organizational goodwill (Mannan, 2013).
Within the business arena, communication’s key aim is aiding managers to smoothly carry out all management functions. Among the many communication goals are:
Information Exchange: The key business communication goal is exchanging information and news both internally and externally.
Strategy and Planning: Communication provides managers with information for preparing sound organizational plans. Management gathers information from diverse sources and uses them for preparing and executing corporate plans.
Policy Development: Organizations must collect accurate data and facts by employing communication technology when formulating corporate policies.
Managerial Authority-Related Activities: All companies have a communication-focused management system. Their work is performed using information technology and business communication forms the basis for doing so.
Work-Connected Transition: Corporate communication helps inform change in all areas of planning and routine work. Consequently, subordinates may perform routine work conveniently, without difficulty.
Forging of an interpersonal labor union-management relationship: This is highly crucial to organizations. Information interchange between these groups facilitates collaboration and cooperation in an organization.
Interpersonal Relationships: A healthy interpersonal relationship between company managers, directors, and other authorities is critical to a company’s prosperity. Business communication forms an effective medium to achieve this.
Increased Expertise: Communication technology development and information exchange with employees encourages them to hone their workplace skills.
Issue Resolution: Resolution of diverse corporate problems is a key aim of communication. Communication creates a foundation for discussion through supplying facts that eliminate differences between conflicting entities.
Job Satisfaction and Personnel Motivation: Employee motivation constitutes a major managerial function. Management can employ communication technology for motivating personnel. Individual skills are dependent on job satisfaction, which may be increased through effective communication (Mannan, 2013).
Describe the role of interpersonal communication both as a manager and as an employee. What specific techniques have you used to overcome barriers to communication? Be sure to specify your role in the communication.
Research reveals that weak interpersonal skills constitute the most significant factor that limits managerial efficacy. Once again, the most common problem area which causes premature managerial career plateaus is difficulties in dealing with other people (or in broader terms, a lack of interpersonal skills vital to management success). Thus, interpersonal skills prove pivotal to effective management performance of their various roles, including leadership, training and orientation, delegation, communication, discipline, motivation, and performance assessment (Day, 2014). Sound interpersonal capabilities like conflict management and healthy communication approaches produce powerful managers, team leaders, and supervisors.
In the managerial role, I have the opportunity of working with several new recruits every year. At first, I cannot determine whether the new recruit will be a star player, an average employee, or an utter failure. Hence, at first, I will have to make sure new recruits receive proper training and orientation for succeeding in their respective roles (Day, 2014).
Sound interpersonal abilities aid personnel in forging connections with colleagues. Colleagues require affirmation – they need to be assured that their abilities, skills, and insight are valued. The lack of an atmosphere of kindness, proper emotional reactions and mutual respect in an organization can cause an individual to be viewed by superiors and colleagues as selfish, reserved, and unfriendly. Sound interpersonal skills facilitate advancement up the career ladder without the risk of dismissal for one’s inability to collaborate with fellow employees (Tucker, 2017).
Explore the role of international and intercultural interpersonal communications in today’s global businesses.
The current age is marked by swift globalization together with increased public awareness of the fact that intercultural communication forms a key element of workplace and personal success. It is common knowledge that communication is inevitable to human society. Globalization has ensured that communication no longer remains confined only to a national or community level, but works on a global level as well. Therefore, intercultural communication has grown in importance like never before for businesses. Still, it is a challenging task to achieve the level of effectiveness of intercultural communication necessary for such success (Kei & Yazdanifard, 2015).
Normally, communication aims mainly at self-expression. But an individual may express him/herself using various modes and kinds of communication (e.g., cross-cultural communication). Considering the current globalized world, intercultural communication capability can accord corporations a sound competitive advantage. Effective communication skills are undoubtedly challenging to apply to the current global environment. Misunderstandings may, for example, crop up even where both entities share a common language but hail from two different cultural communities. Hence, it is imperative to understand how globalization impacts intercultural communication in enterprises striving to gain an edge over local as well as global competitors. Sound communication aids firms in better, and more concisely, explaining to clients the fortes of one’s services and products when compared with those of rival companies (Kei & Yazdanifard, 2015).
The increasing affordability and accessibility of international migration has given rise to a culturally-diverse modern workplace environment. As individuals’ respective cultures impact their behavior and attitudes, differences which arise as a result may cause conflict. Thus, intercultural communication proves especially salient in preventing conflicts brought about by a culturally-diverse work setting (Kei & Yazdanifard, 2015).
Describe both verbal and nonverbal management communication.
Communication may be classified broadly into two: non-verbal and verbal, each of which may be segregated further as one- or two-way communication.
All communication in writing or that which is said come under verbal communication. Exchange of spoken or written words (i.e., verbal expressions) between members of an organization constitute the foundation for verbal communication. Newspaper articles, written memorandums, notices and announcements on bulletin boards, written assignments and requests, etc. all come under verbal communication (Marquis & Huston, 2009).
On the other hand, nonverbal communication represents unwritten, unspoken messages conveyed through one’s body language (including posture, gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, volume, space variations, etc.). The intensity as well as content of exchanges between people are impacted significantly by such nonverbal expression. Whether and how a speaker’s words and feelings differ is usually understood by paying attention to such nonverbal cues. Nonverbal communication can add to, strengthen or contradict the verbal message, or even stand separately (Marquis & Huston, 2009).
Non-verbal as well as verbal communication facilitate management and leadership interactions. Such interpersonal skills reflect the leader’s role. Recognizing the obstacles to organizational communication (power, authority and standing), sensitivity to nonverbal and verbal communication, and consistently utilizing assertiveness techniques form key leadership skills. The consistent employment of nonverbal and verbal communication helps leaders serve as role models for followers (Marquis & Huston, 2009).
Explain approaches for effective written management communication.
Clarity of thought, critical thinking, style and grammar form the basis of sound business writing. Critical thinking commences with paying close attention to what could and what ought to be communicated for accomplishing corporate aims. The foremost recommended step in written management communication is identification of its purpose (persuasion, providing information, or explaining), as this can guide decisions on what to include and exclude within any given document. Irrespective of the kind of written communication, the purpose ought to initially be explicitly stated as one single sentence. The following 7 C’s of sound business writing are: (1) Conciseness; (2) Consideration (adopting the ‘we’ or ‘you’ approach, not ‘I’); (3) Courtesy; (4) Correctness or accuracy; (5) clarity, (6) Concreteness; and (7) Completeness (Braveman, 2016).
Analyze various approaches for engaging an audience during a presentation and encouraging active listening.
Akin to written management communication, the presentation-planning phase must take into consideration its purpose, namely, persuasion, information, or explanation (Braveman, 2016). No one-solution-fits-all or ideal way exists for transitioning from the phase of content production to engaging with, and listening carefully to, audiences. A second key component of planning a presentation is understanding the fact that it is not possible to complete any sound engagement effort in one single step. Rather, engagement plans unfold in the form of a succession of to-and-fro interactions between presenter and audience (Guzmán, 2016).
Audience engagement will cause listeners to feel as if they have a key role in the presentation. While audience engagement is not possible for all speeches, one ought to consider diverse audience engagement avenues as speaker-audience interactions make for a more interesting atmosphere. A few ways of engaging audiences are: posing questions, making relevant jokes, and soliciting audience feedback (Telg & Irani, 2012).
Audience engagement includes involving them, by some means, in the presentation. Based on presentation focus, the speaker may facilitate audience interactions using role-playing/scenarios, questions or activities. The former proves especially useful when providing policy/rule-related training. Activities at the start of a presentation involving a small audience are an efficient “ice breaker”, assisting participants in getting acquainted with each other. This is crucial as a group which is made to feel comfortable will more likely interact among themselves and communicate with the presenter. Lastly, questions may be posed to the audience for ensuring they have understood the content of the presentation. Knowing what to ask as well as when to do so is a skill which one will acquire over time. Noting down questions likely to arise in the minds of audiences and asking them in planned pauses during the presentation is a good starting point (Telg & Irani, 2012).
Describe effective methods of conflict resolution.
The following two approaches may facilitate constructive conflict resolution: (1) Conflict management approaches at point of conflict; and (2) Approaches to be adopted by higher authorities for resolution of escalated conflicts (De Silva, 2013).
Conflict Management Approaches at Point of Conflict
1. Come up with and apply a structured, common conflict resolution technique. A sound conflict management technique will provide conflicting parties with an explicit, step-based procedure they can easily follow (De Silva, 2013).
1. Provide criteria to parties to facilitate trade-offs. The top managers of a firm ought to keep in place a corporate strategy for clearly outlining trade-offs (De Silva, 2013).
1. Escalation of conflicts to the higher management level ought to be viewed as a chance to coach employees (De Silva, 2013).
Conflict Management Approaches upon Escalation
1. The ideal way of escalating conflicts to senior management is by jointly presenting them, for ensuring all relevant facts, causes of the conflict, different standpoints, and diverse resolution techniques can be accessed by senior management (De Silva, 2013).
1. Make sure escalated conflicts are resolved directly by managers with counterparts. Conflict escalation in an organization leads to autonomous decision-making by the manager at the top of the organizational hierarchy. Decisions made using inadequate information will be ineffective and generate ill feelings in the workforce. Direct dealing with counterparts proves more effective than upward escalation, causing problems to be resolved as early as possible (De Silva, 2013).
1. Increase transparency of the escalated conflict-solving process. Communication proves critical after a conflict has been resolved. Transparency increases compliance and the capability of implementing conflict-related decisions. Managers need to focus on explaining their thought process when making decisions, including trade-offs and other factors taken into account. Hence, experience becomes the basis when resolving similar future conflicts (De Silva, 2013).
Analyze techniques for leading teams and group meetings.
Participation
First focus on the audience/participants of a meeting, involving only those individuals who are necessary to, or will reap concrete benefits from, participation in the meeting (for instance, new recruits who need to become acquainted with departmental or organizational operations). Inclusion of unneeded employees is a waste of their time. Situations may also arise where inclusion will be necessary to serve “political” purposes (Cultural Careers Council Ontario, n.d).
Ground Rules
Establishing ground rules may be vital, particularly if the group members are polarized around problems (e.g., promotion issues or management processes). Ground rules form the working principles determining how discussions will be conducted and decisions made (Cultural Careers Council Ontario, n.d).
Visual Aids
Instruments like flip charts carrying ‘user-friendly’ information prove highly valuable in meetings that aren’t extremely brief and simple. Bold letters, alternating colors and spacing between concepts (for adding new ideas) ought to be used. Flip charts must have pages which can be detached and affixed to any other visible surface (Cultural Careers Council Ontario, n.d).
“Parking Lot” Issues
One valuable tool that facilitates participant movement across the meeting agenda is preparing a different page on the flip chart (termed the ‘parking lot’) for important matters that crop up in the discussion but are overly complicated or tangential and cannot be addressed in the course of the current meeting. This will assure participating employees that their views are heeded to. The issues must be ultimately dealt with at a later time or employees will begin to feel that whatever goes on the “parking lot” will be simply neglected forever (Cultural Careers Council Ontario, n.d)
Time Management
Meetings are infamously considered as needless, time-consuming gatherings.
Identifying Next Steps
Using the last ten minutes of a meeting to deal with the question of where to go from this point or how to move forward is imperative. Decision-making must be followed by clarifications on how to implement them. Usually, when an exciting decision is made to resolve an issue, participants become euphoric but fail at converting this decision into a workable action plan. Thus, a summary of what will be done by whom and when is necessary prior to meeting closure (Cultural Careers Council Ontario, n.d).
Taking and Issuing Minutes
Minutes serve as the written document recording decisions made and actions agreed to during the meeting. They facilitate performance measurement and constantly remind participants of action delivery/non-delivery (Cultural Careers Council Ontario, n.d).
Evaluation
Lastly, while it is not easy to self-reflect, participants of a meeting must honestly review group performance. All participants must be encouraged to evaluate a meeting in writing or orally (Cultural Careers Council Ontario, n.d).
















References
De Silva, T. (2013). Essential Management Skills for Pharmacy and Business Managers. Productivity Press.
Telg, R., & Irani, T. A. (2012). Agricultural communications in action: A hands-on approach. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar, CENGAGE Learning.
Guzmán, M. (2016, May 10). How to engage your audiences in 5 key steps. Retrieved August 26, 2018, from https://www.americanpressinstitute.org/publications/reports/strategy-studies/5-steps-engagement/
Braveman, B. (2016). Leading & managing occupational therapy services: an evidence-based approach. FA Davis.
Mannan, Z. (2013). Business Communication: Strategies for Success in Business and Professions. Saint Martin Publisher.
Day, D. (2014). Effective Management: Interpersonal Skills That Will Help You Earn the Respect and Commitment of Employees. Productive Publications.
Tucker, K. (2017, July 25). The Importance of Interpersonal Skills in the Workplace. Retrieved August 26, 2018, from https://careertrend.com/info-12043647-importance-interpersonal-skills-workplace.html
Kei, S. S., & Yazdanifard, R. (2015). The Significance of Intercultural Communication for Businesses and the Obstacles that Managers should Overcome in Achieving Effective Intercultural Communication. Global Journal of Management And Business Research.
Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2009). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer.
Cultural Careers Council Ontario (n.d). Tips on Leading and Contributing to Meetings. Retrieved August 26, 2018, from http://www.workinculture.ca/getmedia/2c4443bd-1968-4bea-b6aa-7787a7226dc7/ToolsLeadingMeetings.pdf.aspx