Important communication issues for future executives in business

Integrated Business Communications

Integrated Business Communication. Write (3-4) page paper addresses: As a future executive, explain important communication issues face embark career. Discuss communication complex, complex,

Assessing integrated business communication today

Ultimately, business is about serving customers, and customers will not understand the value one's business can give them without effective communication. However, the need for effective communication is not limited to people who buy an organization's goods and services. The ability to frame a cohesive organizational message begins with strong, effective workplace relationships between employees and employers and then spills out into the other facets of the workplace.

Technology

Given the profound shifts that have occurred in workplace communication, it is necessary even for well-functioning organizations to review their standard operating procedures. Workers, thanks to the availability of online technology, are often spaced out farther from one another than ever before yet are also far more constantly connected: the home office may be in New York, but employees in London are able to communicate in 'real time' with supervisors via their smartphones; a team working on the same project may be spread all over the world but have weekly video conferences.

While these forms of communication are essential, the etiquette of using technology and the demarcation of public and private space can be fuzzy. Workers may complain of too much informality in communications, given that their colleagues are so used to using smartphones for talking to friends and family; bosses may not allow their workers to have critical 'downtime' on the weekends because it is so easy to point, click, and send email. "For others, technology, social media and mobile devices are what keeps workplace communication flowing even if they are just across town from each other, and not in another part of the world like us" (Adams 2012). The 9-5 workday is no more.

Technology has not only changed how we physically communicate -- it has also altered our attention spans. For better or for worse, customers and employees alike demand succinct and to-the-point communications. The Internet has also created a more visually-oriented method of communication -- there is a new demand that information be visualized, not simply verbalized. That is why Tweets and Facebook status updates used to promote a business must be short and eye-catching and preferably linked with enticing visuals and the age of long, deadly presentations at work with only a few graphs is no more. Verbally, communication may grow simpler, but the multi-channeled nature of the different communication formats open to businesses and the way businesses relate to customers and employees paradoxically makes communication infinitely more complex.

In the case of customers, the relationship-building fostered by online communications can be very beneficial. Before, customers were merely the passive recipients of information. Today, they can actively interact with businesses they enjoy, provide feedback, criticize, follow and 'friend' them. This creates a sense of personalization and a bond with what was once a faceless organization. A business becomes 'part' of the identity of the consumer via social media.

Generational differences

Of course, the ubiquity of technology has created a generational divide in many instances between so-called millennials who grew up online and previous generations. Navigating the tensions between old and young is another critical component of modern workplace communications. For example, one complaint of older workers is that millennials are more 'needy' than workers of past eras: "this generation has been working in groups collaborating with each other since they were in elementary school. The immediacy of the social media technology they use has made it possible for them to interact almost instantaneously…unlike Boomers who want their objectives and to be left alone to execute, Gen Y wants an almost constant stream of feedback" (Kiisel 2012). This is why mentorship programs between different generations can be so effective -- millennials can gain the additional support they need, while hopefully gaining enough confidence to be more independent. Older workers can get a better idea of the ways younger people think, which can be helpful in dealing with youthful consumers as well as with younger employees. They can also benefit from the millennials' comfort with technology.