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Business communication Assignment Sample
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Introduction
Business communication is characterised by the exchange of information between two or more businesses. It is important for the success of the organisation as many aspects of the business are dependent on business communication. Many researchers have stated in their work that business communication is the backbone of the business. In this reflection report, I have presented my views and understanding that I have developed in the ten weeks of this course that outlines the meaning and importance of business communication. There are three sections in this report, wherein the first section contains a thorough discussion on weekly concepts. I am going to elaborate on them as per my learning and analyse them accordingly. In addition to this, my understanding of some theory related to the intercultural business communication has been presented in this report. The second section is the literature review part, wherein I have briefly reviewed the importance of intercultural business communication and factors affecting it. The last section talks about the application of the topic discussed in week 4 and week 9. At the end of the report, a conclusion has been presented.
Section 1
The concept of communication principles that have been covered in-depth. The myths and principles of communication principles were enlisted and I still remember most of them. The use of non-verbal communication methods and the considerations to keep in mind while using them were discussed (Medvedeva, 2016). In addition to this, I remember the unintentional communication wherein the information seepage occurs. All this information helped me in building my base for the course.
In week 2, the communication theories and models were discussed thoroughly. These are important for me to understand the flow of information from one person to another and how information might get corrupted in the medium. In addition to this, I learned about the barriers to effective communication in an organisation. In addition to this, I also realised that since the organisations have a different structure, their communication models have to different as well. This helped me in getting a knowledge of information flow within an organisation.
The third week lecture is important from my career point of view. I have a little knowledge of writing business documents, such as emails, letters, memo, and CVs. I know there are some standards that need to be followed while writing them but I had no clue. This lecture helped me gain the knowledge of writing resume and this knowledge is important for me to write down my own resume. This could help me in my career growth as well.
In the week 4 lecture, the lecturer highlighted the structure of academic documents and developing them in a top-notch way.Academic writing is characterised by writing documents for academic purpose.There are some important points that are important to be considered while writing them, such as plagiarism which is considered as cheating in academic writing. In addition to this, another important thing in this week lecture was the types of referencing styles. These are important while writing the research paper or assessment report. With this knowledge, I can write the best academic write-ups genuinely.
Being a student, I think week 5 lecture is of great help as it discussed the modus operandi of writing literature review and self-reflection.Literature review is the search and analysis of literature on a particular topic.However, there is a proper way of doing so. There is a proper way of writing a literature review. A deep understanding of the TOMAC (Topic, Objectives, Methodology, Analysis, and Conclusion) structure helped me a lot in reviewing the work of other researchers. Reading journal articles is a time-consuming process but with the help of TOMAC methodology, one can analyse the literature speedily and effectively (Gallois & Giles, 2015).
Talking about the week 6, this week lecture elucidated on the concept of public speaking which is defined as the process of communicating information to the audience.It helped me in enhancing my knowledge about types of public speaking and factors affecting it. The main problem that intimidates me while speaking in public is social anxiety and I think after this lecture, I can improve in that area. I have seen many videos on YouTube and working on it. A person needs to be positive about him while speaking in public and this lecture helped me in doing so (Huczynski, et.al, 2015).
Talking about the learning of seventh week, the collectivism and individualism are the two concepts that I still remember because they were new to me and my mind grabs new things for a longer duration. While explaining the Face Negotiation Theory, the lecturer said the facework of a person can be affected by whether a person prioritises a community over an individual or vice versa. However, it depends on belief because sometimes people put their personal choices over others and sometimes they prefer putting community's interest over theirs (Steward, et.al. 2014). The beliefs vary from culture to culture.
In the week 8 lecture, the concept of organisational communication was explained in which various networks of communication within an organisation were explained. Organisation communication is type of communication that takes place within an organisation.These were very interesting and easy-to-understand. The communication network is characterised by a pattern of interaction and communication. After researching more on these networks, I realised that the communication networks vary from organisation to organisation depending on the need for accuracy and speed.
The ninth week covered the concept of meeting and its importance in business was explained thoroughly. In addition to this, the cost of each meeting was explained. To be very true, I have been a part of many social and cultural group and I have attended many meetings. However, I have never ever thought that there are categories of group meeting and there is some amount of cost attached to each meeting. In addition to this, I got to learn about the questions one should think about before calling out a group meeting. In fact, I realised that group leader should ponder on these question before calling out a meeting. This would save the time of the team members as the issues are already figured out.
In the week 10, for the very first time in my life, I came across the term 'Socio-Communicative Style' and its orientation. The concept is important from the personal communication point of view. The lecture contained a brief explanation of various socio-communicative style and orientation, such as expressiveness, analytical, flexibility, assertiveness, etc. All these are very important for an individual to communicate in society. After the lecture, I felt that I have to be a bit more assertive and expressive in my conversations.
Before ending this section on a high note, I would like to say that the course helped me in gaining knowledge of the concepts that are important for my personal as well as professional development. With this knowledge, I could be able to do things in a perfect way.
Section 2: Literature Review on Intercultural Business Communication
According to Mindess (2014), intercultural communication is a type of communication that takes place among people belonging to a diverse culture. Zhang, et.al, (2013) defines intercultural communication as communication between two or more cultures. According to Jackson (2014), it is a type of communication that is described as a sharing of views between people who determine themselves as different in a cultural sense. There are many reasons that organisations should consider intercultural communication important for business. People and cultures are brought closer to a diverse organisation. The communication establishes relationships among the team members with people from different countries and background. With effective intercultural communication, an organisation can remove the barriers in the communication that creates ambiguity in the team and operations performing by the team. The effective communication between two people from the different cultural background can minor the communication gap.
Mindess (2014) regards intercultural communication as a bigger challenge than any other communication form. This is because it takes place among people from a culture that are nowhere connected. Nowadays, organisations are focusing on intercultural communication because it empowers them to deal with clients from other countries (Zhang, et.al, 2013). In addition to this, it has been seen that big companies are tapping in the international market and making huge profits based on the local talent and labour they have identified. By making use of the intercultural business communication, it has been seen that organisation can connect to their workforce in the overseas countries and help them to understand their roles and responsibilities. Once this is clear to them, the workers can carry out their work efficiently and effectively. This directly affects organisational performance and profits.
Jackson (2014) said that to have a high-quality business communication, a company should consider and be aware of the stakeholders' behavioural tendencies. It has been seen that cultural norms directly affect the behaviour of the people belong to them. Using symbols and non-verbal communication might sometime lead to confusion and hostility because of cultural differences. For instance, the Chinese and American negotiators have varying communication styles. In China, people believe in indirect communication instead of preferring direct communication. On the other hand, the Americans indulge in the direct mode of communication. Due to this cultural difference, it has been seen that American-Chinese communications are full of confusion and uncertainties.
From the above-discussed literature review, it can be noted that all the three literature work talked about different meaning of the intercultural communication. However, they all discussed the importance of the communication in a diverse team in different way. The best part of the third paper is that it discussed the intercultural communication in context of two countries that was missing in the two.
Section 3: Application of Week 4 and Week 9 concepts
I am aiming to become a researcher in future. Hence, I should know about writing an authentic document and carry out team meeting for problem-solving. For that purpose, the week 4 and week 9 concepts are important for me.
In week 4, I have gained a deep knowledge of writing an academic document. I learned about the importance of authenticity in the content and need of referencing in the work. Being a student, I have to read the work of other authors and prepare my assessments based on them. I might be quoting some findings and facts highlighted by other researchers. For this purpose, I need to keep them proper credit and hence, referencing is important. For my career, the knowledge is important as businesses also make reports and for that purpose, research is done. Hence, with the knowledge of report structure, plagiarism, and reference style, I can contribute my efforts and knowledge in this task (Horst, 2013). This would be very helpful for my career. In addition to this, it will improve my chances of getting jobs in the research field as the knowledge of writing an academic document is the basic requirement of such field.
Talking about my learning from week 9, I learned about the importance of meeting in a small group. Meeting are important for conveying information and discussing the issues faced by the group members. The knowledge of pre-requisites of a meeting can help me in saving a lot of time as the issues could be identified prior to the meeting. In addition to this, there many barriers to business communication and that can cost a fortune to the company by virtue of miscommunication. These comprise poor verbal and non-verbal communication, poor attitude of the member in the team meeting (Locker &Kienzler, 2013). In addition to this, some members and team leaders are unwilling to implement the decisions. I realised that actually happened in most of the club meetings. With the knowledge of these barriers, I can try my best to avoid and discard them. Overall, the course provides me with immense knowledge that I can apply in my career.
Conclusion
In the whole assessment, a lot of discussion on business communication and its importance had been done. Various different aspects have been elaborated and the same has been reflected in the report. The major three aspects, such as intercultural communication, academic writing, and small group communication were elaborated and discussed in the report. A literature review was provided on intercultural communication and its advantages. Hence, this could be helpful in my future career aspirations. Overall, writing a self-reflection report was a learning experience for me.
References
- Gallois, C., & Giles, H. (2015). Communication accommodation theory. The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction, 1-18.
- Horst, M. (2013). A field of expertise, the organization, or science itself? Scientists' perception of representing research in public communication. Science Communication, 35(6), 758-779.
- Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D. A., &Huczynski, A. A. (2013). Organizational behaviour(p. 82). London: Pearson.
- IngelmoPalomares, M., Navarro, C., & Sanz Lara, J. Á. (2018). Determining factors of success in internal communication management in Spanish companies: The influence of social media. Corporate Communications: An International Journal.
- Jackson, J. (2014). Introducing language and intercultural communication. Routledge.
- Jandt, F. E. (2017). An introduction to intercultural communication: Identities in a global community. Sage Publications.
- Locker, K. O., &Kienzler, D. S. (2013). Business and administrative communication. McGraw-Hill.
- Medvedeva, N. (2016). Methodological model for teaching written professional communication. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 236, 283-288.
- Mindess, A. (2014). Reading between the signs: Intercultural communication for sign language interpreters. Nicholas Brealey.
- Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2014). Intercultural communication: A reader. Cengage Learning.
- Steward, M. D., Narus, J. A., & Roehm, M. L. (2018). An exploratory study of business-to-business online customer reviews: external online professional communities and internal vendor scorecards. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 46(2), 173-189.
- Zhang, Q., Ting-Toomey, S., &Oetzel, J. G. (2014). Linking emotion to the conflict face-negotiation theory: A US-China investigation of the mediating effects of anger, compassion, and guilt in interpersonal conflict. Human Communication Research, 40(3), 373-395.