Effective business communication requires effective practices Essay

An ability to deal with people properly is one of the most important and crucial factors determining the chances to succeed in business, professional or business activities.
Therefore, business communication is a necessary part of human life, the most important type of relations with other people. One of the main regulators of these relations are the ethical norms that are expressed in our concepts of good and evil, justice and injustice, right and wrong actions of people. Communicating with your employees, boss or colleagues in business cooperation, one way or another, consciously or spontaneously, based on these ideas. “…Communication is crucial to business. Specialized business knowledge is important, but not enough to guarantee success. Communication skills are vital” (Blalock, n.d., para. 13).
Thus, this paper introduces effective business communication and its main characteristics. It presents the concept of business communication, its main forms and methods, and effective practices that are necessary for effective business communication.
To start with, business communication is communication that ensures the success of a common cause, creating the conditions for people’s cooperation to make meaningful targets for them. Business communication contributes to the establishment and development of cooperation and partnership relations between colleagues, superiors, subordinates, partners, rivals and competitors. It involves the methods how to achieve common goals, which do not exclude, but on the contrary, assume the achievement of personally meaningful goals, the satisfaction of personal interests. What is more, we are talking about the interests of individuals and entities. Knowledge of personality can allow a person to determine how much can be effective business relationships with a specific person. Dave (2009, p. 329) stated that “Business communication (BC) is a crucial aspect of management consulting.”
Business communication (formal or official) may be direct or indirect depending on the circumstances. In the first case, business communication is in direct contact with the subjects of communication, while the second one is through correspondence or technical means. The various methods of influence or impact on people are used in direct and indirect communication. Among the most common of them are the following ones: persuasion, suggestion, and coercion.
Persuasion is an impact through the evidences, logical ordering of facts and conclusions. It implies confidence in the rightness of his/her position, in the truth of his/her knowledge, ethical justification for his/her actions. Persuasion is a nonviolent method and therefore it is considered to be a morally preferred method of influence a communication partner.
Suggestion, as a rule, does not require any evidence and logical analysis of facts and events in order to influence people. It is based on a person’s belief, evolving under the influence of authority, social status, and charisma, intellectual and volitional superiority of one of the subjects of communication. The power of example plays an important role in suggestion that causes conscious copying of behavior and unconscious imitation.
Coercion is the most violent methods of influence people. It involves a desire to make a person behave contrary to his/her wishes and beliefs, using any threat of punishment or any other influence that can lead to undesirable consequences for the individual. Coercion can be ethically justifiable only in exceptional cases.
The various factors, including nature, content and communication situations (normal, extreme), a public or official position (authority) and personal qualities of the subjects of communication, have an impact on the choice of the methods of influence people.
Business communication exists in two forms: writing (business correspondence and documentation) and oral (business speech). The latter is a foundation of communication in business or in business communication.
Business communication, in its writing (business correspondence and documentation) and oral (business speech) forms is highly conventional, that is, it strictly follows a number of generally accepted norms and rules, as a voice plan, and then we are talking about speech etiquette, so and a behavioral one (business etiquette). This makes the presence of permanent language repeated in the same situation. For example, during business meetings people establish the contacts in a negotiation process, etc. that is a characteristic feature of this type of speech activity.
Business communication always occurs in a certain context and is dependent on it. A particular situation, including a number of participants, nature of goals, levels of interaction with the recipients, gives it the special features that allow allocating some forms of its manifestation. These include: business conversation, business meetings, business public speaking, or presentation.
The most common and frequently used form of business communication is a business conversation. Usually, a business conversation is defined as interpersonal verbal communication with several interlocutors in order to solve specific business problems or to establish a business relationship.
Communicants are in direct verbal and physical (visual) contact, which provides an instant feedback with oral and nonverbal communication. The results of any verbal interaction instantly appear in the reaction of the interlocutor, and further interaction occurs on this basis. Therefore, we can say that interpersonal communication is usually spontaneous, in the sense that its structure and development are not formed before a communicative act, but during it, spontaneously. The level of preparedness plays fewer roles than the ability to adequately respond to all signals sent by the speaker. Nevertheless, it is always advisable, since the interlocutors, engaging in communication, pursue goals and build a given communicative act.
One of the functions of a business conversation is to maintain business contacts and promote business activity. This involves the formation of interpersonal relationships with the partners. In the process of communication, they produce an interpersonal system of interdependent components and qualities: they definitely affect each other and form an integral communicative unity. This system is regulated through feedback, that is, equivalence of this situation adopted by two communicants. The process of forming such relationships can be long, gradual and instantaneous.
In order to ensure a high level of communication, a manager should be able to use communication technologies based on psychological knowledge. Thus, it is necessary to consider that may be tensions and even conflict situations in the process of communication between partners and colleagues. For example, it can be happened because of disrespect for self-esteem. Furthermore, an unskillful use of any word can lead to considerable information losses, and, hence, to failures in the performance of official duties. This is a widespread fact that it is necessary and very important to use effective practices in order to succeed in effective business communication. According to Neal (2010, p. 39), “Most professions require a wide variety of skills, and mastering all of them can take years.” Thus, in order to succeed in effective business communication, it is necessary to follow the next recommendations:
Always listen attentively to what a person is talking about;
Be open and positive with a partner and connect this with your behaviors;
Do not show nervous behaviors and always avoid making faces;
The physical actions, such as hand gestures, nods, smiles, etc. play an effective and important role in any communication;
It is useful to get to know about other cultural traditions and backgrounds to be well informed in various differences in styles of communication.
Ethics in business communication is based on these rules and norms of partners’ behaviors, which ultimately contribute to the development of cooperation, i.e. reinforce an essential basis for business relationships. The meaning of these rules and regulations is to strengthen mutual trust, keeping your partners informed about your intentions and actions, an exception of lies and disorientation of a partner. The practice of business communication has developed a lot of honor codes of entrepreneurs, professional codes of bankers, etc. Holden, (2002) as cited in Pullin (2010), emphasized the great importance of a “conducive, collaborative atmosphere” that can be achieved with the help of “social adroitness, professional competence, and by applying intelligence and tact to interactions” (p. 457).
Taking the above-mentioned information into account, it is possible to draw a conclusion that effective business communication skills play an essential role in business success. Socio-psychological knowledge, skills, analysis of situations, which arise in the process of communication are significant to building effective relationships between people. On the one hand, they help people to better understand themselves, their inner world, to realize social and psychological aspects: social attitudes, stereotypes, strategies of behavior and interaction, communication style, ability to listen effectively, manage their emotions and adequately understand other people. On the other hand, such knowledge allows people to better understand other people, create a situation of communication with them, individually getting ready for their inner mental state, which would fruitfully contribute to their creative development. Thus, effective business communication is the key to your business prosperity.