Business Communication - Essay Example

?Running Head: Business Communication Business Communication [Institute’s Business Communication Critically evaluate the view that in order to achieve power in management, women must change their communication strategies It is easy to imagine what the business world would be like, were it dominated by men. That is because this was the case for several recent centuries. A larger challenge to the imagination would be the image of women dominating the business world. This is because not only is this a relatively unfamiliar sight in any country, but there are also several barriers that keep women from gaining such power in the workplace. One of the most relevant barriers that can help us understand this power disparity is the communication that women use in a workplace. Assessing the view that women need to alter their communication strategies in the workplace, we find several facts and theories that help strengthen this hypothesis. An in-depth study of women in management settings, conducted by Korac-Kakabadse and Kouzmin revealed several insights into how communication is often a key factor in women not achieving the same level of power as men in the workplace. It explored the differences in their manner of communication and the way that these differences lead them to have less power. He pointed out, for example, that even the terminologies used in a workplace used to be male-oriented. (Korac-Kakabadse and Kouzmin, 1997, pp. 190-193) As researchers have observed, several positions in an organization would have titles such as “chairman” or “salesman”, making them seem like jobs that are designed for males only. Furthermore, women occupied some positions so often that these job titles were associated only with women. Some of the most well known examples of this are “secretary” and “manager’s assistant. The reason why this point is essential to this critique is that these job titles, both the ones associated with males and the ones associated with females, were altered around the same time that the role of women in the workplace started gaining more power. Women, whom these stereotypes had suppressed for a long time, stood up and fought for change, and achieved it. They had the male associated positions changed to “chairperson” and “salesperson”. In addition, the women-associated job titles now stand replaced by more male-oriented titles such as “office manager” or “assistant manager” (Pringle, 1992, pp. 127-60). Even generic terms like “mankind” now stand replaced with less sexist words like “humankind”. This is an indicator of how women who seek power started by altering the communication strategies in the world around them, in both the workplace and otherwise. Thus, this supports the theory that communication strategies have a large bearing on the power that women possess in the workplace. Another important area in communication that affects the power that women have in the workplace is nonverbal communication. As researchers have found, even the difference in tones that women and men use often affects their power disparity in the workplace, regardless of the content of their speech. Due to the different roles men and women adopt in their lives, they often develop tones of speech accordingly. A man will more likely have a strong and confident voice whereas a woman will have a soothing and comforting tone (Willis, 1990, pp. 40-72). This difference makes it appear that the man is more capable of taking charge in the workplace, whereas the woman is more suited for a less power-oriented career. It would also explain why men are more likely to be trusted with managing and leading large workforces, while women are employed to work for them. This again supports the view that women need to alter their communication strategies if they wish to have more power in the workplace, even if it is their non-verbal communication. A few more studies have observed the communication strategies used by men and women, and have found some startling differences when it comes to staff meetings in an office. Unlike women, men tend to be more dominating in meetings, and tend to seek more chances to speak and express their opinion. This may be due to their greater experience in holding leading roles, leading them with the desire to control such formal social interactions as well. Women, on the other hand, prefer to understand and facilitate more than asserting their own opinion. (Zimmerman and West, 1975, pp. 78-94) They tend to reserve their participation in the meeting for acting as a catalyst, should the need arise. In addition, men tend to use instrumental communication and state facts more, while women are more expressive of their personal opinions and feelings. These differences in their manners of communication often lead to their managers and bosses perceiving them differently. Thus, they evaluate the man to be more capable of taking charge, and see the women as more of a facilitator or an assistant. Consequently, the power ends up in the hands of the male (Palmer and Kandasaami, 1993, pp. 10-15). This is an important trend for those women who seek empowerment in an organizational setting; it outlines a clear way in which they can alter their communication strategies to gain more power. Studies conducted by management experts have also revealed some finer details about how communication affects the image and power of women in a workplace. One study in particular explored the effect that men’s socialization in a workplace has on their ability to communicate effectively in a business setting (Marshall, 1993a, p. 317). It began with analyzing the mentalities that affect choices that employees make when they are working in collaboration with other employees. This revealed that employees usually prefer to work with people who have similar thinking processes as themselves. This means that an employee of one gender will most likely choose to collaborate with their own gender in the context of such business interactions. In addition, since males dominate most workplaces, this leads to more men being chosen by other men for collaborative work. Thus, men turn out to be much more socialized than women in business context are, and are thus better versed in the communicating with their employees. This man is more likely to be able to pick up small and sometimes implicit directions in the orders that they receive. For example, when they receive a short command from a supervisor, they will be able to interpret not only what needs to be done, but also how it needs to be done. The manager does not usually spell out the “how” component; they imply it. Thus, only an employee who has enough experience in dealing with such situations can read such a command for its explicit as well as implicit messages. A woman who does not have this much experience will not be able to detect the symbolic messages embedded in a message that is usual in the business culture (Marshall, 1993a, p. 317). Thus, this gives man an edge over women due to their more enhanced communication abilities, and makes them more likely to gain power in the workplace. Finally, one of the most important ways in which communication affects the power a woman has in an organization is the manner in which they participate in a workplace argument or debate (Reeves, 2010, pp. 145). As researchers observe, women adopt a more accommodating approach, as opposed to men, who choose to argue until they feel heard. Men will continue an argument until they feel that they have gotten their point across, whereas women will try to be more understanding. The female employee often does not fare well in negotiations, because she aims to reach an agreement, whereas the man will aim to convince others of his point of view. Resultantly, the woman ends up compromising, and the man receives what he was bargaining for. This is a highly problematic fact for women in workplaces, because they are unable to assert power over others when they are so willing to compromise and settle for less than they asked for initially (Lascheve and Babcock, 2003). Thus, they develop an image of being easy to dominate and control, and are consequently unable to convince their superiors that they would perform well as a leader in the organization. Thus, women need to address their communication differences and change them to match those of men, if they wish to gain power in the workplace. Conclusively, there is a lot of support for the view that women need to change their communication strategies in order to gain more power in an organizational setting (Baker, 1991, pp. 113-130). Considering how the world changes constantly and becomes more accommodating of women workers each day, it is reasonable to assume that women have a greater chance of securing power in an organization now than they did a few centuries ago. While it would be incorrect to claim that the only reason women have not had power in the past is because of their softer communication strategies, research has shown that communication is a large reason why they have been left behind in the organization. As numerous management experts have researched, men and women have very different communication strategies and thus achieve very different positions in the workplace. One should not ignore the several other factors, which have stunted the growth of a female in a workplace, such as social factors and family issues. However, one should also realize that communication had a large amount of significance in this process and thus, it should be addressed if women wish to have more power. Thus, while they may not be the only factor that women need to address while trying to achieve more power, communication strategies are one of the main problems that would serve them well to change. References Baker, Margeret Anne. 1991. “Reciprocal Accommodation: A Model for Reducing Gender Bias in Managerial Communication.” Journal of Business Communication. March 1991, No. 28, pp. 113-130. Korac-Kakabadse, Nada and Kouzmin, Alexandar. 1997. “Maintaining the rage: from “glass and concrete ceilings” and metaphorical sex changes to psychological audits and renegotiating organizational scripts - Part 1.” Women in Management Review. Vol. 12, No. 5, pp. 182 – 195. Lascheve, Sara and Babcock, Linda. 2003. Women don't ask: negotiation and the gender divide. Princeton University Press. Marshall, J. 1993a. “Organizational culture and woman managers: exploring the dynamics of resilience.” Applied Psychology: An International Review. Vol. 42, No.4, pp. 313-22. Palmer, G., Kandasaami, T. 1993. “Gender and the management process: are we bounded by similarities or divided by differences?” Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management’s (ANZAM) Annual Conference, December, pp. 1-34. Pringle, J. 1992. “Survival or success: ways of ‘being’ for women in organizations.” The Gender Factor. Dunsmore Press. Reeves, Martha E. 2010. Women in Business: Theory, Case Studies, and Legal Challenges. Springer. Taylor & Francis. Willis, M. 1990. Proportional representation. Insight. Zimmerman, D., West, C. 1975. “Sex Roles, Interruptions, and Silences in Conversations.” Language and Sex: Difference and Domination. pp. 78-94. Read More