Business Communication Skills Necessary for Business Graduates - Case Study Example

Acquiring Business Communication Skills Necessary for Business Graduates BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE WORD COUNT 455 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Research has identified several communications skills that are vital to personal and professional development. These include regulating body language, ensuring clarity of messages to the receiver, active listening, and using inspirational feedback and reiteration of corporate values to gain followership in the role of leader. Based on findings, it is recommended that current undergraduate students practice avoiding message ambiguity through writing rehearsals and recruiting others to listen to public presentations to provide feedback on body language and the level of ambiguity occurring in conversation. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction................................................................................................................ 2. General and business communications skills.............................................................. 3. Recommendations for current undergraduate students.............................................. 4. Conclusion................................................................................................................... 5. References................................................................................................................... Acquiring Business Communication Skills Necessary for Business Graduates 1. Introduction Ensuring that a student maintains employability is a fundamental concern for undergraduates that will be seeking employment opportunities post-graduation. Employability, in the contemporary business environment, entails having positive communications skills, the ability to communicate within a business context, and being able to apply communications effectively to gain advantages and respect in the business environment. Archer and Davison (2008) assert that 30 percent of today’s employers are finding problems with student graduates involving fundamental communications skills and ability to function in team environments. In many organisations, there is a need for establishment of knowledge management practices, which involves capturing information, sharing this knowledge between disparate experts within an organisation, and utilising knowledge effectively to improve business efficiency and competitive advantage (Nonaka and von Krogh 2009; Maier 2007). To maintain employability skills, students must understand a variety of communications strategies that can be applied to team environments where collaboration is an expectation of business activity. This report identifies effective communications strategies, both generic and business-related, that assist in ensuring employability. The report, based on research findings, recommends a variety of strategies for current undergraduate students to develop effective business communications skills whilst attending to important academic study. 2. General and business communications skills Conflict occurs in both social and professional environments and it requires positive communications skills to reduce disagreement and argument. It is common for many disparate individuals in both business and in social environments to be resistant to change, which leads to irrational responses in an effort to oppose changes that do not agree with personal values, beliefs and expectations (Ford, Ford and D’Amelio 2008). To gain consensus and avoid recurring conflicts, a quality communications skill is active listening. This is a communication strategy that allows a listener to offer feedback of what they are hearing and experiencing to better engage the speaker, with the listener restating or re-summarizing what has been heard as a method of confirming the message and gaining mutual understanding (Fassaert, van Dulmen, Schellevis and Bensing 2007). Employers spend up to 25 percent of their time attempting to regulate and control conflict. Psychological and sociological theory indicates that individuals are more willing to cooperate when they realise they are being heard, comprehended, and when other peers or managers illustrate they legitimately care about another’s concerns or anxieties (Henslin 2005). Active listening is a passive strategy that, when utilised, provides more motivation for teamwork and illustrates to the speaker that they feel empathy for the change resistance rationale being expressed by the speaker. Change, according to Grieves (2010), should be a negotiated arrangement. Using active listening skills avoids the listener from dominating conversation that can often lead to disagreement, thus hindering productive collaboration. Another communication skill that is highly effective is the avoidance of message ambiguity, a type of vagueness or uncertainty about the message that is being communicated (Gallagher 2013). Furthermore, King (2007) describes a phenomenon known as causal ambiguity which deals with the degree to which organisational decision-makers and managers actually understand the inter-connectivity between organisational inputs and outputs. It is necessary as a communications skill for speakers to be concise and articulate about what is being discussed with the listener, as ambiguity serves as a significant barrier to effective communications and message comprehension. A positive communications strategy to avoid this barrier is to avoid using terminology that would be considered uncertain by the listener. Some organisations have a culture that is highly risk intolerant, known as uncertainty avoidance, and there is little lenience or patience for ambiguity. When presenting data, such as in presentations and e-mail correspondence, the message sender must be diligent about indistinct diction and phrasing which will avoid both conflict and contradiction that can impede reaching consensus and even relationship development. Additionally, recognising body language cues is highly important in transmitting a message successfully to the receiver. Body language is a series of physical indications that have non-verbal significance to successful comprehension of what is being communicated. For instance, holding one’s arms crossed generally indicates that an individual is being defensive or disinterested. This would be highly important to regulate and maintain self-awareness of body posturing, especially when the message content is intended to be opposite of a defensive or distrustful stance. Body language can serve as a substantial barrier to successful business or interpersonal communications. If a speaker is attempting, as one example, to provide positive performance feedback to the receiver but maintains a crossed-arm posturing, the receiver might believe that the sender is actually feeling contempt or shame. This would lead to an improper translation of the verbal portion of the message, leading to conflict or animosity that can impede team-working productivity in a business environment where collaboration is a primary need. Body language cues usually occur on an unconscious level, which requires the individual to maintain a strong sense of emotional intelligence, which is the ability of a person to understand their emotions, have a formidable understanding of self, and maintain a sense of empathy for the needs and abilities of others (Harms and Crede 2010). This will ensure that body language cues are properly aligned with the content and intention of the message, thereby reducing potential conflict and misunderstanding that can erode quality of communications in the business environment. Employers, today, place much more emphasis on graduates maintaining soft skills relating to communications (Conrad and Newberry 2012). These are personal qualities and characteristics that enhance interactions with others. Hard skills, in opposite accord, are tangible skills toward performing a job-related task or legitimate academics-generated knowledge regarding a career industry and job role activities. In the contemporary organisation, there is often a great deal of emphasis on building a cohesive and dedicated organisational culture. In order to develop culture, individuals must maintain communications skills as part of leadership competencies in which there is open communications systems, where leaders serve as coaches and mentors, and role modelling desired behaviours (Fairholm 2009). One further communications strategy that is viable for achieving the development of a collaborative and loyal organisational culture is using empowering and inspirational messages as part of a feedback strategy. Reiterating the mission and goals of the organisation will gain more followership toward these objectives. In business, companies often talk about (as two examples), the Cisco Way or the Wal-Mart Way, which are internal values that are shared throughout the dedicated organisational culture. This strategy of reinforcement and inspiration ensure that communications are valuable and followership thereby becomes attainable by serving as a quality reference group using oral communications strategies. 3. Recommendations for current undergraduate students Communications skills are not easy for everyone to adopt. However, students who struggle with quality communications can practice their oral skills by engaging in practice presentations. Students can recruit peers or educators to participate in public speaking activities whereby the student measures their body language cues and practice speaking in clarity to avoid message ambiguity. At the end of the speech, the student can engage the listeners about whether they understood what was being discussed and the nature of body language that either enhanced or conflicted successful translation of the message. Additionally, students can practice their writing skills, sending sample e-mails to instructors or other graduated peers to ensure there is no message ambiguity. In the business world, busy professionals want concise and short briefings about an incident, situation or future project and the information must be professional and also without uncertainty. Practicing this vital skill will ensure the student is equipped with fundamental written skills that promote clarity, which is a critical skill in communications especially in business environments where there is a cultural expectation for recurring inter-office communications with diverse individuals scattered disparately throughout the organisation. Proficiency in consolidating thoughts and avoiding vague terminology can be a learned ability through practice of writing skills. 4. Conclusion Avoiding conflict is highly critical in organisations where change is a constant as conflict can reduce productivity, impact costs, and reduce competitive advantages against rival firms in an industry. As a result, communications strategies involving active listening are critical to the organisation and are fundamental for employability. Regulating and being aware of body language, additionally, can reduce conflict and inject efficiency into the professional and interpersonal communications that occur with very diverse individuals in the organisation. When coupled with inspirational dialogue and reiteration of business goals, it is likely an individual can become a potent leader with the fundamental skills required to achieve business success. Ensuring clarity can also enhance the ability to control costs in the business environment and avoid conflict that can erode organisational efficiency. All of these underpinning skills in communications are beneficial to not only the recent graduate, but to the business as well in the forms of enhanced collaboration, productivity, and organisational culture development. 5. References Archer, W. and Davison, J. (2008). Graduate employability: what do employers think and want?, The Council for Industry and Higher Education. [online] Available at: http://www.cihe-uk.com/docs/PUBS/0802Grademployability.pdf (accessed 1 February 2014). Conrad, D. and Newberry, R. (2012). Identification and instruction of communication skills for graduate business education, Journal of Education for Business, 87(2). Fassaert, T., van Dulmen, S., Schellevis, F. and Bensing, J. (2007). Active listening in medical consultations: development of the Active Listening Observation Scale, Patient Education and Counselling, 68(3), pp.258-264. Fairholm, M. (2009). Leadership and organisational strategy, The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 14(1), pp.26-27. Ford, J.D., Ford, L.W. and D’Amelio, A. (2008). Resistance to change: The rest of the story, Academy of Management Review, 33(2), pp.362-377. Gallagher, K. (2013). Skills development for business and management students: study and employability. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Grieves, J. (2010). Organisational change: themes and issues. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Harms, P.D. and Crede, M. (2010). Remaining issues in emotional intelligence research: construct overlap, method artifacts and lack of incremental validity, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 3(2), pp.154-158. Henslin, J. (2005) Sociology: A down to earth approach, 7th ed. A&B Publishing. King, A.W. (2007). Disentangling inter-firm and intra-firm causal ambiguity: a conceptual model of causal ambiguity and sustainable competitive advantage, Academy of Management Review, 32, pp.156-178. Maier, R. (2007). Knowledge management systems: information and communication technologies for knowledge management, 3rd edn. Springer. Nonaka, I. and von Krogh, G. (2009). Tacit knowledge and knowledge conversion: controversy and advancement in organisational knowledge creation theory, Organization Science, 20(3), pp.635-651. Read More