Business Communication Essay on Communication Behaviors in Australian Workplace
Question
Task: You are a country manager for an international agricultural products supplier. The main office is in Australia. You have recently hired 10 new employees from overseas (you may choose the home country of the new employees). They will be arriving in Australia within the next six weeks, and in preparation for their arrival you will write a document about communicating competently and incompetently within the Australian workplace. This document has two parts:
1. An overview of academic literature relating to communication practices/styles/recent research about business communication in Australia.
2. Recommendations for these new employees about competent and incompetent business communication practices (you may focus upon verbal, nonverbal, written, and CMC). There will be four recommendations—two competency behaviours and two incompetency behaviours. That is to say, how should the new employees communicate and how they should not communicate within the Australia workplace. You will need to explain why each of the communicative behaviours are competent or incompetent. The recommendations should be supported by existing academic articles.
Answer
Introduction
This business communication essay defines the concept of Business communication as the sharing of information among the individuals within and outside the organization for the purpose of achieving organizational goals. An important role is played by effective business communication in directing and controlling the individuals and in building goodwill of the organization (Zerfass & Viertmann, 2017). As a country manager of XYZ Ltd, following document has been prepared about competent and incompetent communication within Australian workplace. It will be helpful in establishing communication with the new employees hired from overseas (United Kingdom). This document will focus on business communication in Australia which will include communication styles, practices and recent researches. Furthermore, it will offer recommendations to the new employees regarding the competent and incompetent practices regarding business communication.
Since Australia is a polyglot nation, there are more than 100 languages spoken by different sections of population. However, English is the official and commonly spoken language in Australia. Therefore, English is commonly used language in the organizations for day to day communication and business meetings. Directness is adopted by the Australians before diplomacy while communicating with others. Moreover, one’s position or status in a conversation cannot be distinguished through their appearance. The business communication style in Australian is functionally- purposed and direct for conveying one’s message with clarity. Conflicts are avoided by being polite while delivering criticism. Furthermore, Australians portray honesty and reasonable sensitivity while communicating with others at the workplace (Hoffmann, 2016).
This business communication essay illustrates that Australians have a unique ability that allows them to easily swap to a more refined speech from the string Aussie accent. They are capable of talking to the foreigner in a well- pronounced and polished speech, however, a strong ocker accent is sometimes used by them while communicating with other Australians. E-mails and telephones are generally used for the purpose of business communication in Australia. The reiteration of key points or summary of the minutes of a meetings are generally circulated among different individuals in the company with the help of e- mails. The use of text messages is made only in cases where strong relationships exists among two individuals, or in cases where the individuals know each other very well (De Nobile, 2016).
During the business meetings, Australians have a habit of quickly getting down to the business after having an initial small talk. The communications in business meetings are always to the point, good humored and direct. They quickly proceed towards negotiations regarding the major issues in a direct and open manner, but after taking into consideration the policies of the organization. The meetings are kept straightforward with clear presentations. They also give their undivided attention to the attendees and the meeting by ensuring that their mobile phones are either on silent or is turned off. Furthermore, executives of the organizations often tend to swear during business meetings in Australia. It is regarded as an important part of their vocabulary and is used by them for expressing their anger towards formal rules and powers.
As far as the informal communication style within the business in Australia is concerned, a number of slangs are included within the speech. However, the understandings or the relevance of certain slangs varies in accordance with areas and age groups. Still, it is the general practice to shorten the words that are generally complicated in its usage. They further are self- deprecating while having a conversation with someone as it is their way to act honest, humble and relaxed about their own selves. Humor is often used in both formal and informal business communication in the form of light- hearted jokes in between the conversation. First names are used invariably in all the business situations in Australia. Calling a business contact with their surnames is further regarded as very unusual. In business situations, there is very little relevance of the educational titles as well.
The concept of eye contact mentioned in this business communication essay is often considered to be an essential part of non- verbal communication. Maintenance of eye contact is said to translate trustworthiness, sincerity and approachability. However, Australians start feeling uncomfortable if eye contact is maintained for prolonged periods. Aboriginal Australians often divert their eyes while communication with people as they consider it to be disrespectful. At the workplace, an arm’s length distance is maintained while talking to other employees. Extra distance is maintained between men and women as it depends upon how well they know each other. Moreover, individuals do not touch each other during communication until and unless they know each other very well or are close friends. If they need to point out someone, they make the use of their index figure. However, pointing out someone is considered rude in Australia and is generally avoided. Instead, indication is given to the individuals with the help of verbal communication (Ai & Wang, 2017).
The recent researches have concluded that the employees from other countries face various difficulties in establishing cross cultural communication with Australian employees. It provides that the power distance in Australia is low along with low hierarchy levels in the organization, which leads to communication to be direct and informal. Moreover, information sharing and consultation is usually noticed among the employees and the superiors. Therefore, lack of understanding regarding the socio- cultural norm of directness in case of overseas employees can create problems or them. Furthermore, in Australia, there is a general practice of discussing everything upfront and the managers expect the employees to provide feedback and ask questions. It means that there is an overall transparency in procedures and open communication which makes it easier for the employees from other countries to work their effectively (Shah & Barker, 2017).
Competent business communication discussed in this business communication essay has three dimensions i.e. adaptability, effectiveness and appropriateness. Moreover, self- awareness, ethics, cognitive complexity and empathy are also given due important in competent communication. These dimensions should be taken into consideration by the new employees in order to establish competent business communication. On the other hand, incompetent communication is where the communicator fails to attain the goal and draws a negative sanction from the listeners (Steele & Plenty, 2015). Following are some recommendations about competent and incompetent business communication for the new employees which will assist the new employees in knowing how they should communicate and how they should not communicate in the workplace in Australia. The first two recommendation will be regarding the competent communication behaviors and the other two will focus on incompetent business behaviors which should be ignored by the new employees.
The first recommendation mentioned in this business communication essay focuses on verbal communication. Verbal communication is concerned with the exchange of message through the use of spoken words. The new employees should familiarize themselves with the directness adopted in communication. Moreover, they should also portray honesty and reasonable sensitivity while communicating with Australians at the workplace. Therefore, they should adapt themselves with the Australian communication behavior. If they will involve diplomacy in their communication, they will not be able to successfully survive in the workplace for a longer period of time. This communication behavior is competent as it will not make the Australian employees feel that the new employees are culturally different from them. Soon they will also start relating with them and will assist them in cases where they suffer from any difficulties while working in new workplace and new culture. Furthermore, it is recommended to the new employees to ask for feedback on their work as feedback is a key for good comprehension and effective communication. Feedback will help the new employees know the areas where improvement is required. This will also help them to understand the tasks well in cases where they have misunderstood some facts due to different communication practices in Australia (Coffelt, Baker & Corey, 2016).
The second recommendation is in relation with non- verbal communication. The new employees adapt themselves to the friendly and open culture of Australia. Therefore, they should also be open and friendly with other employees at the workplace. They should not get offended by the use of humor at the workplace. Humor is often used by the senior management and higher authorities in Australian workplace, therefore, they should make themselves comfortable it from the beginning. This behavior is competent as it will slowly lead them towards the adaptability of the tone, expression and body language of the Australian employees. They should further keep physical contact minimal in order to avoid conflicts at the workplace, however, they can shake hands with people for greeting them (Phutela, 2015).
The third recommendation provided in this business communication essay is regarding computer mediated communication (CMC). With the advent of globalization, computer mediated communication has become an important element for conducting business. These communication technologies are used by the Australian workplace in the form of videoconferencing, internet and e- mails, etc. This has also resulted in the increased use of smart mobile devices as it offers flexibility to an employee to handle a number of official communications on the go. However, the use of smart phones or other mobile devices should be avoided by the new employees at the workplace. In case such devices are used, it should be used only in the lunch time or break time such that the operations of the workplace are not affected. This is an incompetent business communication behavior as the Australians usually keep their mobile phones switched off or on silent in order to pay proper attention to the communication and other operations related aspect. The use of mobile phones divert the attention of the employees and lowers their productivity levels. Therefore, it is recommended that the new employees should either keep their mobile phones on silent or should keep it after switching it off (Aldunate & González- Ibáñez, 2017).
The fourth recommendation is concerned with written communication at the workplace. E- mails is the most common communication channel in the workplace for notifying various issues to the employees, communicating with people irrespective of their availability in the workplace and for maintaining relationships with employees and other individuals. However, e- mails can easily lead to misunderstanding among the new employees regarding various factors to which they are not familiar. It is a type of incompetent communication behavior to react or reply without properly understanding what has been written in the e- mail. They should not behave in this manner as it will impact their relations with the management and other employees of the organization. It is recommended to them that they should talk to the concerned authority personally through a call or face to face for making sure that they understand everything correctly. While having a face to face communication, they should further avoid making prolonged eye contact as it can offend the employees or other authorities at the Australian workplace (Pignata et. al. 2015).
Therefore, after analyzing this business communication essay it can be concluded that the business communication involves sharing of information among the individuals within and outside the organization for the purpose of achieving organizational goals. This document focused on business communication in Australia and provided recommendations to the new employees regarding the competent and incompetent business communication behaviors in Australian workplace. Competent business communication has three dimensions i.e. adaptability, effectiveness and appropriateness. On the other hand, incompetent communication is where the communicator fails to attain the goal and draws a negative sanction from the listeners. The business communication in Australia generally take place through the use of English language. Furthermore, Australians portray honesty and reasonable sensitivity while communicating with others at the workplace. The communications in business meetings are always to the point, good humored and direct. Recommendations have been provided to the new employees in context of verbal, non- verbal, written and computer mediated communication. Business communication essay assignments are being prepared by our management assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable top assignment help service.
Reference List
Ai, B., & Wang, L. (2017). Transnational business communication and identity work in Australia. Business communication essay. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 60(2), 201-213.
Aldunate, N., & González- Ibáñez, R. (2017). An integrated review of emoticons in computer-mediated communication. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 2061.
Coffelt, T. A., Baker, M. J., & Corey, R. C. (2016). Business communication practices from employers’ perspectives. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 79(3), 300-316.
De Nobile, J. (2016). Organisational communication and its relationships with occupational stress of primary school staff in Western Australia. The Australian Educational Researcher, 43(2), 185-201.
Hoffmann, J. (2016). All roads lead down under? Ethnocentrism among Australian corporate communication practitioners. Communication Research and Practice, 2(2), 244-262.
Phutela, D. (2015). The importance of non-verbal communication. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 9(4), 43.
Pignata, S., Lushington, K., Sloan, J., & Buchanan, F. (2015). Employees’ perceptions of email communication, volume and management strategies in an Australian university. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 37(2), 159-171.
Shah, D., & Barker, M. (2017). Cracking the cultural code: Indian IT expatriates’ intercultural communication challenges in Australia. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 17(2), 215-236.
Steele, G. A., & Plenty, D. (2015). Supervisor–subordinate communication competence and job and communication satisfaction. Business communication essay. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(3), 294-318.
Zerfass, A., & Viertmann, C. (2017). Creating business value through corporate communication: A theory-based framework and its practical application. Journal of Communication Management, 21(1), 68-81.
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