Introduction To Business Communication

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Today, business plays an essential role in our daily lives. Either directly or indirectly, almost everything an individual does is related to business. In the simplest word, business is an organization that buys or sells products or services for money with a motive of making profits. Of course, the range of the various types of business is very wide and is gaining momentum every day even from the early days, whereby the old and traditional ways were used to carry out the businesses such as barter trading. With the introduction of personal computers and the internet, businesses such as e-commerce and online advertising have grown rapidly in the modern era of information technology today. As we know, business communication is simply crucial in the field or study of businesses as communication is one of the most fundamental elements of business, whether it is a research which involves a team or an inspirational and responsible leader guiding an organization in pursuit of common goals.

Business communication can be defined as the process of transferring of information between workers within a company, using one or more written, oral, visual or electronic channels for the commercial benefits of the particular company. Also, business communication can refer to how an enterprise promotes its products or services to the consumers. Therefore, communication skills are important to a successful career as well as a professional business environment as the connection between a firm and all its stakeholders can be strengthened through an effective communication. Hence, an effective communication means that the message being sent from a party is received and understood clearly by the other party. If the message being sent by the sender is not clear or perhaps the recipient did not pay attention during the communication process, this may probably lead to a poor communication. Thus, this is why an effective communication requires the role from both the sender and also the recipient.

2.0 Introduction to Personal Qualities

In the world of today, one’s personal qualities are essential in his or her career as well as in the field of business. In the simplest words, personal qualities are the features of a person’s character, especially when it is a positive one such as honesty, kindness or a special ability which helps the employers to determine what kind of character a person is in their workplace. With these personal qualities, a person can be successful by gaining respect in their careers. For example, one will be respected by other team members or even the employers in a firm if he or she has integrity.

3.0 Personal Qualities Required Obtaining the Job of My Dreams

First of all, the job that I most probably want to venture in future is to be a multimedia designer. Generally, the role of a multimedia designer is to create designs for high quality websites, types of advertisements such as educational and business as well as some other multimedia applications programme. In addition, multimedia designers can also work on multiple projects such as creating software, designing websites and also developing video games based on the needs of their clients. By interacting with their clients personally, requirements of the project for their clients will be understood clearly. However, multimedia designers usually wear many hats, but most importantly they play an important part on coordinating at the overall content of the project, creating structures for the contents, determining the design elements required to support that particular structure, and also by making decision upon which media are suitable and appropriate for presenting pieces of content. Thus, the job of a multimedia designer has become an essential part of the computer world and is in demand in the world of today as the era of information technology is developing very rapidly.

Therefore, there are some important personal qualities required for a multimedia designer.

3.0.1 Teamwork Skills

Just like any other jobs, teamwork skills are essential for multimedia designers. A professional multimedia designer is required to work with the animation experts, multimedia programmers, audio and video specialists and also the script writers since the production of a multimedia project requires many skills and works. Therefore, it is important to remember that an accomplishment of good quality multimedia productions is a result of effective and synergistic teamwork.

3.0.2 Creativity

Since the requirement for projects of each client is different, a creative mind is therefore needed for multimedia designers in order to fulfil the needs of their clients. A multimedia designer has the responsibility to create websites which are attractive by adding special effects and animations. The popularity of a website can be increased if these special effects are implemented in the website. Furthermore, the development of a good video game requires the creativity of a multimedia designer as he or she has a very important part in the multimedia project team. Therefore, it is very essential for a multimedia designer to have a very good creativity.

3.0.3 Effective Communication Skills

Good and effective communication skills are of utmost importance for a multimedia designer as well. As mentioned above, the production of fine-quality high-end interactive multimedia applications such as games, interactive websites and educational applications are usually the hard work of a team of specialists and experts which includes the multimedia designer. Therefore, multimedia designers with excellent communication skills are required as they might have to interact with the rest of the team members when working on a project.

3.0.4 Adaptability and Flexibility

Basically, adaptability and flexibility refer to the ability to change one’s ideas or behaviour in order to deal with a new situation. Multimedia designers need to be adaptable in order to fulfil the needs of different types of companies and clients. Furthermore, a multimedia designer also has to be flexible as he or she might have to work for longer hours in order to meet the deadline for a particular project.

3.1 Information Acquired Gaining a Complete Perspective

Based on the assignment question given, I was asked to identify the people around me who can help me to acquire the information that I am looking for. Based on one of the interviewees who had answered the list of questions that I have prepared earlier, Dr Jack Clinton has told me and given some tips and advice on how to be an excellent multimedia designer. Dr Jack is an experienced multimedia designer in the New York City and we often communicate through the electronic mails.

He told me that having inspiration is preferably good for multimedia designers since they need new ideas that help them to create special effects in video games. Besides, being able to communicate effectively and having good teamwork skills are important as they might have to interact with other team members when working on large projects. Furthermore, he told me that it is very important for multimedia designers to have a very good creativity as they might have to create or to implement something different every time based on the requests of their clients. In addition, adaptability and flexibility is also important for a multimedia designer. Also, professional multimedia designers have to manage their time according to the urgency and importance of the projects.

Other than the personal qualities above, a multimedia designer should have other personal qualities such as self-confidence, interpersonal abilities, respectful and good-tempered as these qualities may help in their career advancement as well. Last but not least, a multimedia designer need to know some of the computing programs or software such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Dreamweaver, Macromedia Flash, and Microsoft PowerPoint in order to provide great ways to clients before the deadlines of the projects.

3.2 List of Questions to be asked

Is having inspiration necessary for a multimedia designer? Why?

Being able to communicate effectively is important for a multimedia designer. Why?

It is quite essential to have teamwork skills as a professional multimedia designer. Why?

Creativity is the key of being a successful multimedia designer. Why?

A multimedia designer needs to be adaptable and flexible. Why?

Is time management important as a multimedia designer? Why?

What are some other personal qualities needed in order to be a professional designer?

What type of programs should a multimedia designer know?

4.0 Conclusion

As a conclusion, having good personal qualities is significant for every job today. A person with good personal qualities can be successful by gaining respect in their careers. Therefore, I am required to have personal qualities such as creativity, teamwork skills, effective communication skills as well as adaptability and flexibility in order to obtain the job I want to venture in future, the multimedia designer. Besides, a multimedia designer should have some other personal qualities such as self-confidence, interpersonal abilities, respectful and good-tempered as these qualities may also help in their career advancement.

5.0 Introduction to Conflict

In general, conflict can be defined as the disagreement or opposition of interests, ideas or opinions which involves two or more parties whereby one of the parties is struggling over an opinion with the other party in terms of the differences of their experiences, cultures, values and beliefs.

Conflicts can be arose and occurred between friends, team members, family members, colleagues, workers, subordinates as well as with the superiors. In addition, conflicts can arise between employees and external stakeholders such as customers and suppliers. Thus, some people may get themselves into conflict when they feel that their identity in their workplace is threatened or when their needs are not met.

Of course, conflict can be either positive or negative, or even neutral depending on the way the participants of that conflict who approached it. Hence, a constructive conflict will be encouraged and a destructive conflict needs to be eliminated immediately. Therefore, the relationship between two people can be strengthened if the conflict is handled in a positive way while a relationship and businesses can be harmed dangerously if the conflict is mismanaged.

6.0 The conflict between me and John

John Tan is one of my best friends since I was studying in the secondary school. He is not only a best friend of mine now, but we are also working together as a team in the same organization. The both of us used to share our opinions and ideas together when there were projects going on in our company. We have no issues previously until the both of us were promoted to the position of senior sales executives.

Since the both of us are now the senior sales executives in the company, we are therefore assigned to work on a project in order to increase our sales target of the company. Therefore, I presented my ideas and opinions on that project to my other team members, but John disagreed with it and presented his own idea. However, our superior thought my presentation was a better choice and therefore has decided to go ahead with my proposal. In view of that, our superior has elected me to be the project manager of this project and gave me his authority. John then showed his dislike over the decision made by our superior and refused to cooperate with me on this project. From that day onwards, we were no longer on good terms and had become mere colleagues instead of best friends.

6.1 Sources of the Conflict

In my opinion, I think that the primary source of the above conflict is the value differences between John and me. There are individuals who see things differently in any of the workplaces, meaning that we have our own ideas and thoughts on a particular subject or topic as we both are the workers from the same workplace. In general, conflicts can arise when there is a lack of acceptance and understanding between the two parties. For example, John showed dislike and refused to cooperate with me throughout this project as his ideas were not accepted by our superior.

Personally, I think that John would have agreed about the primary source of this conflict. This is probably because of the difference in views between the two of us. Furthermore, our superior can actually agree on the opinions given by me as well as John and then make the both of us to cooperate in that project. Besides, I think that John is just unhappy and unsatisfied with the decision made by our superior. Therefore, I think that John would agree on the primary source which I have suggested above.

Apart from the primary source of this conflict, there are some secondary sources which have possibly caused the occurrence of this conflict as well. In my point of view, the poor communication between us is one of the secondary sources of this conflict. A poor communication between individuals in a team can actually lead the people involved or even the entire team to a high level of misunderstanding. In this case, John should not have opposed to the decision made by our superior. In fact, he should have identified the problems of his opinion and try to make a change of those mistakes.

In addition, difference of interests and clashes of personality between us have also played a significant role in our conflict. Usually, conflicts occur when two or more workers have to fight for their own goals instead of the company’s. For example, I have conflicts with John as my personal goals are different from John’s goals in the organization. Besides, different personalities of two individuals often clash in a workplace, especially when one party does not want to accept the other party’s views or ideas.

6.2 Ways to Approach the Conflict - Negotiation and Its Methods

Negotiation usually refers to the process in which two or more individuals or parties with common or conflicting interests decide on a specific issue by trying to resolve differences, solving problems and also by reaching an agreement. A good negotiation skill can lead to an agreement which is mutually beneficial. Therefore, it is important to put ourselves in the other party’s position in order to show that we fully understand their needs and concerns.

Generally, there are four different outcomes which can be resulted during the negotiation, which are the win-win, win-lose, lose-win and lose-lose outcomes. First of all, the win-win outcome produces the situation whereby both parties are satisfied with the settlement negotiated.

Besides, win-lose outcome produces a situation in which the initiator of the conflict is being satisfied while the other is being dissatisfied. Lose-win outcome results in the initiator being dissatisfied while the other is satisfied. Last but not least, lose-lose outcome occurs when an agreement cannot be reached upon between two parties.

However, the participants may choose one of five different negotiation methods as mentioned below during the negotiation process:

6.2.1 Compromise

Compromising refers to the process of settling differences through concessions made by one or both parties. Thus, it can either result in a win-win or win-lose situation. Both sides will be satisfied with the outcomes when the settlement meets the needs and goals of both parties. On the other hand, only one party will be satisfied with the outcome when the solution meets the needs and goals of only one party.

6.2.2 Collaboration

Collaboration usually involves parties cooperating to produce a solution satisfactory to both sides, whereby a win-win situation is achieved. By collaborating, personal relationships between two parties can be improved. Furthermore, collaboration also allows the exploration of new ideas. Therefore, permanent solutions for both parties can be achieved.

6.2.3 Competition

Usually, competition results in a situation whereby one party is gaining advantage over the other. Hence, it is bad for personal relationships as a win-lose result is often produced by the competitive approach. Since there will be no commitment from the losing party, the solution for this approach is believed to be temporary and the problem will soon occur again.

6.2.4 Accommodation

Typically, a party using the accommodation approach is willing to neglect its needs to meet the needs of the other party. A win-lose situation is often produced. However, this method is useful for negotiating on minor matters. It is suitable if the accommodating party does not really care about the loss. Therefore, points of views are easily swayed with this negotiation method.

6.2.5 Withdrawal or Avoidance

Withdrawal or avoidance is one of the negotiation methods used, in which both parties lose since one party retracts their point of view or backs away from the situation. In other words, the negotiation is broken off before either party can find a good solution. This may lead to conflict in the future.

7.0 Conclusion

In summary, conflicts can be arose and occurred when people’s needs are not met. In fact, everyone experiences conflict at some time as it is actually a part of life. Conflicts can be caused in the way where people interpret facts differently or even the way where people take action to satisfy their needs or personal goals. Of course, conflict can be either positive or negative, or even neutral depending on the way the participants of that conflict who approached it. Therefore, there are five different negotiation methods which can be used to resolve a conflict, which are compromise, collaboration, competition, accommodation, and withdrawal or avoidance.

8.0 Overall Conclusion

Based on this assignment, I have actually learnt about the importance about the business communication. Generally, communication can be in various forms such as written, spoken, graphic or even nonverbal. In fact, a successful interaction with clients, customers, and staff of organizations requires an effective communication. Try to imagine a business without communications; conflicts might be occurred every day in that organization. Therefore, an effective communication is very essential in the field or study of businesses.