There are five characteristics of any business setting that have a sound bearing on communication. The business world is complex, competitive, group oriented, and data based.
a- Complex: All business is done through some kind of organization. That organization may be small neighborhood grocery store operated by a family. It may be a large international corporation that employs thousands of people. But has complex. This is true because any organization demands communication and action among people to accomplish its goals.
In very large organizations, communication must follow established networks. The person must know about the chains of command. You must know the person to people who make certain decisions or you have made. If the person fail to understand and use those communication networks, you have communication problems without realizing the reason.
In a more complex organization, the person must make decisions about communication that depend on individual status or power. The person must decide what kind of communication he or she need to use in getting a message to him or her boss. The person also need to decide how best to communicate with co-workers. If he or she fail to make these decisions before communicating, the person will limit how successful he can be.
b- Competitive: Business compete with one another to deliver the best goods or services to their customers. Your ability to communicate with clients or customers makes a difference in success in his job. However business is a competitive world in another way, too. The person compete with others in his organization for recognition. A promotion –even continued employment- can depend on that ability. In a very real way, competition influences all the business communication.
A special communication problem comes from this characteristic. Although the person compete with others he will also be expected to be a part of the team competing with other businesses. He must select appropriate and nondestructive ways to communicate within the organization. This not easy. It requires a careful working knowledge of communication and a desire to use communication skills effectively.
c- Group Oriented: Much of the communication in businesses takes place in a group setting. The ability to function well in a group is way important for success in businesses. If the communication behavior in a group is negative, it will block ability to function. It will endanger the group. It may even endanger the person’s own job success. If he brings personal emotions such as anger or jealousy into a sales meeting, he cannot communicate effectively in the group. If he dominate a group meeting failing to allow anyone else to express ideas, he is blocking the group’s effectiveness. On the other hand, if he fail to contribute anything in a group meeting he is equally in effective. Understanding and applying the communication behaviors needed for a group to function can be a real assets in his job.
d- Task Oriented: Every business has a task-it must sell something, either a product or a service. The individual’s success within the business depends on how well he or she helps it accomplish its task. As a part of the organization, he or she helps it accomplish its task in the way he or she communicate both with others inside the business and with those outside. Business letters, public speeches, and participation in civic groups assist the organization in accomplishing its tasks. Realizing that the organization exists in order to accomplish a task will help the individual be a better employee.
e- Data Based: Business in the latter half of the twentieth century are forced to process greater and greater amounts of information for use within the organization and for accountability outside it. As a consequence, today’s business are increasingly dependent on information technology, and the ability communicate with machines, to store and retrieve information, is a vital communication tool for employees.
Two writers Carter and Huzan(1981), studied the nature of a business in a terms of data –or information- related processes. They concluded that the following processes are involved:
- People-to-people communication (telephone)
- People-to-paper communication (typing)
- Paper-to-paper transfer (copying)
- Paper-to-file transfer (storing)
- Files-to-people transfer (information retrieval)
In many cases, an employee will have to acquire skills specific to a wide variety of automation devices in order to function in an existing position. Fear, resistance, or the inability to acquire the skills will create a job threatening situation.
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