EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Introduction
For communication to be termed as effective, the language used should make sense and be understood by the relevant parties within the context. It’s through the language usage that we are able to communicate or miscommunicate. So, we must be careful about how we speak it out. Sometimes it can be frustrating to express our most intimate thoughts especially to make the audience understand. In order to avoid some of the communication obstacles, some of  the language usage trends we should avoid include: clichés, jargons, slangs, sexist and racist language, euphemisms and doublespeak. These are discussed as follows:
A cliché’ is a saying that is overused in a culture to the point of losing its original meaning. They often sound boring and they are sometimes a symptom of lazy communication. They no longer have any relevance or noticed (Smith, 2015). They are just those clever words or phrases which have lost their impact because of being overused. An example of business cliché’ is “with all due respect” if a person starts a sentence with that, it shows that the person is about to disrespect you.
Jargons are occupation-specific languages which are used by people in different professions. They may not imply formal education but have their main focus on the language used by people to communicate with each other in the profession. In almost all the occupations, Jargons exists. They are also independent of the formal education which the participants have (every business has its jargon). Like in preparing a presentation to be presented to potential customers thoroughly planning and research will be needed to make sure that the audience understands it easily. An example of a business jargon is “Think outside the box” meaning don’t limit your thinking, it encourages creativity with regards to your job description. (McLean, S. 2010)

            Slangs entail the usage of newly invented words instead of using the standard or the professional words in the business environment in order to add humor. They are made to be used in unprofessional and informal contexts but not in environments were seriousness is a key factor. They can however be used among friends or members of same age groups rather than in professional environments like business context. An example of slang is, “TBH” meaning to be honest so in a business communication level, someone cannot understand that.
Sexist and Racist language
A sexist and racist language is the use of discriminative language in the line of gender and racism as the main factors. Such a language can have huge negative impacts on the business considering the fact that customers are of different races as well as gender. An example of this is referring to “adult women” as “girls” or referring to “women” as “chicks”. Also, at work to discriminate against people because of their skin color
Euphemisms
Mainly, euphemism entails the substitution of acceptable words for other offensive, unacceptable and controversial words that bring about same or similar meanings. This language can be used in the context to bring humor or sarcasm but not in the business context because they are generally more of hindrance than helping people to understand. Considering that communication in a business context is aimed at achieving clarity, this language may not be appropriate because its very purpose is to achieve vague. So, we must be clear about what we are saying by choosing words that mean what one intends to convey. An example of the euphemism is saying someone “died” instead of saying “passed away”. (McLean, S. 2010)
Doublespeak
Doublespeak entails the usage of words with an aim of obscuring, disguising or changing meaning. It is a common form of language in bureaucratic communication where it serves to cast an organization or a person in a lesser unfavorable way than the plain language would do. In a business context, this language can be very dangerous because it obscures the real meaning and the listener cannot predict or anticipate the consequences based on the language used by the communicator (McLean, 2010).  An example that happened to me and caused misunderstanding to the receiver, was when I was in a church meeting and then someone was busy talking too much the things that were not necessary for the meeting and as I was trying to let her know I said, “with all due respect can you please try to talk things related to the meeting”. All of a sudden there was an awkward moment and she reacted badly, she took it in a bad way, but my intention wasn’t to say it bad.
In conclusion, all these six barriers equally contributes to misunderstandings and miscommunications, intentional or unintentionally. In a business context, the goal of communication is to clearly and concisely ensure that the parties involved understand each other effectively. So, these and other unprofessional language usage approaches hinders the achievement of this goal and may have huge negative impacts. Therefore, effective communication is the one major factor that plays a very important role to make things done in a right way in the business environment. That is why we must reinforce the relationship inherent between source and receiver by reducing obstacles to effective communication.

References

McLean, S. (2010) Business Communication for Success.

Smith .J, (2015) 26 Annoying Phrases You Should Stop Using At Work from             http://www.businessinsider.com/business-clichs-to-cut-from-your-vocabulary-2014-12