Effective business communication as a key skill for the career development of young professionals

Анотація

business communication career growth

Пропонована стаття присвячена розгляданню важливості покращення навичок ділового спілкування у молодих фахівців. Останнім часом в Україні відбувається суттєве реформування системи освіти згідно з постійно змінюваною політичною ситуацією в світі, новими потребами суспільства в ХХІ столітті, змінами в житті й свідомості громадян, що зумовлює пошук нових шляхів формування особистості фахівця, здатного до ефективної взаємодії й комунікації з представниками інших культур, готовим до діяльності у полікультурному середовищі. З поширенням міжнародних зв'язків, освітніх міжнародних програм у сучасному суспільстві все більшого розвитку набуває туризм, який поряд із розважальною має культурну, освітню та виховну функції. Відтак зростає роль професійної підготовки фахівців, здатних до ефективної міжкультурної взаємодії, оскільки їхня діяльність в значній мірі пов'язана з налагодженням контактів з представниками різних культур. У період просування України шляхом Європейської інтеграції та зростаючого інтересу міжнародного бізнесу до розвитку економіки України особливо гостро стоїть питання підготовки молодих спеціалістів, які не тільки знають англійську мову - мову бізнесу, а й володіють основними навичками бізнес-комунікації (надалі - БК).

У статті розглянуто проблеми оволодіння навичками ділового спілкування молодими фахівцями у вищих навчальних закладах. Нами розроблено рекомендації щодо підвищення ефективності ділового спілкування. Мета науково-дослідної роботи полягає в теоретичному обґрунтуванні та презентації нестандартних інтерактивних засобів і форм навчання, орієнтованих на формування навичок ділового спілкування у студентів. Загальновідомо, що життєздатність бізнесу безпосередньо залежить від уміння працівників встановлювати та підтримувати ділові контакти з персоналом, споживачами та діловими партнерами. У зв'язку з цим важливим є підвищення рівня володіння навичками ділового спілкування, що і визначає актуальність даної роботи.

Ключові слова: бізнес комунікації, комунікативний стиль, корпоративна комунікація, комунікативна компетенція.

To be an effective communicator you need to know the importance of communication skills, both in your personal life and your career. You also need to know how communication psychology and evolving technologies affect your communication skills. Given a situation requiring speaking, listening, reading, and writing you will be able to do the following when you master: 1) Identify the kinds and levels of communication skills needed for success in your personal life, your personal business activities, and your chosen career; 2) Select and use verbal and nonverbal communication to make your message effective; 3) Demonstrate your understanding of how the levels of human needs and how human relations affect the communication process; 4) Describe the impact that communication technology has made and will further make on all your roles as a communicator; 5) List ways that office technology - such as word processing, information processing, telecommunications, and networking - affect the communication process.

The exchange of messages between and among human beings is known as communication. We send and receive messages in a variety of ways. Methods of message transmissions include speaking, writing, gestures, and facial expressions. Listening, reading, and observing are the means we use to receive the message sent. The most difficult task involved in communication process is ensuring that a receive interprets as the sender meant it to be interpreted. Miscommunication can occur easily in any situation - especially in our electronic age, where even the pressing of a button can send an incorrect.

To communicate effectively, you need to develop your abilities in speaking, writing, listening, reading, and observing. The English Business Communication course, or Business Communications, is designed to meet these challenges. Young professionals face the problem of organizing business communications when doing business with foreign partners. In this regard, it is essential to improve the efficiency level of BC skills, which determines the relevance of this paper. Knowledge and skills in the field of BC can be a decisive factor for successful career development of young professionals. And the main task English language teachers facing, according to the researcher of the intercultural aspect of BC teaching Bondarenko Y.I., is to overcome «a poor level of teaching communicative competence among students...». (Bondarenko, 2007:27)

The aim of the publication is to develop recommendations for improving the BC skills of future specialists. In order to achieve the set goals the following tasks were solved: we have considered the role of BC for successful development of international business, and we proposed recommendations for improving the BC effectiveness.

Business communication is very important for a successful business because any business organization structure is made up of people. According to Robert Kent, a professor at Harvard Business School, «In business, communication is everything». (Kent, 2005:19) The changing environment and increasing complexity of the 21st-century workplace make communication even more important. The more horizontal structure of organizations, a more diverse work base in terms of age, education, training, and the use of teamwork methods make communication essential to an organization's business success. The horizontal structure of organizations means that managers communicate with many people over whom they may have no formal control. The times when a manager only gave orders were over. The management model of past generations is increasingly replacing collaborative management, where communication is the key to building trust and understanding and motivating employees. Companies are realizing the advantage of fully utilizing the creativity, talents, experience, and perspectives of a diverse work base. Teamwork is the modus operandi of the 21st-century organization, and teamwork is about constant communication.

Business communication is the communication used to establish partnerships, intellectual resources, promote ideas, products, services, and create favourable business conditions. BC covers a variety of topics, including marketing, customer relations, consumer behaviour, advertising, public relations, media relations, corporate communication, public affairs, interpersonal relations, and online communication and event management (Holdin, 2007:67).

Studies of the last decades have shown that BC skills are crucial for successful operations and creating a positive image in the society (Kent, 2005:21).

BC is important for both individuals and organisations. Ineffective BC is very costly for a business. Many successful firms spend billions annually just on training their staff to improve their BC skills, so preference is given to those who already have good business communication skills. People who do not know how to communicate properly in writing and orally are not hired, and if they are, they are unlikely to be extended or promoted (Nelke, 2006).

Eighty per cent of companies operating in the international and tourism business offer a written test to prospective employees to assess their BC skills. These trends are also typical for large Ukrainian companies and firms that use foreign experience in hiring and training.

Research over the past decades has shown that business communication skills are the cornerstone for professionals who spend 75 to 80 percent of their time engaging in various forms of written or oral communication. Often referred to as a 'soft' skill, business communication in a business organization provides a critical link between the core functions of the organization. Bob Carry, president of the New York School University and chairman of the National Commission on Business Correspondence believes that «business correspondence is an 'indicator' of high-skilled, high-paying, professional work. People who cannot express themselves clearly in writing limit their opportunities for professional, high-paying work». (Carry, 2005).

No matter what occupation you select you will need to deal with communication in the world of work. In your work environment you will interact with coworkers, superiors, subordinates, customers, suppliers, and machines. You will be involved in face-to-face dialogues, telephone conversations, conferences, and committee meetings. All these activities will require you to exercise your speaking and listening expertise. Media such as forms, letters, memorandums, reports, bulletins, news releases, newsletters, and employee handbooks require reading and writing skills. Your job may involve reading as well as writing some of these documents. You may also be asked to generate letters to customers and suppliers, memos to coworkers or subordinates, reports to superiors, or any of the other written documents.

Since communication has such a major effect on our lives and since everyone is a communicator, it is very important for us to understand what happens when people communicate. If we look at people who are effective communicators, we find out that they apply effectively the principles of human behavior. What do we know about human behavior? Many problems from communication mishap are caused by a lack of understanding of human behavior. Continued research in psychology, sociology, and anthropology contributes to our understanding of human behavior and helps us to apply its principles to communication psychology. Psychologists study individual behavior; sociologists, group behavior; anthropologists, cultural behavior. Their studies provide us with theories that are useful in understanding human behavior. As a communicator you must realize that all human beings have certain needs at certain times. These needs determine our behavior and the goals we set for ourselves. A successful communicator has the ability to understand the needs of those who will receive his or her message. A successful communicator speaks and writes with the receivers needs in mind at all times. To be a successful communicator you must try to determine the needs of people to whom you are writing or speaking. You can do this by noticing which goals seem to motivate them. We must always put ourselves in the place of our receiver, decide his or her needs, and then phrase our message to meet these needs.

Our Language affects our behavior as well. The words we use can make us behave in different ways. To communicate successfully, we must remember that words are only symbols; meaning is added by people. Two people may interpret the same word differently. At the same time, words also have different kinds of meanings. The denotative meaning, the one that appears in the dictionary, is one kinds; the feelings and impressions the word invokes, the connotative meaning, is another. The total meaning you get from the word is a combination of its denotation and connotation. If a supervisor wished to describe an employee who did not give up easily, that supervisor could use terms such as persistent, tenacious, persevering, obstinate, stubborn, or unyielding, depending upon how the supervisor felt about the person being described. All these words have essentially the same denotation - following through regardless of the obstacles. But they differ substantially in connotation. A noted semanticist coined the terms purr words and snarl words to refer to the words that affect people's emotions either positively or adversely. Purr words are ones such as beautiful, kindness, freedom, successful, persevering, and slender. People usually respond warmly to them because of their strong connotation of goodness. Snarl words such as cheap, negligent, fraud, delinquent, obstinate, and scrawny stimulate distasteful images. Effective business communicators generally rely on purr words and avoid snarl words to convey their messages. They are also aware that the same words can convey different meanings to different people.

Modern technology makes it possible to send oral and written messages around the world in just a matter of seconds. Computers and electronic transmission systems have enabled business and government to speed up and improve the communication process. As a result, communicators today must be able to apply communication psychology as well as use communication technology to develop their oral and written messages. Data, voice, and graphic networks supply the technology for rapid communication and decision making. These networks are composed of computer-based systems that «talk» to each other so that voices, images, and written data can be transmitted electronically and instantaneously. Within the last three decades, these engineering new technology has caused a revolution in human communications. Civilization has progressed from tediously chiseling into rock signs and symbols to instantaneously communicating messages by machines. Human beings, however, must still generate messages processed by these machines. People are responsible for the content, organization, wording, and format of the information processed. Therefore, users of modern technology must be skilled in communication process. The study of principles and concepts of BC will prepare students to make effective use of communication technology found in modern office today.

Even in the era of automated communication technology, the written word has survived. It is still the basic tool with which ideas, especially in business, are presented. Whether you are writing in longhand or keyboarding on a word processor, you must give life to your ideas. Knowing how to use the principles of effective writing will help students to accomplish this.

English is a medium of communication. According to the Merriam- Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, communication is «the process of exchanging information between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, and behaviours». In other words, it is the transfer of ideas and information. Formal or informal, including various forms of interaction between members of the organisation, high-quality BC is, first and foremost, an important language skill and ability. It is well known that English has become the language of international communication. In the context of Ukraine's expanded economic and cultural ties, its business aspect, which is necessary for representatives of various professions, has become in demand. An important step in this direction was Ukraine's accession to the Bologna Process and the formation of a new view on the development of the most indemand competencies of a future specialist.

It would be of great use to include a special course in the training program for future specialists called «Business Communication Skills». Inviting foreign experts to conduct lectures, seminars, and workshops not only in core disciplines but also in business communications, and participating in grants and joint projects will significantly increase the competitiveness and demand for graduates in the labour market, as they will gain certain knowledge and skills in business communications. It is also necessary to diversify the methodology of conducting classes, including such interactive methods of business communication as roleplaying games, case studies, presentations, and project defense. The role-playing games used in the Business Communications course are always close to real-life production situations. Students learn to solve real problems that arise in the workplace, thus preparing them for their future professional activities. In the course of a role-playing game, students always use their knowledge creatively, choose the necessary vocabulary and grammar, and overcome psychological barriers. The use of role-playing games at all stages of foreign language teaching contributes to the effectiveness of the learning process by increasing motivation and interest in the subject matter being studied (Nahai, 2013).

Integration processes in politics, economics, education, and culture have a significant impact on setting goals, objectives and content of business communication teaching. Knowledge of English and mastery of business and professional communication skills are considered as demanded qualities of future specialists - graduates of higher educational institutions, and therefore, the status of this discipline in the modern development of society is increasing.

In this way the knowledge in specialty acquired by students is very important, but not sufficient to guarantee successful career promotion. At the same time, business communication skills are vital.

Thus, the article discusses the problems and develops recommendations for improving the effectiveness of future specialists' business communication. We believe that it is extremely necessary to include relevant special courses in the existing English language study programs, which provide an opportunity not only to broaden the worldview in the field of philology and linguistics, to realize the interest in the subject, but also to test their professional orientation, and most importantly - to master foreign language professional communicative competence. It allows the use of a foreign language as a means of business communication to solve specific problems in situations of business interaction. While recognizing the priority of Western BC traditions due to their linguistic and economic position in the world, it should be remembered that Ukraine, like other Eastern European countries, has its own communication style, generously seasoned with national character and new economic realities. In addition, when training future specialists in the field of foreign economic activity and international business, it is necessary to use new, interactive, professionally oriented methods alongside traditional teaching methods.

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References