Study Of Effective Business Communication On Competent And Incompetent Behaviours

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
Communication is an important aspect of all businesses. Effective business communication ensures achievement of goals. The functioning of organizations depends on communication. Effective communication may ensure proper functioning of the company. Business communication in the cross-cultural scenario involves the values and cultures of different countries. Cross-cultural communications take place in organizations that operate beyond the boundaries of one country. For such companies communication is the link that helps in exchange of values and culture of different countries within one organization (Padhi, 2016). The assignment focuses on providing an overview of academic literature related to communication practices in Australian businesses. The assignment discusses four competency behaviours for ten new employees. The assignment discusses two competency behaviours and two-incompetency behaviour. The reasons for the communicative behaviour being competent or incompetent are discussed. 

Effective business communication
Organizations take efforts to maintain smooth flow of communication within the organization. It is one of the most important phenomena in all organizations (Ferreira & Pellegrini, 2019). Organizations of all sizes ensure that the communication process ensures free flow of information and instructions. 

Organizations that employ staff from across the world take special care to ensure effective business communication within the organization. The organizations and the employees may ensure that they are aware of the norms and cultures of the nations they are going to work with. When people to one country come to work in an organization of another country, they may learn about the competent and incompetent communication behaviours of the country (Holmes & Parker, 2017). Communication styles of different countries are different. The communication pattern in Australia has its own unique characteristics. These characteristics affect the communication within the organizations. One of the important aspects of Australian culture is their punctuality. The Australians are particular about time. A number of companies focus on maintaining same level of respect with the employees. Employee engagement is encouraged in the business culture of the country. Another feature of Australian work place is that the employees try not to refuse extra work. The organizations in Australia encourage friendly work atmosphere. The employees often talk about what they did on the weekends (White, 2015).

Provide an overview of academic literature on Effective business communication practices/styles in Australian business
Workplace communication in different countries may be different. Effective employee communication results from factors like support from executives, communication capability of the employees, the environment in the organization and the culture of the organization. According to Liu, 2016), Australian society is an individualistic society. The Australian society emphasizes individual rights. The privacy and freedom of individuals are given importance. The culture of the country plays a significant role in defining business environment. The cultural characteristics determine the communication styles followed in the organizations. People in Australia give importance to independence. They focus on equality of individuals. Ambition and power are an important component of Australian culture and effective business communication. Being too early means showing over enthusiasm and being late is not acceptable. This characteristics is followed the workplace as well. Another important characteristic of Australian work culture is regarding casual conversations. According to Bohatko-Naismith et al. (2015), casual conversations are an important part of business lunch. The business lunch are kept short but such lunches start with casual conversations. Jumping straight to the topic of discussion is not accepted. Australian s like to social safter work. In Australia, there are no fixed or particular days that people choose for socializing. The employees may not mind spending time with colleagues after the work is over. The Australian has the unique characteristic of being relaxed even during stressful times. They relax and enjoy their life. The relaxing attitude of the Australians does not mean that they are not concerned about work. They focus on their work and work regularly. The Australians are well known for their hard work. Office hierarchy arte usually flat in the country. Hierarchy is negligible in the organizational culture of the country. The employees refusing any extra work ate considered to be incompetent. They are thought to be incapable of handling the work. People often distance themselves from such people. Work socializing mentioned in this study of Effective business communication is an important aspect of the Australian work culture. Australians often use blunt humour in the conversation process. They handle awkward situations through blunt humour. It is discussed in this Effective business communication that instead of letting horrible situations continue, they use humour to avoid or stop the continuation of awkward situation. This kind of humour may be harsh for people but it is part of the culture of the country. Australians are proud of their culture. They often use ethic epithets during conversation. Visitors may often get shocked with the use of such words during conversation. The Australian organizations are team focused. They encourage teamwork. The workplace is considered as fun with lots of joking and laughter. The co-workers do lot find such behaviour to be rude. Sincerity and authenticity is valued in the workplace. Pretentious behaviour is not considered acceptable. The colleagues try to be polite with each other.. Such conversations are present in all organizations. The Australians often talk about sports, holidays, food, weather movies and current events. The workplaces in Australia prefer formal dresses. The most common business attire for men is dark coloured business suits. Common business attire for woman is business suits or clothes with little decoration. People prefer to wear less amount of jewellery. Properly ironed clothes are preferred in the offices. The organizations are focused on policies and procedures that need to be framed and followed for effective business communication. Organizations are concerned about health and safety of the employees. Equal employment opportunities are important in the culture of the country.

Four recommendations on competent and incompetent business communication
Competent behavior 
Competent behaviour in effective business communication can predict the distinct employee outcomes. It measures the job satisfaction motivation as well as their commitment toward the organization. As it is evident, effective communication is proportionally related to the employee engagement to the company. The key difference between Australian and Indian workplace is the hierarchy and communication style, employee opportunities, organizational policies and procedures and so on. 

Understanding of cultural diversity: An effort to optimize communication between two different cultural individuals, each of them has to understand each other’s cultural perspective. However, it can introduce a certain amount of complexity in the communication.

Justification: In order to understand ones cultural behaviour it is important to have a basic understanding of the cultural diversity along with effective business communication, this is the main element to the cross-cultural communications. For having a clear understanding of a different culture, people do not have to get into the subculture; basic idea of the culture is enough. In order to cultivate competent behaviour it is not only important but also essential to have a sense of mutual acceptance (Warren, 2017). While working in a team that contain both Australian and Indian team member, they should appreciate each other’s effort to reach the organization’s objectives. In addition, a great way to accept each other’s cultural belief is to celebrate multicultural festivals in the organization (Fong, Catagnus, Brodhead, Quigley & Field, 2016). Acceptance is essential is every aspect of the organization to maintain a respectful workplace culture. 

Language assessment workshop: Though verbal communication is not always important but in some aspect of the organizations function. The fluency and the accent of Australian English are different from the English that the Indian employee speaks.

Justification: The competent behaviour of the employees of the organization discussed in this effective business communication reflects on the spoken as well as written language. The company should consider conducting a language assessment workshop (Folsom-Kovarik, Boyce & Thomson, 2018). This will help the Indian people to come up with their team members while working in a team. It is vital that during the course of this workshop the consultant should communicate with an understandable manner ("Australian Culture - Business Culture", 2019). The consultant will also have to consider the appropriate and preferable ideas with the cultural norm. In order to get complete benefit of these workshops the organizations have to appoint a consultant who is not only aware of Australian values but also Indian morals. Nevertheless, any effort by the organization will not be effective unless the individual working take necessary step to prevent any hindrance in the effective business communication in the workplace.

Incompetent behaviour
Refusal to take extra work: Every culture has features of its own. These characteristics are found in the work culture of the organizations. The features of Australian culture are visible in the Australian workplaces. Employees coming from other countries to work in Australian companies need to be aware of the aspects of the Australian culture. Certain behaviours are considered incompetent for effective business communication. One such behaviour is refusing to take extra work. Australians do not consider refusal to accept extra work as a good (Sendall et al. 2016). They do not refuse to take any extract work allotted to them. Refusing to take extra work is considered as incompetency on the part of the employees. People accept extra work even if they are busy or do not have the time e to take do any work. They accept such work saying that there is no problem. They show that they are comfortable with the work. The Australians have a relaxed attitude. They show that they are comfortable to with taking pressure. Any person refusing to accept extra job is often considered to be lacking in capability. Other people try to distance themselves from such people.

Justification
Expatriates from other countries need to be aware of this aspect of the country’s work culture. This behaviour may be stated as a competent behavior as it reflects the people’s eagerness’s towards work. They refuse to decline the work given to them. Employees coming from other countries need to be aware of this culture. Refusal to take extra work may be seen as rude behaviour. Expatriate employees may be considered incompetent for effective business communication. This may hinder their efficiency. If the co-workers treat them differently, the new employees may find it difficult to work in the company.

Showing rude behaviour towards blunt joking: Australians like to maintain a good mood in the workplace. Employees can be found joking with one another in the office (Tynan et al. 2017). They use joking to come out of awkward situations. Expatriates coming from other countries may be surprised at such behaviour of their Australian counterparts. As discussed in this effective business communication, people belonging to other cultures may find such behaviour in office surprising. Casual conversations are a part of the work culture of the country. Australian’s often indulge in such light conversations. The expatriates may not like it but avoiding or showing rude behaviour may not be acceptable in the workplace. The expatriates may be uncomfortable with such situations. However, showing rudeness in such cases may be considered as incompetent behaviour and inappropriate for effective business communication.

Justification
The Australians may use blunt joking in their conversations but they are hard working people. They do not compromise with their work. Showing rudeness towards blunt joking may not be liked people in the country. Such behaviour may be considered as incompetent behaviour because using blunt jokes is a part of Australian culture. Australian use joking as a means of avoiding awkward situations or avoiding unpleasant conversations (Dalton, D'Netto & Bhanugopan, 2015).

Conclusion
Different countries have different cultures. The features of the culture are evident in the workplaces. The effective business communication process in the organizations shows features of the country. The Australian workplaces depict the Australian cultures. Expatriates coming from other countries may learn about competent and incompetent behaviour in the workplaces. Knowledge of the norms of the workplaces may help expatriate employees in adjusting in the company and the country. The knowledge of the distinct features of the country may help the workers in understanding the effective business communication process of the organization. Learning about the culture of the country they are about to go to for work, may help people coming from other countries in being bussed to the norms of the country. Competent behaviours are the acceptable behaviours and incompetent behaviours are the unacceptable behaviours. Expatriates need to know the competent and incompetent behaviour.

References
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Dalton, L., D'Netto, B., &Bhanugopan, R. (2015).Cultural diversity competencies of managers in the Australian energy industry. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), 387-394. Retrieved from: https://www.aabss.org.au/system/files/published/001030-published-acbss-2015-sydney.pdf

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