Reflective Practice Assignment: Role of Communication in Shaping Relationships

Question

Task: The objective of this reflective essay is to summarize what you learned from the unit and how you believe your learnings could be applied by you in your future career goals.

Sections:Section one: For weeks one to ten you should identify one important or significant concept that you have learned about. You should define the concept and then explain why it is important to you in your current line of work. It is not enough to simply say that the concept is important, you will need to explain why. Section two: Based on your discussion of the ten significant concepts you should provide a literature review of one of the concepts. So for example, if you found that listening was an important communication concept then you should provide a literature review on the current academic understanding of the importance of listening within the work environment. Section three: Lastly, you will need to discuss how two of the ten concepts could be important to your future career aspirations. Here you will need to identify where you wish to be in 5 years’ time, and then discuss how you think these concepts/skills will help you meet your career goal. It is important that you are specific as possible. Your essay should follow the following structure:

Answer

Introduction: This Reflective Practice Assignment focuses on how Communication plays a key role in shaping professional as well as personal relationships. The following discussion would try to provide a basic understanding of communication, its various forms and their respective importance developed on the weekly readings of the unit Effective Business Communication. The discussion would start off with section one providing a brief of each of the weekly readings of the Unit, followed by section two including a literature review on one of the weekly readings, before moving on to section three discussing on two of the weekly reading concepts and their personal career purposes, before the conclusion section. Understanding how effective communication can shape professional as well personal aspirations is critical in this day and age. The following section provides an overview of the comprehensive concept on communication as followed in the Unit.

Section one:
a. Week one: This week focussed on the importance of communication in general. The week provided clear and basic understanding of communication. Communication as a concept can be defined as behaviour which can be perceived by another person. This is important in both professional and personal interactions. The Reflective Practice Assignment outlines how communication forms the basis upon which the organisational element is developed. This organisational quality of communication is important from the personal perspective on the basis of which society is developed and in a business environment, the communication helps in sustaining the overall organisation.

b. Week two: This week followed from the previous week’s learning and introduced and elaborated upon non-verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is any form of communication wherein words are not used. The importance of this concept can be noted in the light of the fact that meanings are interpreted by others majorly through non-verbal means. For example, in present day marketing non-verbal communication is implemented by focussing on brand image, which in turn is again impacted by various factors like mode of doing business, value for money and others (Gensler, Völckner, Egger, Fischbach & Schoder, 2015). As such, understanding non-verbal communication is hugely important.

c. Week three: This week emphasised on business writing as a form of communication. The concept of business writing is important because of the purpose that it serves. Business writing is generally intended to help in decision making change behaviours and maintain stakeholder engagement among others (Nickerson & Bargiela-Chiappini, 2014). By considering the purpose of the communication business writing needs to be effective.

d. Week four: Week four had academic writing as its focus. Academic writing is defined as any form of assignment specific writing which has been allocated by the university or the college or the school. It is important to consider how to properly write academic papers, as it not only helps in acquiring good grades, but also provides the writer with an understanding of his/her abilities and learning.

e. Week five: In week five writing a literature review and its importance within the scope of Academic writing was focussed on. Literature review as a concept is often defined as secondary research activity (Hart, 2018). Generally it considers the various research articles on the topic related to the academic writing assignment and analyses those to structure its own arguments. Knowing how to conduct literature review properly is essential as it helps in developing a basic understanding of the topic and also in framing the right arguments for or against the topic.

f. Week six: This week focussed on public speaking as a form of communication. Public speaking is generally defined as the act of speaking to an audience, generally from a public stage on a particular topic. It is important to understand how public speaking can be made the most effective. This is because public speaking is one of the most persuasive communication methods and also can be used to influence a large audience within a short period of time (McCroskey, 2015).

g. Week seven: Week seven considered the importance of inter-cultural communication. The concept can be defined as the way in which interaction between individuals belonging to seemingly different cultural backgrounds can be facilitated effectively. This concept is all the more important at present because companies around the world are trying to diversify in terms of their human resources capabilities. Employees from different cultural and social backgrounds would have to be communicated effectively in order that the confusion can be minimised and they can work in the most harmonious way possible.

h. Week eight: Week eight focussed on organisational communication and how it is affected by the organisational structure. Organisational communication concept is important as functions within organisations are not always the same. Hence, in order to bring out the best among the employees engaged in the various functions, organisational communication needs to be aligned to serve the purpose of each of those functions.

i. Week nine: This week was based on understanding the concepts of group and teams. The concept is important in order to identify the needs of group development and how effective teams can work. Also, the differences between group and team were discussed understanding which is important in order to understand the accountability of the members in groups and teams and how roles can be delegated and/or performed.

j. Week ten: This week focussed on interpersonal and intrapersonal communication concepts. The concept of interpersonal communication and improving the same is important as it helps in building effective relationships that are likely to help in various situations including man-management, settling confusions, working out solutions to problems and others.

Section two
The Reflective Practice Assignment outlines how Cross cultural or inter-cultural communication has been noted to be one of the most defining features of the present day globalisation (Mead & Jones, 2017). Zheng & Zhao (2012) note that inter-cultural communication has become immensely important because of the various ways in which international capital at present flows within the globalised context, the scope and opportunities of labour mobility and product development and distribution among other causes. As such, it becomes critical to understand how such opportunities and scopes can be maintained in order to develop a basis for resource advantage (Sorrells, 2015). In other words, inter-cultural communication if becomes effective, it can facilitate various opportunities and scopes for globalised businesses. The importance of appropriate inter-cultural communication is also seen in the ways in which more effective business strategies can be taken (Warren, 2017).

Furthermore, Ting-Toomey and Dorjee (2017) note that because of personal identity issues and situated socio-cultural membership, it becomes important to study and understand how cross cultural and inter-cultural communication can be effectively impacted. In business dealings and stakeholder management across various cultural regions, such understanding is important to influence how interpretations of communication signs can be impacted (Kinloch & Metge, 2014). Therefore, it can be understood, how inter-cultural communication can be seen as being critical to serve the purpose of present day business and how impacting it would help in realising the opportunities.

Section three
Presently I find myself to be lacking in inter-personal skills. As I have understood inter-personal communication is critical not only for business purposes, but also in personal life. Moreover, as indicated in the previous section, effective inter-cultural communication being crucial in this day and age, having great inter-personal skills would enhance the inter-cultural communication for me. So, five years from now, I would like to view myself in a position where I can effectively negotiate with various stakeholders and consider myself as someone with good inter-personal skills. In doing so, I would enrol in a soft skills workshop which would likely prepare me for the same.

The Reflective Practice Assignment also outlines the links of inter-personal skill is the skill of public speaking. I would like to see myself giving great presentations and even inspiring talks to a large audience in another five years. I at present do have a fair bit of public speaking skill, since I have given a few presentations previously, and participated in some form of debate, but catering to a larger audience would require a whole new level of commitment and courage as well. Honing public speaking, I think, can be started off small by reviewing the speeches of great orators, noticing their body language and how they try to persuade the audience. By observing them, I can develop my own style and over time, surely build my confidence where I can speak in front of a larger audience.

Conclusion
This Reflective Practice Assignment has outlined various aspects to communication apart from the various methods in which it can be conducted and also the purpose that it serves. Inter-cultural communication at present has become one of the most important aspects of business communication owing to the effects of globalisation. Personally, I would like to hone my interpersonal and public speaking skills to achieve my career goals. Understanding these various forms of communication and their applicability to various personal and professional scopes is certainly important. Reflective practice assignments are being prepared by our management homework help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable best assignment help service.

References
Gensler, S., Völckner, F., Egger, M., Fischbach, K., & Schoder, D. (2015). Listen to your customers: Insights into brand image using online consumer-generated product reviews. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 20(1), 112-141.

Hart, C. (2018). Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Research Imagination. Sage. Kinloch, P., & Metge, J. (2014). Talking past each other: problems of cross cultural communication. Victoria University Press.

McCroskey, J. C. (2015). An introduction to rhetorical communication. Routledge. Mead, R., & Jones, C. J. (2017). Cross?Cultural Communication. The Blackwell Handbook of Cross?Cultural Management, 283-291.

Nickerson, C., & Bargiela-Chiappini, F. (2014). Business writing as social action. In Writing Business (pp. 19-50). Routledge.

Sorrells, K. (2015). Intercultural communication: Globalization and social justice. Sage publications.

Ting-Toomey, S., & Dorjee, T. (2017). 7 Multifaceted identity approaches and cross-cultural communication styles: Selective overview and future directions. Handbook of intercultural communication, 141-177.

Warren, T. L. (2017). Cross-cultural Communication: Perspectives in theory and practice. Routledge.

Zheng, L. Z., & Zhao, Y. (2012, November). Literature review on the effect of cross-cultural experience on promoting creativity. In Management of Technology (ISMOT), 2012 International Symposium on (pp. 400-404). IEEE.