Professional communications: means, functions, principles of organizing the process

Professional communications are a prerequisite for allowing company employees to effectively interact with each other. The pace of work of the entire enterprise directly depends on how quickly and easily the transfer of information occurs.

Professional communications play an important role when a manager makes the most effective decisions and communicates them to the team. If they are poorly established, then this threatens the emergence of negative consequences, which can be expressed in errors in the chosen decisions, in the emergence of misunderstandings between employees and the manager, as well as in the deterioration of interpersonal relationships.

Definition of the concept

Professional communications are interactions carried out in the sphere of official relations. Their main goal is to achieve the intended results, solve assigned tasks, and optimize certain activities. Moreover, each of the participants in professional communications has his own status, being a boss, subordinate, colleague or partner.

In cases where people at different levels of the career ladder (executor and manager) communicate with each other, we can talk about subordinate communications. After all, the vertical relationship is clearly visible here. When implementing interaction based on the principle of equal cooperation, we can talk about horizontal communications.

Relevance of the issue

People encounter professional communication every day. It occurs at work and in schools, universities and official institutions. This is communication between students and teachers, subordinates and superiors, competitors, partners and colleagues. In order to achieve the goal set before him, each person must be familiar with the means and principles of such communications, because partners need to communicate in the same language (both literally and figuratively), have a common social experience and understand each other.

Compliance with the basic conditions of business communication

How to make communication in professional activities as effective as possible? To do this, you will need to fulfill a number of conditions. First of all, communication must have a clear purpose. At the same time, the interest of all persons involved in this process is important in achieving it. An example would be concluding an agreement, establishing connections, coordinating events, developing the most favorable terms of cooperation, etc.

All participants in professional and business communication need to communicate with each other, and do this regardless of personal likes or dislikes. In this case, observance of subordination, job roles, business etiquette and formal restrictions is mandatory. The latter concept implies not only the implementation of various protocols, routines and regulations, but also the banal need to control the strength of one’s own emotions and respect the interlocutor.

In addition, one of the necessary conditions for the most effective implementation of business communication in professional activities is its controllability. The head of the company, as the person most interested in solving the problems facing the team, must first take care of such a moment. It is important for him to motivate his employees to find the optimal solution, because otherwise they will remain passive observers who do not offer any ideas.

Rules of communication

The more competent a person behaves in a professional environment, the better others treat him.

5 rules of communication in a business environment:

• Focus on mutual understanding

Business communication has the goal of finding a compromise. It is customary to be ready and open to perceive and exchange information with a partner. It was unethical to provoke the interlocutor into conflict or avoid contact. Attention, respect and interest in the interlocutor’s speech is expressed in looks, gestures, and the ability to listen without interrupting.

• Speech should be clear, intelligible, unhurried and non-monotonic.

In general, any extremes in speech should be avoided. When a person speaks too quietly, indistinctly, quickly or, conversely, too slowly, his speech is difficult to perceive, becomes incomprehensible and unpleasant.

In addition, if the subject speaks moderately loudly and extremely clearly, his partners get the idea that he is a mature person and a confident person.

• Thoughtfulness of speech

The speech must be composed, or better yet, written down. Before starting a conversation, business people note for themselves topics and issues that require discussion. A report or public speech is built according to plan, the introduction, the main part and final conclusions, and results are written.

• Ability to ask both open and closed questions

The answer will depend on how the question is asked. If the question requires a “yes” or “no” answer, the interlocutor will have to answer clearly; if the question remains open, he will have the opportunity to express his point of view. Questions that are too direct or tactless should be avoided.

• Unacceptability of long phrases and complex sentences. Short, meaningful phrases save time and simplify the perception of information.

Compliance with all the principles and rules may seem problematic, but difficulties are overcome by working on oneself. The ability to communicate in a business environment comes with experience in business interaction.

Business communication tools

Professional communication is the meaningful desire of one person or a whole group of people to motivate one employee or the entire team to take action that can somehow change the situation or turn the conversation in a different direction.

There are a number of tools available to achieve this. Thus, the means of professional communication include:

1. Regular mail. Of all the means of business communication, it is the most ancient. And in this regard, traditional mail has a number of disadvantages. They consist in the low speed of message transmission, more complex design of letters (compared to other types of communications), etc. And this is not to mention the fact that this system does not always work at the proper level. But regular mail is still used today as a means of professional communications. Its main advantage is a very acceptable method of transferring important documents between partners. In business relations, a method such as sending telegrams can be used. This service is also provided by mail.
2. Telephone communications. This is a very efficient means of business communication. However, telephone negotiations have no legal force. This point should be taken into account when using professional communications, using other means.
3. Email. This relatively new means of business communication enjoys well-deserved popularity. One of its main advantages is the combination of the form of written communications (fixed text) with the qualities that oral communication has, in the form of speed of information transfer and the ability to receive an almost instant response. Such qualities make it possible to make e-mail one of the main means used for transmitting informal messages.
4. Fax machine. Using a special device, you can very quickly transfer a copy of any document to your partner. Speed ​​is the undoubted advantage of faxing. However, documents transferred in this way do not have legal force, because they do not have original signatures and seals. That is why, in most cases, fax as a means of communication is used only for the prompt transmission of documents. They can be accepted for execution only if the originals are sent after them by regular mail. It is worth keeping in mind that using faxes it is prohibited to transmit documents marked “For official use” or “Secret”.

Language of communication in the business environment

The concept of "language" is used to refer to the system of signs through which people think and speak. It is also a way of expressing a person's self-awareness.

The language of business communication is an official business style of speech intended for communicative interaction in a professional business environment, as well as other related areas.

Business language is a system of communication in oral and written form that regulates working relationships.

The official style of writing has the following features:

• concise presentation of information;
• strictly required form;
• special terminology, cliches, clericalism;
• narrative nature of written speech;
• almost complete absence of emotionally expressive means of speech.

Business oral speech has three components:

• content component (characterized by clarity and logic);
• expressive component (characterizes the emotional side of information);
• incentive component (recognized to influence the feelings and thoughts of the interlocutor).

The language of business communication of the subject of interaction is assessed according to the following indicators:

1. Lexicon. The larger it is, the more expressive and effective the speech is. Moreover, the interlocutor is a literate, educated, cultured person.
2. Vocabulary composition. In addition to how many words a person knows, what kind of words they are is equally important. Words used in common parlance, as well as obscene and slang expressions are unacceptable in the business environment.
3. Pronunciation. The written language of the organization is the official state language of the country or the international business language (English). Business communication in the form of oral speech is complemented by pronunciation. It is customary to speak in a dialect that is closest to the literary language.
4. Stylistics and grammar. The language must be literate. Correct direct word order in a sentence, absence of tautology, filler words, etc.

Business conversation

The basis of professional communication has always been and remains oral contact. It is carried out between people who are interconnected by the interests of the business, and also have the necessary powers to solve problems that have arisen and establish partnerships.

Such conversations are a means of professional communication, containing all the advantages that telephone communication and the exchange of written information lack. The fact is that business communication:

• carried out in conditions of close contact, when it is possible to focus one’s attention on only one interlocutor or on a small group of people;
• creates conditions under which it is possible to establish personal relationships;
• involves direct contact.

Business conversation primarily refers to oral speech. And it, in comparison with the written form, has a number of significant differences. During such a conversation, it becomes possible to directly influence the interlocutor or a group of people. In this case, gestures and facial expressions, intonation, etc. are used. In addition, direct communication does not leave time for preliminary thinking. That is why in a business conversation, casual forms of communication are often used, and some stylistic and grammatical features also occur.

Business conversation, used as the basis for professional communication, is distinguished primarily by the logic of constructing thoughts. Based on existing practice, it can be argued that businessmen who have excellent judgment and concepts, who are able to convincingly prove and make correct conclusions, achieve success much faster than those business people who do not possess these skills.

Professional conversation is characterized by its own psychological culture. It lies in the ability of interlocutors to make a good impression on others, create a friendly meeting atmosphere, use special techniques that protect against incorrect questions, listen to their opponents to the end and, if necessary, refute their arguments, use techniques that allow for conflict-free communication.

Stages and forms of business communication

Communication is the process of establishing and developing contacts between people and groups of people. The nature of communication is determined by the goals of joint activity, and therefore can be different.

Business communication is a type of communication, the specifics of which are determined by the impossibility of professional and other related activities outside of communications with other people.

Business communication is a type of communication in which information is exchanged in the socio-legal and economic sphere of human activity in order to solve a specific problem (commercial, industrial, scientific and others).

In addition to business, there are secular, formal-role, intimate-personal, and manipulative types of communication. A distinctive feature of business communication is that the subject of communication is always significant, and the subject of communication is clearly defined and well known.

Business communication consists of stages:

1. Establishing contact. This is the stage of acquaintance, when the partners are introduced to each other, the self-presentation of each of them and the exchange of general phrases.
2. Orientation in the situation. The second stage, when subjects seek to understand each other’s positions and identify their own.
3. Discussion. The stage at which specific business issues and objectives are considered and discussed.
4. Problem solving. The stage of finding agreement between partners and an optimal mutually beneficial solution.
5. Ending the contact. Stage of regulated termination of communication.

The purpose of business communication always lies outside the interaction of its subjects. But the means to achieve the goal are determined taking into account the interests and needs of all communicators.

The goal of business communication is productive and effective cooperation between partners.

Any communication includes three complementary processes: social perception - perception and understanding of the partner; communication – exchange of information; interaction – exchange of actions.

These processes in the business environment are strictly regulated; there are rules and norms for business interaction and etiquette.

The communication process is of particular importance. One wrong or inappropriate word can lead to significant negative consequences, such as loss of a client, partner, profit, and so on. But perception and interaction are also equally important.

Intercultural connections

Today, the world is increasingly embracing the process of globalization. That is why intercultural professional communication comes to the fore. To implement it, specialists are needed who not only know a foreign language. They need to own it from a business communication perspective.

Most often, such professional communications take place in English. It is the main means of communication at the interstate level.

English in the field of professional communication is a modernized and simplified version of the English language as a whole. It is characterized by the presence of standard cliche phrases, as well as all kinds of templates. A specialist needs to know them and be able to use them in certain situations.

If a translator is invited to a business meeting by a businessman, in professional communication such a specialist will not proceed only from his life experience and the behavior that is accepted in his native cultural environment. Taking into account the behavioral characteristics of other peoples will help avoid misunderstandings, mistakes and problems in the conversation.

In intercultural professional communication, it is necessary to know the interpersonal norms of relationships that are accepted in a particular society. Namely, non-verbal and verbal languages ​​of communication. The first of these include various wordless signals that communication participants send to each other. They often do this simply unconsciously. It is worth keeping in mind that knowledge of non-verbal and verbal languages ​​in professional communication of an intercultural nature is the key to a successful meeting. The specialist must be aware of the timbre of speech adopted by a particular people, the volume of pronunciation, intonation, facial expressions, postures, etc. The norms for their use during a conversation may have some differences. A striking example is the traditional American smile. In Russia it is considered insincere and artificial. Americans, on the contrary, believe that Russians are too gloomy, rude and serious.

Training of specialists

How are problems with interstate business communication solved? Successful negotiations require the presence of a highly qualified translator in the field of professional communication, who has both specialized and general cultural knowledge. Russian universities train such specialists.

At the same time, a program called “Translator in the Field of Professional Communication” is actively used. It allows you to acquire the skills to communicate effectively in modern business and cultural exchanges.

Main functions

Among the features of professional communication, its rather complex system is distinguished. It consists of many levels, covering not only a specific organization, but also the external environment. Let's consider the main functions of professional communication.

1. Informational. Professional communications are called upon to play the role of a certain intermediary. With its help, ideas, decisions and messages are exchanged between employees. The information function of business communication is necessary to achieve the goals of the organization, as well as to eliminate problems that arise during this process.
2. Motivational. Professional communications contribute to the desire among employees to perform their tasks more efficiently. This is the motivational function of professional communications. In this case, the leader uses such means as order, persuasion, suggestion and request.
3. Test. Using hierarchical subordination, this function is designed to monitor the behavior of company employees.
4. Expressive. With the help of this function, professional communications contribute to the satisfaction of social needs by expressing experiences and feelings about what is happening.
5. Communicative. This function is very specific. With its help, typical errors and problems that arise during business communication are identified and resolved, and principles of optimal behavior are formulated.

The functions of professional communications can also be considered from the point of view of ensuring the life of the company as a whole. In this case the following occurs:

1. Regulatory function. When communicating, there is an indirect or direct impact on the employee who is the object of management. This function contributes to the organization of joint actions in the team, coordination and optimization by the leader of all actions performed by the team.
2. Social control function. Any of the methods of solving the problems of an organization, as well as its forms and operating principles, have a clearly defined normative character. The regulation of all these provisions, found in the instructions and orders of the head, helps to ensure the organization and integrity of the institution, as well as the consistency of the joint actions of each member of the team. To maintain this direction, professional communications exercise their social control.
3. Socialization function. It is one of the main things in the work of any leader. This function allows young employees to participate in joint activities, who begin to master communication skills and abilities, learn to navigate a communication situation, speak and listen. All this is very important not only for the purposes of interpersonal adaptation, but also for the implementation of professional activities. At the same time, young people acquire a tolerant, interested and friendly attitude towards other employees and the ability to act in order to complete a collective task.
4. Social and pedagogical. In the process of carrying out professional communications, there is a process of training, education and development of the employee’s personality while transferring practical experience to him. Thanks to systematic contacts that appear during joint activities, all participants in communication gain knowledge both about themselves and about partners, as well as about optimal options for solving the problems facing the team. Mastering practical skills sometimes becomes for some employees a possible compensation for missing professional knowledge. And this is ensured by the social and pedagogical function of communications.

Bibliography

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Stages of business communication

Business communication concept

Business relationships in practice are characterized by the fact that when solving problems through interpersonal contacts, much is determined by the organization of the business communication process. Business communication largely depends on the ability of the partner (interlocutors) to establish contact.

As a rule, business communication is considered favorable, often the only opportunity to convince an opponent of the relevance of a position in order for him to support it. For this reason, the main task of business communication is to convince a partner to accept appropriate proposals.

Stages of business communication

For high effectiveness of business communication, the topics and basic concepts of communication must be arranged in the form of a list of current issues. In this case, the meeting should gradually and smoothly flow through all the necessary stages of business communication.

The stages of business communication in general look like this:

1. stage of preparation for business communication;
2. determine the territory and time of the meeting;
3. to set up a contact;
4. discuss a problem, question and exchange information;
5. argumentation;
6. counterargumentation;
7. find a compromise or optimal option;
8. decide;
9. record agreements;
10. leave contact;
11. analyze the outcome of the meeting.

Basic principles

Professional communications proceed on the basis of:

1. Interpersonality. Such communication is characterized by diversity and openness of interaction between people. This principle is based on personal interest in each other. And this despite the fact that the communication is business-oriented. Such communication inevitably bears the features of interpersonal contact.
2. Focus. This principle of professional communications is multi-purpose, because the process of business communication, along with the intended information load, also carries a hidden goal. For example, a manager, informing the team about the statistical data he has, wants to point out the problematic aspects of a particular area of ​​activity. At the same time, most likely, on an unconscious level, he strives to demonstrate to those present his eloquence, erudition and intelligence.
3. Continuity. This is another principle of professional communications. It lies in the fact that when we come into the field of view of our business partner, we become the initiators of continuous contact with him. At the same time, communication occurs not only at the verbal level. The partner constantly receives behavioral messages from which he can draw appropriate conclusions.
4. Multidimensionality. In the course of professional communications, at least two aspects of interpersonal relationships are realized. The first of these is the transfer of business information and maintaining the established contact. The second is a broadcast of the emotional attitude towards the partner (it can be positive and negative).

Read

Business Communication: Textbook for Bachelors

Reviewers:

K. N. Kuntsevich

– Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Professor;

A. L. Kyshtymov

– Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor.

© Kuznetsov I. N., 2011

© Kuznetsov I. N., 2022, as amended

© ITK Dashkov and Co. LLC, 2022, as amended

Preface

There is nothing simpler, and at the same time more complex, than human communication. It is the source of our joys and sorrows, hopes and successes. A person is never alone. Even communication with a machine is, in fact, indirect communication with its creators. There is no profession that does not require communication.

The life of a business person is directly connected with communication. According to American specialist Frank Snell, a representative of the business world speaks 30 thousand words per day. And, of course, not for himself.

Without speech, business contacts are impossible: negotiations, conversations, speeches at meetings and presentations. Do you want them to be successful? So you did the right thing by opening this book.

Here is a manual that discusses various aspects of business communication.

What is a person like in the process of communication? Can people live and be together? Do they really do nothing more than stab each other, like hugging porcupines, as Arthur Schopenhauer believed, and destroy themselves, exchanging exhaled nitrogen in communication, as P. Ya. Chaadaev seriously argued? Or, as D.S. Likhachev believed, by communicating, people create each other? Who is he, man? Demon or angel, triumph and crown or decline and tragedy of nature?

Communication can be viewed from different aspects. The first and most important aspect is a person in the world of communications, in the process of exchanging information. Related issues concern the theory and practice of communication, its social institutions and features in social activity.

Another aspect of communication is its structure, types, types. And here it is necessary to distinguish between negotiations and conversation, controversy and dispute, conflict and different types of discussions. They all have their own “drama” and their own plots.

In communication, certain goals are usually pursued, so it is necessary to distinguish between strategy and tactics for achieving goals. This leads to the style of business communication, its principles and rules.

Communication today often means conflict resolution, so it is necessary to understand the nature of conflicts and know how to resolve them.

Business communication is an exchange of emotions, interaction, and psychological contact. Therefore, it must be considered from the point of view of socio-communicative compatibility and taking into account the achievements of practical psychology.

The complexity of the phenomenon of communication, its multifactorial nature and the variety of approaches to it give rise to many theories. Therefore, the main task of this work is not to review all theoretical studies of the phenomenon of communication, but, first of all, to provide practical assistance to business people, that is, to convey to them the practical experience of business communication that a civilized society has accumulated.

To be successful in communicating with a business partner, you need to understand what his interests are, and this can be done even if the partner tries to hide them. If your partner is rude or tries to put pressure on you in other ways, you can stop him. Sometimes your coworker is so vague that it seems like he's hiding something.

At first glance, it seems that communication cannot be attributed to a complex and, especially, poorly studied communication process.

We all communicate with each other without any particular difficulties, influence each other, and since childhood we have mastered speech as the main means of communication.

Nevertheless, the multifaceted process of communication, including a variety of functions and aspects, verbal and nonverbal communication, is a serious subject of scientific research by scientists from different directions.

For business people, the art of communication is an important professional quality, since the main means of achieving business goals is communication.

And, therefore, labor efficiency largely depends on the level of development of communication abilities. In modern conditions, when democratization permeates all aspects of our lives, the requirements for business communication are increasing.

Business communication, as S.I. Ozhegov explains, is communication related to social, official activities, and work.

It's time to give up authoritarian communication. As you know, it is easier than democratic, because it is based on blind submission and does not require special arguments.

This type of communication has its roots in the administrative-command system, and has now become a serious obstacle to economic and political development.

Democratic communication is more difficult and complex, since it involves the implementation of attitudes through the acceptance of communication goals by recipients.

In this manual, based on an analysis of literary sources, an attempt is made to reveal the structure and functions of business communication and show ways to increase its effectiveness. The manual aims not only to improve the culture of communication, but also to introduce readers to the techniques of business communication that determine the effectiveness of communication activities.

All this and much more is discussed in the book. It emerged as a response to the need of aspiring business people for practical guidance.

In many countries around the world, courses “Speech”, “Business Communication”, “Corporate Culture” are included in the curricula of universities and colleges.

In our country, these subjects are just making their way, although for a business person a low culture of business communication should be considered as indecent as the inability to read and write.

1. Theoretical foundations of business communication

1.1. Communication as a process

Communication

is the interaction of two or more people aimed at coordinating and combining their efforts in order to establish relationships and achieve a common result.

Communication is a complex, multifaceted process.

It can act at the same time as a process of interaction between people, and as an information process, and as the relationship of people to each other, and as a process of their mutual influence on each other, and as a process of their mutual experience and understanding of each other. This definition emphasizes the systematic nature of communication, its multifunctionality and activity-based nature.

In a single process of communication, there are three sides: communicative (exchange of information), interactive (interaction between people communicating) and perceptual (perception).

Considered in the unity of these three sides, communication acts as a way of organizing joint activities and relationships between the people involved in it.

Genuine communication is the interaction of at least two individuals, such a subjective-subjective interaction in which the value of the other person and the high attitude towards him is immutable, which S. L. Rubinstein once very correctly said, calling for loving a person not for this or that act, but for himself, for his true essence, and not for his merits.

• Many definitions of communication usually include:
• – communication as a type of independent human activity;
• – communication as an attribute of other types of human activity;
• – communication as interaction of subjects.

In the process of communication, a more or less stable system of goals is formed. Analyzing the motivation of professional civil servants within the formal structure of a management organization, the French sociologist B. Gourney identified four types of personal goals

:

1) the desire for personal security (the bureaucratic system provides a favorable combination of independence and security);

2) the desire to improve their standard of living (employees’ satisfaction with their wages depends not only on the absolute amount of remuneration, but also on the relative amount of wages of their colleagues and other employees of the organization);

Source: https://www.litmir.me/br/?b=187942&p=6

Moral standards of professional communications

Each participant in business communication must have:

1. Honesty. Having such a character trait, people refrain from lying and deception. However, even those who consider honesty to be an inviolable standard of business behavior still have to lie sometimes. In this case, people have to make a choice between alternatives that do not satisfy them. However, you must always tell the truth. Lying is justified only when choosing the lesser of two evils, when circumstances require it.
2. Decency. This characteristic inherent in a person is expressed in the unity of his actions and beliefs. Decent behavior is the exact opposite of duplicity and hypocrisy. Such a person will always fulfill what he promises. For example, an employee will definitely help his colleague when performing a work task. This will happen even when it is not so easy for him to do it, but he made a promise.
3. Justice. This character trait presupposes the absence of bias and objectivity in assessing other people and their actions.
4. Responsibility. This trait of a participant in business relations is manifested in the extent to which he is responsible for his words, observes moral standards and fulfills his obligations.