COMMUNICATION

Workplace Communication:

Communication in the workplace is one of the most essential components in the workforce. Both communication and the workforce work together in ways that help employees and employers focus on the task at hand during work hours and connect with customers, as well as co-workers. Communication in the workforce can be anything between knowing how to communicate with your boss and customers, to learning to communicate well within co-worker groups. Body language, eye contact, and appearance are all important aspects of communication. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Workplace and workforce seems redundant. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Keep in mind that workplace and workforce are different. This context seems like you mean workplace.

As far as workplace, it can be anything that has an income and pays employees regularly. A manager and owner is always put as the head of the workplace to make sure everything is in order regarding procedures and completing the hiring process. In a workplace, employees are always required to abide by particular rules, whether they agree with them or not. No matter what type of workplace, they will always have certain hiring requirements, without them, there will be no employees to help the workplace stay in business. There are many components that deal with the workplace, but the main points are culture, gender, and personality. Comment by Caitlin Baker: I’m not sure why this needs to be included. Comment by Caitlin Baker: I’m not sure that any of this is relevant to your topic of communication in the workplace. Allow your research to assist you in writing the introduction. It may be wortwhile to review the supplemental reading from a few weeks ago titled “Academic Introductions.”

Conceptual Framework

In this section I will explain how culture, gender, and personality affect and are affected by workplace communication. All three of these aspects make up a great foundation for a successful workplace. In this section, I will be reviewing articles that explain societies views, ethnic culture, gender, and personality. Dress and appearance beliefs and communication are essential factors with culture. Gender is often times one of the main deciding factors for certain jobs because society makes up the rules. Gender is different from sex because it is more socially defined. Personality, in this case refers more to group behavior and interaction. For example, when in a group setting, while deciding on a particular situation the group may come up with an idea but one person may have an opposing view but is too scared to say something based on their personality. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Don’t tell us what you’re going to do. Just go straight into writing your essay. Comment by Caitlin Baker: See note above. Comment by Caitlin Baker: I’m not sure what you mean here? Comment by Caitlin Baker: What rules? I know what you mean, but this idea needs to be explained further. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Relate this to communication in the workplace. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Are these your opinions or pieces of evidence from an article?

Culture.

One main aspect that seems to draw plenty of controversy is the difference between cultures in the workforce. This is because of the amount of people’s different beliefs turn into a way of business negotiations (Yates, 2015). Russian and American cultures are one of the main cross-cultural interactions in the workforce. In America, the workforce is all about looking and playing the part, as well as getting the job done in a professional manner. As far as Russian culture, they focus on basic values and logical reasoning. The way Russians act in the workplace, reflect their culture and their and themselves. For example, Russians value positive politeness more than negative, whereas Americans typically don’t apply their culture while at work (Bergelson, 2003). Americans are more on the side of doing whatever the supervisor tells them to do. They look at a job as a task and a way of living, whereas the Russians look at a job as a chance to show their friendly cultural values. One other article talks about culture as well, but from a different aspect, for example, it mentions how globalization and lookism plays a major part in culture today (Ghodrati, 2015). Many times in today’s society, it is common for an employer to hire someone based off their own preferences of physical appearance and just off simply what they think is acceptable in todays’ society. This is clearly one weakness that goes on throughout the workplace but it goes to show the differences in how workplaces function. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Source? Comment by Caitlin Baker: Source? Comment by Caitlin Baker: Source? Comment by Caitlin Baker: Source? Comment by Caitlin Baker: Source? Comment by Caitlin Baker: Watch subject-verb agreement. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Tie this back to culture.

Gender

. As mentioned in one of the articles, gender plays a major role in perceptions of the qualifications of men and women (Kinnick, 2005). Gender in the workplace goes beyond just being categorized into male and female. It often affects the way you are perceived, and this article focuses on that and more. In the article by Ghodrati (YEAR), it explains how a certain gender may be treated a certain way because of how the manager may think he or she is able to complete the task. Often times, there are specific jobs that require you to be a certain gender based on the type of job it is. Many jobs are gender specific, for example, you hardly ever see many women doing construction work, it’s usually always men. This is because men are always looked at as strong and qualified for the dirty work. As for the women, you often see jobs like daycares being occupied by women and not men, simply because women are more nurturing and can handle kids better than most men. Many times, there are specific jobs that require you to be a certain gender based on the type of job it is such as the ones I previously mentioned. Another aspect of gender would be how women are judged more than a man simply because of how women dress in the workforce in today’s society (Steele, Plenty, 2015). Many workplaces require a specific dress code for women and men but since women have a bit more leeway with clothing other than a suit and tie, perceptions and judgments come into play. Men are mainly judged off leadership abilities, and how well they can sell a product. Whether man or woman in the workforce, you will face some type of adversity whether it be negative or positive. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Tell us which article. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Tell us specifics. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Say more. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Is this from a source? Comment by Caitlin Baker: Source? Comment by Caitlin Baker: Source? Comment by Caitlin Baker: You don’t need this sentence. It directly reiterates the previous few sentences. Comment by Caitlin Baker: Source or example?

Personality.

Personality traits are mainly important because an employees’ personality in the workforce can allow managers and those in charge to see how well they can interact with customers as well as fellow employees. It is important that the employees’ personality is appropriate so that when it becomes time for group work, the supervisor knows that he/she will be a great candidate to help get the job done. An example of an appropriate personality is someone that always has a positive attitude when they show up to work. Someone that is very easy going and doesn’t cause any issues with others and customers. Personality stands for more than just how a person acts with other people around them, it also influences decision making negatively or positively in the workplace (Henningsen, 2015). For example, if there is a group experiment in the workplace and one of the group members has a bad attitude on what to do and how to get the task done, it effects everyone in the group. It is important that everyone involved is on the same page and is willing to cooperate no matter what. With personality, it’s all about the way that you use it and the way that it can be used to get things done.

Conclusion

Overall, workplace communication is something that is the foundation of a successful job experience. These articles have showed the importance of not just communicating in the workplace but other aspects that come to play in the workplace. As said before, culture, gender, and personality play major roles when it comes to workplace communication. Communicating effectively and being able to work well with others makes a job much less difficult. It all boils down to more than just conversations and interactions with colleagues. Communication will always be something that you will use in the workplace, but also in life.

References

Bergelson, M. (2003). Russian cultural values and workplace communication styles. Communication studies, 97-112.

Ghodrati, Z., TN, J., & Muati, A. (2015). The influence of globalization on "Lookism" in workplace environments of different cultures. Global Media Journal: American Edition, 13(24), 1-18. (explain lookism and what it means in relation to culture)

Henningsen, D. D., & Henningsen, M. M. (2015). A preliminary examination of perceptions of social influence in group decision making in the workplace. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(2), 188-204. doi:10.1177/2329488414525448

Kinnick, K. N., & Parton, S. R. (2005). Workplace communication. Business Communication Quarterly, 68(4), 429-456. doi:10.1177/1080569905282099

Steele, G. A., & Plenty, D. (2015). Supervisor–subordinate communication competence and job and communication satisfaction. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(3), 294-318. doi:10.1177/2329488414525450

Yates, L. (2015). Intercultural communication and the transnational: managing impressions at work. Multilingua, 34(6), 773-795. doi:10.1515/multi-2014-006

Imani,

You have a great organizational pattern! I like the way you split your paper into culture, gender and personality. I think this topic is interesting and lends itself well to a unique topic that you can easily find to use for the final paper. I do have a few concerns that need to be addressed in your next essay though:

1. Keep in mind that the purpose of this paper was to allow you to synthesize the research that you found. Most of your sections don’t even include sources and/or findings and it’s apparent that lots of your sentences are simply your own personal claims or opinions. Because this is an academic writing assignment, each claim you make has to be addressed by the research. In other words, let your research findings help you in organizing the main points of your essay, which I can’t tell that you’ve done here.

2. Writing: With each sentence, as yourself this question: Does this sentence either explain my previous sentence further, or does it push my argument forward? If not, chances are that the sentence is unnecessary and you can delete it.

3. We typically only use Level I and Level II headings, which I’ve edited here.

I’ve made lots of comments throughout your essay in areas that need to be revised. I think it’s in your best interest for the final paper to fix these edits before moving forward. Please let me know if I can help.

Running head: WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION 1

WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION 7

Grade: 77/100