THE PROCESS  AND TECHNOLOGY IN MODERN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Current Practices and Future Trends in Business Communication Technology

The current practice in information technology is to link all the pieces of equipment which we have been describing into an integrated unit of technology. For this purpose, a computer Central Processing Unit (CPU) is established to control the information system. With the use of multiple function terminals, the various pieces of equipment are hooked into the information system through the CPU, so that various users, sitting at their particular computer sets, are able to carry out necessary tasks concerning the different pieces of equipment without having to leave their desks. The whole system is then linked to the national telephone network and to the international telecommunications systems. Connection to the national and/or the international telephone network makes possible the following additional communication operations, which are very much a feature of modern information technology (IT).

(i) The E-mail (Electronic Mail)

(a) Meaning and Application: This is the automatic transmitting of letters and other forms of message to persons (recipients, addresses or correspondents) who are stationed at local (within the same office or within the same country) or at overseas locations. For this to be possible, an addressee has to have an e-

mail address which, as in the case of telephone line providers, are supplied by firms which collect payments for this service in the same way that the post office collects rents for the hire of telephone boxes and private mail bags (P.M.Bs.). At present, popular providers of e-mail addresses are identified by the terms ‘yahoo’ and ‘org’.

(b) Effectiveness of Application: One may see that three requirements are demanded for effectiveness of the use of the electronic mail (e-mail), namely, (1) having the necessary equipment or facilities; (2) possessing the technical knowledge for sending and receiving (accessing) e-mail messages, and (3) language ability.

1. Equipment (or Facilities): Many computers, including, laptops, have the ordinary requirements for handling the e-mail system. (Mail, and, therefore, e-mail, have no plural forms). The necessary connection for activating the equipment is arranged at a fee with such providers as MTN, STARCOM, etc., or with cyber cafes.
2. Technical Knowledge: The concept of computer literacy or computer knowledge includes ability to use the e-mail facility for sending and receiving e-mail messages. The operation resembles the sending and receiving of messages through the cell or mobile telephone. As one clicks or punches the “Internet Explorer” on the computer, a page appears on the screen in due time, containing all the required components of the message, e.g., the place for the e-mail address of the sender and that of the addressee (or intended recipient), the subject of the message, the attachments, the place for typing, etc. When one finishes typing one’s message, one is then instructed to click somewhere to send the message. Understanding and mastering this kind of skill come, of course, from hands-on-tool (practical) training rather than from the theoretical kind of training which we offer in this kind of course.
3. Language Ability: All that are really required for demonstrating the kind of language competence required for using the e-mail efficiently has been discussed in the whole of Module One, Unit 2 and in item 3.1 (“Other Forms of Business Correspondence”) in Unit 4 of Module Two, in terms of “Extrinsic Skills,” “Intrinsic Skills” and precision of expression even while aiming for conciseness. These sections can be revised as part of the effort to master the writing of e-mail messages. The abuses of poor constructing of contents – the same abuses which render

telephone text messages ambiguous and meaningless (incongruous constructions and inappropriate abbreviations etc.) should be avoided. Nothing should be allowed to compromise the value of speed of the e-mail

(ii) The Website (one or a combination of web pages connected to the Internet): Like a catalogue, the website contains information about a person or which can be accessed through the computer. The “Virtual Library” (which may also be called “Virtual Memory” or “Virtual Storage”) is a sort of a very large website making available for accessing through the computer learning material stored in various places.

(iii) The Internet: This is the “information highway” running through the entire world, which is really the connecting of one computer network to another. It is through the Internet that the wide range of electronic communication tasks is made possible.

(iv) Teleconferencing: This is essentially a TV screen, about a metre square, hung on the wall and used, among other functions, to display office personnel in various locations who are taking part simultaneously in a ‘teleconference’. In other words, in teleconference, TV cameras transmit pictures and sound to various locations so that managers can communicate with one another without leaving their seats.

(v) Networking: We partly referred to networking when we discussed current practice and future trends in business communication. Networking as a deliberate programme means linking communication facilities for the purpose of removing delay and complications when office personnel in an have to communicate with one another and/or with outside clients and customers through computer terminals, the facsimile (fax) transmitter, the telex, the telephone or other means.

(vi) Voice Input: As implied earlier, this is still at the research stage. The intention is that, instead of the laborious action of using the keyboard to make inputs into the computer, it should be possible to use voice utterances to make such inputs, such as is done with audiotapes, videos and the dictaphone.

Barriers to Effective Communication

This can be simplified into the following items:-

(i) Communication gaps or communication breakdown: The receiver receives a different message from what the sender

intended. This often results from the sender’s poor framing of his message either because of his deficiency in language use or because of wrong assumptions about the intended receiver’s knowledge of the subject matter in question or about the receiver’s language ability. There are many other causes of communication gaps.

(ii) Largeness of the size of an : This makes direct communication with all strata of personnel difficult. Application of the different systems of communication is made very hard.

(iii) A “weak link” in the process of communication: Any fault, weakness or deficiency in any of the phases of the process of communication will cause a barrier (block, hump) in communication. (See in our answer to No. 2 of the Tutor-Marked Assignment – TMA – the details of the attributes of the components of the process of communication).

(iv) Dissonance or conflict between the sender and the receiver: This factor summarizes many causes of communication barriers: hatred, jealousy, malice, ill-will, suspicion. Resentment – any kind of negative feeling between sender and receiver – can cause a message to be misunderstood or misconstrued.

Causes of communication barriers are many; so, we need to be careful to “leave no stone unturned” in ensuring that we so code our communication that it is impossible to be misunderstood – one of the qualities of effective communication which we identified in Unit 1 of this Module One. As receivers, we should also make every effort to decode messages correctly.

CONCLUSION

The conclusion to the points which we have made in this Unit is evidently that, for one to communicate effectively in either the oral or written mode, one must understand the process through which communication passes. Similarly, one must be able to recognize and apply at least some, if not all, of the facilities which make up communication (information) technology.

In this article, we have discussed the concept of the “Process of Communication”. The “process” is a sort of analysis or x-ray of the abstract event of the conducting of a piece of communication. It consists of a sender (communicator), a message, a medium, a channel, a receiver, and the feedback. In other words, when a piece of communication is to take place, a person (communicator) conceives his message (a piece of information to convey to another person or other people); he/she chooses a medium by which to convey the information, then selects a channel through which to research the prospective receiver of his piece of information (communicant), who then sends a feedback (a reaction to the message which tells the sender that the message has reached its target). All of these components must function efficiently in order for the piece of communication to be effective.

We have also, in this our overview module on business communication, described communication (information) technology in some detail, identifying briefly describing and/or explaining the functions of the facilities which constitute communication technology: the facsimile (fax) machine; the electric and electronic typewriter; the telephone in its different types; the photocopier and the computer. We said that the computer is now central to the information technology complex and that it therefore plays a focal role in the networking of all or some of the facilities into a centralized or integrated communication system. We have pointed out that the computer is providing the facilitation for such current practices and future prospects in communication technology as the e-mail, the website, the Internet, teleconferencing, networking and voice input. We also summarized the barriers to communication.