F.Y.B.COM. SEMESTER - I
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Q.4
Communication in the Context of Technology.
ANS:
In these
early years of the third millennium, we find ourselves real inhabitants of the
global village that Marshall McLuhan had envisaged over thirty years ago.
Advances in technology have facilitated the process of market globalization.
New
technology has permeated every sphere of life, especially the corporate world.
Business today has widened its horizon and overstepped its former boundaries,
and so has communication.
The old
scene has been replaced by a new landscape: the modern world is buzzing with activity, and the
face of Business0020 Communication has also changed as a result.
In the 21st
century, following in the footsteps of the revolution in Business and Commerce,
the Communication Revolution has assumed greater significance. The electronic means
of communication have evolved from the printing press, which was invented some
500 years ago. A few years ago, terms like RAM, MODEM, DISC would have carried
other connotations.
But today,
even if people do not understand their exact meaning, they are, at least, able
to associate them with technology of some sort. Technological developments have
thus contributed towards revolution of digital electronics. This revolution has
influenced information transmission since World War II. A new approach to communication
is taking the place of the conventional approach, so that, what was
unimaginable earlier is a reality today. No wonder that this revolution has
entered the business scene, and, in turn, the business world has taken hold of
it and exploited it for its expansion. Electronic means of communication have
brought about a radical change not only in organizational working but also in
communication. More sophisticated means of communication have mushroomed over
the last few years. A study of Business Communication without a proper
understanding and cognizance of this fact would be unimaginable.
Information
Technology including the Internet (intranet and extranet), e-mail, voice mail,
fax, tele (audio and video) conferencing, desktop computing, wireless devices,
instant message have electrified commerce and thereby revolutionised the way we
communicate.
Consequently,
the old telecommunication devices like telegraph, telex are now outdated, just
as are letters and other such forms. Availability of a variety of electronic
media has increased the options open to us as communicators.
Today, with
electronic means, communication can be effected in the blink of an eye and at
the stroke of a key. The electronic media have facilitated communication among
people all over the world, enabling them to reach widely dispersed publics personally.
The electronic media‘s ability to overcome time zone barriers, their speed,
frequency, multi-tasking and efficiency are simply laudable. Advanced means
like earth and environmental service allow people from opposite ends of the
world to collaborate with each other, work together, seamlessly as it were,
thus bringing the resultant benefits to numerous other people. This
collaborative group effort ensures quick decision-making, which is of great importance
for success in the global competitive market. This enables companies to promote
the sales of their products / services in a quicker and more economical way,
thus facilitating commercial operations and activities.
The Modern
Era is becoming an office less world as the concept of workplace and method of
working are changing. Now when an employee says, I’m at work, s/he is referring
to what S/he is doing and not to the place. The line between home and office is
now blurred. This is because people need not confine themselves to traditional
workspaces for working. They can work from home and, at the same time, they can
maintain contacts with their colleagues. Thus, a constant attempt is being made
to bring all aspects of the office under one umbrella. Henceforth, technology, and
not the traditional glass-box office layout, will bring the employees together.
Thus,
flexi-time/place, mobility, adjustability, miniaturization, paperless,
automated, horizontal, democratic organization are the order of the day. Direct
one-to-one and one- to-many transfer of information, storing data, retrieving
it at anytime and anywhere are all the miracles of this digitalized /
electronic communication. That is why, on-line trading, banking, e-recruiting,
cyber recruiting are gaining popularity. In short, telecommunicating has become
the norm. All this has made today‘s professional more of an infocrat, rather
than an autocrat/ technocrat / bureaucrat. In fact, the driving force behind
the business world is, no doubt, technology.
However, new
technologies have given rise to communication challenges. In addition, the
growing global access to electronic means has magnified these challenges.
Though electronic means have come as a blessing, they are not devoid of problems
and disadvantages. They are afflicted by problems such as viruses, worms,
theft, information overload, lack of privacy, reduced productivity, and waste
of time. They are responsible for some of the tension of in the workplace. With
them, confidentiality is endangered. Yet the benefits of electronic means of communication
usually outweigh the disadvantages. They are, therefore, preferred to the
conventional ones.
If we want
to reap the full benefit from the potential of Communication and Technology, we
have to train people to be proficient in the art of electronic communication.
As the need is for an effective, rather than a nominal communicator, the
selection of a suitable tool, and its effective, appropriate and judicious use,
should be insisted upon. Furthermore, it is important to realize that technology
showcases a person‘s communication and presentation skills as far as speaking
and writing are concerned, and facilitates the listening process; it can never
be a substitute for the person himself. The person needs to develop his/her
basic communicative competence which goes beyond aspects of clarity and circumvention
of barriers to include a consideration of the reader‘s or listener‘s viewpoint,
and a sensitivity to cultural differences and their potential areas of
misunderstanding. For example, in some countries, video conferencing is not
accepted in business dealings.
So, we may
say that the best method of handling matters and problems related to
communication would be one wherein effective skills are coupled with, and
enhanced by, the use of modern technological devices.
Of course,
this approach is not without its difficulties and challenges. However, the
corporate world attempts to face these by developing global leaders, supporting
global teams, being aware of changes, and taking timely action; besides
training their personnel to be effective inter-cultural communicators. Indeed,
the modern world is tossed between the positivity and negativity of Communication
Technology.
The
following quotation from Charles Dickens‘s A Tale of Two Cities (1859)
describes this situation very aptly:
It was the
best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of
incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was
the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us,
we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going
direct the other way in short, the period was so far like the present period,
that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good
and for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
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