Effective Communication Reflective Essay

Good communication is a pre-requisite for professionals in different aspects of life and not only in the business environment. This paper is a reflective report on my experience with this course’s learning outcomes that entails the themes; effective communication, barriers to communication, self-awareness, cross-cultural communication, and ethics in decision-making. Reflections The first theme in the course’s learning outcome is effective communication. Effective communication in the workplace is critical to the organization’s success. Understanding how to write and speak as well as manage the verbal and non-verbal messages among employees provides the organization in a good competitive advantage in its respective industry. Direct eye contact between the sender and the recipient of the message is considered to have the ability to enhance the communication experience.

Eye contact shows that the parties involved are paying attention to the message being relayed. Lack of eye contact during communication may demonstrate negative response from the message recipient such as boredom or bad attitude towards the message or the sender of the message. However, as much as effective communication is a requirement for business organizations to be successful, there are several obstacles that may inhibit effective communication from taking place. The barriers may prevent communication from taking place, eliminate some part of the message or lead to conveyance of the wrong meaning of a message. This implies that the sender of the message has to modify his or her communication style depending on the people who are being addressed including; business partners, clients and workers.

Self-awareness is an important theme in business communication. It allows an individual to listen to the sender of a message freely without having judgments or assumptions that may inhibit effective communication from taking place. Before I can listen well to what others say, it is important to first listen well to myself. When I have self-awareness, then I am able to understand other people’s frame of reference. This would enable them to work together towards achieving a common goal for the organizations (Oetzel, 2017). Finally, the theme of ethics in decision making in business organizations cannot be underestimated. Ethics in work environment are limited words and actions such as ; avoiding deceit in attempt to promote sales or the use of deceitful words to manipulate the performance.

For instance, as per my distinction as an ethical employees, my beliefs and thoughts would be confined to moral decisions as part of ethical decision-making. For instance, it would be unethical for an organization manager to take part in a decision making process that is intended to lay off a large number of employees from the organization without prior notice. Nonverbal behavior and communication in the workplace: A review and an agenda for research.  Journal of Management, 42(5), 1044-1074. Retrieved from,http://journals. sagepub. com/doi/abs/10. Retrieved from, https://s3. amazonaws. com/academia. edu. documents/40875757/CROSS_CULTURAL_C OMMUNICATION_BARRIERS_IN_WORKPLACE- 2. Effective intercultural workgroup communication theory.  The International Encyclopedia of Intercultural Communication, 1-5. ,Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary. wiley. com/doi/abs/10.