I find this chapter extremely interesting. Everyday, people are saying our generation has lost touch with professionalism and that we rely to heavily on technology to get things done. There are times where I agree with this but overall I think that our generation still understands the importance of business and professional communication ethics. The book quotes, "Business and professional communication ethics assumes no one recipe for long-term success, only one-truism- a business must embrace a unity of direction and change in the actualizing of communicative goods of survival and competitiveness if it hopes to last" (pg. 176). I think that our generation is extremely good at adapting to new direction and change and because older generations take more time adjusting, they assume we lose focus on business professionalism, which isn't the case.
An example of this is when I talk to my Uncle who lives out in Boston. Whenever we are talking about business he requires me to either call him or e-mail him, if I send him a text message he ignores it. He and the company he works for consider text messaging inappropriate and unprofessional for the workplace. They understand how easy it is to send text messages but they strongly believe that in order to do business successfully, professional e-mails and phone calls are the way to go. He works for Coca-Cola who has been around for a very long time and has been one of the most successful companies in the world. It is hard to image that such a large company shies away from one of the easiest means of communication. There are times when they do use texting but a majority of their work is done the "traditional" way. It is hard to argue with the books point on direction and change, it does happen and over the past few years it happens more and more often, but at the same time traditional phone calls and face-to-face meetings won't disappear because that is what I see as business professionalism.
I can totally relate to your example about cross-country communication. For my HR position, we sometimes interview people on the east cost, Atlanta, and Texas. So the norms there are completely different versus what it's like here in Minnesota. I've noticed several times that people in the southern states will always send up a follow up email thanking us for interviewing them. Whereas in other states in the east coast, we rarely hear back from them at all.
ReplyDeleteI think this just shows how insanely confusing it is to perform business transactions in the workforce because everyone has different definitions of what is appropriate and what isn't. I think it's a great point also about how your uncle in Boston dislikes texting. I wish more people were like this today, however, texting has become a normal mode for communication. I think that people have become so comfortable sitting behind a computer instead of calling someone and confronting an issue right on.
I do think that texting and only sending emails is really unprofessional, but it is considered convenient to most people. Generations have gotten somewhat lax in their communication, so I think that this is something that definitely needs to be watched. Having an in person conversation or even talking over the phone gives someone the ability to form a connection, and if businesses don't form a connection with their employees, then they might not be as loyal to the company, which is definitely an issue that needs a discussion.
John, I thought that your blog post was very interesting and you raised some interesting points. I liked how you brought up the fact that older generations don't think we are professional enough or know business ethics when that is clearly not the case. Being that my dad is a manager at a Fortune 100 company, he always talks to me about work, whether I'm having problems or I do something well, being that he has worked there for a long time, he knows all about business and professional communication ethics. I also liked how you brought up how we are good at adapting to change. Although most of us are reluctant to change at first, I do not think that our generation has a problem with changing what needs to be done for "the good" of a company.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you said business meetings won't go away, because I think that is a vital point in getting everyone on the same page. Although other forms of communication might change, and we need to be ready for work at very hour, even when we are "off the clock", I still think that businesses will hold face-to-face meetings. Overall, I liked your post and thought it was neat how you incorporated the story of you texting your uncle.