Case Analysis: Frustration at the enrolment office

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This essay highlights key communication issues of two colleagues communicating between New Zealand and Bangladesh. The issues stem from the transactional model of communication as seen in the textbook Communicating as Professionals (Archee, Gurney & Mohan, 2013, p.g.17 ). This essay will address in further depth the intercultural communication problems that arise when two people are not familiar with each others cultural norms and values. The chosen medium of email will also be discussed in regard to its missing elements of communication and the carelessness of writing that comes with its ease and speed of use. We will come to understand the flaws of the situation at hand and with the use of research, recommend strategies to combat the issues.
To begin, we must first define communication, its context and its importance in the business environment. Communication can be defined as many things. Archee et al (2013) gives communication in 4 types; the transmission of messages, the social interaction through messages, the reciprocal creation of meaning in a context and the sharing of meaning through information, feelings and ideas. Com=munication can be displayed in many forms such as written, verbally or non-verbally. This essay will focus on the downfalls of written. In the transactional model shared by Price (as cited in Archee et al, 2013), communication is seen as parties responding to a phenomenon or the envnironment while also bringing in their own set of interpretations. Comparatively, the transmission model of communication sees communication as the flow of information between the sender and receiver.The transactional model is important as it takes into account many factors that impact the interpretation of a meaningful messa...

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...h is to put effort into understanding the cultural values and norms of the other peson. This minimises the social context gap between the two and starts bridging the differences in culture. Once this is done, meaning can be shared more effectively. Lastly, the channel of communication hinders the transmission and interpretation of the message due to carelessness of construction, lack of cues and delay of feedback. Written communication lacks richness compared to other forms and relies entirely on the receivers interpretation without the help of any other cues. This causes the meaning of a message to get lost and ambiguities to take longer to resolve. A suggestion for Rachel and Anwar is to correspond through a medium involving visual cues and/or vocal cues. This allows for enhancement of the message and will lead to easier and better perception from the receiver.

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