Unit Title : Communication for Work Purposes

Title of the Lesson: Communication in the Workplace and its Culture,

Language and Purpose

Duration: 1.5 hours

Lesson four, “The Communication in the workplace and its culture, language,
and purpose” defines the fundamental elements of a communication that is
definitive of any organizational success.

Strategically, each lesson is designed to provide a lesson discussion,

methodologies that enhance and confirm learning along the process- activity,
analysis, abstraction, and application. The level of difficulty of the activities
presented hopes to cater all learners with different levels of capability, with
special consideration to developing independent and critical learners.

Since the design of the curriculum is outcomes-based, application of the

learning provides learning opportunities to deliver outputs that are useful and
engaging. A reflection activity is provided in every lesson to give opportunities
for students to develop maturity in using decision making skills and in
integrating professional and knowledge in communication.

Objectives/ Competencies:
1. Identify the purpose, content, and context in communication.
2. Differentiate culture, silence, and language in the workplace.
3. Write a reflection on how communication works in the workplace.

Pre-test
Analyze the image below, then try to answer the following questions based on
the given questions. Answers must be in complete statement.

1. What could be the message of the

image?

2. What do you think is the purpose

why the image is created?

3. Who do you think is the target

audience of the image? Why?

https://www.bing.com/
Lesson four

“Every human is like all other humans, some other humans, and no other human”
— Clyde Kluckhon

The culture in the organization

The design of communication in the workplace has evolved through time.
When representation through face to face was regarded as the credible gesture to
professionals, nowadays the fashion in the way the communication takes place
defines the new definition of communication lifestyle. Holding meetings via skype,
teleconferencing, or sending information using emails have actually changed the
views of people on time, space, and representation. Conversely , the modern
workplace is a place of multiverse professionals- professionals equipped with key
communication skills, competencies in their profession, and the multimodal skills.
The birth of the Millennials and the Generation Z for instance, creates a new kind of
professionals. One that is born and will live with computers. Fitness in the workplace
needs the expertise in the field of specialization and the savviness in the use of
computers.
Other than the skills and competencies, there are critical elements that should
be considered in building effective communication in the workplace. These are the
culture in the organization, the language, and the purpose. The culture is inherent to
every individual. People in the high-context and low context culture have different
ways of viewing things apart from their orientation like they have different views on
how listening and speaking skills are demonstrated in the workplace. Asians they
say use silence for instance to demonstrate listening skills, while westerners
perceive silence as lack of interest. Asians have this orientation that speaking is
hierarchical in nature, while westerners have the opposite way of perceiving it.
Cultural silence is different from silence or ​silos in the workplace. Cultural silence is
reflective of an individual’s culture. The Japanese or Koreans for instance
demonstrate a certain degree of silence to demonstrate superiority. They are
observed to listen first before they talk. They are obviously quiet. They listen
particularly if one talking is superior to them. This does not mean that they have no
idea or they have nothing to share. Another type of silence in the workplace is the
Silos in the workplace. As described by Kent (2020) it is the tendency of individuals
to isolate themselves from the organization as a whole instead they tend to be
exclusive to a particular department or a group of people. This attitude stops the
organization to move in unison because and attain synergy because the employees
tend to compete rather than share. They prioritize the individual goals instead of the
company’s goals. This is a threat to effective communication. ​However different,
people in the workplace need to interact with each other and it is what brings them
together. Basically, there are two organizational set ups- vertical and horizontal. A
vertical structure is a centralized organization where decisions flow from top to
bottom; whereas horizontal is a decentralized structure where decisions are made at
various levels. The two types of organizational set up determines the behavior that
employees should exhibit and the language that they need to use. Language is
important in communication because it defines the chain where the employees
address communication. A very typical example of this is the use of the prepositions
“To” and “For”. In a memo in a vertical set up, the highest office like the President
may issue a memorandum using “To” to address “all”; while in horizontal
organization, “For” may be used instead of to to demonstrate hierarchy or command.
The test is to be able to use the language for appropriate purposes.

The purpose, the content, and the context in the communication

The act of communicating begins with the purpose.
When drafting communication, first considers the purpose then the content.
The “​purpose”​ is the reason for engaging in a communication. Be it as simple as
greeting “Hello.” or “Good morning.” to your colleagues. The purpose is to get the
attention of anybody through greeting. Second is the “​content​”. This is your goal. In
the goal, you identify the appropriate language in order to create impact. As they
say, “Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they
have to say something.” Careful choice of words is the key. The credibility in one’s
communication is measured with the right choice of words used for the right
occasion which as we call it diction, creates the impact on who receives the
communication. The ​context is your target audience. A responsible communicator
can predict what the target audience expects in written or spoken communication.
Third is the ​channel of communication. You choose the channel based on the
purpose, the content, and the context. For example, you need to give someone your
contact information. Which channel would you use verbal or nonverbal? Which would
be the content ordinal or cardinal? The decision on the choice of channel and
content could be as basic as this, but if we are not careful we might make the wrong
decision.
The communication process requires knowledge of the purpose of the
communication- is it to ​inform,​ ​educate​, ​persuade,​ or ​entertain​? A responsible
encoder of the message and a responsible decoder of the message respect turns
when performing roles. They consider the background of the audience- cultural
background and organization’s identity; consider the preferred channel of the
intended audience; know the interest of your audience; are courteous, truthful, active
listener; and they have knowledge of the outcome of the process. It also gives
importance to the speech improvement of communicators. This gives significance to
the segmental skills and suprasegmental skills. Segmental skills are the
consideration of the International Phonetic Alphabet vowel, consonant, schwa,
diphthongs production; the points and places of articulation, and the manner of
articulation. The suprasegmental skills are the proper word stress, phrasing and
juncture, blending, intonation contours – final and non-final intonation.
 The use of spoken language in communicating ideas considers the ability of
the speaker to deliver a compelling introduction. The technique on how to sustain the
interest of the audience and the ability to establish rapport and maintain the
relationship with the audience is another skill that one needs to develop. Ideally,
unbiased thoughts- no racism, no sexism, no prejudice. A perfect timing and an
effective ending makes the speech more meaningful. And since the goal of spoken
communication is to engage in exchanges of information and ideas within the
organization to perform effectively, the role of effective communication therefore is
the key to building organizations.

Activity
Analyze the image then give an appropriate description of the following image using
the correct words. You can only use the word “communicating” once in your answer.

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Analysis
Analyze the organizational set up in your college. Ask your classmates
about the level of effectiveness of information dissemination using the
existing system of communication, then make a report.

Abstraction
Give a brief discussion of the following.
1. How does the culture of silence affect the organizational activity?
2. When do you think the message is best communicated using “silence”?

Application
The presentation of purpose in communication is backed-up by proofs.
Evidence that makes sense. Meaning in our words are not just used to make
utterances rather utterances are made to make sense with our words. The simplest
way to support your purpose with justifications is by conducting basic research. To
familiarize yourselves with the basic research parts you may follow the “​Matrix of the
Basic Research Parts Analysis​”. This will help you gather relevant information or
details that you may use in justifying your purpose. This is also another form of
taking details from a literature review.

Research Part Collected information

What is the presented problem? Are Senior High School (SHS)
graduates’ attitude toward higher
learning studies predictive of its
performance in college?
What is the theory used to support Theory of Planned Behavior postulates
the problem? that no significant relationship exists
between SHS graduates’ attitude towards
higher learning and its performance in
college.
What are the evidences that the That normative belief and subjective
research collected? norms are key variables in shaping the
behaviors and in forming attitudes of the
SHS graduates in college?
What are the presented research The normative belief is dependent.
results? The subjective norms are dependent.
Peer pressure affects the SHS graduates’
behavior in college. Parent’s influence affects
the SHS graduates' performance in college.
The required standard in college affects the
What i sth conclusion in the research? student’s learning positively and negatively.
 Reject the null hypothesis and accept the
alternative hypothesis, which states that
significant relationships exist between SHS
graduates attitudes towards higher learning
What is the decision? studies and performance in college.
Acuna-Villacorte,A. 2029. Predictive validity
What is the reference (in APA of attitude and performance of SHS graduate
format)? in higher learning.www.academia.edu

Research Analysis​.
Instructions. Conduct a review of published research from 2017 to ​present.
Accomplish the “Matrix of the Basic Research Parts Analysis” template below and
submit it to your teacher. Using your duplicate copy, report collected data in
class.

Research Part Collected information

What is the presented problem?

What is the theory used to support the

problem?

What are the evidences that the

research collected?

What are the presented research

results?

What is the conclusion in the research?

What is the decision?

What is the reference? (APA format)

Suggested Readings and Links

https://youtu.be/IOn3Ay0Uiio
References

Eunson, B. (2007).ebook database: ebook academic collection.Retrieved from

http://trial.ebscohost.com
Images of communication in the workplace. Retrieved on September 2020 from
https://www.bing.com/images
Images of interculturality. Retrieved from https://www.bing.com/
Faizal, Fesmina. "What is Workplace Communication? (& Why Does It Matter)".
Feedough. Feedough. Retrieved 12 November 2019.​https://en.wikipedia.org/
globalsiatesol.com. ​https://concordiacanada.com
Kent, D. (2020). How to Fix Workplace Silos in 2020 [without starting over]
Retrieved on September 2020 from https://dispatch.m.io/workplace-silos/
Literary devices.Retrieved from www.literarydevices.com

Merriam Webster. www.merriam-webster.com

Nunan, D. (2009). Second language teaching and learning. Cengage learning asia
pte ltd, Philippine branch, Pasig city, Philippines
Standard Operating Procedure Templates (SOP). Retrieved from
https://safetyculture.com
Villacorte, A., et. al. (2020). Purposive communication. st. andrew publishing house.
Bulacan, Philippines