BUSINESS

COMMUNICATION
Course Details: BUS251

Project: Understanding the Role of

Changing Context in Communication

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 Table of Contents

Contents Page Number

Executive Summary 2
Introduction and Background 3
Problem Statement, Aim and Objective, and 4
Expected Outcomes
Literature Review 5–6
Research Methodology 7–8
Research Limitations 9
Findings and Discussions 10 – 12
Overall understanding and opinion 12
Recommendation 13
Conclusion 13
Reference 14

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 Executive Summary
Our report discusses understanding the roles of changing contexts in communication or an
ongoing conversation. Communication is a process exchanging ideas, feeling or information
between two or more persons. On the other hand, context is the surrounding of a conversation
which may include the setting and the position of the people. So it is highly important to
understand how changes in context affect the flow of a conversation. In a communication
process, context plays a very important role. So it is highly important to gain knowledge about
the changes in context to establish a clear and meaningful communication. In order to acquire
this knowledge, we have developed this report. We collected data by qualitative research. For
primary research we interviewed 6 peoples and for secondary research we used several websites.
This research has some limitation such as – difficulties to take interviews (Most of the people
refused to give interview because they were busy), unable to gather much information from the
internet as there are very few reports on this topic and also difficulties to understand the
interviews and extract information. In this report, the important of context and how change in
context influence communication are briefly analysed and discussed. We also have discussed the
impact of context.

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 Introduction

The model of communication is shaped by the context. Contexts are interrelated with the
communication process. So, our contextual changes in communication depend on the person we
are with, his/ her beliefs and opinion, and where we are.

The most obvious from of context:

• Physical context: It’s refers to the general ecological condition of a particular

environment. Like physical location, time of date, weather, noise level.
• Social context: The social context refers to the temperament regarding the relationship
an individual has with other people.
• Cultural context: Refers to the set of values, beliefs, attitudes, meanings, religion, and
nation of time.

Background:

Communication is a linguistic representation of ideas and thoughts. It’s a set of words and
sentences governed by the rules. Communication is an important element in different cultures
where individuals share different ideas and values.

Context defined as any given situation. In a communication process, context plays a very
important role without which a discourse becomes meaningless. Communication occurs in
various situations, that is various contexts.

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 Problem Statement, aim and objective, and expected outcomes

Problem Statement:

• We do not have enough knowledge about this chapter.

• Time limitation.
• Not clear information about the topic.

Aim and Objectives

Aim:

• To find out the impact of changing contexts in communication.

• Positive or negative.

Objectives:

• The role of changing contexts while having conversations.

• Importance of contexts in communication.
• Types of contextual changes that influence conversations.

Expected outcomes:

Everything is interpreted through some context. Different context can impact communication.
Communication occurs in various situations and that is context. Context directly affects
communication and communication is shaped by the context.

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 Literature Review
Communication, not only helps to share information and knowledge but also helps us to develop
relationships and function in our daily life. Therefore, the importance of communication cannot
be underestimated. On the other hand, context is the circumstances surrounding a conversation.
So it is highly important to understand how changes in context effects the flow of a conversation.

To understand communication process, different specialists have developed different

communication models, such as – Linear, transactional and interactive models of communication
etc. In linear communication model, Shanon – Weaver’s model of communication, Berlo’s
SMCR model of communication and SCHRAMM’s Interactive model are the most popular
amongst all. In these models, the specialist have briefly explained about the communication
process by using the variable such as – Sender, encoder, channel, decoder and receiver. Also
they have mentioned about potential noises and interferences, which can disrupt the
communication.

Context basically indicates the surrounding of a conversation which might include the setting,
the value positions of the people and suitability of a message. Due to the various reasons, context
of communication may change and the communication process can be disrupted, like – the
conversation may stop, the topic or the approach may change, or the flow may stay as it is. To
establish a meaningful and clear communication it’s necessary to have a proper understanding of
various contexts of communication and what sort of changes may influence the flow of the on
communication process. There are 5 major forms of changes in contexts in communication, such
as –Social context, historical context, psychological context, cultural context and physical
context etc.

The historical context basically means, the expectation of the speaker and the audience that relies
on the regular and usual situations or situations that have happened in the past.

The physical context indicates the mood, feelings, and emotions of the audience and how the
audience direct their feelings towards the speaker’s message.

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Cultural context basically involves aspects such as – social values, norms, social class etc.

Social context indicates the relationship between the audience and the speaker and their overall
expectation from this relationship.

The physical context comprises the factors such as – the actual location, the time of day, the
lighting, noise level and related factors etc.

If we look at cultural context, culture relates to the values and beliefs of a group or a nation.
Cultural context consists of norms, values, beliefs, power distance, social hierarchy and class etc.
which influences the communication remarkably. In Bangladesh, values, power distance and
social class imposes a great effect in the communication among the people. In Hofstede’s
Cultural dimensions theory, it is shown that how these values and other cultural aspects effects
member’s behaviour of a group or a nation.

The gap is, we do not have enough knowledge this aspect of communication, and thus we have
obtained a research to know further. We have used qualitative research method to analysis and
find out that, how the contextual changes effects the flow of the conversation. There are some
limitations of the research like, most of the people didn’t want to give an interview and some
errors may have taken place in translating the interviews. The overall point of the research is to
develop a constructive picture of various changes in the context that influences a conversation.

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 Methodology
The method section of a report details how the research was conducted, the research methods
used and the reasons for choosing those methods. It should outline: the participants and research
methods used, e.g. surveys/questionnaire, interviews refer to other relevant studies. The
methodology is mainly a step-by-step explanation of the research process.

Research Methodology

Qualitative research is defined as a market research method that focuses on obtaining data
through open-ended and conversational communication. This method is not only about what
people think but also about why they think so.

Quantitative research, is defined as a systematic investigation of phenomena by gathering

quantifiable data and performing statistical, mathematical or computational techniques. It gathers
information from existing and potential customers using sampling methods and sending out
online surveys, online polls, questionnaires etc., the results of which can be depicted in the form
of numerical.

So after reviewing the significance of these methods, we chose qualitative research method for
our report.

• Rational for Selecting Qualitative Methodology

This is an exploratory research so, adopting qualitative method is useful for such researches.
Here are some more reasons to perform a qualitative study:

➢ Exploration: When something isn’t well defined, qualitative methods are helpful.
By exploring in a qualitative study the problems related to this research are more
clearly detected.

➢ Interaction: It helped in interaction among respondents, as this research is based

on the comments, perceptions, views, opinions and ideas of people.

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 ➢ Solved Complexity: Complicated problems were detected, and it was needed to
describe the complexity and subtlety of how people interact in the changing
contexts situation or accomplish goals. So in this research, qualitative
methodology distilled the complexity into more manageable parts.

➢ Contexts: It was easy to understand about the changing contexts and

environment, and it also provided better direction to conduct the research.

➢ Explanations: When there was a need to know more about the situations linkages
or mechanisms that causes things, this method helped a lot to get more
explanations from the people.

Research Method

This research was based on qualitative research method. For collecting the primary data,
interviews were taken. To that end, different type of questions were designed so as to get a range
of useful data which will help to conduct the research.

For the secondary data, the resource of the library was used, and also a few books were
consulted. The internet was also browsed and standard search engines like Google was used.

Interview Technique

Some interview questions were developed on the research topic within each of these major areas.
Those questions were design to fit the respondents. The goal was to tap into their experiences
and expertise. It was also considered that the respondents are motivated to answer as completely
and honestly as possible.

Sampling

This research was on homogenous group of people. There were 6 respondents from the students
of North South University. Both female and male from the age group between 18- 25 plus were
the respondents of this research.

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 Research Limitations
• Biasness:
The strongest objection to qualitative research is that the quality of the research depends
too greatly on the individual researcher. Because the researcher’s designed questions can
inadvertently influence the results due to his/ her own personal beliefs. Qualitative study
shows result only about the group. We tried to minimize those biasness, despite best
effort some biasness may remain. Some errors may have taken place when translating the
interview responses.
• Perceived Lack of Rigor:
Quantitative research can demonstrate rigor by including a wide variety of numerical and
statistical data, while the rigor of qualitative research is harder to demonstrate because it
often involves the qualitative analysis of qualitative data.
• Time Consuming:
When the researcher is applying qualitative models of analysis to qualitative or numerical
data, the research process can be long and tedious because the researcher must carefully
pore over the data in detail while crafting analysis.
• Difficult to Investigate Causality:
Researchers find it difficult to investigate causality between different research
phenomena. Qualitative research is little complex to explain the difference in the quality
and quantity of information obtained from different respondents.

Qualitative study requires thoughtful planning to ensure the obtained results accurate.
This type of research is based more on the opinion and judgment rather than the results.
We tried to minimize biasness, despite best effort some biasness may remain.

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 Findings & Discussion
So for the interview questionnaire, we interviewed 6 different person. We asked them some
interview question about changes a context influence communication. And we get some findings
from all the different question. Here we will talk about those interview question and discuss the
findings.

1) Are you comfortable about discussing personal life with someone (ex: friend), in
front of strangers?

Outcome:

For this interview questionnaire, we interviewed 6 persons and 4 of them responded by saying
they are not comfortable in discussing their personal life with someone and other 2 person said
that it doesn’t matter to them. They are always friendly. After the interview for this question we
found that the majority people are not interested talk with someone in discussing the personal
matter. So the finding is that people usually tend to keep their personal matter to themselves and
avoid speaking personal matters in public.

2) While having an important conversation with group members, if a sales person

suddenly enters and starts describing about his/ her product, does it affect your
conversation with group members?

Outcome:

For the second question, 5 of them responded by saying that it will affect their conversation. And
1 person said that it will not affect their conversation. So the finding is that people don’t want
sudden interruption while they are in the middle of a conversation

3) Suppose, you and your mother having a conversation regarding some family issues
at home and during the conversation, both of you went out of home to get some
groceries, will there be any change in the conversation?

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Outcome:

For the third question, 4 of them responded by saying that there will be changes in their
conversation. And it’s really matter to the conversation if they change their context. So the
finding is that peoples’ way of conversation change according to the context or environment they
are in.

4) Does it affect the conversation, if a senior member of your family enters your room
while talking to our friend?

Outcome:

For this one, we interviewed 6 persons and 3 of them responded by saying that it will affect their
conversation. And other 3 person responded by saying that it will not affect. So it’s a tricky one
but we have to come up with a finding and we ask one more person about this question and
he/she also said that it will not affect their conversation. So the finding is that presence of a
senior member will not necessarily affect conversation among other members of a family.

5) Does your communication approach vary from person to person according to the
cultural aspects? (Such as – relationship, seniority and social class).

Outcome:

So 5 of them responded by saying that their communication approach varies. So the finding is
that peoples’ way of communication change according to changes in cultural aspect.

6) How a noisy environment (E. g. – Traffic jam, musical concerts, thunders, social
gathering etc.) interrupts your flow of conversation over phone?

Outcome:

We interviewed 6 persons and in that question all of them responded by saying that noisy
environment interrupts flow of conversation over phone. Because the communication becomes
unclear and ambiguous. People can’t hear anything in noisy environment when they are in a
conversation over phone. So the finding is that peoples’ conversation over phone are interrupted
by noisy environment as the conversation becomes vague and unclear.

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 7) According to you, what happens to the class lecture delivered by the teacher when a
student interrupts by repeatedly asking questions?

Outcome:

So in that question we interviewed some teachers and 4 of them responded by saying that it’s
actually interrupts by repeatedly asking question. Because when they delivered the lecture they
try to teach the students very clearly and smoothly. Sometimes student might not be understand it
but if they ask about the question one time they can teach them again but if the students ask
repeatedly it will affect the conversation. Other 2 teachers said that it will not interrupts if
students ask question because they try to learn it. So it’s their duty to answer the question
whatever students ask and also it depends on their mood. So the finding of this question is
students repeatedly asking questions are interrupted when teacher delivered lecture to the
students.

Overall Understanding and opinion:

So from the interview, we get so many findings. We have 7 different interview question for 6
different persons. So the findings we get from the interview is cultural context, social context,
physical context, social- psychological context and so on. So the finding we got from the
interview data is that cultural context, social context, physical context, social- psychological
context and so on. Contexts influence communication and context is an essential factor in a
communication. As per the survey results it is clear that different contexts influence people and
how they communicate with one another, changes in these context bring about changes in ways
people carry out the communication processes on a whole.

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 Recommendation

For a person to turn into a successful communicator they should certainly recognize which sorts
of discussion are adequate in specific types of social conditioning and situations. If a person is
able to handle it and understand these forms of context, they will be able to master themselves in
all forms of communication and just not only verbal communication but also physical forms of
communication.

Conclusion

After all of the interviews, discussions and reviews, we have to come to the conclusion that
context is really very important in our every communication. Without proper context people
can’t communicate effectively. Context develops your understanding of the message so that a
dialogue can take place. Communicating within proper context helps people to get the
information faster and it helps to make decisions quicker. If communication is proceeded in an
improper context, it can feel like the other person might not be understanding the topic correctly
and they are all confused about what you are talking. So context puts meaning in to a
conversation or message. Proper context allows for the communication to be specific.
Communication is not specific is in un-relatable context. If you are a speaker and your audience
doesn’t understand you, your message will be very ambiguous to your audience and it is likely to
lead to a miscommunication. If you are a receiver of a message and cannot figure it out that what
kind of message it is being conveyed, you will miss out on the entire meaning of the
conversation. So Context is very important and these are the main reasons and factors for which
changes in contexts influence communication. That’s how changes in context influences
communication.

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 Reference
https://www.questionpro.com/blog/quantitative-research/

https://www.questionpro.com/blog/qualitative-research-methods/

https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-importance-of-context-in-communication.html

https://www.quora.com/How-context-influence-the-communication-ability

https://www.reference.com/business-finance/culture-affect-communication-c2bf48fedf3350f7

https://classroom.synonym.com/types-of-communication-contexts-12083248.html (Document
provided by Respective Course Instructor).

https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-importance-of-context-in-communication.html

https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/other/hofstedes-cultural-dimensions-
theory/

CRAIG, R.T. (1999) Communication Theory as a Field Communication Theory 9/2:119-161.

DURANTI, A. & GOODWIN, C. (1992). Rethinking context: language as an interactive

phenomenon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

SBISÀ, M. (2002). Speech acts in context. Language & Communication 22: 421-436

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