Business Communication

Prof. Bringi Dev and Prof. Rakesh Godhwani

Week 3
Interpersonal communication is actually very interesting, and I'd like you all to come with me on a
journey on one or two scenarios because it'll help you learn this fascinating communication from a
different perspective. Imagine a person going inside the office and you are just observing this person.
This person is walking in the corridors and suddenly you see that this person is greeting another person
with a lot of respect and you move on. And then this person goes towards the cafeteria and sees some
friends and he just nodes at them and smiles at them. And mental you realise, that the first person
that he greeted had probably something to do with being a senior person in the organisation, but the
second scenario where they just given nod to the other person, probably would be a friend.

Why does this happen? Why is it that when you see a senior or a manager you become a little bit more
different in your communication and behaviour. You become a little bit more respectful, but when
you see your friends, you behave very differently. I actually joke about this in front of my students. I
tell my students that when I am teaching my course, when they meet me in the hallways of the
institute there a lot more respectable and they greet me nicely. But the moment the course is over
they barely look at me. Now I don't think there's anything wrong in this, but this is a theory of
interpersonal communication and this theory says, that there are two elements of how people
communicate with each other inter-personally when they see each other.

The first element is how close are these two people. We behave very differently with our parents and
our best friends because we are very close with them, we can be ourselves, but when we are in office
we are not very close with our colleagues. So, we are at our guard, we are at our professional best and
within that scenario we behave differently with those who are slightly more closer or less closer with.

The second element of interpersonal communication is, what do I need from the other person? When
I am meeting my boss, I need a lot of time from him, my promotion depends on him; so, my needs
quotient is very high. So, I'll behave very differently with him, but with a colleague who I don't have
much needs from, let's say the admin support or the finance department, I just want them to tell me
when my salary is coming, I probably will behave very differently. So, these two elements, the needs
and the proximity or the closeness define my behaviour in interpersonal settings, that is concept
number one.

Imagine you are going into a job interview, you are really prepared for this day and it means a lot to
you, this is your dream job. Now you go inside, and you are very stressed out and you are forgotten
that your face is very tense, and you were supposed to smile, and you just didn’t smile. What
impression would the recruiter have of you that day, Just because of this one smile. A smile has lots
of meanings and in an interview context I think it means that you want to be polite and friendly, but
because you did not smile the interviewer might think that you are unfriendly, stiff and might have a
variety of interpretations about you. And this might impact the interview outcome.

In interpersonal communication, there is a theory that explains all of this and this theory says that we
want to be polite because if you are not polite it will impact my life. In this case a simple smile impacted
my job and my chances of getting inside that company. You can extend the same concept in meeting
rooms, where you are meeting and interacting with your colleagues some of you are very friendly,
some of us are not. But because we are not friendly, many times we are stereotyped as a introvert or
a person whose very unfriendly and this is the second theory that explains that because we were not
polite, or the audience did not perceive us to be polite we were impacted in our careers. So, the second
theory kind of explains the need of interpersonal communication in an organisational context. These
two theories kind of give us an answer of why interpersonal communication is important.

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 Business Communication
Prof. Bringi Dev and Prof. Rakesh Godhwani

Week 3
I think the first simplest answer is that when we are working in a managerial context in a business
setting we have to be polite with each other because if we are not polite then it will impact our careers.
Number two depending on the relationship with the person and what we want our communication
will change. We will use certain words appropriately; our body movements and gestures will change
appropriately, and all of this together will create our perception on the others. So, when you now look
at this entire scenario from a audience prospective it should now give you an answer of what you
should do to behave properly and communicate properly in an interpersonal setting.

Some common scenarios are, how do you behave in a meeting room? How do you communicate in an
office? What do you do outside an office but in a business setting and all of these are communication
scenarios where you need to choose your words and actions, so that the audience thinks that you are
a polite person, you are willing to work with them and you will be successful together if you behave
properly.

Now there are some other scenarios as well which are called a etiquette, which are protocols of
interpersonal communication. Some of the most common scenario and samples are when we meet
someone for the first time and we exchange a business card or when we are dining with someone or
having a coffee with someone, all of these are protocol. To give you hilarious example, would you
jump on the table when you're having a coffee with a customer? The answer is no. Because
the etiquette requires you to behave in a certain way. One more example could be that when your
meeting someone for the first time in your office, would you go and hug them, just because you hug
all your friends. Because when you are with your friends, your proximity with your friends is very high
so it's okay to hug them but because as a customer and there is a protocol and the needs and proximity
is very different hugging them could be very dangerous. So, keeping all these concepts similar I'd like
all of you to think through your own behaviour when you meet someone you know and when you
want something from them. And finally, this subject is important because it helps us behave socially
in a business context and helps us to network and get our worked done.

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