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Foundation: Professionalism and Communication

Communication

Human Elements

Add any of the following elements to the communication process (this is not a comprehensive list) and the complexity intensifies:

  • Cultural communication norms,
  • Cultural beliefs and values,
  • Personal beliefs and values,
  • Gender,
  • Situational context (e.g., casual to crisis or power differential-manager to employee or parent to child),
  • Perceptions,
  • Personality, 
  • Upbringing,
  • Emotions (basic: anger, happy, sad, surprise, fear, and disgust),
  • Generational - each generation may share common values and motivators: (Purdue Global, 2021)
    • Baby Boomers: 1946–1964
    • Generation X: 1965–1980
    • Millennials: 1981-2000
    • Generation Z: After 2000

In addition, there are a few miscellaneous factors that can also impact communication such as

  • Cultural slang,
  • Information overload,
  • Noise.

Moreover, silence, talking about one’s self, building trust, and how disagreement is communicated (Meyer, 2015) are other ways in which cultural communication norms and interpretation can differ.

Watch the video, it summarizes what can negatively affect communication and some ways to prevent this from happening.

How miscommunication happens (and how to avoid it) - Katherine Hampsten (TED-Ed,2016) (4:32)