The Role of Active Listening in Business Communication

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
1 | P a g e

Essay
Communication has become one of the most important aspects of businesses. Businesses need to
make sure that a proper communication process needs to be established within it so that the
information passed between the personnel in done in a resourceful way. Active listening is one of
the factors that need to be focused on by businesses. If this factor is not implemented into the
communication then the whole process would be a disaster. Active listening is important in an
organisation so that the employees can understand their work as well as it helps in solving
problems that are occurring for the employees. The thesis of the essay would compromise of
finding out what are the issues and problems involved in management education involving active
listening. There are many problems which are faced in active listening that need to be analysed
and understood so that the communication process can work successfully. Proper communication
throughout the organisation needs to be established throughout every corner of businesses, both
internally and externally, so that it can grow and develop in an efficient manner Active listening
needs to be acknowledged by all of the personnel so that whatever is being conveyed to then can
be easily understood (Spataro et. al. 2018).
According to Maben, & Gearhart., 2018, the role of social media in communication has become
a huge issue for organisations as it has decreased the level of active listening. It is seen that most
of the employees who are working in any organisation are mostly glued to their cell phones.
Communication through social media applications has become one of the most used
communication methods. Though this communication method is quick and easy to use, it is
killing the skills of active listening. Active listening is going in the downfall because of social
media since the message or information sent is not fully comprehended. Through active
listening, the message which is sent to the other person is done in a proper way so that the
information decoded properly. There are skills involved in active listening like being attentive or
asking other questions which cannot be done in through social media. The issue of social media
is that if the employees use it too much of social media as a communication method then they
would not understand if the information is conveyed to them verbally. If a meeting were to be
taken in an organisation then it would be hard for the employees to understand what was
discussed throughout the meeting as they would not possess any active listening skills. The issue
of social media communication does not end here as it causes more problems in active listening.
2 | P a g e

If the message sent through social media is not fully comprehended then the work done on that
information would be considered as useless. In active listening, there is a control over the things
which happen because the information will be understood clearly and if there are any doubts on
what is being said could be asked at the same point. But the use of social media communication
has stopped this from happening as people just assume what is trying to be said through the
message and do not see that the information could be asking them to do the exact opposite of
what they are trying to do thus causing it to be an issue for active listening (Chipkin, 2013). By
using active listening in organisations there would be more efficient as the personnel would be
able to understand what the person is trying to tell them. Also, there would be questions asked if
there is any problem, unlike social media. Often times it is seen that people who use social
media as a communication method do not have that much knowledge about what to write about
and often end up confused about what to write. This is killing the skills of active listening as this
aspect of communication should require that the receiver of the information should have some
knowledge regarding the information which is being sent to them. Active listening skills are
decreasing gradually because the use of social media has become a major issue for it. Though it
is seen that social media is an issue for active listening but active listening, on the other hand, is
considered to be a crucial part of social media. In social media, video calls are also a technique
for communication in which active listening is a major part because it needs to be understood
clearly on what is being conveyed.
According to Gable et. al. 2015, there is a major gap which is present in active listening that has
become a major issue that needs to be attended to immediately by organisations. This gap has
caused problems for teaching active listening in all of the fields. One of the gaps is that active
listening should be done in collaboration with the behaviour of an individual. If the behaviour of
an individual is not understood then it will be hard for teaching active listening. The behaviour of
the individuals needs to be assessed so it can be found out what are skills they are lacking active
listening. This has become an issue in active listening because the individuals do not have proper
knowledge of what skills should they have, basically they have not done a thorough self-
assessment of themselves. For active listening to be properly used by an individual first of all
they should do a self-assessment so that their behaviour can be identified due to which the skills
which are missing can be addressed to. By studying the behaviour of an individual it can be
identified on why active listening is not being done by them. The issue of biasness is another gap
3 | P a g e

that is present in active listening. This is considered to be a huge gap creator as the decision or
attitude toward the other person may cause problems in communication. If there is personal
biasness present for the other person then the information conveyed by them would not be heard
at all or even ignored. So it would be hard for an individual to teach active listening to these
types of people (Bruhn, & Remund., 2018). The behaviour of such individuals would become a
barrier and they would not understand the value of effective listening. This would also hinder the
skills of active listening as attentive listening would not be achieved thus creating a rift between
what the sender is trying to tell and what the receiver is comprehending. Another gap in the
teaching of active listening which has become an issue is that individuals do not understand what
is being said to them. This has become a huge issue for active listening as it is taught that if
attentive listening is done then the message would be understood in a better way and the
individual could ask any concerns they may have about the information. The individuals do not
put themselves in the shoes of the speaker which is the best way to understand what the speaker
is trying to say to them. But this is not being done thus becoming an issue in active listening
which has created a gap. This gap will cause problems for active listening as there would skills
missing in individuals that make it hard for them to comprehend the message in an effective
manner. There are other factors like empathy and reflection that are missing in active listening
teaching which create major issues. If the person portraying the information does not give
empathy to the other person then active listening would not be achieved. Also, both of the
individuals who are involved in the sending and receiving of the information must reflect on
what is being given to them so that they can clearly understand what is being said to them.
According to Manusov et. al. 2018, in businesses more focus is put on how to speak and
presenting oneself rather than listening properly to what is being said. This has become an issue
in active listening as it creates a misunderstanding that hearing contently what the other person
has to say is not taught but to speak clearly in front of a large audience is given more importance.
This issue emphasises that active listening should not be done as it does not have any
significance in an individual’s life and they would not be using it anywhere in their career. The
other way that this has decreased the importance of active listening is that more and more
employees are looking for growth and development opportunities in which they believe that can
be achieved by only being a good speaker. But to grow and develop in an organisation or in any
field it is necessary that an individual should have active listening skills so that if any crucial
4 | P a g e

information is being told to them then they can comprehend it fully and then apply it to their job
roles. In orientation process of organisations, it is seen that most crucial information is portrayed
at this time and if the new employees have active listening skills then they would be able to
capture the information regarding how to grow in the organisation. Not only does the staff of an
organisation focus on speaking but also the management focuses on speaking rather than active
listening (Weger et. al. 2015). This is a problem for the organisation because if the managers or
leaders do not represent the skills of active listening then they would not be able to understand
what the grievances of the employees are. Also, if the management does not have active listening
skills then they would not be able to assess the performance of the employees because they
would not be able to understand how hard the employee is working. Also, active communication
is a key part for the communication process to be successful in an organisation and if this is not
done then all of the processes would decrease as they are interdependent on the each other for
crucial information. Another issue that arises due to the fact that importance is not given to
active listening is that the relationship between the management and the staff would not be good.
No respect and empathy would be developed between them thus leading to an unfriendly
environment in the workplace. Everyone in the organisation would be judging each other and
there would be a sense of respect present. Also, teamwork in the organisation would not be
effective as the team members would not be able to communicate with each other and there
would be a less understanding of the ideas the each one of them is giving. Not having proper
active listening skills would mean that there is no room for innovation as new ideas would not be
taken seriously as the managers would not listen carefully to the idea thus rejecting it (Vickery
et. al. 2015).
Active communication makes the communication as a whole and without this aspect, the
communication would be a failure. There are many issues that are involved in active listening
which have hindered its importance and caused it to decrease. One of the issues was social media
in which people have forgotten about active listening. Through social media communication,
individuals have lessened the importance of active listening which has caused problems in their
lives. There are also gaps in active listening teaching which have created issues regarding
various factors. Another issue presented in active listening is that more focus is being put on
active speaking. This has caused problems to occur in organisations as people would not
understand what is being told to them thus resulting in poor performance and wrong work is
5 | P a g e

done. In conclusion, it can be said that active listening helps in solving a lot of problems for an
organisation and other parts of an individual’s life. Active listening solves disputes and conflicts
that affect the organisations and individuals performance.
6 | P a g e

References
1. Chipkin, H. (2013). Active listening. Travel Weekly,72(49), S8. Retrieved From:
https://cqu.userservices.exlibrisgroup.com/view/action/uresolver.do;jsessionid=53DCBD
4F1E189CF95134E4DC7E958E00.app01.ap01.prod.alma.dc05.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com
:1801?
operation=resolveService&package_service_id=5621398150003441&institutionId=3441
&customerId=3440
2. Maben, S., & Gearhart, C. (2018). Organizational Social Media Accounts: Moving
Toward Listening Competency. International Journal of Listening,32(2), 101-114.
Retrieved From:
https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/10904018.2017.13306
58
3. Spataro, Sandra E., & Bloch, Janel. (2018). "Can You Repeat That?" Teaching Active
Listening in Management Education. Journal of Management Education, 42(2), 168-198.
Retrieved From:
https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/doi/full/10.1177/1052562917748696
4. Kourmousi, Kounenou, Yotsidi, Xythali, Merakou, Barbouni, & Koutras. (2018).
Personal and Job Factors Associated with Teachers’ Active Listening and Active
Empathic Listening. Social Sciences, 7(7), 1-18. Retrieved From: https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/docview/2124969979?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo
5. Gable, Judy, & Herrmann, Tamara. (2015). Active listening. In Counselling Skills for
Dietitians (pp. 85-98). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved From:
https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/doi/abs/10.1002/9781119173953.ch6
6. Bruhn, K., & Remund, D. (2018). Helping Public Relations Students Develop Active
Listening Skills: A Pilot Study. Teaching Journalism & Mass Communication, 8(2), 21-
24. Retrieved From:
https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/docview/2220142204?rfr_id=info
%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo
7. Manusov, V., Stofleth, D., Harvey, J., & Crowley, J. (2018). Conditions and
Consequences of Listening Well for Interpersonal Relationships: Modeling Active-
Empathic Listening, Social-Emotional Skills, Trait Mindfulness, and Relational
7 | P a g e

Quality. International Journal of Listening, 1-17. Retrieved From: https://www-
tandfonline-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/10904018.2018.1507745
8. Weger, H., Castle Bell, G., Minei, E., & Robinson, M. (2014). The Relative Effectiveness
of Active Listening in Initial Interactions. International Journal of Listening, 28(1), 13-
31. Retrieved From:
https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/10904018.2013.81323
4
9. Hills, L. (2018). Staff Coaching: Using Active Listening and Powerful Questions to
Unleash Your Staff's Potential. The Journal of Medical Practice Management :
MPM, 33(5), 302-308. Retrieved From: https://search-proquest-
com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/docview/2029504211?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo
10. Vickery, A., Keaton, S., & Bodie, G. (2015). Intrapersonal Communication and Listening
Goals: An Examination of Attributes and Functions of Imagined Interactions and Active-
Empathic Listening Behaviors. Southern Communication Journal, 80(1), 20-38.
Retrieved From:
https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/1041794X.2014.9392
95
8 | P a g e