Business Communication Reflection: Course Learning Outcomes

This paper presents a student's reflection on a Business Communication course, highlighting key concepts and learning outcomes. The student discusses the importance of communication in an organization, emphasizing its role in achieving objectives and managing resources. The reflection covers various concepts learned, including collaboration, teamwork, research, ethical behavior, and critical thinking. The student delves into communication theories such as critical theory and information theory, as well as principles like clarity, coherence, and conciseness. The paper concludes with a self-assessment of the student's communication competencies and the application of the learned theories and principles. References include Bovée, Thill & Raina (2016), Brink & Costigan (2015), Coffelt, Baker & Corey (2016), and Mehta (2016).

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Business Communication Reflection
Name
Professor
Course
Date

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Business Communication Reflection
In this paper, I would like to present a personalized, but objective reflection of everything
that I learnt in this course. Indeed, this is one of the most important courses that I have been
privileged to study in this institution. As a student of business, I acknowledge the important role
of communication in an organization. For every organization to accomplish its objectives, it must
use communication as a core strategy. Communication not only helps in the delivery of message,
but also plays an integral role in the management of human and non-human resources. These are
some of the most notable lessons I acquired in this course.
Apart from the significance of communication, I got an opportunity to learn other
concepts. These include collaboration, teamwork, research, flexibility, ethical behavior, research,
problem-solving, and critical thinking. From, the lectures that had attended, I got to learn that
these are some of the most important concepts that should form part of organizational managerial
strategies. I learnt that these concepts should be taken seriously because they mea n a lot. For
example, what I learnt about collaboration and teamwork is that it is a culture that should be
nurtured in all the employees. Teamwork is good because it gives employees a chance to work
cohesively and manage to accomplish unified organizational goals. Critical thinking, on the
other hand, is essential because it equips individual employees with skills to use to solve
practical problems facing them in the workplace (Coffelt, Baker & Corey 2016). Meanwhile,
ethical behaviors, from the information I gathered, is something that should always be upheld in
an organization. A strict compliance with ethical standards can benefit an organization in many
ways such as the protection of its reputation and enhancement of its productivity.

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When it comes to communication, I must acknowledge that the course was, indeed, an
informative one. It enabled me to learn a lot of things about communication. Most importantly, I
got to learn about various theories of business communication. Before I took this course, I was
not aware that business communication is a fully-fledged area of communication that has its own
unique principles, theories, models, and strategies. I thought that communication does not mean
a lot because it is merely used to send a message from the sender to the recipient (Bovée, Thill &
Raina 2016). I was not aware that organizational communication is organized to the extent that it
has got its own theories that should be applied when delivering informal or formal message from
one point to the other. I must acknowledge that the course was an eye-opener to me because it
enabled me to learn a lot of new skills that I never knew about organizational communication.
Some of the communication theories that I learnt in the course include the critical theory,
Groupware theory, post positive theory, and information theory.
According to what I learnt, a critical theory is a communication theory that states that an
organization should have a well-defined communication framework that it purposely uses for
conflict—resolution. According to the proponents of this theory, communication should only be
used in resolving conflicts that are ever experienced in a workplace. This should be done because
it is practically-impossible for an organization to run without experiencing a conflict between its
stakeholders lie employees, management, clients, labor unions, and suppliers. On its part,
information theory states that the role of communication in an organization should be to deliver
accurate and real messages intended for the recipient. Meaning, the message should reach the
intended recipient without any alterations (Mehta 2016). Once the message is disseminated by
the sender, the recipient should retain it as it is without any unnecessary alterations that might
distort the message. So, to achieve this, the organization should have standard rules and

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regulations to strictly follow during the entire communication process. These theories improved
my understanding a lot. They made me to have a deeper understanding of which kinds of
theoretical frameworks on which business communication should be based.
Apart from these theories, I got an ample opportunity to learn about various principles of
effective business communication. I learnt that in an organization, people do not just
communicate for the sake of it. At the same time, when engaging in a communication process,
one must comply with certain principles whose application makes the process effective and
purposeful. The principles that I got to know about include clarity, coherence, conciseness,
correctness, concreteness, completeness, and courtesy. Each of these principles should be
properly applied when making a business communication. They have an important contribution
to make towards the effective delivery of message between the sender and the recipient. The
principles, from what I learnt, should be applied when making a business communication bot in a
written and non-written format (Bovée, Thill & Raina 2016). For example, clarity, correctness,
and completeness are required because they can make the message to be simple and
comprehendible. The same can be attributed to courtesy whose effective application can play a
significant role in facilitating the communication process by encouraging the creation of an
effective interpersonal relationship between the sender and the recipient.
I must admit that the course improved my understanding a lot. It not only made me learn
about the business communication theories, but how to put whatever I had learnt into practice.
From my own assessment, I had several issues with my communication competencies. Honestly,
I was not too much competent because I did not have enough knowledge on essential
communication skills such as clarity, and completeness. I was also not courteous in my
communications. These are serious loopholes that I need to rectify because they have been

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hindering me from effectively communicating and succeeding in delivering my message to the
intended audience (Brink & Costigan 2015). However, now, thanks, to the course, I have learnt a
lot of new information that will enable me to be an effective communicator. However, to be as
effective I my communication s expected, I have to ensure that I properly apply the business
communication theories whenever communicating. They can enable me to be effective in my
communication pursuits.

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References
Bovée, C.L., Thill, J.V. & Raina, R.L., 2016. Business communication today. New Delhi:
Pearson Education India.
Brink, K.E. & Costigan, R.D., 2015. Oral communication skills: Are the priorities of the
workplace and AACSB-accredited business programs aligned?. Academy of Management
Learning & Education, 14(2), pp.205-221.
Coffelt, T.A., Baker, M.J. & Corey, R.C., 2016. Business communication practices from
employers’ perspectives. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 79(3), pp.300-
316.
Mehta, N.K., 2016. Excellence in human and business communication: reflections from the
Srimad Bhagavad Gita. International Journal of Business Excellence, 9(1), pp.113-133.