Professional Communication: Examining the Role & Impact of Emoticons

This essay explores the implications of using emoticons in professional business communication, focusing on their potential negativity in formal messages and job applications. It argues that while emoticons may add emotional context in casual conversations, their use in professional settings can undermine credibility and clarity. The analysis emphasizes the importance of direct and formal communication in the workplace, suggesting that relying on emoticons can lead to misinterpretations and a perceived lack of seriousness. The essay concludes that job applicants should avoid emoticons to maintain a professional image, and managers should discourage their use to foster clear and respectful communication within the organization. Desklib offers this essay as part of its collection of solved assignments.

Running head: EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
Effective Business Communications
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
Table of contents
Negativity of emoticons in professional messages....................................................................2
Reaction in using emoticon in job application...........................................................................2
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................4

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EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
Negativity of emoticons in professional messages
In the modern world, communication among individuals is done by social media such
as Facebook or WhatsApp. Communication via these applications does not provide a person
to display the current emotional state while writing a message. Hence, the use of emoticons is
necessary in order to convey the proper emotion to a message and make the opposition
person understand the message clearly (Georgescu & Popescul, 2015, p.277). In this regard, it
can be argued whether or not the use of such emotions proves to have a negative impact on
the communication process. The use of these emoticons can deceive a person from
understanding the true nature of a person’s mind. People can fake the emotional state by the
use of emoticons (O'Hair, Friedrich & Dixon, 2012, p.78).
This can be considered as a negative impact for making proper communication. This
is because the emotional state while sending a message needs to be understood by the people.
This can help to make the message sound more complete. Apart from this, the use of
emoticons in professional messages is not an acceptable source of communication.
Professional communication needs to follow a formal approach and people need to rely on
making direct calls to a person (Roth, 2014, p.175). In the scenario mentioned in the case
study, it was the duty of the colleague to approach the remaining team members directly in
order to encourage the team. This can help in reducing the dilemma of the use of an emoticon
in a message. Direct communication can help an individual to understand the emotions that a
person is trying to depict. Hence, the use of emoticon cannot be considered as a positive
mode of communication.

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EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
Reaction in using emoticon in job application
The use of emoticon while texting friends or family can be accepted as a means of
being sarcastic and cheerful. However, the use of such things needs to be criticised in
professional places (Kernbach, Eppler & Bresciani, 2015, p.164). In a professional place,
every employee is expected to behave in a formal manner particularly with superiors. Hence,
the mode of communication between a subordinate and a supervisor needs to be maintained
in a strict manner. As such the emoticons are not considered as a standard of communicating
at the workplace. In this regard, it can be said that while sending an email message of job
application an applicant cannot use any emoticon. Job applicants need to present an email by
following the basic rules of letter writing (Bovee, Thill & Raina, 2016, p.88).
As a manager, such emails cannot be entertained as it signifies casualty of the
individual. Every company wants to recruit employees that take the job seriously (Toth, 2013,
p.446). Individuals need to understand that the job application cannot be applied in a casual
manner and that professionalism needs to be maintained. As a manager, the reaction needs to
be shocking as well as disappointing about the degradation of the communication process due
to the advent of such social media in the modern world.

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EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS
Bibliography
Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., & Raina, R. L. (2016). Business communication today. Pearson
Education.
Georgescu, M., & Popescul, D. (2015). Social Media–the new paradigm of collaboration and
communication for business environment. Procedia Economics and Finance, 20, 277-
282.
Kernbach, S., Eppler, M. J., & Bresciani, S. (2015). The use of visualization in the
communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International
Journal of Business Communication, 52(2), 164-187.
O'Hair, D., Friedrich, G. W., & Dixon, L. D. (2012). Strategic communication in business
and the professions. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
Roth, S. (2014). The things that go without saying: on performative differences between
business value communication and communication on business values. International
Journal of Business Performance Management, 15(3), 175-191.
Toth, C. (2013). Revisiting a genre: Teaching infographics in business and professional
communication courses. Business Communication Quarterly, 76(4), 446-457.