BUSN20017 Business Communication : Emoticons in Organizational

ersal. The meaning expressed by emoticons might differ from individual to individual. The meaning perceived by individuals might differ. An emoji of shock might be signified as merely as surprise to another individual. The meaning expressed by emoticons is confusing as well. Some of the emoticons are difficult to understand (Kelley & Autman, 2014). Although the emoticons can still be used in business communication as they are not all emoticons are confusing or bad. Some emoticons like the smiley can be used when the supervisors have to cheer up or motivate their employees the thumbs up or smiling emoticon can be used.  It can be said that emoticons interpret ambiguous meanings if used in official conversations it might clear confusion. In written communication, emoticons are bound to create confusion. Business messages are very important and needs to be clearly conveyed as well as understood. The person sitting in the other end receiving the message is not able to see the face of the one sender (Kelley & Autman, 2014). Smiley or emoticons can create false interpretation of the message and the sender can easily fake their emotions by sending an emoticon that does not symbolize his or her feeling.

2.In my opinion use of emoticons in organizational conversation or in business emails should strictly be avoided. As a manager, I would not approve the use of emoticons in communication. However, in some cases emoticons can be used like in motivating the employees. This should be done only in motivational messages and not in business or operational conversation. Motivational messages can be separately typed and send to the employees. In upward communication there has to be sense of respect towards the supervisors. Subordinates are required to communicate in a way that shows their respect to the supervisors but if emoticons are used there would not be much respect (Loglia & Bower, 2016). Similarly in downward communication if the supervisors sends a message to their subordinate saying that “The work needs to be done by day after tomorrow” with a smiley in the end of the sentence. The employees would not take the message seriously. An emoticon shows the light mood of the sender. In such case the work might not be done as the employee might take it lightly. Business communication generally follows a standard and templates when required (Wang et al., 2014). As per the standards of the official document there is no scope for any emoticons. Moreover, emoticons are not universally accepted so it would be useless if I as a manager promote use of emoticons in my organization.

References

Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., & Raina, R. L. (2016). Business communication today. Pearson Education India.

Kelley, S., & Autman, H. (2014). Effective Computer-Mediated Business Communication: Fostering Immediacy. The Journal of Research in Business Education, 56(2), 48.

Loglia, J. M., & Bower, C. A. (2016). Emoticons in Business Communication: Is the:) Worth it?. Emotions, technology, and design, 37-54.

Wang, W., Zhao, Y., Qiu, L., & Zhu, Y. (2014). Effects of emoticons on the acceptance of negative feedback in computer-mediated communication. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 15(8), 454.