21st Century Communication Trends

21st Century Communication Trends

Stephen P. Borgatti identifies five trends in the 21st century regarding organizations. These trends are Globalization, Diversity, Flexibility, Flatness, and Networking. Connected with these trends, there are also implications for communication.

Globalization

Due to globalization you have to deal with people from different countries and their language and culture may be totally different from ours. Therefore it is necessary to inform one about the different cultures, as you have to be able to work with them.
First of all you have to agree to one language in which you want to communicate. It needs to be a language which both business partners are speaking. Otherwise an interpreter is needed.
Additionally you should also pay attention to nonverbal communication, as it is different in some countries.
Another impact that globalization has on communication, is the need for new communication methods, as communication has to travel a long distance. The E-Mail system is already used by everyone, but also newer technologies as for example video conferencing, are becoming more and more popular.

Diversity

Diversity in companies is not only based on different home countries, but also individual differences. Therefore one has not only to deal with cultural differences but also with more heterogeneous individuals. Resulting from this, communication problems are more likely to occur and more than ever, a good communication strategy as well as good communication skills become necessary.

Flexibility / Flat

Due to the fact, that companies have to be more flexible nowadays, employees have often more power and have to show more initiative. They also gain more power due to the trend of flat organizations. Management levels are eliminated and the employees’ responsibility is increasing. This results in more and maybe even more difficult communication for the individual in the company. Once again it becomes obvious that employees’ communication skills, should be developed, by the organization; for example through workshops.

Networked

Even though companies structures are becoming more flat, networking is one of the key points, to stay competitive. Direct communications across unit and firm boundaries and cross unit team structures are typical for the 21st century. Outsourcing and strategic alliances make a good network necessary, as well as the fast changing customer needs. Fortunately, new information technologies allow the companies to communicate and network in an easier way than in the past.


Personal Experiences:

While working on a group project I personally experienced the difference between nonverbal communication of different countries. One of my team members was from South Korea and when we were discussing in our group she was nodding. So I though she understood everything what we said. In fact nodding in South Korea basically means that the person is listening, not that she understands what was said. I found this really interesting to know.
We also detected another example during our group project. We all counted in different ways with our hands.

Another aspect which I realized due to many group projects, with team member of all different countries, is that it sometimes takes a while to communicate effectively. Not only because of missing vocabulary, but also because of, that you do not want to offense someone. Since you do not know how your own pronunciation and the use of words will sound to someone else with a completely different language background. Therefore you try to explain more in detail how you mean something, which costs sometimes a lot of time. However I loved working in diverse teams, as especially due to our diversity we had a great pool of ideas.


Links:

Further information about communication Trends:
http://www.soumu.go.jp/joho_tsusin/eng/Resources/WhitePaper/WP2000/1-1.pdf

Company communication trends:
http://www.bcg.com/publications/files/Company_Comm_Trends_Rpt_Feb02.pdf

Internal communications trends:
http://saunderslog.com/2006/04/24/internal-communications-trends/