Over the past few days, I have been looking at the communication challenges identified by Flammia et al. (2016), and cannot help but reflect on the communication styles on display in our own virtual collaboration project.
Flammia et al. (2016) describe four categories of communication styles and their challenges:
- Direct/ Indirect Communication Styles: Speakers with an indirect communication style do not express themselves explicitly and avoid bluntness. They focus on not upsetting the group. I think this reflects the mentality of a lot of Irish people. In my experience, we are concerned that stating things too bluntly or directly may be perceived as rudeness. To use a common Irish saying, we do not want “to put anyone out”; Translation: we do not want to upset or put any undue pressure on anyone. This results in a communication style fraught with ambiguity, which may be understandable to Irish people, but confusing to other nationalities, even native English speakers. However, from my point of view, the Irish faction of our team have been living up to the name of technical communicators by being as direct (yet polite) as possible. The chat groups have been clear, with the occasional clarification needed now and then.
- Elaborate/ Exact/ Succinct Communication Styles: Flammia et al. (2016) define this style as a continuum, with ‘elaborate’ and ‘succinct’ on opposite ends, and ‘exact’ situated in between the two. The terms are self-explanatory: an elaborate communication style is long-winded in nature with the use of ornate language, and a succinct communication style uses the minimum words necessary. As I reflect on our Slack chat groups, I would identify the team’s communication style as being mostly ‘exact’. The Irish group sometimes appears to sway to the more elaborate side of exact but this may be due to the fact that we outnumber the other groups, or have not progressed on to the translation phase of the process. Our position on the continuum may alter as the project progresses on to other stages, where some participants will become more involved, and possibly more vocal, than others.
- Instrumental/Affective Communication Styles: As the project manager for this assignment, I have strived to use an instrumental communication style at all times. An instrumental style is specific and conveys a message as clearly as possible. During meetings, I have attempted to have a well-defined agenda and ensure that I make my point understandable to the whole team. This communication style is very effective in this forum as it has led to our success in delegating tasks, organising a schedule, and providing constructive feedback.
- Personal/Contextual Communication Styles: In a personal communication style, the speaker places emphasis on himself/herself. In a contextual communication style, the emphasis is on the group. In the latter, the speaker uses ‘we’ instead of ‘I’. I would not have thought about these communication styles before this week and I cannot say, as of yet, which bracket the members of our team fall into. However, so far the team has been working harmoniously, looking out for one another, and giving words of encouragement where necessary. This may indicate that we are employing a contextual communication style. In other words, the team is thinking of the group as a whole and not emphasising themselves over anyone else.
Non-Verbal Communication
Flammia et al. (2016) emphasise the importance of non-verbal communication. They point out that the inability to communicate non-verbally with a virtual team may interfere with overall communication. My virtual team are communicating through chat groups on slack. It is difficult to convey the correct tone or emotion in a written message, particularly when most of the group have never even met face-to-face. We are not familiar with our colleagues’ personalities, and yet we are striving to build up a positive, friendly working relationship. To help convey the tone and emotion behind our messages, quite a few of us have started using emojis. We don’t overuse them but they have proven to be useful in lightening the tone or conveying when we are joking about something. It may not seem like a very professional approach, and it probably would not go down well in the working world. However, it has definitely helped build a good balance of work and play. In fact, I was looking at this blog post by Someone Somewhere:
https://zedie.wordpress.com/2018/07/17/what-your-emojis-say-about-you/
This blog discusses how psychologists are investigating the effects of emoji use in communication. They have found that emojis enable non-verbal communication and add to the clarity of a message. Our virtual team group chats are the living proof of these findings.
References:
Flammia, M., Cleary, Y. and Slattery, D. (2016) Virtual teams in higher education, Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
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