The Use of Emojis in Written Business Communication
Communication is an essential part of being successful in your business career. Language has changed over time and now emojis are in common use. Write an essay using academic sources to address the following statement:
“There is a time and place to use emojis in written business communication”
Solution
The Use of Emojis in Written Business Communication
Communication in business utilises various platforms such a technological tools and one-on-one basis. The inception of social networking tools evoked the use of emoticons and emojis in informal and formal written communication. The past three years or so has witnessed the workplace evolving in written communication by including the new-age form of communication in the conventional writing of messages.
The paper seeks to illustrate that, there is a time and place to use emojis in written business communication. Besides, the analysis of the contemporary manner of communication aims to expound the etiquette that supports the utilisation of the representation of human-like faces and their counterparts in graphical form.
Technology and Communication
Innovations in the Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) department have enhanced the manner in which human beings communicate. For instance, Google talkback is a platform that allows the user to send verbal information to the recipient, which is received in written form. The first use of non-verbal messages in communication was evident in the introduction of emoticons. People would utilise the likes of ‘:-),’ ‘:-/,’ and ‘:-p’ to convey their tone and emotions in documented information. Software developers later established the graphical counterparts of font-based smileys in technological tools such as Facebook and Twitter (Abdin n.d). The trend extended to other communicating platforms such as e-mails, Hangouts and WhatsApp messenger. The users of analogue communication devices and the digital ones utilise the illustrations of discussion to elaborate meaning to their written messages. Besides, emojis and emoticons act as time-consuming ways of communication.
Emotion Icons in Communication
Written communication has been used for over 100 of years to send and receive information. Technological advancement introduced various channels of communication, which have enabled the establishment of a variety of ways to convey information. The use of written form of communication leaves out some aspects. Therefore, misinterpretation of information is high where messages have been sent using documentation. For instance, the answer, ‘Yes,’ to the question, ‘Will you marry me?’ does not convey the excitement of the marriage proposal. The utilisation of emojis in such a scenario will bring out the tone of the parties involved. Thus, the messages conveyed are likely to be accurate and have more meaning.
Communication experts encourage the use of gestures when communicating because they allow the recipient to understand the true meaning to spoken word. Besides, the professionals argue that non-verbal cues do more in communicating a matter as opposed to verbal communication (Pease and Pease 2017). Emoticons and their graphical forms classify as non-verbal cues. Therefore, a written message that utilises smiley faces is precise and is likely to communicate the subject matter. Today, emotion icons are utilised at work and in casual environments. Besides, the young and elderly are heavily relying on them to articulate their needs and wants accurately. In some cases, the use of emojis only when communicating can be conclusive in sending a message. For instance, if an individual is asked how they are holding up, the use of ‘L’ will effectively alert the recipient the emotional state of the sender (Greenwood 2017)
The Work Environment
The workplace resonates with formality. Thus, communication at work has always been either in the form of a written e-mail or on a face-to-face basis with utmost formality being upheld. Modern organisations such as Google and Facebook have introduced various dynamics that business traditionalists deem unprofessional. For instance, the superiors at Apple Incorporation have an open door policy to their subordinates; a change meant to improve the productivity of the firm. Besides, Google encourages its employees to have a non-routine schedule with the intention of increasing overall performance of the business. In the context of communication, businesses are establishing new channels of communication along with contemporary manners of communication. For example, ventures that have teams in remote areas utilise messaging tools that encourage the utilisation of the emotion icons. Slack is one of the applications that is widely used by remote teams in meeting the set objectives of business.
Emojis and the Workplace
The business environment is slowly embracing the use of emojis at the workplace, especially when communication is done within the organisation. Various forums and business professionals have commented on this shift of trends, with some advocating for it even outside the work environment. For instance, one of the professionals encourages the use of smiley faces with clients as long as the sender has an established relationship with the recipient. On the other hand, a substantial percentage of employees deem the use of emojis as unprofessional. The opposers of this manner of communication argue that the recipient of an emoji-embedded message is highly likely to view the sender as a juvenile. Besides, the conveyed message might come off as casual (Strongman 2013).
The communication professionals advocate for the use of emojis and emoticons where necessary and if the recipient reciprocates with a written message with the contemporary object. Besides, business people encourage the use of smiley faces when age, culture and gender are put into consideration to avoid embarrassing moments and negative conveying of information. According to statistical information, about half of the individuals in the upper management embrace the use of emojis. Besides, 20% of superiors enjoy using smiley faces to communicate with their subordinates (Goyal 2012). For instance, a leader at a corporate confessed to using kisses as an expression of how they enjoy working with her employees. On the other hand, the majority of employees avoid utilising the smiley faces in written communication. Instead, they rely on words to convey their needs and wants. Besides, about 25% of workers use them, but sparingly with their co-workers. The least percentage of emoji users are staff members who argue that the contemporary manner of communication allows them to communicate effectively in the workplace.
Conclusion
The manner of communicating is continuously changing. As such, the channels along with gadgets utilised to convey messages today will be different with the future innovations. Communication aims to convey messages accurately. The use of emojis in written communication has improved interpretation of information. The work environment is still in the transition stage of embracing smiley faces in the business environment. The paper has effectively illustrated that, there is a time and place to use emojis in written business communication.
References
Abdin J. n.d.. The Barriers of Communication & Guidance of Effective Communication. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Goyal S. 2012. Facebook Twitter Google+: Social Networking. International Journal of Social Networking and Virtual Communities 1(1).
Greenwood V. 2017. Emojis: Lost in Translation. Scientific American Mind 28(2) pp.8-8.
Pease A. and Pease B. 2017. The Definitive Book of Body Language. Harlequin Enterprises Australia Pty Limited.
Strongman L. 2013. The Psychology of Social Undermining in Organisational Behaviour. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Organisational Psychology 6.