nterpersonal and intergroup communication is an essential component in the flourishing of teamwork within contemporary businesses. Fellowship amongst these teams allows for an organization’s ability to develop and cultivate, however effective communication is a multidimensional concept in which requires a balance between the fundamentals and complexities of teams, ethical issues and emotional intelligence. It is with the correct combination of all these factors that allow for organizational teams to efficiently convey ambitions and purpose. The fluidity of teamwork allows for these individuals to ‘govern relationships within organization boundaries’ based on the concept of working together to achieve a common goal (Zinceirkiran, Emhan and Yasar, 2015). Although the idea of teams working towards a common organizational commitment can seem to be straight forward with a simple understanding of communication competence, it actually with added ethics that allows communication with in these teams to reach maximum potential. With ethical issues arising from virtually all areas of society, professions and organizations it would only emphasize the benefit and effectiveness of incorporating ethically thinking. In conjunction to ethical competence, intercultural competence is another factor that is essential in the way individuals in teams communicate with a mind of cultural sensitivity. Both ethics and cultural awareness falls under the basic concept emotional intelligence, in which individuals requires to communicate to each other with emotional awareness, before involvement in ethics or intercultural concepts in the way they communicate.
Employee involvement and participation are an essential factor, in which would allow for an organization to achieve its goals, increase productivity and overall survive in a competitive market. The level of necessity for team work can be found across the board for varying types of occupations, from the coordination amongst doctors, nurses and other healthcare providers in the operating room or in the intensive care unit (Conigliaro, 2013) to the coordination of retail teams. Teams collaborating together for extended period of time form a shared identity with one another. This shared identity can be used to further ‘understand to provide interpretive framework which can be used to recognize the direct’ group behavior and goals (Greenaway et al., 2014). Henceforth developing a shared sense of identity allows individuals to come together to share a common organizational interest. Although a sense of shared identity creates a platform for shared cognition, consensus and coordination, this identity is nothing if team member are unable to effectively communicate with intergroup and outer groups members in a way to successfully portrays their ideas in the most logical and efficient structure to reach their common goal. Team work based on shared identity can only function effectively if there is a strong line of communication between its members, and as mentioned in a 2016 case study it was found that there was an improved communication as a result of experiments, that overall lead to encourage members to pave ways of developing stronger team work through better communication (Brewer and Holmes, 2016). A stronger communication between teams would allow for better time management, professional development and overall cohesiveness of members, and henceforth working effectively towards the organizational ambitions. The synergetic correlation between teams and communication highlights the importance of how communication amongst others is a multi-dimensional concept and cannot be efficient if it only focuses on one aspect.
To further elucidate upon that idea that overall effectiveness of teams is a multi-dimensional theory, we can further connect team communication, with ethical communication. The ethical dimension of communication is a complex but yet is the most important in being able to communicate efficiently with team members. The emphasis on ethical issues within the business sector was found to believe that 75% of people surveyed at colleges and universities deemed that there was a greater importance in teaching about connecting choices to make an ethical decision (Floyd et al., 2013). Ethics when communicating in teams can take on various perspectives, one of which that would benefit in most situations is the dialogical ethical stance. This viewpoint acknowledges the existence of other viewpoints within society and uses this diversity to communicate with an aware mind. The conscious awareness of the dialogical approach gives an understanding regarding the “normative criteria that should apply in particular contexts” (Macklin and Mathison, 2017). It is with this moral and ethical criterion that team members are inclined to both adjust their behaviors and to interpret others’ behavior in ways that meet these expectations, and to then communicate accordingly. Offending or upsetting the receiver in a line of communication can often overshadow the actual information itself and therefore the productiveness of the team will decrease, this occurrence can be assisted through the understanding to dialogic ethics. Although in most situations this approach to ethical communication is viable, there are still some ethical issues that underlie when working in teams that are not easily resolved with a simple a dialogical view. It is with the vital characteristics of ethical communication that makes it hard to completely satisfy the criteria. An example of this, is the importance in ethics to maintain a relationship through sustaining trust and sincerity between associates, but the dilemma comes when potential relationship breaking news need to be communicated. On one hand, it is ethical to consider the feelings of that team member by withholding the information but on the other hand it is also unethical to suppress crucial information, it is this dilemma is all too often when dealing with ethical communication. Although the balance between what is considered right and wrong falls under a thin line, when ethical communication is done right is can have a sustainable effect in the way we communicate both day to day and professionally
The dialogic viewpoint towards ethical interaction is one that is understanding of circumstances and thoughts of other team members, however there is an underlying factor that may not be so easy to grasp an understanding of. Accordingly, ethical communication should not offend or intervene with productiveness of teams, but with limited intercultural understanding can hinder the criteria of dialogic ethics. With cultural and religious tensions rising in the form of wars, political disagreements and the perpetuation of stereotypes, it is undoubtedly important for members of a team to grasp a great understanding for intercultural competence. Intercultural competence is aimed at promoting team member’s ability to acknowledge, respect and integrate in the cultural differences of their equivalents, so that they communicate in a way the is unoffending and ethical. Ones’ ability of understand and link the connection between team work, communication, ethics and intercultural competence to the ultimate attributes in which make a highly successful team player and henceforth contribute greatly to the functioning of teams. In a 2012 theoretical study, it found that developing and evaluating intercultural competence is a result from overall awareness and it not something that comes instinctively (Holmes and O’Neill, 2012). Therefore, encourages the importance of organizations to conceptualize the idea of intercultural problems and the ethical decisions to their employees, so that it will no longer hinder the productiveness of teams. The significance of intercultural competence can be seen within almost all businesses in the form of an anti-discrimination policies, and it is through this type of policy that team members are able to maintain a virtuous and healthy relationship with one another without offending culture. The correlation between dialogic ethics and intercultural competence is that they complement each other, whereby if one is not meet then generally the latter is also not satisfied, but an understanding of both concepts allows for a heightened level of communication on the basis of trust and avoids the troubles of unproductiveness. It also should be noted that communication in itself is how these two concepts can be achieved when working in groups. It is important for members of groups to be open about feelings and viewpoints to let their equals know about their views and to eventually work towards ethical and cultural sensitive communication.
The level of emotional intelligence of individuals plays a large role in developing a use for ethical and intercultural competence, in which with a low level of emotional knowledge could leave that individual with an inability to see ethical issues. Inability to assess ethical issues and read circumstances leaves teams and individuals vulnerable to unproductiveness and inefficiency. A study demonstrated that people with a high or positive emotional intelligence ability displayed “more confidence, which strengthen the individual’s self-reliance…and in doing so enhanced the communication skills” (Hendon, Powell and Wimmer, 2017). In compliments to this study, Sarkar and Ray (2017) find that there is indeed an association between emotional intelligence and team effectiveness in which they work hand in hand with each other and have a positive correlation. The importance of emotional intelligence is universal, in the idea that to understand the concept of ethics and intercultural issues, an individual must be self-aware and show signs of empathy and social skills to fully conceptualize these ideas. Without the realization of ethics and culture teams in organization are prone to miscommunication due to lack of understanding of one another.
The ability to work effectively in teams is a multi-dimensional concept that requires differing factors to work cohesively together, and although it is ideal for these factors to work together it is not so easily achieved. At the core of organizational effectiveness is the connection between team work and communication, in that teams are unable to evolve if there is no sufficient. Without communication team cannot express viewpoints and hence cannot reach the organizational commitments of the teams. In conjunction to team work and communication, ethical competence is a highly essential component enabling individuals to successfully work together. Ethical competence in the form of dialogic ethics, where communication is influenced by the feeling and views of other members, in prospects to converse in a way that is unoffending and principled. To branch off of ethical competence, intercultural competence is a subdivision in which still is imperative to the smooth functioning of organizational teams. Intercultural competence highlights the importance of cultural understanding amongst other, especially in such a multicultural nation. Through being knowledgeable of current cultural stasis group members are able to communicate in a way that will convey messages successfully without causing cultural insensitivity. It should be noted that all the case studies mentioned throughout did not elucidate on the idea that teamwork and communication can be hindered by the external factors such as technological advances. With technology advancing, does such changes make it easier or more difficult for team members to effectively communicate. It is recommended that further research on the changing ways we communicate and how that would in turn impact the overall function of teams. On one hand, increased technology would mean for increase communication as team members can be reached immediately, but also leave space for miscommunication due to lack of body language and facial expressions. In, conclusion it is the combined understanding of ethics, culture and strong communication lines that allows for individuals to fully triumph when working in groups, and henceforth establish a sense of accomplishment and productivity.