Skip to main content

Women and Business Communication

While it would be unfair to say women are inherently organized and emotional, and men are naturally cold and sloppy, there is truth in the statement that women can communicate in a way that allows them to connect in an authentic and genuine way with others. The communication styles of men and women are vastly different, given that each group communicates for different purposes. According to a study on Gender Differences in Communication Styles, Influence Tactics, and Leadership Styles done at Claremont McKenna College, “The biggest difference between men and women and their style of communication boils down to the fact that men and women view the purpose of conversations differently. Academic research on psychological gender differences has shown that while women use communication as a tool to enhance social connections and create relationships, men use language to exert dominance and achieve tangible outcomes. Women are, overall, more expressive, tentative, and polite in conversation, while men are more assertive, and power-hungry” (Merchant, K., pg. 17).

     While men tend to communicate in order to be heard, women communicate with the goal of collaboration and understanding as the end goal. This is the result of men and women being socialized in feminine and masculine speech communities, each with particular functions of communication that are established throughout life’s interactions. The goal of feminine communication is typically community building, “People who are socialized in feminine speech communities – most women and some men – tend to regard communication as a primary way to
establish and maintain relationships with others. Feminine communicators converse in traditional and online settings in order to share about themselves and to learn about others” (Fixmer-Oraiz & Wood, pg. 112).

     Relationship building is an imperative skill within the workforce, especially in the realm of business. When working in sales, marketing, or advertising having the ability to form and maintain positive business relationships can drive your career, and increase your chances of promotion within your company. Women must keep this in mind when entering negotiations regarding pay raises and job promotions, because women are not expected to be assertive, they need to enter these conversations prepared to present themselves as team players and collaborators. Sheryl Sandberg refers to a communication style that Mary Sue Coleman of University of Michigan refers to as “relentlessly pleasant”, “This method requires smiling frequently, expressing appreciation and concern, invoking common interests, emphasizing larger goals, and approaching the negotiation as solving a problem as opposed to taking a critical stance…women can enter these negotiations with the knowledge that showing concern for the common good, even as they negotiate for themselves, will strengthen their position. All organizations consist of people working together. Focusing on the team leads to better results for the simple reason that well-functioning groups are stronger than individuals. Teams that work together well outperform those that don’t” (Sandberg, pg. 48).


   Unfortunately, though the qualities of collaboration, relationship building, listening, and empathy which are encouraged in female communication communities are beneficial to business organizations, women are often presented with the challenge of attempting to appear assertive while also pleasant and kind. As women attempt to muddle their way through the working world, they stumble upon situations in the workplace that are foreign to them, and often their male superiors cannot relate to their specific challenges. As more women rise to leadership positions within larger organizations, there will be increased opportunities for women in lower-level positions to participate in meaningful mentorship programs offered by their employers. Effective mentor programs are pivotal experiences for the advancement of women in business, “One study showed that women who found mentors through formal programs were 50% more likely to be promoted than women who found mentors on their own” (Sandberg, pg. 73).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Women are Promoting Eachother

Women often remain unheard within the workplace, particularly in business settings which are dominated by men. Often times women will remain silent, because they assume their ideas or opinions will be overlooked, or a male colleague will attempt to take credit for their proposal. According to Entrepreneur.com, women working within the Obama administration started using a method called amplification,  “ When a woman proposed an insight or solution, the other women would repeat it in agreement to amplify the point. This helped everyone, both men and women, recognize the contribution coming from the woman who first proposed the idea” (Lee, 2017).  We  often see a competitive atmosphere in business among women, because they feel they need to be harder and less empathetic in order to advance at the same pace that their male coworkers can. The only way that women can create an atmosphere that will create opportunities for the advancement and promotion of women within the bu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Women in Banking

     According to Sheryl Sandberg in her groundbreaking book Lean In, “Women became 50 percent of the college graduates in the United States in the 1980s. Since then, women have slowly and steadily advanced, earning more and more of the college degrees, taking more of the entry-level jobs, and entering more fields previously dominated by men. Despite these gains, the percentage of women at the top of corporate America has barely budged over the past decade. A meager 21 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are women” (Sandberg, pg. 5). I talked to a few women who work within the business realm, and they acknowledge the need for women within the workplace. Laura works as an Assistant Branch Manager for Citizens Bank, and she states, “Women in the field I feel are a doubled edged sword. We are perceived as less knowledgeable, especially around business accounts versus personal accounts. Banking is traditionally seen as a man’s role where the teller side is more traditionally ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tell Girls to Speak Up, Don't Silence Them

     As a little girl, I was constantly told I was too loud, too bossy, too smart, and too opinionated. When I reached the 5 th grade, I wrote a report on Epilepsy, having struggled with it for most of my life up to that point. The report was written in a scientific nature, I had done research for weeks, talking to my doctors and searching AskJeeves.com which was the popular search engine when the millennium began. I proudly presented the paper to my teacher to be judged at the science fair, she took me aside and called my Mother and said, “Your daughter did not, could not have written this paper.” She insisted my Mom and Dad wrote the paper, and created the diagram of the nervous system for me, I was heartbroken. Again, I was too smart for my own good, and it was unfathomable that an 11-year-old girl could possess such writing ability. I later submitted the same paper to Children’s Hospital, and they handed it out to families whose children were newly diagnose...
Post a Comment
Read more