business communicati..

A short history of business communication: from ancient culture to e-mail and other technologies

Professor Nigel Holden

Overview of presentation

Business development in the Ancient World (Near East and Mediterranean)

Some facts on, and deductions about, business language and communication in those times

The essence of business communication Aspects of business communication 15th to 20th

centuries E-mail; hackers, Netspeak

In the beginning...

‘The oldest records of human civilisation itself, dating from 3200 BC if not earlier, evoke the crude and primitive business transactions of the very ancient communities just north of what was then the swampy coastline of the Arabian Gulf’ (Moore and Lewis, 1999)

And markets predate the oldest records

The early cities

The Urban Revolution of the Bronze Age (3100-2900 BC) gave rise to politics, diplomacy, war and business ‘which, if different from our own, are, for the first time, recognisable’ (Moore and Lewis, 1999)

Cities are hubs of commerce, centres of wealth, political and military power

Cities are resource-seeking (as we would say today); they stimulate long-distance trade

.

The Ancient Near East, 3000-2000 BC A history of ‘expanding trade and

commerce, growing social inequality, and the rise and fall of a centralised bureaucratic government’

Mesopotamia

Businessmen could write They had to master the bureaucratic language of

temple and palace transactions (priesthoods were heavily involved in business)

They appeared to use language in personal, informal ways among themselves

Business relations with trading neighbours were ‘correct and cordial’

Ancient Near East 2000-1000 BC Expansion of trade routes Improvements in military technology

meant that routes could be protected The first business empires (Assyria) The world’s first multicultural workforce

in Anatolia (Turkey) in 1900 BC?

The Mediterranean World 1000 BC- 1 AD The Phoenicians (the world’s first

exemplars of foreign direct investment?) The Greeks (colonies and culture) The Romans (the first managers in the

modern sense of the word, independent suppliers of bricks and military equipment)

The emergence of commercial languages

Business has a long-standing reputation for being vulgar

‘To win the people, always cook them some savoury dish which pleases them. Besides, you possess all the attributes of a demagogue: a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, coarse-grained nature and the language of the market-place’ (Demosthenes, Athenian soldier, d. 413 BC)

Business communication the Ancient World

Businessmen kept written records and did calculations

They probably simplified cumbersome writing systems for the sake of speed and secrecy

They knew how to speak to customers (kings, priests, dictators, officials, etc)

They established lines of communication with suppliers; they networked!

Business would be conducted with ritual behaviour (businessmen are actors!)

The essence of business communication

The transaction is based on ‘obligation and economic self-interest’ (Mauss, 1954)

Exchange is accompanied by gifts (signs of respect, fear, hope for more favour)

The behaviour is ‘formal pretence and social deception’ (Mauss, 1954)

In other words

The businessmen of the Ancient World communicated and used language in strikingly similar ways to their modern counterparts

They made a clear distinction between spoken and written language

They dissembled, used hype, did ‘clever’ things to written language – just like now!

In what ways does modern business communication differ from the Ancient World? (1) Speed (instantaneousness) and global

reach; variety of media and multiple possibilities for information storage, retrieval, dissemination and modification.

The ever-expanding lexis of business and management

Legal protection (copyright, liability, contractual arrangements, etc)

In what ways does modern business communication differ from the Ancient World? (2) The emergence of a form of writing (e-

mail) which has conversational characteristics and a tendency to introduce informality into business exchanges

In 5,000 years of recorded human

business activity, this is something new!

Between the ancient world and e-mail: the great invention of printing

Printing as an agent of change: Created a lay (‘non-priestly’) intelligentsia Stimulated literacy, comparative

scholarship and even children's books Laid the foundation of translation as a

profession Transformed the Christian church Transformed reading

The impact of printing and commerce over many centuries Laid the foundation for mass communication Made records of transactions ‘permanent’ Made advertising and company brochures

possible Enshrined until the late 20th century the formal

language of commerce

But we had better know the difference between speech and writing

Writing is Objective, a monologue, durable Scannable Planned Highly structured and syntactically complex Concerned with past and future Formal Expository (explanatory) Argument-oriented Decontextualised and abstract

Speech is Interpersonal (face-to-face) A dialogue Ephemeral, linear and spontaneous Loosely structured Syntactically simple Concerned with the present Informal and narrative Event-oriented Contextualised and concrete

Some important things in the history of writing (the medium) Prescriptivism and standardisation (social

norms and values; national languages) The growth of literature, science, etc Reading as a private activity Notions of authorship and copyright The cult of hand-writing (from

glorification of religious texts to projection of the civilised self)

Some important things in the development of writing (the channel) The development of personal writing

machines (first design in England, 1711; first type-writer in the USA, 1873)

Typography invented (1852) Henry James (1843-1916) used the

telephone as a dictation medium Other developments: telegraphy, telex

(teleprinter), the PC.

Why the PC is important in the history of commerce Its storage capacity in various programmes (text,

graphics, spread-sheets, etc) Its cross-referencing capability Its capability to produce (camera-ready)

documents of any length Its development into an international

communication centre and connectability with other devices

Its impact on interpersonal business communication, especially through e-mail

What is distinctive about e-mail?

It is a computer-mediated communication method which is blurring the distinction between speech and writing, because:

It changes relationships between people in literate societies, whereby communication is no longer dependent on (a) face-to-face contact (via the immediacy of speech) and (b) writing to overcome the constraints of time and space

E-mail in its written mode Interlocutors are physically separated Separation creates an equal communication

playing field (and may induce personal disclosure)

It is durable (there is a record) Idiosyncratic use of grammar, vocabulary,

punctuation, abbreviations, etc Can be written in almost any native language

Why e-mail is like speech Low level of informality, but can generate

intimacy quickly Typically unedited Possible unguarded expression of emotion High usage of the present tense (eg ‘I

think’, ‘this means’, ‘why is this so?’

The verdict

E-mail is ‘a cross-breed between writing and speech’ ... ‘clearly a language form in flux’ ... ‘a contact language’

(Barron, 2000)

E-mail as a contact language Restricted code of communication No-body’s language, but yet common Replaces somebody’s language Creates a special lexicon (eg abbreviations)

E-mail and the evolution of business

A further example of a communication system that has been developed for other purposes, but eventually exploited and developed by business (cf development of writing, the printing press, the telephone)

What e-mail does for the business world More or less instant interpersonal

communication, reaching one or more people at the same time anywhere

Its informal, but quasi-intimate character promotes flatness in organisations, and supports close, ‘personal’ business relationships, and is a driver of networks

E-mail and cross-cultural communication Forms of address to ‘strangers’, especially in

more formal cultures Absence of agreed usage of language and

unconventional abbreviations and punctuation (problem of standardisation) and etiquette (‘Netiquette’)

Finding the emotional wave-length (are emoticons and smileys cross-culturally neutral?)

Hackers create the language of the Internet

Hackers Hackers have two key skills: they are trained

programmers and have an ability to write HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

They generate (quirky) neologisms in their Internet culture (or subcultures), which give the language of the Internet its identity

These neologisms are based on English, but only those with an advanced (often near-native) command of English can understand their motivation

Examples of hacker language Nicks = nicknames Morf = male or female Sorg = straight or gay Newbies = newcomers to the Internet Trolling = sending a message specifically to

annoy people Spamming = sending of unwanted messages of

excessive size Flaming = using aggressive language

… ad abbreviations Afaik: as far as I know B4: before Cul: see you later Gr8: great Imo: in my opinion T+: think positive X!: typical woman Y!: typical man So, can we speficify ‘Netspeak’?

Netspeak A type of language with the characteristics of

speech and writing, displaying features unique to the Internet: electronic mediation, global reach and interactivity

This language is uncontrolled and is distinct from the language of computer science

It is rooted in (American) English It appears to be promoting a form of global

values linked to people’s participation in the Internet

What values? Global self-expression is ‘a good thing’ Connectivity is more important than what

is communicated It is acceptable to break traditional rules

and conventions concerning orthography, punctuation, etc

Implications for cross-cultural knowledge management Firms – not hackers - will increasingly

determine standards of etiquette Need for new forms of cross-cultural

communication training The anonymity, which the Internet fosters,

is not compatible with good CCKM practice (people must know each other personally)

Final thought Everybody is engaged in a kind of experiment

without entirely clear rules or guidelines This experiment will last to the end of time:

history shows that there is no limit to (a) mankind’s technology ingenuity; (b) human linguistic resourcefulness; and (c) the quest for connectivity

The Tower of Babel always reconstructs itself!