BUSINESS COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH

Language & Linguistics

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION IN ENGLISH: DEVELOPMENTS AND DIRECTIONS IN RESEARCH1 Prof. Dr. Lilia Raitskaya1 Assoc. Prof. Dr. Elena Tikhonova2 1

Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University), Russia Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), Russia 2 Moscow State University of Food Production, Russia 2

ABSTRACT Business communication in English is getting more highlighted in the globalized context, as the English language spreads as the most dominant lingua franca in international business settings. While the volume of studies focused on business communication in various disciplines continues to increase, new strands of research emerge; some approaches are going out of focus. To improve our understanding and offer a more realistic picture of the field of business communication in English, we examined promising trends in the area. The study primarily selected 254 publications pertaining to Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences, which were extracted from the Scopus database for the period from 2012 to 2016. All sources relevant to technical communication as well as narrowly concentrated studies in management and marketing were excluded as irrelevant. Using search strategies, sampling, content analysis, comparison analysis, categorization, the present paper revealed the basic trends in the field. 254 papers were filtered for the purpose of detecting their links to business communication in English by identifying the relevance of the keywords of the papers and then comparing the selections made by both authors. All the 144 publications ultimately sorted out in our study were then amalgamated into a bigger direction of research. According to the findings of the present research the most widely explored themes relevant to business communication in English cover discourse studies and issues of pragmatics and effective business communication; research of business communication skills and competencies including their classifications, practice-related and teaching aspects; didactic studies for teaching business communication at tertiary level; publications on intercultural and cross-cultural business communication, on English as a lingua franca in businessrelated contexts. The research maintains that the emphasis in the field is shifting from the business language towards studying discourse and context as well as communication skills and competencies. Keywords: communication, business communication, business discourse, effective communication, skills. INTRODUCTION

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The publication was financially supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (the Agreement number 02.a03.0008)


Business communication is a multidisciplinary concept spanning theories and a range of empirical knowledge. It includes comprehensive communication studies, business discourse with all kinds of strategies and pragmatic issues, practice-oriented and educational approaches to skills and competencies, different aspects of management and marketing, advertising, psychology of communication, consumer behavior, didactic models of teaching business communication and English for business communication (ESP, Business English, specialist languages, etc.), cultural studies, especially intercultural and cross-cultural communication. It also encompasses media channels (Internet, traditional print media, television, radio, social media, etc.). Business communication has much in common with professional and technical communication. The list cannot be complete as there are many more constantly emerging issues. To understand the existing research agenda in the field of business communication, we first had to define the scope and decide where its limits lay, given the historic developments of the previous decades. As the data for the research period (2012-2016) were collected from the Scopus database, we extracted yearly numbers of publications for the previous two decades, using the search query (‘business communication’) in the same vein.

20 16

20 14

20 12

20 10

20 08

20 06

20 04

20 02

20 00

19 98

19 96

19 94

19 92

19 90

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Figure 1. Number of Publications on Business Communication Indexed in Scopus in the period 1990 to 2017. It resulted in Figure 1, where the graph shows that after 2010 there was an approximately threefold spike in the quantity of publications on business communication indexed in Scopus. It justified the period we nominated for the study. We should note that Scopus database was launched in 2004, enlarging the number of sources with each year and gradually accumulating indexed publications for the periods preceding Scopus. It is quite a complex research challenge to correlate the effects of the Scopus database organic development with the growth in one particular segment of research. Judging by the statistics got from Scopus, pure business communication studies were comparatively rare before 2010, with many focused on cross-cultural aspects of business communication, and related more to communication theories, psychology of communication, management and marketing. E.g. in 2000, Scopus indexed 12 papers relevant to the same search request with discourse studies (1 article on email discourse; 1 publication on cross-cultural business communication; 4 articles on didactic issues relevant to business communication; and 4 articles defined as irrelevant as they were on management theory, technical communication, etc.); in 2010, 26 articles appeared with 3 publications focused on discourse, 8 articles dealt with business communication skills and


competencies, a theme getting new popularity, another 4 cross-cultural publications, and 2 didactic articles. Some 9 papers were found irrelevant. Skills and competencies were examined overwhelmingly within research on business needs, education or teaching. Over the course of the 2000s, few papers concentrated on the effectiveness of business communication. Books, book chapters and articles on business English and English as a lingua franca in international business settings came out to follow the spurts of publication activities in the 1990s. Then the obvious shift towards discourse studies began. Some author published findings maintaining that “the emphasis shifted towards discourse and context” [Nicerson, p. 391]. Just around 2010 a lot more papers on competencies in business communication and professional English (ESP) came out. The hypothesis, arising out of the preliminary examination of the literature on the research directions and some literature reviews, as well as some random extractions of data on publications, assumed that the prevailing themes for the period considered in our research presumably covered: (1) discourse analyses; (2) business communication skills and competencies; (3) cross-cultural and intercultural aspects of business communication. Therefore, the present study aimed to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the major strands of investigation in the target field? (2) Is there any obvious shift captured in the field of business communication? Thus, our goal in the study was respectively twofold: to define modern trends and identify any shifts in the evolving field of business communication in order to support or disprove the hypothesis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Materials of the study were restricted to 254 papers extracted from the Scopus database published and indexed in the period between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016. The types of publications included articles, conference papers, books, book chapters, and literature reviews; as such publications tend to fit most the idea of cutting-edge research. Methods. The present research applied the following methods: search strategies; sampling; content analysis; comparison analysis; categorisation. Procedure. We applied the search query ‘business communication’ to the documents included in the Scopus database. The publication search query was limited to the period 2012 to 2016 and only to the selected sources (articles, conference papers, books, book chapters, and literature reviews) pertaining to Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences. Thus, the primary result was a list of 254 publications. We employed a framework for structuring the relevant papers in the target area and decided upon the way we determined their theme coverage. We had to note that a large body of literature on business communication included publications, which were focused on points lying more in the area of management, marketing, technical communication and others, far beyond business communication studies nominated above as relevant. As those, they were to be excluded from the sample. The publications were identified by the relevance of their keywords to the concept of business communication. We failed to classify about 15 percent of the publications on the


basis of the relevance of the keywords, as some papers did not have data on keywords in the database, or had keywords that raised questions on the theme, direction of research, or discipline field. To make a valid selection of papers, at the next stage, each author went through all 254 publications again, sorting them out into the groups, or categories, concentrating on the publications of obscure nature. The three groups stated in the introduction as the hypothetical directions of study became the key criterion of selection. If the title and keywords (if any) of the publication unclearly indicated the theme coverage, a large part of the article was examined to catch the key idea. With several topics included in the publication, the background idea was determined. In some articles, no principal idea was found, or it was rather vague or irrelevant, then the article was placed in the category ‘Irrelevant publications’. A separate group contained publications in languages other than English. Their topics did not deal with business communication in English, but in other languages or a combination of languages. All those excluded were not analyzed in the research as irrelevant. The disputable issues as of the determination of themes were settled by the two authors by mutual consent, with such papers approaching 5.0 percent of the total. Thus, the ultimate number of the selected publications decreased to 144 in total. The classification of papers in accordance with our judgment resulted in sorting out Groups 1, 2, 3. Additional group was introduced to cover articles on General Didactic Issues, which the authors found necessary and relevant for teaching business communication or business English, though indirectly. As it is stated above, a great lot of papers got rejected. They totalled 110 publications covered by two groups: Publications in Other Languages and Irrelevant Publications. RESULTS We classified and interpreted the selected 144 papers in accordance with the aforementioned framework. The publications were partitioned into three major categories (groups), embracing publications we found relevant to the research. One more group was added with business communication being one of the aspects under study. While sorting out publications, we also found that some peculiarities relating to each group were characteristic of more general themes.

13% 32%

Group 2 19%

11%

Group 1

9% 16%

Group 3 General Didactic Issues Other Languages Irrelevant Publications

Figure 2. Publications on Business Communication from 2012 to 2016 Primarily Selected for the Study (Scopus Database; limited to Arts & Humanities; Social Sciences).


To illustrate the quantities of the publications included into each of the groups (both relevant and irrelevant papers to demonstrate their share), we made up a pie chart shown in Figure 2. The chart clearly illustrates that articles dealing with business communication skills and competencies came to the fore with 48 publications (19 percent). This trend marked a noted increase in the number of studies. The two established areas such as business communication discourse studies and cross-cultural and intercultural communication led to the selection of 33 (13 percent) and 22 (9 percent) publications respectively. 41 articles and other papers (16 percent) grappled with issues of teaching and didactic theories and practice. Business English Discourse as a Mainstream Area In our research, 33 papers were singled out to cover multifarious aspects of discourse analysis. They formed Group 1. It embraced the language of executive financial discourse (with linguistic devices of rhetoric – metaphorical expressions and discourse markers – in financial disclosure being in the focus); digital business discourse (a comprehensive discourse-centered assessment of the current digital communication technologies in modern business such as email, instant messaging, message boards, Twitter, corporate blogs); rhetorical myths as a strategic change management discourse (research of chronographia, epideictic prediction, and communal markers as tools for persuading employees to accept change); rhetoric tools and strategies applied in corporate annual reports in difficult times to communicate crisis messages; the search for consensus in business communication (e.g. the case of perception in assessing IT technologies in business communication); the use of electronic discourse analysis networks; the value orientation of business discourse (corporate responsibility in business communication); text genres and text types in business communication; effectiveness of business communication (including use of various strategies). Much attention is given to rhetoric issues as evidenced by publications on the correlation between rhetoric and body language in business communication; rhetoric analysis in job hunting (as a part of strategies of success); rhetorical choices in exploring business request genres. In Group 1 there was also research on pragmatic strategies in business communication models; persuasive styles and effectiveness of business communication; critical awareness of language in business communication; evaluation of business documents (business executives vs teachers of business communication in assessing the effectiveness of business documents); the strategies to communicate organisational change reactions; apology giving in work settings; mitigation in turning down business proposals; an analysis of English business letters from the perspective of impersonal function; an analysis of data breach notification as negative news (patterns and templates used by state agencies and image repair strategies). Business Communication Skills in the Limelight The group of 48 studies (Group 2) included research on business communication skills and competencies, their classifications, studies of separate skills, aligning curricula and business communication competencies; practice-related aspects of skills and competencies in business, business needs pertaining to business communication. The papers in this group covered all those themes as well as topics connected with the gap between business communication in the workplace and curriculum of business communication and business English courses as well as a mismatch between workplace needs and teaching approaches. Much attention was still paid to skills and knowledge


necessary to successfully meet writing challenges in the workplace (resume, CVs, letters of all genres, documentation, writing for media, texting). Although the above topics remained to be of interest, researchers got increasingly concerned with other issues in this area such as communicative needs of professionals, graduates, and undergraduates; their business communication needs analysis; communication competencies as implicit job requirements with some separate skills being on most employers’ top wish-list. Another fast-growing segment of research dealt with soft skills, leadership, critical thinking, and competencies of business communication. Intercultural and Cross-Cultural Business Communication: Still in Focus The group (Group 3) including 22 publications included issues of intercultural and crosscultural communication, the concept of business communication, English as a lingua franca of business communication, historic research of business communication. In our research, we selected and earmarked as ‘intercultural studies’ 17 papers. With a majority of those reiterating the key theories and concepts, some investigated the changing nature of business communication, which is getting wholly intercultural in nature. Only two papers selected in the study were devoted to history of business communication (business language in the ancient world and business communication in colonial times). They were included into Group 3 as we found that they were closely related with the concept of intercultural communication. General Didactic Issues Relating to Business Communication The papers in this group (marked as General Didactic Issues in Figure 2) ranged from language diversity aspects, corporate idiolects, different approaches to assessment of business documents (business executives vs lecturers of business communication), tendencies in creating brand-names, negative news in English, text genres, concept mapping in teaching, teaching business English online, special features of MBA courses, poetry recitation for business students, assessing business writing at the university and MBA levels, improved writing among students through directed peer review, teaching business communication in various countries, simulations and other methods in teaching business communication, projects in business English, collaborative writing courses, learning styles and writing online, toys in teaching business communication, perception of communication errors in context, corpus studies in business English as a tool of teaching and a means of learning, teaching English via social platforms, innovating communication courses. DISCUSSION The research proved that business communication remained a dynamic field. It continually evolved. The collection of papers studied here gives the reader a broad overview of the field with heed to topics of business communication. Established themes such as discourse analysis, pragmatics, writing skills in business letters and genres of business documents, intercultural communication and communication in business settings in English as a lingua franca remained important areas. We noted some significant developments in the segment of research focused on practice-oriented aspects of business communication competencies, with a lot more publications on themes of linguistic devices of rhetoric, persuasive styles, effectiveness of business communication, communicative needs in the workplace, soft skills, lingua franca vs multilingualism.


Group 1 covered discourse studies and issues of pragmatics and research on business communication strategies and effectiveness of business communication. Many of the studies focused on the challenges posed by the new realities of international business communication. Generally, the field is influenced by works in many disciplines: ‘discourse analysis, conversation analysis, the pragmatics of interaction, ethnography, genre theory and organizational communication’ [1, p.4]. Business discourse has always been part of business communication, with discourse studies originating in the mid-1960s. This segment is of an implicit practical importance. As some authors argue today business communication courses are often approached through functional linguistics [5]. Most papers are evidently a consequence of business needs in communication. Language sociolects, specialist discourses are considered today as ‘the highly complex transnational business communication capital’ of business corporations [6]. Researchers often turn to some exact cases or contexts to limit their research and find out strategies more generally applicable in business communication. The topics and themes in this group witnessed that the general shift towards pragmatics as means and strategies of effective communication formed the research agenda determined by practical needs of communicators in business settings and contexts. Today it is necessary to respond to multifarious language needs in business, including learning foreign languages and acquiring business language skills, which are essential to effectively communicate in business-related contexts, skills to represent companies well at meetings, presentations, client appointments, etc., to carry out electronic correspondence, business etiquette, business communication via phone (oral and texting) [7]. Group 2 also evolved against the same backdrop of business and professional needs as in Group 1. As a lingua franca, English pre-dominates as official corporate language in multinationals and in international business on the whole. The authors of the reviewed publications dwelt upon ‘an overwhelming increase in the use of English in international business settings’ that resulted in ‘looking at language in isolation from a given context’ [4, p.391] with less difference between native speakers of English and EFL speakers. Another consequence of the global spread of English is multilingualism in many countries, where in business a good mix of English and other regional lingua franca prevail. The concept of multilingualism is closely connected with the language policies conducted in the EU and some other parts of the world. In some papers, the attention was drawn to the necessity for EFL communicators to get culturally prepared and be proficient in English to feel comfortable in such interactions. The lingua franca concept was closely aligned with the ideas studied within intercultural and cross-cultural communication. The truth is that this segment will still be evolving during the coming years, as it meets the practical expectations of the world community. In the research, there was a large body of research on didactic, teaching and learning aspects of English, which initially were not singled out as a major group of papers in the study. This group of 48 publications partly or indirectly dealt with business communication or might be of some use for teaching or learning business communication or English for business communication. We purposely considered these papers to define the scope of the themes falling into this category (group) and to find out possible implications for further research. The studies of this segment mainly brought aspects other than business communication to the limelight. But we evaluated much of the research as topical and influential for further


development of the field of study at issue. Compared with other publications [1, 3, 6], reviewing the subject field of business communication, in the research it was found that the trends towards the enumerated strands were essentially formed and came to the fore, with a constantly growing number of papers. Among the limitations of the study we have to indicate our focus on one database (Scopus), the period, which did not include the data for 2017, as the sampling of the present was carried out in August-September, 2017. Bigger and more updated sampling might have displayed the trends in research with more evidence. CONCLUSION The research re-defined the scope of the business communication field. Its results must support and direct further studies in the field, putting researchers on the right track as of the topicality and significance of various themes. The results totally proved the hypothesis. To sum up, the study showed that the key strands of discourse analysis, business communication skills, and cross-cultural communication in business settings remained in focus. Shifts in attention were found as comparatively new or deeper research on the topics of rhetoric and pragmatic issues, and effectiveness of business communication; business communication competencies and soft skills as needs of employers; alignment of business skills and curriculum; English as a lingua franca vs multilingualism, which reflected the shift of attention to professional and business needs as well as language policies worked out in a growing number of countries of the world. Didactic aspects of teaching foreign languages was singled out as a segment, which enriched the field of study. Further research may entail a wider database of publications and a lengthier period. It would be desirable to get concentrated on regional and country-specific interests in the field. REFERENCES [1] Bargiela-Chiappini F., Nickerson C &. Planken B. Business Discourse, UK, pp 282, 2010. [3] Nickerson C. & Planken B. Europe: The state of the field, The handbook of business discourse, UK, pp 18–29, 2009. [4] Nickerson C., The death of the non-native speaker? English as a lingua franca in business communication: A research agenda, Language Teaching, UK, vol. 48/ issue 3, pp 390-404, 2015. [5] Ponomarenko E.V. & Malyuga E.N. Ironic Rhetoric in Business English Courses from Functional Linguistics Perspective, Edulearn 7th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, Spain, 2015, pp 1392-1396. [6] Tietze S., Holden N. & Barner-Rasmussen W. Language Use in Multinational Corporations: The Role of Special Languages and Corporate Idiolects, The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language, UK, pp 312-341, 2016. [7] Yankovskaya N. & Neklyudova O. Research on the Business English Training Model within MBA Program, Journal of Language and Education, Russia, vol.1/ issue 3, pp 24-32, 2015.