Impact of Text Message Use in Business Communication

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Literature Review
Methodology
Works Cited

Introduction

Background

The use of mobile phones is increasingly changing how people communicate in their personal and professional lives. Indeed, mobile phones are redefining established communication patterns in modern-day societies (Newman 14). For example, one Smartphone can replace different types of formerly independent communication channels, such as voice calls, letters, postcards, and the likes.

Concisely, a person could use one mobile phone to update their social media profile, send an email, and make an important phone call, all at the same time. Therefore, most of the communication channels we are using today exist in one gadget. In the same regard, a mobile phone could have different applications that could replace other independent devices, such as the telephone, clock, typewriter, video camera, mp3 music player, and the likes.

The ability to merge different features and functions in one device has elevated the importance of the mobile phone as one of the most important gadgets for business and professional communications in the 21^st century (Day 1). Indeed, the importance of such a device has increased people’s dependence on it to the extent that some people claim to feel “lost” without their mobile phones.

The increased prominence of text messaging services in modern-day society has affected business communications more than any other aspect of business management (Newman 14). Indeed, according to a research study by the Walden University College of Management and Technology, “new” business communication methods, such as emails, instant messaging services, and Skype have had a profound impact on business communications, today, more than any other era in history (Day 1).

A 2011 study to understand the scope and influence of text messaging on business communications found out that most people send an estimated 7 trillion text messages annually (Hemmer 1). This number translates to 225,000 text messages sent every second (Hemmer 1).

In modern-day society, text messaging is not only limited to young people and teenagers. Organizations are joining the cause and adopting this type of interaction as their everyday communication platform. They have done so in different ways. For example, Day (1) says they have managed to adopt text-messaging services to increase debt collection rates, remind people to vote, and to circulate memos. While these examples highlight the usefulness of text messages in daily business operations, they conceal a growing concern about their impact on business communications.

Overview of the Problem

While the common belief is that advances in technology have made business communication faster and easier, some people believe that the increased adoption of text messaging services in the corporate world has made business communications more distracting and unclear than traditional types of communication (Sheoran 1). Newman (14) extends this concern by questioning whether text messages are efficient and appropriate business communication tools, as many people would like to believe. His concerns stem from the impact of texting on professionalism in business, interpersonal communications, and employee performance. These issues guide the formulation of our research goal and objectives.

Research Question

What is the impact of text message use in business communication?

Research Objectives

To find out the impact of text messaging on professionalism in business.
To investigate the effect of text messaging on employee performance.
To examine the impact of text messaging on interpersonal communications in business.

The significance of the Study (Reasons for Choosing this Area of Investigation)

Although there are valid concerns about the growing prominence of text messaging services, as a dominant form of communication, in business, the entrance of young people (Generation Y) in the workplace and their continued reliance on texting makes the research topic an interesting read for business people because it would help them better understand and manage this demographic (Day 3).

The increased rates of global texting numbers and the growing prevalence of texting, as the ultimate form of communication in most societies around the world, also makes the proposed study an interesting topic of study because it would help us to better understand the future of business-to-client communications and business-to-business communications.

Literature Review

Business analysts consider communication as one of the most important attributes of organizational success because, without it, employees would not be able to perform their tasks effectively (Newman 16). Others have gone a step further and drawn a comparison between communication and the body’s nervous system by claiming effective communication gives life to businesses, similar to the way the nervous system gives life to the human body system (Sheoran 1).

Therefore, without communication, it would be difficult for organizations to be fully functional. Based on this background, different organizations use text-messaging services to provide different types of services to their clients. For example, in the health sector, many health facilities use text messaging to provide patient diagnostic services, advocacy services, and reduce waiting times in emergency room visits (among other functions) (Newman 16).

A Wall Street presentation demonstrated that most companies today prefer to use text-messaging services to improve customer satisfaction (Sheoran 1). Hemmer (1) analyzed this effect further and found that most companies could improve customer satisfaction by up to 10% using text-messaging services. Nonetheless, there are proponents and opponents using text-messaging services in the business sector. Subsequent sections of this literature review explain their views.

Advantages of Text Messaging

Many researchers have affirmed the importance of text messaging services to businesses (Sheoran 3; Hemmer 1). They say the merits of such services range from faster communications, expanded communication opportunities, enhanced importance of deliberate communication, and affordability (Sheoran 3; Hemmer 1). Some researchers have delved deeper into understanding this issue by questioning why companies use text messaging successfully, while others do so without success. According to Hemmer (3), the answer lies in the sheer volumes of messages associated with text messaging services.

For example, in America, more than 270 million people have a wireless device, thereby creating a huge market for companies for marketing their products or services (Hemmer 4). According to a study done by the Nielson Research Institute, the average person sends 357 text messages to 205 mobile phone users (Sheoran 3). Nonetheless, Hemmer (1) says customers and business associates find text messaging services to be better than traditional forms of communication because executives find it easier to respond to text messages, compared to phone calls.

Previous research studies have also found that text messages are more effective in mass communication, compared to traditional forms of business communication (Newman 16). For example, Wells Fargo, in partnership with VISA, recently launched a rapid alert text messaging service that allowed its users to track their spending (Hemmer 5). The service also provides the company’s customers with real-time detection of fraudulent activities and triggers for financial transactions that surpass the threshold set by the company, or its customers (Hemmer 5). This service helped customers to stop fraudulent transactions, immediately, through their mobile phone devices.

Different Call Centers around the world are also using text messaging services to defer operating costs by giving customers an opportunity to self-serve their needs (Hemmer 5). Such services allow the call centers to passively or actively engage their customers. Passively, they would do so by allowing customers to make requests, while, actively, they would do so by contacting them (Newman 16).

The use of SMS services, in this regard, is not only limited to corporations, because government agencies have also joined the fray by using the same service to reduce their operational costs. For example, California’s Orange County Transformation Authority used text-messaging services to reduce the call center costs associated with serving its 210,000 customers (Newman 17). Financial companies have also used text messaging services to communicate with their customers.

For example, Western Union recently rolled out an SMS notification service for its Belgian, Polish, Russian, and Swedish customers to inform them about the status of their transactions because the company noted that many of its customers had to make calls to the company, or visit its website, to make inquiries about the status of their payments (Day 6). The database of customers who subscribed to the SMS service also gave Western Union a platform to gather customer information about how and why its customers are using its services (Day 5).

The list of companies that have used (and continue to use) text messaging services continues to grow. However, the increased proliferation of text messaging services in different business sectors continues to worry some researchers, especially about its potential impact on the professionalism needed in business communications.

Disadvantages of text Messaging

According to Day (5), 50% of the communication we have as human beings is non-verbal. Since, text-messaging services do not involve face-to-face interactions, 50% of communication is lost this way. Conversely, people who mostly rely on text messaging services, or highly depend on email communications, may only be sending half the message, while the recipient may misinterpret the other half.

Newman (17) delves deeper into this discussion by saying that text messaging obscures some of the most fundamental aspects of non-verbal communications that business people use to communicate with their partners and customers. Particularly, he draws our attention to the loss of eye contact, understanding of posture, and mirroring as subtle aspects of communication that are lost through text messaging (Newman 17).

He also says that text-messaging services obscure the importance of handshakes, hand-to-face signals, facial expressions, and arms and legs positions as subtle elements of communication in business communications (Newman 17). This analogy espouses the principles of the Hawthorne effect, which emphasize the importance of non-verbal communications, in business communications (Hemmer 5).

Some of the people who have criticized the use of text messaging services in business communications also say they lack professionalism, which is often associated with traditional forms of communication. For example, they point out that the use of abbreviations in text messaging services is an undesirable characteristic of text messaging services in business communication.

Summary

This literature review has evaluated different arguments that support, or criticize, the prevalent use of text messaging services in business communication. Generally, the views of the different researchers sampled in this section of the paper show that the debate splits evenly. However, the views of most researchers fail to explain how text messaging affects different aspects of business communications. The proposed study would fill this research gap by explaining how the prevalent use of text messages would affect professionalism in business, interpersonal communications, and overall employee performance, as the main aspects of business communication that the prevalent use of text messaging services in the corporate space would mostly affect.

Methodology

Research Strategy

There are two main types of research strategies. They include qualitative and quantitative techniques. Qualitative techniques often assess subjective or non-numeric data, while quantitative techniques measure numerical data (Noble 34). The application of each research strategy depends on the nature of the study. In the context of the proposed research, the subjective nature of the study would have the greatest bearing on the selection of the research strategy.

Consequently, the qualitative research approach would be best suited for the study because the paper would investigate the impact of texting on business communication, which is a subjective issue. Indeed, business communication is an interpersonal topic and involves subjective aspects of communication among professionals, businesses, and their customers (Noble 34). The qualitative research strategy would allow us to explore this research issue in-depth.

Comparatively, the quantitative research approach would not provide us with the same depth because it only relies on numerical data to explain research phenomena (Noble 34). In the context of the proposed study, numerical data are not preferred.

Research Design

According to Tracy (14), there are different types of research designs to consider when conducting qualitative research analyses. They include phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, case studies, and historical approaches. The purposes of the phenomenology and ethnography approaches are to describe lived experiences and to describe cultural characteristics, respectively (Tracy 14). Comparatively, researchers who use the grounded theory often aim to develop, or create, a new theory, while those that use the historical research design aim to use past experiences to describe present phenomena and predict future events (Tracy 15). Lastly, those that choose to use case studies do so when they have a small scope of the study.

We would use the phenomenology research design to undertake the proposed study. As highlighted above, the purpose of the phenomenology approach is to describe people’s lived experiences. This research design fits well with the nature of the proposed study because technological advancements in business communication are important considerations in evaluating people’s lived experiences in the workplace (Tracy 15).

Data Collection Technique

According to Noble (34), qualitative research designs are mostly synonymous with interviews and focus group discussions. For the purposes of collecting data in the proposed study, we would use interviews as the main data collection technique.

Population Sample

The guiding principle for selecting the research participants would be seeking participants who are easily available and willing to share information about the research topic. Therefore, the researcher would expect the respondents to give candid opinions about the research issues. The respondents would mainly comprise of experts in the field of business communications. We would rely on their experience in this field to have a holistic understanding of the impact of text messaging on business communications. This population sample is also appropriate for this study because its knowledge of the research topic is not industry-specific. Consequently, we hope to have a wider view of the research issue.

Sampling Design

The researcher would recruit the respondents using the snowballing sampling technique, which involves recruiting new participants through old or established contacts. The first respondent we would contact is an acquaintance who works for a consultancy firm, which majors in business communications. From his contact, we expect to recruit 50 new participants, who would mostly comprise of experts in the field of business communications.

Data Analysis

The researcher would analyze the qualitative information using then Nvivo software. It works with very rich text-based data and multimedia information that would be useful for the researcher to undertake a deep analysis of the research data. Qualitative researchers have used it in different fields, including public health, social sciences, psychology, forensics, and the likes. Therefore, its usefulness in qualitative research analysis is undisputed, especially because reputable researchers, in this field, such as Noble (35) and Tracy (15), affirm the study’s usefulness in organizing and analyzing non-numerical data.

This software would allow the researcher to classify and rank the qualitative data into easily comprehensible data. It often does so by linking, shaping, and modeling research information into these comprehensible strands of research data (Tracy 15).

In this regard, it gives a sense of wholeness to the information collected from the respondents. Lastly, this data analysis software would help the researcher to examine research preferences that are beyond human awareness, or to expound on the information that the respondents would not properly articulate. Nonetheless, throughout the data analysis process, the researcher would be looking for emerging themes and patterns of analysis, which would later act as nodes for further data analysis using the research software.

Validity and Reliability Issues

Validity

Validity issues refer to the soundness of research information. According to Noble (34), validity issues trace to the soundness of the research design and methods used in the analysis. To make sure the research findings are valid, the process of formulating the research goals and objectives would be clearly defined and operationalized. The assessment measures that the researcher would use in the paper would also match with the goals and objectives of the research. Additionally, to have valid findings, faculty members would review some of the questions posed to the respondents. The researcher would also undertake a pilot study to make sure that the information obtained is to the satisfaction of the respondents and the researcher.

Reliability

Reliability issues in the proposed study would refer to the researcher’s ability to produce findings that are consistent and stable (Tracy 15). To mitigate the issues of reliability, the researcher would have to account for any bias (personal or otherwise) that may have affected the study. Similarly, the researcher would have to undertake meticulous record keeping showing a clear decision-making trail to defend the findings in the paper. Lastly, the researcher would give the respondents an opportunity to comment on the interview transcripts and the final research findings. This step would allow them to affirm the accuracy of the findings and confirm the true depiction of their views by the researcher.

Ethical Issues

According to Richards (135), qualitative research studies have many ethical issues to consider because they involve human subjects. Some of the most common ethical issues that could emerge in the proposed study include informed consent, confidentiality, and misrepresentation of facts.

Consent

Ethical issues of informed consent concern issues of free will regarding participation in a research study. Participants who will take part in the proposed study would participate out of their volition. In other words, there would not be any form of coercion, or blackmail, to participate in the study. Furthermore, the respondents would not receive any financial incentive to participate in the study. Comprehensively, the researcher would require them to sign an informed consent form to demonstrate the above facts.

Confidentiality

Confidentiality issues involve concerns about the privacy of the research participants (Richards 135). To maintain high levels of confidentiality, the respondents would be anonymously included in the study. In this regard, the researcher would avoid using personal identification metrics in the research because they could possibly reveal the identity of the research participants. Furthermore, the researcher would assure the participants that the information obtained from them would be for purposes of academic research only.

Misrepresentation and Misinterpretation of Facts

According to Richards (135), many qualitative researchers often suffer the problem of misrepresenting, or misinterpreting, the information they obtain from their respondents. To minimize this risk in the proposed study, the researcher would have to state the potential biases that could occur in the study, before the onset of the data analysis process. This way, there would be a better understanding of how the researchers’ personal and professional characteristics of the researcher would affect the data analysis process. By addressing these issues, we would have covered the possible causes of misinterpretation, or misrepresentation, of facts.

Timetable

The chart below shows the timelines for the completion of the research process:

Works Cited

Day, Patricia. Texting: How it Affects Business Communication. 2015. Web.

Hemmer, Heidi. “Impact of Text Messaging on Communication.” Journal of Undergraduate Research 9.5 (2009): 1-20.

Newman, Amy. Business Communication: In Person, In Print, Online, London, UK: Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.

Noble, Helen. “Issues of validity and reliability in qualitative research.” Evid Based Nurs 18.1 (2015): 34-35. Print.

Richards, Elen. “Ethics of qualitative research: are there special issues for health services research?” Family Practice 19.2 (2002): 135-139. Print.

Sheoran, Jyoti. “Technological Advancement and Changing Paradigm of Organizational Communication.” International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications 2.12 (2012): 1-6. Print.

Tracy, Sarah. Qualitative Research Methods: Collecting Evidence, Crafting Analysis, Communicating Impact, London, UK: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print.

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