Four communication styles in business: from passive to assertive

Communication in the company

According to Fernando Martín Martín, author of Business and Institutional Communication, Business or corporate communication consists of the “prevention, creation, coordination, management, editing, dissemination, and control of all internal or external information management actions that occur daily in a company or institution both in terms of activities, services or products, which affects a specific interested public or social group, and which is transmitted through its own and external communication channels, in order to enhance its public image.

Meanwhile, Carlos Fernández Collado, in ‘Organisational Communication’, conceives of business communication as “the set of techniques and activities aimed at facilitating and streamlining the flow of messages which take place between members of the organisation, between the organisation and its environment; or, to influence the opinions, attitudes and behaviours of the organisation's internal and external publics, all with the aim of the latter fulfilling its objectives better and faster.

Likewise, Irene Trelles, doctor of Communication Sciences and author of Organisational communication points out that corporate communication “it's not just about the messages, but about the actions, the behaviour through which all companies transmit information about their identity, their mission, their way of doing things and even about their clients.

Business communication styles

Within this complex process of content transmission, the company and leaders have the ability to use different communication styles. In this sense, we can speak of:

• Passive style. This type of organisational communication is characterised by the sender limiting themselves to letting events unfold on their own, without directly and openly conveying their message, which can lead to confusion and uncertainty within the organisation. It is common in insecure, indecisive individuals, those who fear possible reactions, or who have a poor understanding of their work. This would be the case, for example, of a team leader who is unable to point out specific errors in a worker's output to that worker.
• Aggressive style. In contrast to the previous case, in aggressive communication styles there is a clear message; the sender transmits all their thoughts and ideas, but does so without considering the circumstances and feelings of the receiver, with no empathy, potentially offending or irritating the other person. Managers with an aggressive discourse tend to impose their opinion as the only valid one and, therefore, their messages become orders for employees. Following the previous example, in this case, the superior would not hesitate to reprimand the worker for their mistakes, regardless of whether other colleagues are in the room or if they use words that may be offensive.  
• Passive-aggressive style. It is a mix of the above communication styles, where the sender omits their opinion on a certain fact, although they use other indirect channels to express it, generating Toxic situations in the workplace. In the event of an employee making mistakes, their manager will not address the issue directly with them, but rather will escalate it to their superiors or take action against the professional.

Assertive style. Within the communication styles in a company, this latter type is used by the authentic leaders, This allows the speaker to clearly express their ideas while demonstrating a high degree of empathy in the process, seeking, on the one hand, not to hurt or harm the recipient with their words, and on the other, to obtain feedback. Thus, the assertive manager would look for a good time to talk to the employee to discuss the detected flaws in their performance, delve into the reasons why the professional's performance has declined, and propose solutions to improve the situation.