Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370: Effective & Ethical Communication

Effective communication, can be categorized into two parts, effective in the method of communicaiton, and how well the reciving party of your message understood the message, including the underlying emotions and context. Being effective in the method of communicaiton is fairly easy. Though it is particularly tricky geting the underlying emotions and context when communicating with non-verbal methods, like email and text message.

Ethical communication is following the law, telling the truth, being objective and communication clearly.

The Malaysian Airlines flight of MH370, was a tragedy in the world. 239 souls lost, no one knows where they are. There where over 4 different countries all working in conjunction with one another to search for any debris / parts of the flight to find the missing people. While the public was kept updated about the events unfolding and information as it was found. There was a lot of misconceptions due to a lack of effective communication between the counties investigative services. This lead rumours that were untrue about the flight, and stressing the families of the passengers on the flight, even further to what they were already experiencing.

This communication, towards each country can be viewed as ineffective communication, but towards the families of the passengers, this was not ethical.

Malaysia Airlines, and Malaysia, came under fire for sending text messages to the families when it was announced after searching for over three weeks, that the flight was lost at sea and it was most likely there were no survivors. This communication, while effective at sending the message, was unethical for providing the emotional response required in telling the loved ones of the lost passengers. It was intended to provide that response, though it completely missed that emotion and provoked the families that received that response to follow legal action against Malaysia Airlines for texting the news to them.

ABC (2014, March 26). http://www.abc.net.au.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Authorities defend text message to families revealing missing plane's fate

Adam Withnall (2014, March 23). http://www.independent.co.uk.
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Distraught families told by text message to assume ‘beyond doubt no one survived’

Non-verbal Intercultural Communication

Communication is an action that every person uses, every minute of everyday for their entire lifetime. It allows us to interpret others feelings, emotions and understand their needs. While the majority of our communication comes in the form of language, some of the most important parts come from the body it self, your posture, hand movements, eye location and your bodies general position all give meaning and depth to what you're saying.

To people of the same culture/background non-verbal communication comes naturally, when communicating to a person of the same culture/background. As both parties understand what is acceptable for non-verbal communication. When you mix the cultures of the people trying to communicate, there may be inconsistencies in the way either party acts, unknowingly, this can be disrespectful, rude or even offensive to the other party,  which may lead to a total breakdown of communication. These are the more serious side effects of poor non-verbal/verbal intercultural communication, the less serious repercussions are often people looking confused or disapproving of what you're trying to express. Many people will be accepting of any miscommunication non-verbally, by the other party. If both parties have experienced each others culture then they are more informed and experienced with non-verbal communication, allowing them to act accordingly to the other party.

For example, in indigenous Australian, and Japanese cultures it is not found as awkward to have a silence in the middle of a conversation, where as in western culture, it is. Talking without an ample length of time can be seen as rude and can change the nature of the conversation for the worst.

While these issues with non-verbal communication between cultures maybe make individuals feel uncomfortable or insulted, there is no immediate danger. When communicating between organizations, governments and businesses this becomes of the up-most importance, to show respect to the other parties culture and beliefs as there could be major complications if one party was too disrespect the other by accident.

Who wrote the better essay?

The Challenges of the Airline Industry by John Doe, focuses mainly on the monetary issues that airlines face. Beyond the Gloss: The Challenge of Flight Attendant Rosters by Jane Citizen, as the title would suggest focuses on the challenge of the flight attendant rosters.


 Jane Citizen's essay has quite a bit more structured and set out than John Doe's, it feels as if it flows and stays on topic considerably more than John's. This combined with the language Jane uses and writing style makes the essay feel very professional and unbiased, giving readers the impression she's telling them the truth. While I personally got a tad lost reading her essay, she explained what all the different terms where and their meanings allowing the readers to get involved with what she's explaining, using a third person perspective.

John Doe's essay was more of a personal response and recount of events that he's seen and taken into account with his response to the Challenges of the Airline industry. His essay veers off of what the main topic is and doesn't seem to flow very well, that combined with the layout doesn't give a very pleasing feel to his entire essay. This leads my self to feel that what he's talking about is his own experiences and feelings in the first person, comparative to the actual Challenges relating to the Airline industry. Again leading to the fact that a structured and set out essay is more pleasing and easier to read.

Structured and unbiased essays allow the reader to feel more involved in the writing that's been put forward to them, the essay seem more credible and allows a reader to more easily believe the essay. This is why I personally believe Jane Citizen's essay is the better out of the two. Not only is it structured and seemingly unbiased by personal views, it flows fairly well adding to my pleasure of reading it.

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