Business buzzwords: When plain language works better

One of the things Dr Shane Littrell liked least about working in a corporate setting was the way senior management communicated with staff.

“One of my bosses loved to use words such as ‘synergising’, ‘derivation’ and ‘optimal flow-through’ in ways that did not make coherent sense. He also loved to say that we would ‘download on’ a topic rather than ‘discuss’ or ‘talk about’ it.

“The way executives often spoke probably sounded impressive — at least to them — but made actual communication much more difficult for everyone else,” he says.

Littrell became so disillusioned with the corporate environment that he switched careers. Today, he is a cognitive psychologist who works as a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Government at Cornell University in the US. His latest research looks at the effect this type of “semantically empty” corporate speak has on the workplace.

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