BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

CHAPTER: 1

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COMMUNICATION SKILLS NEEDED IN BUSINESS

Speaking well Writing well Displaying proper etiquette (manners) Listening attentively

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Why Business Needs to Communicate Communication is vital to every part of business. For example, employees process information with

computers, write messages, fill out forms, give and receive orders, and talk over the telephone.

Executives use written and oral messages to initiate business with customers and other companies and respond to incoming messages.

Oral communication is a major part of this information flow. So too are written communication --- letters, email messages, reports, and internet documents.

Communication enables human beings to work together.

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Main Forms of Communication in Business

1. Internal-Operational Communication

2. External-Operational Communication

3. Personal Communication

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Internal-Operational Communication

All the communication that occurs in conducting work within a business is classified as internal operational.

This is the communication among the business’s workers that is done to implement the business’s operating plan (e.g. provide a service, manufacture a product, sell goods, etc.).

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Internal-Operational Communication

Internal-operational communication takes many forms. It includes: the orders and instructions that supervisors give

workers reports that workers prepare concerning sales,

productions, inventories, etc. the email messages that workers write in carrying

out their assignments.

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External-Operational Communication

This is the work-related communicating that a business does with people and groups outside the business.

Example: when business executives communicate with suppliers, service companies, customers, and the general public.

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External-Operational Communication External-operational communication includes all of the

business’s efforts at direct selling: descriptive brochures, telephone callbacks, follow-up service calls, etc.

It also includes the advertising the business does, example radio and television messages, newspaper and magazine advertising, website advertising, etc.

Also in this category is all that a business does to improve its public relations, including its planned publicity, the community service of its employees, the courtesy of its employees, and the environmental friendliness of its products and facilities.

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Personal Communication

Personal communication is the exchange of information and feelings in which we human beings engage whenever we come together.

We will communicate even when we have little or nothing to say.

The employees’ attitudes toward the business, each other, and their assignments directly affect their productivity. And the nature of conversation in a work situation affects attitudes.

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Personal Communication

In a work situation where heated words and flaming tempers are often present, the employees are not likely to make their usual productive efforts.

However, a cheerful work situation is likely to have an equally bad effect on productivity.

Somewhere between these extremes lies the ideal productive attitude.

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Communication Network of the Organization

In a workday we see an organization feeding on a continuous supply of information.

Most of the information flow of operational communication is downward and follows the formal lines of organization (from the top executives down to the workers).

This is so because most of the information, instructions, orders, and such needed to achieve the business’s objectives originate at the top and must be communicated downward.

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Communication Network of the Organization

However, most good companies recognize the value of open upward communication.

Their executives use open channels of communication to be better informed of the status of things on the front line.

They also have found that information from the lower levels can be important in achieving company work goals.

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Communication Network of the Organization

Two forms of network in an organization: Formal Informal

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Formal Network

The business has major, well-established channels of information flow. These are the formal channels – the main lines of operational communication (both internal and external).

Specifically, the flow includes the upward, lateral, and downward movements of information by report, email, records, and such within the organization.

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Formal Network

It also includes orders, instructions, and messages down the authority structure; of working information through the organization’s email or intranet; and of extremely directed messages, sales presentations, advertising, and publicity.

These main channels should not just happen; they should be carefully thought out and changed as the needs of the business change.

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Informal Network

The informal network is a secondary network consisting primarily of personal communication.

It comprises the thousands upon thousands of personal communications that support the formal communication network of a business.

Such communications follow no set pattern; they form an ever-changing and infinitely complex structure liking all the members of the organization.

Informal network is not a single network but a complex relationship of smaller networks consisting of groups of people.

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Informal Network

The relationship is made even more complex by the fact that these people may belong to more than one group and that group memberships and the links between and among groups are continually changing.

Known as the grapevine in management literature, this communication network is extremely effective.

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Informal Network

Certainly, it carries much gossip and rumor, for this is the nature of human conversation. And it is as fickle (inconsistent) and inaccurate as the human beings who are a part of it.

Even so, the grapevine usually carries far more information than the formal communication system; and on many matters it is more effective in determining the course of an organization.

Wise managers recognize the presence of the grapevine. That is, they keep in touch with the grapevine and turn it into a constructive tool.

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Division Manager

Department Manager

Department Manager

Formal and Informal Communication

Straight lines = Formal NetworkCurved lines = Informal Network

Fig 1: Formal and Informal communication Networks in a Division

of a Small Business.

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Variation in Communication Activity by Business

Just how much communicating a business does depend on several factors:

1. The Nature of the Business: e.g. insurance companies have a great need to communicate with their customers, especially through letters and mailing pieces, whereas housecleaning service companies have little such need.

2. Geographic dispersion of the operations of a business: Obviously, internal communication in a business with multiple locations differs from that of a one-location business.

3. People who make up a business: Every human being is unique. Each has unique communication needs and abilities. Thus, varying combination of people will produce varying needs for communication.

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The Process of Human Communication

Fig. 2: A Model of the Communication Process.

Sensory WorldSensory World

Kelly Justin

1 2Medium6 5

3 47 8

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The Process of Human Communication

1. Kelly sends a message to Justin through a carefully selected medium or channel.

2. Justin’s senses pick up the message, but also pick up competing information from his sensory world.

3. Kelly’s message is filtered through Justin’s unique mind and is given meaning.

4. The meaning given may trigger a response (feedback), which Justin’s unique mind forms.

5. 5 -8. Justin sends the message to Kelly. It enters her sensory world, and a second cycle begins that is the same as the first cycle.

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The Process of Human Communication

The Beginning: A Message Sent Although the steps described may suggest that

Justin and Kelly are communicating in separate actions, the actions occur simultaneously. As one is sending, the other is receiving.

Our description begins with Kelly, the sender, communicating (or encoding) a message through a carefully selected medium to Justin, the receiver.

Her message could be in any of a number of forms --- gestures, facial expressions, drawings, or, more likely, written or spoken words. Whatever the medium, Kelly sends the message to Justin.

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The Process of Human Communication

The Filtering Process• When Kelly’s message gets to Justin’s brain, it goes through a sort of filtering (or decoding) process. Through that process Justin’s brain gives meaning to Kelly’s message.

• Those contents are made up of all Justin knows and all he thinks. It includes his entire emotional makeup and all his opinions, attitudes, and beliefs. It includes al the cultural influences of his family, his organization memberships, his social groups, and such.

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The Process of Human Communication

Obviously, no two people have precisely identical filters, for no two people have minds with precisely the same contents.

Thus, the meaning Justin gives Kelly’s message may not be precisely the same as the one that someone else would give it. And it may not be the meaning Kelly intended.

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The Process of Human Communication

For example, assume that Kelly used the word liberal in her message. Now assume that Kelly and Justin have had sharply differing experiences with the word. To Kelly the word is negative, for her experience has made her dislike things liberal. To Justin the word is positive.

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The Process of Human Communication

Formation and Sending of the Response:

After his mind has given meaning to Kelly’s message, Justin may react to the message. If the meaning he received is sufficiently strong, he may react by communicating some form of response (called feedback). This response may be through words, gestures, physical actions, or some other means.

Justin ends this stage of the communication process by forming a message and sends to Kelly. He may send them in a number of ways: as spoken words, written words, gestures, movements, facial expressions, diagrams on paper, and so on.

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The Cycle Repeated

When Justin sends his message to Kelly, one cycle of the communication process ends. Now a second cycle begins.

This one involves Kelly rather than Justin, but the process is the same.

The process may continue, cycle after cycle, as long as Kelly and Justin want to communicate.

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The Communication Process and Written CommunicationSome difference between oral and written communication:

Written communication is more likely to involve creative effort. It is more likely to be thought out.

The time between cycles: In face-to-face communication, cycles occur fast, often in rapid succession. In written communication, some delay occurs. While instant and text messaging may be read within a few seconds of sending, fax or email messages may be read a few minutes after they are transmitted, letters in a few days, reports perhaps in days, weeks, or months. Because they provide a record, written messages may communicate over extremely long time periods.

Written communication involves a limited number of cycles, and oral communication usually involves many. In fact, some written communication is one-cycle communication. That is, a message is sent and received, but none is returned.

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Some Basic Truths about Communication (Errors in Communication) Meanings Sent are Not Always Received: No two minds have

identical filters. No two minds have identical storehouses of words, gestures, facial expressions, or any of the other symbol forms. Because of these differences in mind, errors in communication are bound to occur. Skilled communicators work hard to minimize these errors.

Meaning is in the Mind: Meaning is in the mind --- not in the words or other symbols used. How accurately a sender conveys meaning in symbols depends on how skillful one is in choosing symbols with the receiver in mind and on how skillful the receiver is in interpreting the meaning intended.

The Symbols of Communication Are Imperfect: One reason for this is that the symbols we use, especially words, are at best crude substitutes for the real thing. For example, the word man can refer to billions of human beings of whom no two are precisely alike. The verb run conveys only the most general part of an action; it ignores the countless variations in speed, grace and style.

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Some Basic Truths about Communication (Errors in Communication) Communication is also imperfect because communicators

vary in their ability to convey thoughts. Some find it very difficult to select symbols that express their simplest thoughts.

Communication across cultures is especially imperfect, for often there are no equivalent words in the cultures. For example, usually there is no precise translation for our jargon in other cultures. Words such as computer virus, and geek (nerd, bore) are not likely to have equivalents in every culture. Similarly, other cultures have specialized words unique and necessary to them that we do not have. For instance, the Eskimo have many words for snow, each describing a unique type. Obviously, such distinctions are vital o their existence. We can get along very well with the one word.