Business Communications
Lesson One
Fu Jen University/AIEDL
Dr. M. Connor
Very different course
First off, you will not be doing academic
writing.
 Business writing is sleeker, cleaner, and
more concise.
 It is just as concerned with honesty, and
plagiarism is just as large an issue as it
is in academic writing, but in many ways,
it’s a totally different species.

Time is Money!
We are taught it from an early age
 It’s one of the core tenants of our society.
 Just as you wouldn’t waste money, you
shouldn’t waste time.

Task/achievement oriented country
That doesn’t mean Americans don’t care
about people
 They simply tend to focus on business.

Business at hand
Things should be thorough enough to
answer all the questions and include all
pertinent information
 But no more than that.

Task-oriented Cultures
Spend most of their time on
implementation and plan their life around
the clock.
 Time is a tangible, precious commodity.
 The event dictates the person.

Relationship-oriented Cultures
Organize their life around people, not the
clock.
 Time works for them; they don’t work for
time.
 More time is spent developing
relationships, and implementation
happens very quickly once the
relationship is set.
 The person dictates the event.

Task-Relationship Illustration
ACHIEVMENT
RELATIONSHIP
Sweden
Japan
Korea
Australia
Mexico
Switzerland
Brazil
USA
Germany
England
Netherlands
Hong Kong
India China/Taiwan
France
Saudi Arabia
Your writing voice
We want your writing lean, tough,
effective, but also personal.
 As a writer and a teacher of writing, I
believe that your voice should come
through.
 I want my own style to come through in
my writing, but in a way that presents my
best professional self

A branch of fillibabba.com
I will run this course like I run my
company.
 I will be grading you as if you worked for
me.
 I will judge your writing as if it was going
out into the world with my company
name on it.

Don’t panic!
I will not be grading your writing for the
first four weeks of class.
 Until then, writing will be pass/fail
 I’ll be making enough comments on the
papers so that you will have a real idea
of where you stand.

What will we be doing?
Consists almost entirely of writing
assignments.
 Scenarios from real life you must role
play in order to answer.
 One long formal business report
 Midterm and final.

About business communications
Thanks to technology, people today have
to be better and stronger communicators.
 Workplaces have to have effective
communication systems in place.

Benefits to effective communication
Quicker problem solving
 Stronger decision making
 Increased productivity
 Steadier work flow
 Stronger business relationships
 Clearer promotional materials
 Enhanced professional image, and
 Improved stakeholder response

Telecommunications
Increased the speed of communications
 Increased the need for good
communicators
 E-commerce and e-education are just
some of the new options opening up

Even more need for skills
One thing hasn’t changed—strong
communication skills will move you
upwards faster than poor communicators.
 How many job ads have you read
requiring good communication skills?

How do organizations communicate

There are two main types of
communication:
internal communication
 external communication.

Internal communication
Means the exchange of information
within the organization.
 This can further be broken down to two
types:

Formal
 Informal.

Formal communications networks
Can often be charted based on the
structure of the organization.
 Information flows

Down
 Up
 Across


the structure, depending on the need
Downward flow
Most decisions are made at the top and
flow downward.
 Each level must understand the
message and pass it down.
 Usually this has to do with employees
doing their jobs.

Upward flow
Helps managers solve problems and
make intelligent decisions.
 Because executives can’t be everywhere,
they depend on subordinates to furnish
them with information.

Horizontal flow
When information moves from one
department to another.
 This helps employees share information
and coordinate tasks.
 Especially helpful when dealing with
difficult or complicated problems.

Informal information network
Commonly called “the grapevine.”
 As people go about their day, they chat
and share information.
 While some of this information is
personal in nature, studies have shown
that up to 80% is about the business.
 It can also be highly accurate.

Useful tool or something to fear?

Some management types worry about
the grapevine


perhaps because it can spread information
they don’t want spread.
But smart managers know how to use it
to their advantage.
External communications

Like Internal communications, external
communications also has:

Formal style

Informal style.
Formal communications
Letters
 Websites
 E-mails
 Faxes
 Anything that is going out with the
company name on it.

Crisis management
One of the most visible tasks of formal
external communication is crisis
management.
 Excellence in communications can
minimize damages during a crisis.

Informal outside communication
Much more subtle.
 It happens when members of an
organization have informal contact with
members of the public in real world
situations in order to get feedback about
the organization.
 This can be at conferences, conventions,
entertainment venues.

Understanding the communication
process

Communications is a two-way process
that can be broken down into six steps.
Step one

The sender has an idea. You come up
with an idea and want to share it.
Step two
The sender encodes the idea and sends
it.
 When you put your idea into a message
that the receiver will understand, you
encode it, which means deciding on a
message’s form (word, facial expression,
gesture) length, organization, tone and
style—all of which depend on your idea,
audience and personal style or mood.

Step three

The sender transmits the message. You
must select a medium—face-to-face,
telephone, memo, letter, e-mail, and so
on). This choice depends on your
message, your audience’s location, your
need for speed and the formality
required.
Step four

The receiver gets the message. For
communication to occur, your receiver
must first get the message.
Step five

The receiver decodes the message.
Your receiver must decode (absorb and
understand) your message, which then
must be stored in your receiver’s mind.
If everything goes the way you plan, the
receiver interprets your message
correctly.
Step six

The receiver sends feedback, which is a
fancy way of saying he or she answers
you.
Barriers to effective communication
There are a number of barriers that can
get in the way of effective
communication.
 If you want to be an effective
communicator, it’s good to know what
these are.

Perceptual differences
Our perceptions of words can be
different.
 I say the word chair, and a chair pops
into your mind.


But is it the same chair I mean?
We may agree on the basic concept of
chair, but the images differ.
 This can be made even worse by
language differences.

Biscuit anyone??
American biscuits
English biscuits
Other barriers

Other barriers that can cause problems
with perceptual differences are
Age
 Education
 social status
 economic position
 Religion
 Life experiences.

Restrictive environments

When messages flow, they can change.

If a management wants to restrict access,
it can hinder communication both ways.
Distractions
These can be physical barriers like bad
phone lines, poor faxes, illegible copies
or poor acoustics.
 All of these can block proper
transmission of a message.
 Discomforts like a bad chair, a too cold
or too warm room or health problems
can cause problems as well.

Other distractions

Your receiver might have poor listening
skills.

Sometimes we let our minds wander and
then we can lose track of what’s being
said.
Emotional distractions play a part

If you are angry, hostile, sad or fearful, you
have a harder time of shaping a message
successfully.
 If the receiver is the emotional one, he or she
might distort your message.
 An emotional message or receiver give a
greater potential for misunderstanding.
 Finally, the sheer number of communications
we face each day at work can overwhelm us.
Deceptive tactics
Using certain words can color how we
receive a message.
 Or deceptive communicators may
exaggerate benefits, quote inaccurate
statistics, hide negative data.
 They may state opinions as facts, leave
out crucial information or portray graphic
data unfairly.

How do we overcome barriers

There are five traits of effective
communicators.

Knowing what they are can help you
improve your communications.
1. Perception
Effective communicators are able to
predict how you will receive their
message.
 They anticipate your reaction and shape
the message accordingly.
 They read your response correctly and
constantly adjust to correct any
misunderstanding.

2. Precision

Effective communicators create a
“meeting of the minds”.

They make sure that you share the same
mental picture.
3. Credibility
Effective communicators are believable.
 You trust their intentions and their
information.

4. Control
Effective communicators shape your
response.
 On some level we might call them
manipulators, because they make you
cry, laugh, take action.

5. Congeniality
Finally, effective communicators maintain
pleasant, friendly relations.
 Whether or not you agree with them,
they command your respect and goodwill.

Guidelines to help you communicate
1) adopting an audience-centered
approach
 2) fostering an open communication
climate
 3) creating lean, efficient messages
 4) committing to ethical communication.

Adopt audience-centered approach.
Focus on and care about your audience.
 Try to find out as much about them as
possible.
 If this isn’t possible because they are
strangers, use common sense and a bit
of imagination to get inside their heads.

Foster open communications
climate

Encourage feedback.

Effective managers are good
communicators, and the best ones make
sure they allow communication to flow
upwards and well as down.
Create lean, efficient messages






Lean means no extra fat. It does not mean
skinny or anorexic!
If too much information is distracting, make
sure you recognize what details are pertinent.
This can also mean reducing the number of
messages.
Minimize distractions.
You don’t have complete control over this one,
but try to minimize physical and emotional
barriers to communications.
As a listener, try to be an active listener.
Commit to ethical communications

Ethics are the principles of conduct that
governs a person or group. They are not
situational, they are not in constant flux.
There might be a grey area in life, but
there is black and there is white.
Ethical communication








Do include all relevant information
Do be true in every sense
Do be deceptive in any way.
Do be accurate and sincere.
Don’t use language that manipulates,
discriminates or exaggerates.
Don’t hide negative information
Don’t state opinions as facts
Don’t portray graphic data fairly.
Ethical dilemma
Involves choosing among alternatives
that aren’t clear-cut.
 This is when you’re working in the ”grey
area”.

Ethical lapse

Making a clearly unethical or illegal
choice.
How to decide?

One place to look is the law. If it is illegal, it is
unethical.
 But in most cases, you have to rely on your
own judgment.
 You might look at the consequences of your
message and opt for the solution that provides
the greatest good for the greatest number of
people.
 Or you might look for the solution that you can
live with
Questions that can help

There are four questions that can help
you make your decision.
Question 1
Is this message legal?
 Does it violate company policy or civil
law?

Question 2
Is this message balanced?
 Does it do the most good and the least
harm?
 Is it fair to all concerned in the short term
as well as the long term?
 Does it promote positive win-win
relationships?

Question 3
Is this a message you can live with?
 Does it make you feel good about
yourself?
 Would you feel good about your decision
if a newspaper published it?
 How about if your family knew about it?

Question 4
Is this message feasible?
 Can it work in the real world?

Company support

Some companies foster ethical behavior
by laying out a written code of ethics to
help employees figure out what is
acceptable.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

“What is morally wrong can never be
advantageous, even when it enables you
to make some gain that you believe to be
to your advantage. The mere act of
believing that some wrongful course of
action constitutes an advantage is
pernicious.” Statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE)