Jan 13 (Ch 1): Succeeding in Business Communication

Effective Communication

• Communication helps organizations and the people in them achieve their goals.
• The ability to write and speak well becomes increasingly important as you rise in an organization.
• People put things in writing to
  ◦create a record
  ◦to convey complex data
  ◦to make things convenient for the reader
  ◦to save money
  ◦to convey their own messages more effectively

Types of Communication

• Verbal
  ◦Face-to-face
  ◦Phone conversations
  ◦Informal meetings
  ◦Presentations
  ◦E-mail messages
  ◦Letters
  
• Nonverbal
  •Computer graphics
  •Company logos
  •Smiles
  •Size of an office
  •Location of people at meetings

Communication Purposes

• All business communication has three basic purposes
  ◦To inform (explain)
  ◦To request or persuade (urge action)
  ◦To build goodwill (make good image)
• Most messages have more than one purpose

Audiences

• Internal
  ◦Go to people inside organization
  ◦Memo to subordinates, superiors, peers
• External
  ◦Go to people outside organization
  ◦Letter to customers, suppliers, others

Benefits & Costs

• Effective writing
  ◦Saves time
  ◦Increases one’s productivity
  ◦Communicates points more clearly
  ◦Builds goodwill
  
• Poor writing
  ◦Wastes time
  ◦Wastes effort
  ◦Loses goodwill

Criteria for Effective Messages

• Good business writing meets five basic criteria:
  1.Clear,
  2.Complete
  3.Correct
  4.It saves the reader's time
  5.It builds goodwill
  
• To evaluate a specific document…
  ◦we must know the interactions among…
  1.the writer
  2.the reader(s)
  3.the purposes of the message
  4.and the situation.
• No single set of words will work for all readers in all situations.

10 Business Trends

1. Technology
2. Focus on quality, customers’ needs
3. Entrepreneurship
4. Teamwork
5. Diversity
6. Globalization and outsourcing
7. Legal and ethical concerns
8. Balancing work and family
9. Job Flexibility
10. Rapid rate of change

Conventions

• Conventions - widely accepted practices you routinely encounter
  ◦Vary by organizational setting
  ◦Help people…
  –recognize, produce, and interpret communications
  ◦Need to fit rhetorical situation:
  –audience, context, and purpose

Analyze Situations: Ask Questions

• What’s at stake?
• To whom should you send a message?
• What channel should you use?
• What should you say?
• How should you say it?

Solving Business Communication Problems

• A solution to a business communication problem
  ...must solve the organizational problem
  …meet the needs of the writer or speaker, the organization, and the audience.
• Revise draft for tone
  ◦Friendly
  ◦Businesslike
  ◦Positive
• Edit draft for standard English
  Check Names
  Check Numbers
• Use replies to plan future messages

Create Effective Messages

The following process helps create effective messages:

1. Answer the six numbered questions for analysis
2. Organize your information to fit your audiences, your purposes, and the situation.
3. Make your document visually inviting.
4. Revise your draft to create a friendly, businesslike, positive style.
5. Edit your draft for standard English; double-check names and numbers.
6. Use the response you get to plan future messages.

1. Six Analysis Questions

1. Who are your audiences?
2. What are your purposes?
3. What information must you include?
4. How can you support your position?
5. What audience objections do you expect?
6. What part of context may affect audience reaction?

2. Organize to Fit Audience, Purpose, Situation

1. Put good news first
2. Put the main point/question first
3. Persuade a reluctant audience by delaying the main point/question

3. Make Message Look Inviting

• Use subject line to orient reader
• Use headings to group related ideas
• Use lists for emphasis
• Number items if order matters
• Use short paragraphs—six lines max.

4. Create Positive Style

• Emphasize positive information
  ◦Give it more space
  ◦Use indented list to set it off
• Omit negative words, if you can
• Focus on possibilities, not limitations

5. Edit Your Draft

• Check…
  ◦ Spelling,
  ◦ Grammar,
  ◦ Punctuation
• Double-check…
  ◦ Reader’s name
  ◦Any numbers
  ◦First and last paragraphs
• Always proofread before sending

6. Use Response to Plan Next Message

• Evaluate feedback you get
  ◦ If message fails, find out why
  ◦ If message succeeds, find out why
• Success =
  ◦ results you want,
  ◦ when you want them

Eight Aspects of Business Communication

• All of these aspects are present in any business communication
  …but some might be more emphasized or obvious in certain typed of communication.
• These aspects are also highly interdependent,
  …but we separate them for clarification, discussion, and grading.

1. Task/Context:

• “Context” can be defined as…
  the “time, place, and situation” or
  the “big picture” for communication.
  
• Successful business communicators know that messages never occur in vacuums…
  but are viewed within the larger situations that surround them.

2. Audience:

• the recipient(s) of the message…
  whether that be an individual,
  a group,
  a market,
  or a public.
• “Audience” discussions include…
  analysis (what’s important about the audience)
  adaptation (how that affects the message)
  approaches to particular types of audiences

3. Channel Choice:

• A key consideration, given the proliferation of media and how different they are.
  ◦Effective communicators make wise choices, recognizing the need for…
  documentation,
  speed,
  direct contact,
  opportunities for interaction, etc.

4. Organization:

• Smart communicators ask themselves…
  “What goes where?”
  and the related question “What follows what?”
• When they do, they worry about…
  the order of elements they are working with
  the relationships among those elements (e.g. visual coherence or transitions).

5. Content:

• In business, “content” covers
  what is said…
  what is omitted
  how much of it to include about each point
• Many business communicators forget to consider the importance of amount for small and large areas.

6. Self-expression:

• awareness of the “self” you’re presenting is critical for any business student.
  The presenter’s
  credibility,
  confidence,
  reputation,
  appearance,
  attention to details
• …are all parts of self expression.
• “Selves” here are not just individuals,
  departments
  Organizations
  (A communicator often represents the “face” of an organization.)

7. Visual Impression/Format:

• “Organization” refers to the ordering of content,
• “Visual Impression/Format” treat its
  placement,
  depiction,
  proportions on a page (paper, PowerPoint slide, Web page, etc.).
• These considerations include conventions for formats like where the date is placed on a page (often specific to organizations), as well as aesthetic and functional design decisions.

8. Mechanics/Language use:

• Two discrete (though often blurred) aspects are at work here… conventions & style.
• “Conventions” (spelling, punctuation, grammar)
  are matters of “right and wrong” which can be corrected.
• “Style” (word choice and sentence structure)
  treats matters of effectiveness and
  is often more difficult to define.
  

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Content attributed to:

Locker, Kitty O. and Donna Kienzler. Business and Administrative Communication, 8/e. McGraw-Hill Higher Education. 2008.

Walker, Robyn. Strategic Business Communication: An Integrated, Ethical Approach. Thomson, South-Western, 2006, adapted from Dr. Beth Hoger.

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