Guide to managerial

communication
Mary Munter
Managerial communication is different
from other kinds of communication
because a brilliant message alone is not
sufficient: you are successful only if
your message results in your desired
response from your audience.
1. Objective
As a result of this communication, my
audience will. . .
2. Strategies
Communication objectives: Define the general
objective and the expected action to follow: the
audience will learn something, sign, give me
info, engage in defining a strategy, approve a
plan

Style: (content control vs. audience involvement)
Tell/Sell
Consult/join

What is your credibility?
3. Credibility (persuasiveness): stress pre-existing; increased
acquired
Factor Based on . . . Stress initial credibility Increased acquired credibility
Rank Hierarchical
power
Emphasizing your title
or rank
Associating yourself with or citing a
high-ranking person
Goodwill Personal
relationship or
track record
Referring to relationship
or track record
Building your goodwill by
emphasizing audience benefits whats
in it for them
Trustworthiness Offering balanced evaluations; acknowledging conflicts of interest
Expertise Knowledge,
competence
Sharing your expert
understanding
Explaining how you
gained your expertise
Associating yourself with or citing
authoritative sources
Image Attractiveness,
audience desire
to be like you
Emphasizing attributes
audience finds attractive
Building your image by identifying
yourself with your audiences benefits;
using nonverbals and language your
audience considers dynamic
Common
Ground
Common values,
ideas, problems,
or needs
Establishing your shared values or ideas
Acknowledging similarities with audience
Tying the message to your common ground
4. Audience
Who are they?
What do they know?
What do they feel?
How can you persuade them?
Using audience benefits
Using credibility (check table previous page)
Using message structure
Using message structure
Opening and closing: emphasize benefits
Problem/solution structure: First convince them that there is a problem so
you can then convince them that there is a solution
One-sided or two-sided: Two-sided for controversial topics. Helps
establishing common ground
Pro/con or con/pro. Pro/con for noncontroversial
Ascending or descending order. Informed audience ascending, uninformed
descending
Foot in the door technique: break down your request
Door in the face technique: Follow an outregous request with a reasonable
one.
Wrong structure for your papers: Answering questions like if the
paper was an exam
5. Message
THOUGHT PROCESS (drafting)
ends with conclusion
STRATEGIC PROCESS (writing)
emphasizes the conclusion
TIME
Bad ideas
Assumptions
Good ideas
Facts
Data
Reach
conclusion
last
State
conclusion
first (usually)
Organized
ideas
Organized
ideas
Organized
ideas
Organized
ideas
Message strategy
How can you emphasize?
Do not bury things in the middle
Direct approach: front loading or bottom-
lining.
Using the indirect approach: back loading or
mystery story approach (by enlarge not
appropriate in business writing and thus not
appropriate in your assignments)
Macrowriting
Design document
for high skim
value
Signposts to show
connection
Effective
paragraphs or
sections
Goal: To increase
readability, show
organization
To show logical
progression
To organize
paragraphs or
sections
Methods: Headings
White space
Typography
Throughout the
document
Openings
closings
Generalization and
support
Paragraph
signposts
Macrowriting
Introduction: What exists, why write, how
organized.
Closing: closure
Ineffective:
Introducing new topic or information
Apologizing
Ending abruptly.
Paragraphs:
(1) heading and when no heading topic sentence
(2) Signposts to clearly connect ideas within each
paragraph or section.
Microwriting
Editing for brevity Choosing a style
Goal: To make writing concise To make tone appropriate
Methods: Avoiding wordiness
Avoiding overlong
sentences and paragraphs
Businesslike or bureaucratic?
Active or passive?
Jargon or no jargon? Jargon
only as short hand not to
show that you know the
word
Microwriting
Avoid wordiness: See table Munters book p. 73
Overlong sentences
Clues:
(1) Too many main ideas in a sentence, usually signaled
by using the word and more than once.
(2) Hard to find main idea, usually signaled by using too
many piled-up phrases, parenthetical ideas, and qualifiers.
Business like or bureaucratic (see p. 77)
Active or passive?

Active Passive
to avoid wordiness
to avoid formality
to place responsibility
to save readers time
to de-emphasize writer
To avoid responsibility
For transition
Writing Exercise: Present and defend the vision statement that you have been writing for
CAPSIM. Use the back of this page. I will put them in the overhead projector so write
pretty. The goal is to convince me that it is a good vision.
Audience: Chair of the Board of Directors (me).

Introduction: Write just a couple of lines which states your vision. Remember what we
have discussed in the lecture. You are advocating, defending, championing a particular
vision.

Body of the document: Write about 3 headings or the titles for the sections that you
would write to convince the board of directors that the vision you have defined is good.
See tables 2.1 and 2.2 in textbook as to what is a good vision. See Munters writing
guide as to what is a good heading and a good way of organize a paper to create a
convincing argument.
Closing: A couple of sentences (see Munters guide for what is a good closing)

The whole paper should use white space and indentation to make it pleasing to the eye
and easy to read.

The purpose of this exercise is to review and practice how to write effective business
documents. We will follow this model for all your written assignments.