Models of Business Communication:

There are 5 models of business communication:-

1.) Communication in-context model:

In communication, context refers to the circumstances of the

situation in which communication is taking place. There are several
types of communication contexts, including interpersonal,
intrapersonal, group, public, and mass communication.

Below are the important attributes of this models:

1.1) Organisation’s structure and culture:

Organisational culture is the expectations of the business. These are

unwritten rules that dictate the attire, work ethic, and overall
structure of the business. A new employee will often have to learn
and follow these rules to fit into a business and its culture. Consider
it the personality of the business.
1.2) Group characteristics:

A group is defined as a social aggregate of two or more people that

involves mutual awareness, interaction, and interdependence of
its members. The characteristics of the group shape the beliefs
and behaviours of its members. In this entry, two categories of group
characteristics are examined, namely (1) characteristics of the group
and (2) characteristics of group members.

1.3) Task characteristics:

Task familiarity ,task novelty ,task ,goal acceptance and belief in
success are examples of task characteristics based on
relationship between task and performer.

1.4) Communication between people in an

organisation:

Organisational communication includes both internal

communication, such as employee training modules, messaging
around an organisation’s mission, interpersonal
communications between management and employees, and
professional communication such as emails.

2.) Strategic Model:

Strategic communication defines as “the purposeful use of

communication by an organisation to fulfil its mission.” Identifies
key concepts, including audience analysis, goal setting, and
message strategy. The term strategic has been most often used in
the context of management and decision-making power.
 It’s divided into 2 environment:

2.1) Internal Environment:

An organisation’s internal environment is composed of the elements

within the organisation, including current employees, management,
and especially corporate culture, which defines employee behaviour.
Although some elements affect the organisation as a whole, others
affect only the manager. A manager's philosophical or leadership
style directly impacts employees. Traditional managers give explicit
instructions to employees, while progressive managers empower
employees to make many of their own decisions. Changes in
philosophy and/or leadership style are under the control of the
manager. The following sections describe some of the elements that
make up the internal environment.

Internal environment basically consists of firm's own resources and

capabilities. It means the nature of technology possessed, patents
and designs, financial and managerial resources etc. ... A firm must
determine what its competencies are so that it can consider
alternative strategies for the present and the future.

Internal environment consists following attributes:

2.1.1) Policies, Procedures:

Company policies are guidelines that govern how certain

organisational situations are addressed. Just as colleges maintain
policies about admittance, grade appeals, prerequisites, and waivers,
companies establish policies to provide guidance to managers who
must make decisions about circumstances that occur frequently
within their organisation. Company policies are an indication of an
organisation’s personality and should coincide with its mission
statement.

2.1.2) Structure, culture :

The formal structure of an organisation is the hierarchical

arrangement of tasks and people. This structure determines how
information flows within the organisation, which departments are
responsible for which activities, and where the decision‐making
power rests.

Some organisation’s use a chart to simplify the breakdown of its

formal structure. This organisational chart is a pictorial display of the
official lines of authority and communication within an organisation.

The organisational culture is an organisation’s personality. Just as

each person has a distinct personality, so does each organisation.
The culture of an organisation distinguishes it from others and
shapes the actions of its members.

Four main components make up an organisation’s culture:

 Values

 Heroes
  Rites and rituals

 Social network.

2.1.3) People:

These are the customers who will be served.

2.1.4) Product:

These are the services which will be produced.

2.1.5) Technology:

Technology management is a set of management disciplines that

allows organisations to manage their technological fundamentals to
create customer advantage. Typical concepts used in technology
management are:

 Technology strategy (a logic or role of technology in

organisation ),
 Technology forecasting (identification of possible relevant
technologies for the organisation, possibly through technology
scouting),
 Technology roadmap (mapping technologies to business and
market needs), and
 Technology project portfolio (a set of projects under
development) and technology portfolio (a set of technologies in
use).

The role of the technology management function in an organisation

is to understand the value of certain technology for the organisation.
Continuous development of technology is valuable as long as there is
a value for the customer and therefore the technology management
function in an organisation should be able to argue when to invest on
technology development and when to withdraw.

2.1.6)Financial Position:

The statement of financial position also known as a Balance Sheet

represents the Assets, Liabilities and Equity of a business at a point in
time. For example: Assets include cash, stock, property, plant or
equipment – anything the business owns. Liabilities are what the
business owes to outside parties, eg.

2.2) External environment:

The external business environment consists of economic, political

and legal, demographic, social, competitive, global, and technological
sectors. Managers must understand how the environment is
changing and the impact of those changes on the business.

The external environment is divided into two parts:

2.2.1) Directly interactive: This environment has an immediate and
firsthand impact upon the organisation. A new competitor entering
the market is an example.

2.2.2)Indirectly interactive: This environment has a secondary and

more distant effect upon the organisation. New legislation taking
effect may have a great impact. For example, complying with the
Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to update their
facilities to accommodate those with disabilities.

Directly interactive forces include owners, customers, suppliers,

competitors, employees, and employee unions. Management has a
responsibility to each of these groups. Here are some examples:
  Owners expect managers to watch over their interests and
provide a return on investments.

 Customers demand satisfaction with the products and services

they purchase and use.

 Suppliers require attentive communication, payment, and a

strong working relationship to provide needed resources.

 Competitors present challenges as they vie for customers in a

marketplace with similar products or services.

 Employees and employee unions provide both the people to do

the jobs and the representation of work force concerns to
management.

The second type of external environment is the :

 indirectly interactive forces. These forces include sociocultural,
political and legal, technological, economic, and global
influences. Indirectly interactive forces may impact one
organisation more than another simply because of the nature
of a particular business. For example, a company that relies
heavily on technology will be more affected by software
updates than a company that uses just one computer. Although
somewhat removed, indirect forces are still important to the
interactive nature of an organisation.

 The sociocultural dimension is especially important because it

determines the goods, services, and standards that society
values. The sociocultural force includes the demographics and
values of a particular customer base.

 Demographics are measures of the various characteristics of

the people and social groups who make up a society. Age,
 gender, and income are examples of commonly used
demographic characteristics.

 Values refer to certain beliefs that people have about different

forms of behaviour or products. Changes in how a society
values an item or a behaviour can greatly affect a business.
(Think of all the fads that have come and gone!)

 The political and legal dimensions of the external environment

include regulatory parameters within which an organisation
must operate. Political parties create or influence laws, and
business owners must abide by these laws. Tax policies, trade
regulations, and minimum wage legislation are just a few
examples of political and legal issues that may affect the way
an organisation operates.

 The technological dimension of the external environment

impacts the scientific processes used in changing inputs
(resources, labor, money) to outputs (goods and services). The
success of many organisations depends on how well they
identify and respond to external technological changes.

For example, one of the most significant technological dimensions of

the last several decades has been the increasing availability and
affordability of management information systems (also known as
MIS). Through these systems, managers have access to information
that can improve the way they operate and manage their businesses.

 The economic dimension reflects worldwide financial

conditions. Certain economic conditions of special concern to
organisations include interest rates, inflation, unemployment
rates, gross national product, and the value of the U.S. dollar
against other currencies.
 A favourable economic climate generally represents
opportunities for growth in many industries, such as sales of
clothing, jewellery, and new cars. But some businesses
traditionally benefit in poor economic conditions. The alcoholic
beverage industry, for example, traditionally fares well during
times of economic downturn.

 The global dimension of the environment refers to factors in

other countries that affect U.S. organisations. Although the
basic management functions of planning, organising, staffing,
leading, and controlling are the same whether a company
operates domestically or internationally, managers encounter
difficulties and risks on an international scale. Whether it be
unfamiliarity with language or customs or a problem within the
country itself (think mad cow disease), managers encounter
global risks that they probably wouldn't have encountered if
they had stayed on their own shores.

3.) Two person/Interpersonal relationship model :

 Interpersonal Relationship model explains an individual’s outlook
towards relationship and how one’s perception changes in due
course.

Two people come together, like each other and enter into a
relationship.

According to interpersonal relationship model, two directional

components go a long way in creating an individual’s perception
about relationships.

They are as follows:

3.1)Other to Self: The component “other to self” represents an

individual’s awareness of his partner’s attitude, thoughts and beliefs
towards himself. The other to self component is more to do with the
awareness of an individual as to how his/her partner treats him/her.

3.2)Self to Other: The “self to other” component signifies an

individual’s awareness of his own behaviour, attitude towards
his/her partner. How an individual treats the other person in
relationship is denoted by self to other component.
Interpersonal Relationship Model describes above two directional
components as per following criteria:

 Assistive Polarity
Assistive Polarity further consists of the following:

 Assistive Attitude: Assistive attitude consists of actions and

behaviour which are in favour of the other person.
 Resistive Attitude: Resistive attitude consists of actions and
behaviour of an individual which are against the recipient and
tend to make the other person weak.
  Level of Intentionality: Level of intentionality further consists
of following three levels:
 Hypo- relic Level of intention: Sometimes an individual is
unaware of the other person’s aspirations and intentions and
unknowingly comes in his/her way without realising its harm.
Hypothermic level signifies resistance to other person’s
aspirations unknowingly.
 Relic or Meta relic Level of Intention: There are several cases
where individuals deliberately stop the other person from
doing something clearly knowing how much it would affect the
other person. An individual intentionally obstructing aspirations
of an individual comes under relic or meta relic level of
intention.
 Degree of Autonomy: Degrees of autonomy are further
classified into the following:

According to interpersonal relationship model, the degree of

assistance and obstruction arise out of following:

 Autonomous Agency: Autonomous agency comes into picture

when both resistance as well as acceptances arises out of
either of the two partner’s personal wishes, choices and
interests. None of the partners is influenced by a third party.
 Proxy Agency: Proxy agency comes into play when resistances
and acceptances are due to an external party often called the
third party. Here the third party influences the decisions of the
two individuals in relationship often called as Targets.

4.) One-way model:

In one-way communication, a sender delivers a message to a

receiver, but nothing flows back to the sender.
Sometimes, one-way communication occurs because of the medium
or method of communication. When you read a book, newspaper, or
even this website, you play the part of the receiver in one-way
communication. In these cases, the information moves in one
direction because time and space separate the sender and the
receiver. Print is a one-way communication medium.

In the lecture hall, purpose separates the sender and receiver. The
purpose of the lecture is to deliver, rather than exchange,
information. To inform, to persuade, to entertain and to command
are all common purposes for one-way communication, and we'll
discuss each of these in this lesson.

4.1)One-Way Informational Examples

Many school days start with a principal, teacher or other individual

reading a list of morning announcements. As much as students and
teachers might want to shout back at the speaker, there is no point
in yelling at the intercom when the information is flowing one-way.

4.2) One-Way Persuasion Examples

Often, a sender uses one-way communication to persuade. The

sender makes a case to the receiver who usually has some decision
to make when the message ends. Think of a lawyer making a case
before a jury or a politician delivering a speech.The persuasive
message moves one way.
5.)Two way model:

Two-way communication is a form of transmission in which both

parties involved transmit information. Two-way communication has
also been referred to as interpersonal communication. Common
forms of two-way communication are:

 Amateur radio, CB or FRS radio contacts.

 Chatrooms and instant messaging.
 Computer networks. See backchannel.
 In-person communication.
 Telephone conversations.

Two-way communication involves feedback from the receiver to the

sender. This allows the sender to know the message was received
accurately by the receiver. Communication is also negotiated which
means that the sender and receiver listen to each other, the
messages then gathers information to respond. One person is the
sender, which means they send a message to another person via face
to face, email, telephone, etc. The other person is the receiver, which
means they are the one getting the senders message. Once receiving
the message, the receiver sends a response back. For example,
Person A sends an email to Person B --> Person B responds with their
own email back to Person A. The cycle then continues. This chart
demonstrates two-way communication and feedback.

[Sender] ←-------
| \
[Encoding] \
| |
[Channel] [Feedback]
| |
 [Decoding] /
| /
[Receiver]---------->

Two-way communication may occur horizontally or vertically in

the organisation. When information is exchanged between
superior and subordinate, it is known as vertical two-way
communication. On the other hand, when communication takes
place between persons holding the same rank or position, it is
called horizontal two-way communication. Two-way
communication is represented in the following diagrams.

(Superior)---------------> (Subordinate)---------------> (Superior)

(Information) (Feedback)

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