BUSINESS

COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER: 1
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 linking 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 grasually carries far more information
than the formal pevine ucommunication 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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Formal and Informal
Communication
Division
Manager

Department Department
Manager Manager

Straight lines = Formal Network

Curved lines = Informal Network

Fig 1: Formal and Informal

communication Networks in a Division
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of a Small Business.
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. 20
The Process of Human
Communication
Fig. 2: A Model of the Communication Process.

7 8 3 4
Sensory World Sensory World
1 2
Medium
Kelly 6 5 Justin

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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 Communication
Some 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.

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