A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K.

Chand1

Managerial Communication
Unit 1: Understanding the foundation of Business Communication
- Achieving Success through Effective Business Communication
- Communicating in teams and mastering listening and non-verbal communication
- Communicating inter-culturally
- Applying the three-steps Writing Process: Planning Business Message, Writing Business
Message and Completing Business Message
Unit 2: Writing Letters, Memos, Emails and Instant Messages

- Writing Routine and Positive Messages

- Writing Negative Messages
- Writing Persuasive Messages
Unit 3: Writing Reports and Proposals

- Planning Reports and Proposals

- Writing Reports and Proposals
- Completing Reports and Proposals
Unit 4: Oral and Non-verbal Communication

- Oral Communication
- Non-verbal Communication
- Public Speaking
- Conducting and Participating in Meeting
- Interviewing and Getting Interviewed
Unit 5: Preparing a Dossier for Employment

- Constructing Resumes
- Writing job letters
- Applying and Interviewing for Employments
Practicum

- At least one 10 to 15 minute oral presentation

- At least three business correspondences (topic will be given)
- At least one mid-length report
- Mock meetings and Interview Sessions
- Dossier for job application
Required Text: Business Communication Today by Courtland L. Bovee and John V. Thill

Questions

- Group A: Case Analysis

- Group B: Analytical Questions
- Group C: Conceptual Questions

Unit 1: Understanding the foundation of Business Communication

The word communication is taken from Latin word ‘communis’, which means ‘common’.
Communication is the process of transferring information and meaning between senders and receivers, using one or
more oral, written, visual or electronic medium/channels. The objective of communication is to share, provide data,
information, knowledge and inspiration to each other. It benefits both sides (you and the people with whom you
communicate. Without communication no deal is possible in both sides.
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Business: an activity that is undertaken with a view to earning profit

Business Communication: The communication undertaken in the process of business activity is called Business
Communication
As communication has great significance in all sectors, it is quite important in business sector too for betterment of
business as well as for its expansion.
1)Acheiving success through effective business communications

Effective Business Communications are practical, factual, concise, clear, and persuasive with following features
i) Provide practical information - Give recipients useful information, whether it’s to help them perform a
desired action or understand a new company policy.
ii. Give facts rather than vague impressions - Use concrete language, specific detail, and information that is
clear, convincing, accurate, and ethical. Even when an opinion is called for, present compelling evidence to support
your conclusion.
iii) Present information in a concise, efficient manner - Concise messages show respect for people’s time,
and they increase the chances of a positive response.
iv. Clarify expectations and responsibilities - Craft messages to generate a specific response from a specific
audience. When appropriate, clearly state what you expect from audience members or what you can do for them.
v. Offer compelling, persuasive arguments and recommendations - Show your readers precisely how they
will benefit from responding to your message the way you want them to.
Benifits of effective communication in business
 It develops stronger relationship with important communities in the marketplace -
 It gives opportunities to influence conversations, perceptions, and trends -
 It helps for increasing productivity and faster problem solving
 It gives better financial results and higher return for investors
 It gives earlier warning of potential problems, from rising business costs to critical safety issues
 It helps in stronger decision making based on timely, reliable information
 It gives clearer and more persuasive marketing messages.
 It makes greater employee engagement with their work, leading to higher employee satisfaction and lower
employee turnover
 It enhanced professional image for both employers and companies
Elements that we need to know at the time of Achieving Success through Effective Business Communication
- Getting Ready for Business Communication
- Achieving Success in Today’s Competitive Environment
- Communicating more Effectively on the job
- Using Technology to Improve Business Communication
- Making Ethical Communication Choices
a) Getting Ready for Business Communication
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In the previous time business communication was largely defined a publishing and broadcasting mindset. For
this, a company externally released carefully scripted messages for a mass audience that often had few possibility of
respond. Customer and other parties had few ways to connect one another for asking questions, sharing information
as well as offer support. It follows “we talk, you listen” model. With the period of time, the nature of business
communication is changing. There is developed like social communication model which is interactive and
conversational. In this model the audience is no longer a passive recipient of message but an active participant in the
conversation with the use of new added media tools: blogs, podcast, wikis etc. Hybrid approach is emerging in
which some communication follow the traditional approach and others follow newly found trend too. The
conversational and interactive social communication model is revolutionizing business communication so that
practically every assumption about business communication needs to be reconsidered under business
communication approach.
b) Achieving Success in Today’s Competitive Environment
Communication skill are essential in Today’s competitive environment of business because if we learn to write
well, speak well, listen well and recognize the appropriate way to communication in various business situation, we
will get success in our business career. For developing communication skill, we need to know following;
Communicating in Organizational Setting, Recognizing Effective Communication, Understanding What Employers
expect from you, Understanding the unique challenges of Business Communication
I. Communicating in Organizational Setting: Each organization has formal organizational structure and
communication of business organization flows in a variety of ways. Internal Communication takes place between
people inside a company, whereas external communication takes place between a company and outside parties. A
formal communication network mirrors the company’s organizational structure. The internal formal
network’s information flows in three direction. Downward Communication flows from executives to
employees, conveying executive decisions and providing information that helps employees do their job. Upward
Communication flows from employee to executives, providing insight into problems, trends, opportunities and
performance thus allowing executives to solve problems and make strong decisions. Horizontal Communication
flows between departments to help employees share information coordinate task and solve complex problems.
Every organization has an informational communication network too, which is referred as grapevine or rumor
mill. Social media plays important role for this communication and it is out of formal network.
II. Recognizing Effective Communication: Effective Communications are practical, factual, concise, clear, and
persuasive with following features
 Provide practical information - Give recipients useful information, whether it’s to help them perform a
desired action or understand a new company policy.
 Give facts rather than vague impressions - Use concrete language, specific detail, and information that is
clear, convincing, accurate, and ethical. Even when an opinion is called for, present compelling evidence to
support your conclusion.
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 Present information in a concise, efficient manner - Concise messages show respect for people’s time,
and they increase the chances of a positive response.
 Clarify expectations and responsibilities - Craft messages to generate a specific response from a specific
audience. When appropriate, clearly state what you expect from audience members or what you can do for
them.
 Offer compelling, persuasive arguments and recommendations - Show your readers precisely how they
will benefit from responding to your message the way you want them to.
III. Understanding What Employers Expect from you: Employer expects you to possess the following
communication skill;
 Organize ideas and information logically and completely
 Express ideas and information coherently and persuasively- in oral, written, visual and electronic media
 Actively listening to others
 Communicating effectively with the people of diverse background and experiences
 Using communication technologies effectively and efficiently
 Following accepted standards of grammar, spelling and other aspect of high quality related to written and
speaking
 Adapting message and communication styles for specific audience and situation.
 Communicating in a civilized manner following business etiquette
 Communicating ethically
 Managing time wisely and using resources efficiently
IV. Understanding the Unique Challenges of Business Communication: Business communication is often more
complicated and demanding than the social communication (family, friend and social associates). There are five
issues related to challenges of business Communication.
 The Globalization of Business and the Increase in Workforce Diversity: Today’s business increasingly
reach across international borders to market their products, partners with other business, and employ worker
and executive an effort known as globalization. And each organization pays attention for Workforce
Diversity; The employee and the management team difference in age, gender, sexual orientation, education
cultural background, religion, ability like experience and so on work together. Diverse workforce offer two
things; it makes competitive advancement by bringing new ideas and communication skill, and the more
diverse workforce, the more attention must be paid for communication.
 The increasing value of business Information: In global competition of talent, the value of information
has been increasing, and it has become one of the most important resources in business today. The
companies are likely to hire knowledge workers who specialize in acquiring, processing and
communicating information. The employee should have following information;
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Competitive insights: The company should list out its competitors their plans to compete with the opposition. The
sense of challenge would give strengths to go ahead in business.
Costumer needs information: Information about costumer needs should be analyzed and valued practically in order
to develop goods and services that better satisfy customer’s needs.
Regulation and guideline information: Today’s businesses should understand and follow government rules and
regulations covering such areas as employment, market policy, taxes, accountings, etc.
 The Pervasiveness of technology: Business communication today is heavily dependent on a growing use
of technologies. Actually, technology influences almost all the aspect of business communication today.
So, you need to have the basic level of skill of business communication related to technology. If your level
of technical expertise doesn’t keep up your expertise with that of your colleagues and co-workers, you
might get disadvantages and complications in the communication process.

 The Evolution of Organizational structure: Each organization has particular structure that defines the
relationships between various units in the company, and these relationship influence the nature and quality
of communication throughout organization. Organizational structure is evolved accordingly. Specific types
of organization structures present unique communication challenges. Tall structures have many layers of
management between the lowest and highest positions, and they can suffer communication breakdowns
and delays as messages are passed up and down through multiple layers. Organization with tall structures
may unintentionally restrict the flow of information. To overcome such problems, many businesses have
adopted Flat structures that reduce the number of layers and promote more open and direct
communication. However, with fewer formal lines of control and communication in these organizations,
individual employees are expected to assume more responsibility for communication-particularly in the
horizontal direction, from department to department across the company.
Organizations with tall structures may unintentionally restrict the flow of information; flatter
structures can make it easier to communicate effectively..
In a matrix structure, for example, employees report to two managers at the same time, such as a project manager
and a department manager. The need to coordinate workloads, schedules, and other matters increases the
communication burden on everyone involved. In a network structure, sometimes known as a virtual organization, a
company supplements the talents of its employees with services from one or more external partners, such as a
design lab, a manufacturing firm, or a sales and distribution company. Regardless of the particular structure a
company uses, your communication efforts will also be influenced by the organization’s corporate culture: the
mixture of values, traditions, and habits that gives a company its atmosphere and personality. Many successful
companies encourage employee contributions by fostering open clim
ates that promote candor and honesty, helping employees feel free enough to admit their mistakes, disagree with the
boss and share negative or unwelcome information.
Open corporate cultures benefit from free-flowing information and employee input.
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 The Growing Reliance on Teamwork: Teams are commonly used in business today, but they’re not
always successful and a key reason that teams fail to meet their objectives is poor communication.
Working in a team makes you even more responsible for communicating effectively.

C) Communicating more effectively on the Job: There are challenges to communicate effectively on today’s
business environment but we can meet challenges by learning to connect with our audience, minimizing
distractions, adopting an audience central approach, improving our basic communication skills (Fine Tuning
Your Business Communication Skill), Giving and Responding to constructive feedback, being sensitive to
business etiquette and Applying what you have learned to communication process

I. Connecting with our Audience: Whatever message we deliver we should make understand our audience or get
connected with audience. For connecting with audience, we need to know the following things: The
Communication Process, Barriers in the Communication Environment, and inside the mind of your audience
 The Communication Process: Viewing communication as a process helps you identify steps you can take
to improve your success as a communicator. All types of communication exist in these eight steps, and
provide a practical overview.

Example: A sender has an idea - sender encodes the idea in message — sender produces the message in medium
— sender transmits message through a channel — audience receives the message — audience decodes the
message — audience responds to the message — audience provides feedback to the sender

The sender has an idea: Whether a communication effort will ultimately be effective starts right here. For
example, if you have a clear idea about a procedure change that will “e your company time and money, the
communication process is off to a strong start. On the other hand, if all you want to do is complain about how the
company is wasting time and money but don’t have any solutions, you probably won’t communicate anything of
value to your audience.

The sender encodes the idea as a message: When someone puts an idea into a message — which you can think of
as the “container” for an idea—he or she is encoding it, or expressing it in words or images. Much of the focus of
this course is on developing the skills needed to successfully encode your ideas into effective messages.

The sender produces the message in a transmittable medium: With the appropriate message to express an idea, the
sender now needs a communication medium to present that message to the intended audience. Media for
transmitting messages can be divided into oral, written, visual, and electronic forms.
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The sender transmits the message through a channel: Just as technology continues to increase the number of
media options it your disposal, it continues to provide new communication channels you can use to transmit your
messages. The distinction between medium and channel can get a bit murky, but think of the medium as the form a
message takes and the channel as the system used to deliver the message. The channel can be a face-to-face
conversation, the Internet, another company—any method or system capable of delivering messages.

The audience receives the message: If the channel functions properly, the message reaches its intended audience.
However, mere arrival at the destination is no guarantee that the message will be noticed or understood correctly.
Many messages are either ignored or misinterpreted as noise.

The audience decodes the message: After a message is received, the receiver needs to extract the idea from the
message, a step known as decoding. “How Audiences Decode Messages” takes a closer look at this complex and
subtle step in the process.

The audience responds to the message: By crafting messages in ways that show the benefits of responding, senders
can increase the chances that recipients will respond in positive ways. However, whether a receiver responds as the
sender hopes depends on the receiver (a) remembering the message long enough to act on it, (b) being able to act on
it, and (c) being motivated to respond.

The audience provides feedback to sender: In addition to responding (or not responding) to the message, audience
members may give feedback that helps the sender evaluate the effectiveness of the communication effort. Feedback
can be verbal (using written or spoken words), nonverbal (using gestures, facial expressions, or other signals), or
both. Just like the original message, however, this feedback from the receiver also needs to be decoded carefully. A
smile, for example, can have many meanings.

 Barriers to the Communication Environment: A number of barriers can block or distort messages before
they reach the intended audience. The barriers of communication are as follows: noise and distraction,
competing message, filters, channel breakdowns.

Noise and distractions: External distractions range from uncomfortable meeting rooms to crowded computer
screens with instant messages and reminders popping up all over the place. Internal distractions are thoughts arid
emotions that prevent audiences from focusing on incoming messages. The common habit of multitasking,
attempting more than one task at a time, is practically guaranteed to create communication distractions. Moreover,
research suggests that “chronic multitasking” can reduce productivity and increase errors.
Competing message: Having your audience’s undivided attention is a rare luxury. In most cases, you must compete
with other messages that are trying to reach your audience at the same time. The medium is the form a message
audience at the same time, which is why it is so essential to craft messages that your audience will care about.
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Filters: Messages can be blocked or distorted by filters, any human or technological interventions between the
sender and the receiver. Filtering can be both intentional (such as automatically filing incoming messages based on
sender or content) or unintentional (such as an overly aggressive spam filter that deletes legitimate emails). As you
read earlier, the structure and culture of an organization can also inhibit the flow of vital messages. And, in some
cases, the people or companies you rely on to deliver your message can distort it or filter it to meet their own needs.
Channel breakdowns: Sometimes the channel simply breaks down and fails to deliver your message at all. A
colleague you were counting on to deliver a message to your boss might have forgotten to do so, or a computer
server might have crashed and prevented your blog from updating.
 Inside the Mind of Your Audience: After a message reaches to intended audience, it encounters new set
of challenges. For facing challenges we need to understand how audiences receive, decode and respond to
message that helps for making our message effective.
How Audience receive message: Three events occur at receiving messages: the receiver has to sense the presence
of message, select it from all other messages, and perceive it as actual message. For making this type of message,
follow these five principles: Consider audience expectation; Deliver message using the media and channels that the
audience expects. Ensure ease of use: Even if audiences are actively looking for your message, they probably
won’t see the message if you make them hard to find, hard to access or hard to read. Poorly designed website with
confusion is common cultural mistake. Emphasize familiarity: Use words, images and designs that are familiar to
your audience. Practice empathy: Make sure your message speak to the audience by clearly addressing their wants
and needs not yours. Design for compatibility: For the many messages delivered electronically these days, be sure
to verify technological compatibility with your audience.
How Audience Decodes Messages: A received message doesn’t mean anything until the recipient decodes it and
assigns meaning to it, and there is no guarantee that your audience will assign the same meaning that you intended.
How Audience Respond Message: Audience will likely respond to message if they remember it, if they are able to
respond and if they are properly motivated to respond. For this, first the recipient has to remember the message long
enough to act on it. Second, the recipient has to be able to respond as you wish. Third, the recipient has to be
motivated to respond.
II. Minimizing Distraction: Distraction refers to interruption or disturbance, and it is a major problem in business
communication. So it has to be minimized to communicate effectively on the job. It is possible to overcome from
distractions by using common sense and courtesy (turn of mobile phones before you enter into meeting), not
sending unnecessary messages, not isolating yourself, informing receivers of message priority, being aware of
our own feelings and anticipating emotional reaction from others (hearing music). Communicating in emotionally
charged situations requires extra care, and choose words carefully to minimize overreaction.
III. Adopting an Audience-Centered Approach: An audience-centered approach involves understanding and
respecting the members of your audience and making every effort to get your message across in a way that is
meaningful to them. This approach is also known as adopting the “you” attitude, in contrast to messages that are
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about “me.” The more focus should be given to the audience. The more you know about the people you’re
communicating with, the easier it will be to concentrate on their needs—which, in turn, will make it easier for them
to hear your message, understand it, and respond positively. This approach needs the business etiquette related
quality. For example, when executives hire and promote you, they expect your behavior to protect the company’s
reputation. The more you understand such expectations, the better chance you have of avoiding career-damaging
mistakes.
IV. Fine tuning your Business Communication Skills: The skills as a communicator will be as much a factor in
your business success as anything else you’ll do in your career. We need to master business communication skill by
taking training and practicing in good environment. And it creates fine tuning of our business communication skill
and helps to communicate effectively on the job.
V. Giving and Responding to Constructive Feedback: Constructive feedback, sometimes called constructive
criticism which focuses on improvement and on the process and outcomes of communication, not personal
criticism. Destructive feedback simply criticizes with no effort to stimulate improvement. When giving feedback,
avoid personal attack and give the person clear guidelines for improvement. Some of the ways of making
constructive feedbacks are: think through your suggested changes carefully, discuss improvement rather than
flaws, be specific, keep feedback impersonal, verify understanding, provide your feedback in a timely fashion
and highlight any limitation your feedback may have.

VI. Being Sensitive to Business Etiquette(manners/Good manners): Etiquette refers the expected norms of
behaviors in any particular situation, and it is audience centered communication. In today’s hectic, competitive
world, etiquette might seem a quaint and outdated notion. And understanding communication etiquette can help you
avoid needless blunders. It is one of the important elements in audience centered communication, and every
organization needs this. The etiquettes of the person determines person’s as well as organization’s reputation,
success, respect etc. The business etiquette varies from one culture to another, one society to another, one nation to
another. There are many lists related to etiquette but you need to follow three principles in all situations: respect,
courtesy and common sense. For example, in North America, a firm handshake is expected when two- people meet,
whereas a respectful bow of the head is more appropriate in Japan. If you are expected to shake hands, be aware that
the passive “dead fish” handshake creates an extremely negative impression. If you are physically able, always
stand when shaking someone’s hand. So that, when you get/met new idea/culture/ people, take some times and only
then reach into conclusion.

Some of the ways of maintaining business etiquettes (on online too) are: avoid personal attacks, stay focused on
the original topic, don’t present opinions as facts, and support facts with evidence, follow basic expectations
of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization (Sending careless, acronym-filled messages that look like you’re
texting your high school buddies makes you look like an amateur) use virus protection and keep it up to date
(sending or posting a file that contains a computer virus is rude), ask if this is a good time for an IM chat (Don’t
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assume that just because a person is showing as “available” on your IM system that he or she wants to chat with you
right this instant), watch your language and keep your emotions under control, avoid multitasking while using
IM and other tools, Never assume privacy (Assume that anything you type will be stored forever, could be
forwarded to other people, and might be read by your boss or the company’s security staff), don’t use “reply all” in
emails unless everyone can benefit from your reply. If one or more recipients of an email message don’t need the
information in your reply, remove their addresses before you send.
Don’t waste others’ time with sloppy, confusing, or incomplete messages. Doing so is disrespectful.
Respect boundaries of time and virtual space. For instance, don’t start using an employee’s personal facebook
page for business messages unless you’ve discussed it beforehand, and don’t assume people are available to discuss
work matters around the clock, even if you do find them online in the middle of the night.
VII. Applying what you’ve learned to the communication process: The step, process and technology which you
know can make your communication more effective.

D) Using Technology to Improve Business Communication: (Technology is a tool that helps to accomplish any
types of task/activity.) Today’s businesses depend heavily on technology and technology plays important role in
communication process. In fact, many of the technologies you might use in your personal life, from micro blogs to
video games to virtual worlds, are also used in business. Anyone who has used a computer, a smart phone or other
advanced gadget knows that the benefits of technology are not automatic. Poorly designed or inappropriately used
technology can hinder communication more than help. So communicating in today’s business environment requires
at least a basic level of technological competence. To communicate effectively learn to keep technology in
perspective, guard against information overload and information addiction, use technological tools productively,
and disengage from the computer frequently to communicate in person(Reconnecting to the people).

I. Keeping Technology in Perspective: It is important to remember Technology is simply a tool, a means by which
we can accomplish certain tasks. Technology is an aid to interpersonal communication(is the process by which
people exchange information meaning and feeling through verbal and nonverbal message), not a replacement
for it. Technology can’t think for you or communicate for you, and if you lack some essential skills, technology
can’t fill in the gaps. It is easy to get caught up in the “gee whiz” factor, particularly with new technologies. No
matter how exotic or entertaining it may be, technology has business value only if it helps deliver the right
information to the right people at the right time.

II. Guarding against information overload and information addiction: Information overload results when
people receive more information than they can effectively process. The overuse or misuse of communication
technology can lead to information overload, in which people receive more information than they can effectively
process. Information overload makes it difficult to discriminate between useful and useless information, lowers
productivity, and amplifies employee stress both on the job and at home—even to the point of causing health and
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relationship problems. Use the filtering features of your communication systems to isolate high-priority messages
that deserve your attention. Also, be wary of subscribing to too many blog feeds, Twitter follows, Facebook
updates, and other sources of recurring messages. Focus on the information you truly need to do your job. An
important step in reducing information overload is to avoid sending unnecessary message. Information
Technology Addiction is an impulse control disorder that involves the obsessive use of mobile devices, the internet
or video games, despite negative consequences to the user of the technology. The disorder may also be referred to
as digital addiction or internet addiction. Too much use of technology can raise stress, exhaustion and interfere with
personal relationship and it can damage mental health of worker too.

III. Use technological tools productively: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, IM, and other technologies are key parts
of what has been called the “information technology paradox,” in which Information tools can waste as much time
as they save. So many employers concerns over employee making inappropriate use of social networking sites (for
personal matter like chat), which, have led many companies to ban employees from accessing them during work
hours. In appropriate web use not only distracts employees from work responsibilities but can leave employers open
to lawsuits for sexual harassment if inappropriate images are displayed in or transmitted around the company.
Social media have created another set of managerial challenges, given the risk that employee blogs or social
networking pages can expose confidential information or damage a firm’s reputation in the marketplace. For
making use of technology productive, manager need to guide their employees in productive use of information
tools and knowledge about using technology more productively is necessary. With all these technologies, the best
solution lies in developing clear policies that are enforced evenly for all employees.

IV. Reconnecting with people (Disengage(Free) from the computer frequently to communicate in person): No
matter how much technology is involved, communication is about people connecting with people. Let’s say you IM
a colleague asking how she did with her sales presentation to an important client,, and her answer. comes back
simply as “Fine.” What does fine mean? Is an order expected soon? Or did she lose the sale and doesn’t want to talk
about it? If you visit with her in person, or at least talk over the phone, she might provide additional information, or
you might be able to offer advice or support during a difficult time. Even enthusiastic users know that technology
has limits. Jill Smart, an executive with the consulting firm Accenture, often takes advantage of the company’s
advanced tele-presence videoconferencing systems but still travels frequently to meet with clients—particularly
clients in other countries and cultures. She says, “You get things from being there, over breakfast and dinner,
building relationships face to face.

E) Making Ethical Communication Choices: Ethics are the accepted principles of conduct that govern behavior
within a society. Ethical principles define the boundary between rights and wrong (government law). To make
communication ethical, communicator should think about saying and its consequence. Ethical behavior is a
companywide concern, but because communication efforts are the public face of a company, they are subjected to
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particularly rigorous scrutiny(inquiry) from regulators, legislators, investors, consumer groups, environmental
groups, labor organizations, and anyone else affected by business activities. Ethical Communication includes all
relevant information, is true in every sense, and is not deceptive in any way. In contrast, unethical communication
can distort the truth or manipulate audiences in a variety of ways. Examples of unethical communication include:

 Plagiarism - Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s words or other creative products as your own. Note
that plagiarism can be illegal if it violates a copyright, which is a form of legal protection for the expression
of creative ideas.
 Omitting essential information - Information is essential if your audience needs it to make an intelligent,
objective decision.
 Selective misquoting - Distorting or hiding the true intent of someone else’s words is unethical.
 Misrepresenting numbers - Statistics and other data can be unethically manipulated by increasing or
decreasing numbers, exaggerating, altering statistics, or omitting numeric data.
 Distorting visuals - Images can be manipulated in unethical ways, such as making a product seem bigger
than it really is or changing the scale of graphs and charts to exaggerate or conceal differences.
 Failing respect privacy or information security needs- Failing to respect the privacy of others or failing
to adequately protect information entrusted to your care can also be considered unethical (and is sometimes
illegal).
Although making ethical choices is the challenging, it can be done with followings: distinguishing ethical
dilemmas from ethical lapses, ensuring ethical communication and ensuring legal communication

I. DISTINGUISHING ETHICAL DILEMMAS FROM ETHICAL LAPSES: An ethical dilemma is a choice

between alternatives that may all be ethical and valid or the ethical dilemma involves making choice when the
alternatives aren’t completely wrong or completely right . Perhaps two conflicting alternatives are both ethical and
valid, or perhaps the alternatives lie somewhere in the gray area between clearly right and clearly wrong. Every
company has responsibilities to multiple groups of people inside and outside the firm, and those various groups
often have competing interests.

In contrast, an ethical lapse is a clearly unethical choice. For example, if you tell students they have done well even
though you know only few students have passed. By depriving students of vital information, the teacher engaged in
unethical communication. An ethical lapse is making a choice that you know to be unethical.

II. Ensuring ethical communication (simply refers to the practice of conveying honest information in a manner
that is not intended to be misleading): Ensuring ethical business communication requires three elements: ethical
individuals, ethical company leadership, and the appropriate policies and structures to support employees’
efforts to make ethical choices. Moreover, these three elements need to work in harmony. If employees see
company executives making unethical decisions and flouting company guidelines, they might conclude that the
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guidelines are meaningless and emulate their bosses’ unethical behavior. So, employers have a responsibility to
establish clear guidelines for ethical behavior, including ethical business communication. And responsible
employers establish clear ethical guidelines for their employees to follow. Many companies establish an explicit
ethics policy by using a written code of ethics to help employees determine what is acceptable. Whether there
is formal guidelines or not every employee has responsibility of communicating in ethical manner. In the absence of
clear guidelines, ask the following questions in business communication:

 Have you defined the situation fairly and accurately?

 What is your intention in communicating this message?

 What impact will this message have on the people who receive it, or who might be affected by it?

 Will the message achieve the greatest possible good while doing the least possible harm?

 Will the assumptions you’ve made change over time? That is, will a decision that seems ethical now seem
unethical in the future?

 Are you comfortable with your decision? Would you be embarrassed if it were printed in tomorrow’s
newspaper or spread across the Internet? Think about a person whom you admire and ask yourself what he
or she would think of your decision.

If you can’t decide whether a choice is ethical, picture yourself explaining it someone whose opinion you value.

III. Ensuring Legal Communication: Business communication is governed by a wide variety of laws designed to
ensure accurate, complete messages with the following areas:

 Promotional communication - Marketing specialists need to be aware of the many laws that govern truth
and accuracy in advertising. These laws address such issues as false and deceptive advertising, misleading
or inaccurate labels on product packages.

 Contracts - A contract is a legally binding promise between two parties, in which one party makes a
specified offer and the other party accepts. Contracts are fundamental to virtually every aspect of business,
from product sales to property rental to credit cards and loans to professional service agreements.

 Employment communication - A variety of local, state, and federal laws govern communication between
employers and both potential and current employees. For example, job descriptions must be written in a
way that doesn’t intentionally or unintentionally discriminate against women, minorities, or people with
disabilities.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand14

 Intellectual property - It includes patents, copyrighted materials, trade secrets, and even Internet domain
names. Bloggers in particular need to be careful about IP protection, given the carefree way that some post
the work of others without offering proper credit.

 Financial reporting - Finance and accounting professionals who work for publicly traded companies
(those that sell stock to the public) must adhere to stringent reporting laws. For instance, a number of
corporations have recently been targets of both government investigations and shareholder lawsuits for
offering misleading descriptions of financial results and revenue forecasts.

 Defamation - Negative comments about another party raise the possibility of defamation, the intentional
communication of false statements that damage character or reputation. (Written defamation is called libel;
spoken defamation is called slander.) Someone suing (charging/take legal actions) for defamation must
prove (1) that the statement is false, (2) that the language is injurious to the person’s reputation, and (3) that
the statement has been published.

If you have any doubts about the legality of a message, you intend to distribute, ask for advice from your
company’s legal department.

2) Communicating in Teams and Mastering Listening and Non-Verbal Communication

a) Communicating in Teams: A team is a unit of two or more people who share a mission and the responsibility for
working to achieve a common goal. Team members have a shared mission and are collectively responsible for their
work. Problem-solving teams and task forces assemble to resolve specific issues and then disband (break
up/separate) when their goals have been accomplished. Such teams are often cross- functional, pulling together
people from a variety of departments who have different areas of expertise and responsibility. The diversity of
opinions and experiences can lead to better decisions, but competing interests can lead to tensions that highlight
the need for effective communication. Committees are formal teams that usually have a long life span and can
become a permanent part of the organizational structure. Committees typically deal with regularly recurring tasks,
such as an executive committee that meets monthly to plan strategies and review results. Sharing information with
team members, listening carefully to their input and creating message that reflect the team’s collective ideas and
opinion. Effective communication is essential to every aspect of team performance. The elements that support to
make communication in team effective are: Advantages and Disadvantages of Teams, Characteristic of Effective
Teams, Collaborative Communication, Group Dynamics, Social Network and Virtual Communities.

I. Advantages and Disadvantages of Teams: When team is Effective, it can pool knowledge, take advantages of
diverse view points, and increase acceptance of solution the team proposes. The successful team can improve
productivity, creativity, employee involvement, and even job security. Team can play vital role in helping an
organization, reach its goals, but they are not appropriate for every situation, and when appropriate company need to
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand15

concern on both advantages and disadvantages of teams. Teams are often at the core of participative management,
the effort to involve employees in the company’s decision making. A successful team can provide a number of
advantages:

 Increased information and knowledge: By pooling the experience of several individuals, a team has
access to more information in the decision-making process.
 Increased diversity of views; Team members can bring a variety of perspectives to the decision-making
process—as long as these diverse viewpoints are guided by a shared goal.
 Increased acceptance of a solution: Those who participate in making a decision are more likely to support
it and encourage others to accept it.
 Higher performance levels: Working in teams can unleash new levels of creativity and energy in workers
who share a sense of purpose and mutual accountability. Effective teams can be better than top-performing
individuals at solving complex problems.
Although teamwork has many advantages, it also has a number of potential disadvantages. At the worst, working in
teams can be a frustrating waste of time, so teams need to be aware of and work to counter the following potential
disadvantages:
 Groupthink: Like other social structures, business teams can generate tremendous pressures to conform to
accepted norms of behavior. Groupthink occurs when peer pressures cause individual team members to
withhold contrary or unpopular opinions. The result can be decisions that are worse than the choices the
team members might have made individually
 Hidden agendas: Some team members may have a hidden agenda —private, counterproductive motives,
such as a desire to take control of the group, to undermine someone else on the team, or to pursue a
business goal that runs counter to the team’s mission.
 Cost: Aligning schedules, arranging meetings, and coordinating individual parts of a project can eat up a
lot of time and money

II. Characteristic of Effective Team: Effective teams have a clear sense of purpose, open and honest
communication, consensus-based decision making, creativity, and effective conflict resolution/ or clear objective
and shared sense of purpose, have a strong sense of trust, communicate openly and honestly, reach decisions by
consensus, think creatively, and know how to resolve conflict. Teams that have these attributes can focus their time
and energy on their work, without being disrupted by destructive conflict. To make effective team every members
of team must recognize that each individual brings valuable assets, knowledge, and skills to team. Effective team
members exchange information, examine the issues and work through the conflicts that arise. They trust each other
and work towards the greater good of the team and organization rather than focus on personal agendas. In contrast,
team that lacks one or more of these attributes is unsuccessful team which bogged down in conflict or waste time
and money, generate lower quality work and frustrate both managers and employee. The team becomes
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand16

unsuccessful because of two common reasons: a lack of trust and poor communication. A lack of trust can result
from team members being suspicious of one another’s motives or ability to contribute, and poor communication can
also result from basic differences in conversational styles.

III. Collaborative Communication: When team collaborates/communicates with the collective energy and
expertise of various members on certain communicating things like on reports, websites, presentation and other
communication projects is called collaborative communication. This communication too has become one of the
most important things in all over the world in business communication. However, collaborating on team messages
requires special effort; the helpful guidelines for this communication are as follows:

 Guideline for collaborative writing: Successful collaboration requires a number of steps, from selecting
the right partners and agreeing on project goals to establish clear processes and avoiding writing as a group
because the team members come from different backgrounds with different work habits or priorities: A
technical expert may focus on accuracy and scientific standards, an editor may be more concerned about
organization and coherence, and a manager may focus on schedules, cost, and corporate goals. In addition,
team members differ in writing styles, work habits, and personality traits. For collaborative writing,
everyone involved must be flexible and open to other opinions, focusing on team objectives rather than on
individual priorities. Successful writers know that most ideas can be expressed in many ways, so they avoid
the “my way is best” attitude. The guidelines that help in this writing are as follows:

Select collaborators carefully: Whenever possible, choose a combination of people who together have the
experience, information, and talent needed for each project.
Agree on project goals before you start: Starting without a clear idea of what the team hopes to accomplish
inevitably leads to frustration and wasted time.
Give your team time to bond before diving in: If people haven’t had the opportunity to work together before, make
sure they can get to know each other before being asked to collaborate.
Clarify individual responsibilities: Because members will be depending on each other, make sure individual
responsibilities are clear.
Establish clear processes: Make sure everyone knows how the work will be managed from start to finish.
Avoid composing as a group: The actual composition is the only part of developing team messages that usually
does not usually benefit from group participation. Brainstorming the wording of short pieces of text, particularly
headlines, slogans, and other high visibility elements, can be an effective way to stimulate creative word choices.
However, for longer projects, you will usually find it more efficient to plan, research, and outline together but
assign the task of writing to one person or divide larger projects among multiple writers. If you divide the writing,
try to have one person do a final revision pass to ensure a consistent style.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand17

Make sure tools and techniques are ready and compatible across the team: Even minor details such as different
versions of software can delay projects.
Check to see how things are going along the way: Don’t assume that everything is working just because you don’t
hear anything negative.

 Technologies for collaborative writing: A variety of collaboration tools exist help teams write together,
including group review and editing features in word both word processors software and the Adobe Acrobat
electronic document system (POF files), multi-author blogs and content management systems that
organize and control the content for many websites. A wiki (from the Hawaiian word for quick) is a website
that allows anyone with access to add new material and edit existing material. Public wikis allow any
registered user to edit pages; private wikis are accessible only with permission. The benefit of using is that
writers don’t need to know any of the techniques normally required to web content and can post revised
material without prior approval where as a content management system are tightly controlled and this is a
great tool for maintaining consistent presentation on a company’s primary public website, whereas a wiki
allows a team to collaborate with speed and flexibility. In addition to web pages, many team works on a
wide variety of other file types, including word processing files, spreadsheet and presentation. To facilitate
collaboration, many team now take advantages of groupware ( a computer based system that let people
communicate, share files, present materials, and work on documents simultaneously) and shared work
spaces (online virtual offices that give everyone on a team access to the same set of sources and
information: databases, calendars, project plans, pertinent instant messages and email exchanges, shared
reference materials and team created documents

IV. Group Dynamics: The interactions and processes that take place among the members of a team are called
group dynamics. Productive teams tend to develop rules of interaction, clear norms, and informal standards of
conduct that members share and that guide member behavior. The factors that influence group dynamics are: the
roles that team members assume the current phase of team development (allowing team evolution), the team’s
success in resolving conflict, and the team’s success in overcoming resistance.

 Assuming team Role: Members of a team can play various roles, which fall into three categories. Members
who assume self-oriented roles are motivated mainly to fulfill personal needs, so they tend to be less
productive than other members. “Dream teams” composed of multiple superstars often don’t perform as
well as one might expect because high-performing individuals can have trouble putting the teams needs
ahead of their own. In addition, highly skilled and experienced people with difficult personalities might not
contribute for the simple reason that other team members may avoid interacting with them. Far more likely
to contribute to team goals are members who assume team-maintenance roles to help everyone work well
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand18

together and those who assume task-oriented roles to help the team reach its goals. Role can be changed
over a time.

 Allowing for team evolution: Team typically evolve through number of phases on their way to becoming
productive and variety of models have been proposed to describe the evolution for making team productive
and one of the model for becoming team productive and problem-solving oriented evolve through these
phases: orientation, conflict, brainstorming, emergence and reinforcement.

Orientation: Team members socialize, establish their roles, and begin to define their task or purpose. Team-building
exercises and activities can help teams break down barriers and develop a sense of shared purpose. For
geographically dispersed virtual teams, creating a “team operating agreement” that sets expectations for online
meetings, communication processes, and decision making can help overcome the disadvantages of distance.
Conflict: Team members begin to discuss their positions and become more assertive in establishing their roles.
Disagreements and uncertainties are natural in this phase.
Brainstorming: Team members air all the options and fully discuss the pros and cons. At the end of this phase,
members begin to settle on a single solution to the problem. Note that while group brainstorming remains a highly
popular activity in today’s companies, it may not always be the most productive way to generate new ideas. Some
research indicates that having people brainstorm individually and then bring their ideas to a group meeting is more
successful.
Emergence : Consensus is reached when the team finds a solution that all members are willing to support (even if
they have reservations).
Reinforcement: The team clarifies and summarizes the agreed-upon solution. Members receive their assignments
for carrying out the group’s decision, and they make arrangements for following up on those assignments.
The phases identified by researcher Bruce Tuckman are forming(starting), storming(attack/carrying),
norming, performing and adjourning. Some teams may move forward and backward through several stages
before they become productive, and other teams may be productive right away, even while some or all members are
in a state of conflict.

 Resolving conflict: Conflict in team activities can arise for a number of reasons: competition for resources,
disagreement over goals or responsibilities, poor communication, power struggles, or fundamental
differences in values, attitudes, and personalities. It can be either constructive or destructive. Although the
term conflict sounds negative, conflict isn’t necessarily bad. Conflict can be constructive if it forces
important issues into the open, increase the involvement of team members, and generates creative ideas for
solving a problem. Teamwork isn’t necessarily about happiness and harmony; even teams that have some
interpersonal friction can excel with effective leadership and team players committed to strong results. As
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand19

teamwork experts Andy Boynton and Bill Fischer put it, “Virtuoso teams are not about getting polite
results.”

In contrast, conflict is destructive if it diverts energy from more important issues, destroys the morale of teams or
individual team members, or polarizes or divides the team. Destructive conflict can lead to win—lose or lose—lose
outcomes, in which one or both sides lose, to the detriment of the entire team. If you approach conflict with the idea
that both sides can satisfy their goals to at least some extent (a win—win strategy), you can minimize losses for
everyone. For a win-win strategy to work, everybody must believe that (1) it’s possible to find a solution that both
parties can accept, (2) cooperation is better for the organization than competition, (3) the other party can be trusted,
and (4) greater power or status doesn’t entitle one party to impose a solution. The following seven measures can
help team members successfully resolve conflict:

Proactive behavior: Deal with minor conflict before it becomes major conflict.
Communication: Get those directly involved in a conflict to participate in resolving it.
Openness: Get feelings out in the open before dealing with the main issues.
Research: Seek factual reasons for a problem before seeking solutions.
Flexibility: Don’t let anyone lock into a position before considering other solutions.
Fair play: Insist on fair outcomes and don’t let anyone avoid a fair solution by hiding behind the rules.
Alliance: Get opponents to fight together against an “outside force” instead of against each other.

 Overcoming resistance: One particular type of conflict that can affect team progress is resistance to
change. Sometimes this resistance is clearly irrational, such as when people resist any kind of change,
whether it makes sense or not. Sometimes, however, resistance is perfectly logical. A change may require
someone to relinquish authority or give up comfortable ways of doing things. If someone is resisting
change, you can be persuasive with calm, reasonable communication:

Express understanding: You might say, “I understand that this change might be difficult, and if I were in your
position, I might be reluctant myself.” Help the other person relax and talk about hits or her anxiety so that you have
a chance to offer reassurance.
Bring resistance out into the open: When people are noncommittal and silent, they may be tuning you out without
even knowing why. Continuing with your argument is futile. Deal directly with the resistance, without accusing.
You might say, “You seem to have reservations about this idea. Have I made some faulty assumptions?” Such
questions force people to face and define their resistance.
Evaluate others’ objections fairly: Use active listening to focus on what the other person is expressing, both the
words and the feelings. Get the person to open up so that you can understand the basis for the resistance. Others’
objections may raise legitimate points that you’ll need to discuss, or they may reveal problems that you’ll need to
minimize.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand20

Hold your arguments until the other person is ready for them: Getting your point across depends as much on the
other person’s frame of mind as it does on your arguments. You can’t assume that a strong argument will speak for
itself. By becoming more audience centered, you will learn to address the other person’s emotional needs first.

V. Social Network and Virtual Communities: Social networking technologies are redefining teamwork and team
communication by helping erase the constraints of geographic and organization boundaries. In addition to enabling
and enhancing teamwork, social networks have numerous other business applications and benefits. The two
fundamental elements of any social networking technology are profiles (the information stored about each
member of the network) and connections (mechanisms for finding and communicating with other members). If
you’re familiar with Facebook, you have a basic idea of how social networks function. Thousands of companies
now use Facebook, but you may also encounter networks created specifically for business use, the most significant
being Linked ([Link]). Others include Ryze ([Link]), Spoke ([Link]), and Xing
([Link]). These social network have become vital elements of organization’s structure and communication.

Some companies use social networking technologies to form virtual communities or communities of practice that
link employees with similar professional interests throughout the company and sometimes with customers and
suppliers as well. Each organization has created virtual communities with the help of social network. These
communities are formal as well as informal. The huge advantage that social networking brings to these team efforts
is in identifying the best people to collaborate on each problem or project, no matter where they are around the
world or what their official roles are in the organization. This networking help a company maintain a sense of
community even as it grows beyond the size that normally permits a lot of daily interaction, support and sense of
encouragement too.

b) Mastering (Improving) Listening Skill: According to Oxford Dictionary, Listening is to give your attention to
sound or action. It is also the active process of receiving and responding to spoken (and sometimes
unspoken) messages. It is one of the most important skills in the work place and in long-term career. Effective
listening strengthens organizational relationships, alerts an organization to opportunities for innovation, and allows
an organization to manage diversity both in the workforce and in the customers it serves. Companies whose
employees and managers listen effectively stay in touch, up to date, and out of trouble. Some 80 percent of top
executives say that listening is the most important skill needed to get things done in the workplace. Because of its
importance, many of the leading business schools in the United States have begun retooling their curricula in recent
years to put more emphasis on “soft skills” such as listening. The points that support mastering listening skills are:
recognizing various types of listening, understanding process and overcoming barriers to effective listening.

I. Recognizing various Types of Listening: Listening actively means making the effort to turn off your internal
filters and biases to truly hear and understand what the other person is saying. Effective listeners adapt their
listening approaches to different situations. The primary goal of content listening is to understand and retain the
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand21

information in the speaker’s message. You’re not evaluating the information at this point. In this, it doesn’t matter
whether you agree or disagree, approve or disapprove—only that you understand. Try to overlook the speaker’s
style and any limitations in the presentation; just focus on the information. The goal of critical listening is to
understand and evaluate the meaning of the speaker’s message on several levels: the logic of the argument, the
strength of the evidence, the validity of the conclusions, the implications of the message, the speaker’s intentions
and motives, and the omission of any important or relevant points. If you’re skeptical, ask questions to explore the
speaker’s point of view and credibility. Be on the lookout for bias that could color the way the information is
presented and be careful to separate opinions from facts.

The goal of empathic listening is to understand the speaker’s feelings, needs, and wants so that you can appreciate
his or her point of view, regardless of whether you share that perspective. By listening with empathy, you help the
individual vent the emotions that prevent a calm, clear-headed approach to the subject. Avoid the temptation to
jump in with advice unless the person specifically asks for it. Also, don’t judge the speaker’s feelings and don’t try
to tell people they shouldn’t feel this or that emotion. Instead, let the speaker know that you appreciate his or her
feelings and understand the situation. After you establish that connection, you can help the speaker move on to
search for a solution. No matter whatever mode is used, effective listeners try to engage in active listening.

II. Understanding the Listening Process: Listening is far complex process than people think and most of the
people are good in it. People typically listen at no better than a 25 percent efficiency rate, remember only half of
saying in 10 minute conversation, and forget half of that within 48 hours. For making listening effective, understand
listening’s steps. The listening takes the following steps:

 Receiving: Start by physically hearing the message and recognizing it as incoming information. It can be
blocked by noise, impaired hearing, or inattention and some people uses nonverbal message as the part of
this stage
 Decoding: Assign meaning to sounds, according to your own values, beliefs, ideas, expectations, roles,
needs, and personal history.
 Remembering: Store the information for future processing.
 Evaluating: Evaluate the quality of the information by applying critical thinking skills to separate facts
from opinion and evaluate the quality of evidence
 Responding: After evaluation, react based on the situation and the nature of the information.
If any one of these steps breaks down, the listening process becomes less effective or even fails entirely. As both a
sender and a receiver, you can reduce the failure rate by recognizing and overcoming a variety of physical arid
mental barriers to effective listening.

III. Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening: Barriers is an obstacle in a workplace that prevents effective
exchange of ideas or thought. The barriers of effective listening are; interruption, hurry ( if you have question,
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand22

wait until the speaker has finished), rustling papers, tapping on a PDA, checking the time, which interrupt
speaker and hamper listening for everyone. Along with these, Selective listening is one of the most common
barriers to effective listening, If your mind wanders, you may stay tuned out until you hear a word or phrase that
gets your attention again. But by that time, you’re unable to recall what the speaker actually said; instead, you
remember what you think the speaker probably said. One reason listeners’ minds tend to wander is that people
think faster than they speak. Most people speak at about 120 to 150 words per minute, but listeners can process,
audio information at up to 500 words per minute or more. Consequently, your brain has a lot of free time whenever
you’re listening, and if left unsupervised, it will find a thousand other things to think about. Make the effort to focus
on the speaker and use the extra time to analyze and paraphrase what you hear or to take relevant notes. Selective
perception leads listeners to mold messages to fit their own conceptual frameworks. Listeners sometimes make up
their minds before fully hearing the speaker’s message (prejudgment), or they engage in defensive listening—
protecting their egos by tuning out anything that doesn’t confirm their beliefs or then view of themselves. Even
when your intentions are good, you can still misinterpret incoming messages if you and the speaker don’t share
enough language or experience. When listening to a speaker whose native language or life experience is different
from yours, try to paraphrase that person’s ideas. Give the speaker a chance to confirm what you think you heard
or to correct any misinterpretation.

Not recording or writing important just relying on memory, memorizing information in big volume without
breaking in short lists, not association of new information with something closely related (such as the restaurant
in which you met a new client), not categorization of the new information into logical groups (such as
alphabetizing a list of names), not visualizing words and ideas as pictures, and not creating mnemonics such as
acronyms or rhymes. Good listeners actively try to overcome the barriers to successful listening. The ideas that
support for Overcoming Barriers to Effective Listening are:

 Control whatever barriers to physical reception you can (such as avoiding interrupting speakers by asking
questions or by exhibiting (show) disruptive nonverbal behaviors).

 Avoid selective listening by focusing on the speaker and carefully analyzing what you hear.

 Keep an open mind by avoiding any prejudgment and by not listening defensively.

 Try to paraphrase the speaker’s ideas, giving that person a chance to confirm or correct your interpretation.

 Don’t count on your memory; write down or record important information

 Improve your short-term memory by repeating information or breaking it into shorter lists.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand23

 Improve your long term memory by using association, categorization, visualization and mnemonics
(reminds).

c) Mastering Non Verbal Communication Skill: Nonverbal communication is the interpersonal process of sending
and receiving information, both intentionally and unintentionally, without using written or spoken language. It can
supplement or even replace verbal messages. Nonverbal signals play a vital role in communication because they
can strengthen a verbal message (when the nonverbal signals match the spoken words), weaken a verbal message
(when nonverbal signals don’t match the words), or replace words entirely. For example, you might tell a client that
a project is coming along nicely, but your forced smile and nervous glances will send an entirely different message.
In fact, nonverbal communication often conveys more to listeners than the words you speak. The factors that
support on mastering nonverbal communication skill are: Recognizing nonverbal communication and using
nonverbal communication effectively.

I. Recognizing Nonverbal Communication: Nonverbal signals include facial expression, gesture and posture,
vocal characteristics, personal appearance, touch, and time and space. Paying special attention to nonverbal
signals in the workplace will enhance your ability to communicate successfully. The range and variety of nonverbal
signals are almost endless, but you can grasp the basics by studying six general categories:

 Facial expression. Your face is the primary vehicle for expressing your emotions; it reveals both the type
and the intensity of your feelings. Your eyes are especially effective for indicating attention and interest,
influencing others, regulating interaction, and establishing dominance.

 Gesture and posture. The way you position and move your body expresses both specific and general
messages, some voluntary (intentional) and some involuntary (unintentional). Many gestures—a wave of
the hand, for example—have specific and intentional meanings. Other types of body movement are
unintentional and express more general messages. Slouching, leaning forward, fidgeting, and walking
briskly are all unconscious signals that can reveal whether you feel confident or nervous, friendly or hostile,
assertive or passive, powerful or powerless.

 Vocal characteristics. Voice carries both intentional and unintentional messages. A speaker can
intentionally control pitch, pace and stress to convey a specific message. For instance, compare “What are
you doing?” and “What are you doing?” Unintentional vocal characteristics can convey happiness, surprise,
fear, and other emotions (for example, fear often increases the pitch and the pace of your speaking voice).

 Personal appearance. People respond to others on the basis of their physical appearance, sometimes fairly
and other times unfairly. Although an individual’s body type and facial features impose limitations, you can
control grooming, clothing, accessories, piercings, tattoos, and hairstyle. If your goal is to make a good
impression, adopt the style of the people you want to impress.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand24

 Touch. Touch is an important way to convey warmth, comfort, and reassurance— as well as control. Touch
is so powerful, in fact, that it is governed by cultural customs that establish who can touch whom and how
in various circumstances. In the United States and Great Britain, for instance, people usually touch less
frequently than people in France or Costa Rica do. Even within each culture’s norms, however, individual
attitudes toward touch vary widely. A manager might be comfortable using hugs to express support or
congratulations, but his or her subordinates could interpret those hugs as a show of dominance or sexual
interest. Touch is a complex subject. The best advice: When in doubt, don’t touch.

 Time and space. Like touch, time and space can be used to assert authority, imply intimacy, and send other
nonverbal messages. For instance, some people try to demonstrate their own importance or disregard for
others by making other people wait; others show respect by being on time. Similarly, taking care not to
invade private space, such as standing too close when talking, is a way to show respect for others. Keep in
mind that expectations regarding both time and space vary by culture.

II. Using Nonverbal Communication Effectively: Paying attention to nonverbal cues (signal) will make you
both a better speaker and a better listener. When you’re talking, be more conscious of the nonverbal cues you
could be sending. Are they effective without being manipulative? Consider a situation in which an employee has
come to you to talk about a raise. This situation is stressful for the employee, so don’t say you’re interested in what
she has to tell you and then spend your time glancing at your computer or checking your watch. Conversely, if you
already know you won’t be able to give her the raise, be honest in your expression of emotions. Don’t
overcompensate (overreact) for your own stress by smiling too broadly or shaking her hand too vigorously. Both
nonverbal signals would raise her hopes without justification. In either case, match your nonverbal cues to the tone
of the situation.

Also consider the nonverbal signals you send when you’re not talking—the clothes you wear, the way you sit, the
way you walk. Are you talking like a serious business professional but dressing like you belong in a dance club or a
frat house? (Appropriate clothing for work situations is discussed in the next section, on business etiquette.) When
you listen, be sure to pay attention to- the speaker’s nonverbal cues. Do they amplify the spoken words or
contradict them? Is the speaker intentionally using nonverbal signals to send you a message that he or she can’t put
into words? Be observant but don’t assume that you can “read someone like a book.” Nonverbal signals are
powerful, but they aren’t infallible (unfailing). All signals of nonverbal communication are determined by
culture. For example, even when telling the truth, most people don’t make uninterrupted eye contact with the
listeners, and various gestures such as touching one’s face might be normal behavior for particular people or making
straight eye contact doesn’t mean the speaker is telling truth. Along with this, the ideas that improve nonverbal
communication skills are;
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand25

 Understand the roles that nonverbal signals play in communication, complementing verbal language by
strengthening, weakening or replacing words.

 Nonverbal signals often reveal the truth, sometimes conveying more to listeners than spoken words

 Note that facial expression (especially eye contact) reveal the type and intensity of speaker’s feelings

 Watch for cues from gestures and posture

 Listen for vocal characteristic that signal who the speaker is, the speaker’s relationship with the audience,
and the emotions underlying the speaker’s words.

 Recognize that listeners are influenced by physical appearance.

 Be careful with physical contact; touch can convey positive attributes but can also be interpreted as
dominance or sexual interest.

 Pay attention to the use of time and space

3) Communicating Inter-culturally: Intercultural communication is the process of sending and receiving

messages between people whose cultural backgrounds could lead them to interpret verbal and nonverbal signs
differently. The culture influences every attempt to send and receive messages, so you need to grasp the cultural
difference to communicate successfully. The efforts to recognize and bridge cultural differences will open up
business opportunities throughout the world and maximize the contributions of all the employees in a diverse
workforce. Diversity includes all the characteristics that define people as individuals. At the time of making
successful/effective to intercultural communication, the factors that supports are: Understanding the
Opportunities and Challenges of Communication in a Diverse World, Enhancing your Sensitivity to Culture and
Diversity, Improving Intercultural Communication Skill.

a) Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges of Communication in a Diverse World

I. The Opportunities in a Global Marketplace: Working in the Diverse/global market place gives chances of
communicating with the people from other culture across international borders through your career. Because of the
facility of communication and transportation technologies, natural boundaries and national borders are no longer the
impassable barriers they once were. Local markets to all organization look for new growth opportunities outside
their own countries. Thousands of U.S. businesses depend on exports for significant portions of their revenues.
Every year, these companies export hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of materials and merchandise, along with
billions more in personal and professional services. If you work in one of these companies, you may well be called
on to visit or at least communicate with a wide variety of people who speak languages other than English and who
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand26

live in cultures quite different from what you’re used to. Of the top 10 export markets for U.S. products, only two,
Canada and Great Britain, have English as an official language—and Canada also has French as an official
language. This opportunity offers advantages:

The Advantages of a Diverse Workforce: The diversity of today’s workforce brings distinct advantages to
businesses:

 A broader range of views and ideas

 A better understanding of diverse fragmented markets

 A broader pool of talent from which to recruit.

Even if you never visit another country or transact business on a global scale, you will interact with colleagues from
a variety of cultures, with a wide range of characteristics and life experiences. Over the past few decades, many
innovative companies have changed the way they approach diversity, from seeing it as a legal requirement
(providing equal opportunities for all) to seeing it as a strategic opportunity to connect with customers and take
advantage of the broadest possible pool of talent. Smart business leaders recognize the competitive advantages of a
diverse workforce that offers a broader spectrum of viewpoints and ideas, helps companies understand and identify
with diverse markets, and enables companies to benefit from a wider range of employee talent. According to IBM’s
Ron Glover, more-diverse teams tend to be more innovative over the long term than more-homogeneous teams
(those on which team members tend to have similar backgrounds). Diversity is simply a fact of life for all
companies.

The United States has been a nation of immigrants from the beginning, and that trend continues today. The western
and northern Europeans who made up the bulk of immigrants during the nation’s early years now share space with
people from across Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and other parts of the world. Even the term minority, as it applies
to nonwhite residents, makes less and less sense every year: In two states (California and New Mexico), several
dozen large cities, and about 10 percent of the counties across the United States, Caucasian Americans make up less
than half the population. This pattern of immigration isn’t unique to the United States. For example, workers from
Africa, Asia, and the Middle Last are moving to Europe in search of new opportunities, while workers from India,
the Philippines, and Southeast Asia contribute to the employment base, of the Middle East.

However, you and your colleagues don’t need to be recent immigrants to constitute a diverse workforce.
Differences in everything from age and gender to religion and ethnic heritage to geography and military experience
enrich the workplace. Both immigration and work force diversity create advantages—and challenges—for business
communicators throughout the world.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand27

II. The Challenges of Intercultural Communication: Diverse workforce encompasses a wide range of skills,
traditions, backgrounds, experiences, outlooks, and attitudes toward work—all of which can affect
communication in the workplace. In Intercultural communication, supervisor 0f companies as well as team
members face the challenge of connecting with these diverse employees, motivating them, and fostering
cooperation and harmony among them. The interaction of culture and communication is so pervasive that
separating the two is virtually impossible. The way you communicate is deeply influenced by the culture in which
you were raised. The diversity in culture affects how its business message are conceived, composed, delivered,
received and interpreted. Culture influences everything about communication, including 1. Language 2.
Nonverbal signals [Link] meaning [Link] and space issues [Link] of human relationships.

The meaning of words, the significance of gestures, the importance of time and space, the rules of human
relationships—these and many other aspects of communication are defined by culture. To a large degree, your
culture influences the way you think, which naturally affects the way you communicate as both a sender and a
receiver. Intercultural communication is much more complicated than simply matching language between sender
and receiver—it goes beyond mere words to beliefs, values, and emotions. Elements of human diversity can affect
communication at every stage of the communication process from the ideas a person deems important enough to
share to the habits and expectations of giving feedback. In particular, your instinct is to encode your message using
the assumptions of your culture. However, members of your audience decode your message according to the
assumptions of their culture. The greater the difference between cultures, the greater the chance for
misunderstanding.

b) Enhancing your Sensitivity to Culture and Diversity (Developing Cultural Competency): Cultural competency
refers capability related to culture which requires a combination of attitude, knowledge, and skills. It is an ability to
communicate and adjust one’s communication style to for sending and receiving messages across cultural
boundaries. It requires a combination of attitude, knowledge, and skills. The good news is that a person is expert in
his/ her culture in which he/she grew up and he/she can communicate with gesture and expression as expect but the
bad news being expert in his/her culture is that your communication is largely automatic; that is, you rarely stop to
think about the communication rules you‘re following. So, an important step toward successful intercultural
communication is becoming more aware of these rules and of the way they influence your communication. For
enhancing our sensitivity to culture and diversity: understanding the concept of culture, Overcoming
Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping, Recognizing Variation in a Diverse World, Adapting other Business Culture,
Adapting US Business Culture.

I. Understanding the concept of Culture: Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values,
expectations, and behavior norms. Cultural background influences the way a person prioritize what is important in
life, helps define his/her attitude toward what is appropriate in a situation, and establishes rules of behavior. People
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand28

belong to several cultures, each of which affects the way they communicate. In addition to the culture you share
with all the people who live in your own country, you belong to other cultural groups, including an ethnic group,
possibly a religious group, and perhaps a profession that has its own special language and customs. With its large
population and long history of immigration, the United States is home to a vast array of cultures. As one indication
of this diversity, the inhabitants of this country now speak more than 170 languages. In contrast, Japan is much
more homogeneous, having only a few distinct cultural groups. Cultures can differ widely and vary in their rate of
change, degree of complexity, and tolerance toward outsiders. These differences affect the level of trust and
openness that can be achieved when communicating with people of other cultures. You learn culture both directly
(by being instructed) and indirectly (by observing others). Cultures tend to offer both views of life that are both
coherent (internally logical) and complete (able to answer all of life’s big questions.). in these ways, culture is
passed on from person to person and from generation to generation.

In addition to being automatic, culture tends to be coherent; that is, a culture appears to be fairly logical and
consistent when viewed from the inside. Certain norms within a culture may not make sense to someone outside the
culture, but they probably make sense to those inside. Such coherence generally helps a culture function more
smoothly internally, but it can create disharmony between cultures that don’t view the world in the same way.

Finally, cultures tend to be complete; that is, they provide most of their members with most of the answers to life’s
big questions. This idea of completeness dulls or even suppresses curiosity about life in other cultures. Not
surprisingly, such completeness can complicate communication with other cultures.

II. Overcoming Ethnocentrism and Stereotyping: Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge other groups according
to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one’s own group. Given the automatic influence of one’s own culture,
when people compare their culture to others, they often conclude that their own group is superior. An even more
extreme reaction is xenophobia, a fear of strangers and foreigners. Clearly, business people who take these views
are not likely to communicate successfully across cultures.

Distorted views of other cultures or group also result from stereotyping. It is assigning a wide range of generalized
attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular culture or social group. For instance, assuming
that an older colleague will be out of touch with the youth market and thinking that a younger colleague can’t be an
inspiring leader are examples of stereotyping age groups.

Those who want to show respect for other people and to communicate effectively in business need to adopt a more
positive viewpoint in the form of cultural pluralism—the practice of accepting multiple cultures on their own
terms. When crossing cultural boundaries, you’ll be even more effective if you move beyond simple acceptance and
adapt your communication style to that of the new cultures you encounter—even integrating aspects of those
cultures into your own. A few simple habits can help:
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand29

 Avoid assumptions. Don’t assume that others will act the same way you do, use language and symbols the
same way you do, or even operate from the same values and beliefs. For instance, in a comparison of the 10
most important values in three cultures, people from the United States had no values in common with
people from Japanese or Arab cultures.

 Avoid judgments. When people act differently, don’t conclude that they are in error or that their way is
invalid or inferior.

 Acknowledge distinctions. Don’t ignore the differences between another person’s culture and your own.

Unfortunately, overcoming ethnocentrism and stereotyping is not a simple task, even for people who are highly
motivated to do so. Moreover, research suggests that people often have beliefs and biases that they’re not even
aware of—and that may even conflict with the beliefs they think they have.

III. Recognizing Variations in a Diverse World: You can begin to learn how people in other cultures want to be
treated by recognizing and accommodating eight main types of cultural differences: contextual, legal and ethical,
social, nonverbal, age, gender, religious, and ability.

 Contextual Differences: The communication occurs within a cultural context, the pattern of physical
cues, environmental stimuli, and implicit understanding that convey meaning between two members of
the same culture. However, cultures around the world vary widely in the role that context plays in
communication. In contextual difference, there is high contextual culture and low contextual culture.

In a high-context culture, people rely less on verbal communication and more on the context of nonverbal actions
and environmental setting to convey meaning. For instance, a Chinese speaker expects the receiver to discover the
essence of a message and uses indirectness and metaphor to provide a web of meaning. High-context cultures rely
heavily on nonverbal actions and environmental setting to convey meaning; low-context cultures rely more on
explicit verbal communication. The indirect style can be a source of confusion during discussions with people from
low-context cultures, who are more accustomed to receiving direct answers. Also, in high-context cultures, the rules
of everyday life are rarely explicit; instead, as individuals grow iip, they learn how.. to recognize situational cues
(such as gestures and tone of voice) and how to respond as expected. The primary role of communication in high-
context cultures is building relationships, not exchanging information.

In a low-context culture such as the United States, people rely more on verbal communication and less on
circumstances and cues to convey meaning. In such cultures, rules and expectations are usually spelled out through
explicit statements such as “Please wait until I’m finished” or “You’re welcome to browse. The primary task of
communication in low-context cultures is exchanging information.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand30

Contextual differences are apparent in the way businesspeople approach situations such as decision-making,
problem solving, negotiating, interaction among levels in the organizational hierarchy, and socializing outside the
workplace. For instance, in low-context cultures, businesspeople tend to focus on the results of the decisions they
face, a reflection of the cultural emphasis on logic and progress (for example, “Will this be good for our company?
For my career?”). In comparison, higher-context cultures emphasize the means or the method by which a decision
will be made. Building or protecting relationships can be as important as the facts and information used in making
the decisions. Consequently negotiators working on business deals in such cultures may spend most of their time
together building relationships rather than hammering out contractual details.

The distinctions between high and low context are generalizations, of course, but they are important to keep in mind
as guidelines. Communication tactics that work well in a high-context culture may backfire in a low-context culture
and vice versa.

 Legal and Ethical Differences: Cultural context influences legal and ethical behavior, which in turn can
affect communication. For example, the meaning of business contracts can vary from culture to culture.
While a manager from a U.S. company would tend to view a signed contract as the end of the negotiating
process, with all the details hammered out, his or her counterpart in many Asian cultures might view the
signed contract as an agreement to do business—and only then begin to negotiate the details of the legal
systems and ethical standards differ from culture to culture. Making ethical choices across cultures can
seem complicated, but you can keep your messages ethical by applying four basic principles:

Actively seek mutual ground: To allow the clearest possible exchange of information, both parties must be
flexible and avoid insisting that an interaction take place strictly in terms of one culture or another.

Send and receive messages without judgment: To allow information to flow freely, both parties must recognize
that values vary from culture to culture, and they must trust each other.

Send messages that are honest: To ensure that information is true, both parties must see things as they are—not as
they would like them to be. Both parties must be fully aware of their personal and cultural biases.

Show respect for cultural differences: To protect the basic human rights of both parties, each must understand and
acknowledge the other’s needs and preserve each other’s dignity by communicating without deception.

 Social Differences: Formal rules of etiquette are explicit and well defined, but informal rules are learned
through observation and imitation. The nature of social behavior varies among cultures, sometimes
dramatically. Some behavioral rules are formal and specifically articulated (table manners are a good
example), and others are informal and learned over time (such as the comfortable distance to stand from a
colleague during a discussion). The combination of formal and informal rules influences the overall
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand31

behavior of most people in a society most of the time. In addition to the factors already discussed, social
norms can vary from culture to culture in the following areas:

Attitudes toward work and success: In the United States, for instance, a widespread view is that material comfort
earned by individual effort is a sign of superiority and that people who work hard are better than those who don’t.
Roles and status: Culture influences the roles that people play, including who communicates with whom, what
they communicate, and in what way. For example, people in the United States show respect by addressing top
managers as “Mr. Roberts” or “Ms. Gutierrez.” However, people in China are addressed according to their official
titles, such as “President” or “Manager.”

Use of manners: what is polite in one culture may be considered rude in another. For instance, asking a colleague
“How was your weekend?” is a common way of making small talk in the United States. But the question sounds
intrusive to people in cultures in which business and private lives are seen as separate spheres.

Concepts of time: People in low-context cultures see time as a way to plan the business day efficiently; oft en
focusing on only one task during each scheduled period and viewing time as a limited resource. However,
executives from high-context cultures often see time as more flexible. Meeting a deadline is less important than
building a business relationship.

Future orientation: Successful companies tend to have a strong future orientation, planning for and investing in
the future, but national cultures around the world vary widely in this viewpoint. Some societies encourage a long-
term outlook that emphasizes planning and investing—making sacrifices in the short term for the promise of better
outcomes in the future. Others are oriented more toward the present, even to the point of viewing the future as
hopelessly remote and not worth planning for.

Openness and inclusiveness: At both the national level and within smaller groups, cultures vary on how open they
are to accepting people from other cultures and people who don’t necessarily fit the prevailing norms within the
culture. An unwillingness to accommodate others can range from outright exclusion to subtle pressures to conform
to majority expectations.

 Nonverbal Differences: The meaning of nonverbal signals can vary widely from culture to culture, so
you can’t rely on assumptions. Nonverbal communication can be a reliable guide to determining the
meaning of a message—but this situation holds true only if the sender and receiver assigns the same
meaning to nonverbal signals. For instance, the simplest hand gestures have different meanings in different
cultures. A gesture that communicates good luck in Brazil is the equivalent of giving someone “the
finger” in Colombia. Don’t assume that the gestures you grew up with will translate to another culture;
doing so could lead to embarrassing mistakes. When you have the opportunity to interact with people in
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand32

another culture, the best advice is to study the culture in advance and then observe the way people behave in
the following areas:

Greetings: Do people shake hands, bow, or kiss lightly (on one side of the face or both)? Do people shake hands
only when first introduced or every time they say hello or good-bye?

Personal space: When people are conversing, do they stand closer together or farther away than you are
accustomed to?

Touching: Do people touch each other on the arm to emphasize a point or slap each other on the back to show
congratulations? Or do they refrain from touching altogether?

Facial expressions: Do people shake their heads to indicate “no” and nod them to indicate “yes”? This is what
people are accustomed to in the United States, but it is not universal.

Eye contact: Do people make frequent eye contact or avoid it? Frequent eye contact is oft en taken as a sign of
honesty and openness in the United States, but in other cultures it can be a sign of aggressiveness or disrespect.

Posture: Do people slouch and relax in the office and in public, or do they sit up and stand up straight? Formality.
In general, does the culture seem more or less formal than yours?

 Age Difference: In U.S. culture, youth is often associated with strength, energy, possibilities, and
freedom, and age is sometimes associated with declining powers and the inability to keep pace. However,
older workers can offer broader experience, the benefits of important business relationships nurtured over
many years, and high degrees of “practical intelligence”—the ability to solve complex, poorly defined
problems.

In contrast, in cultures that value age and seniority, longevity earns respect and increasing power and freedom.
For instance, in many Asian societies, the oldest employees hold the most powerful jobs, the most impressive titles,
and the greatest degrees of freedom and decision-making authority. If a younger employee disagrees with one of
these senior executives, the discussion is never conducted in public. The notion of “saving face,” of avoiding public
embarrassment, is too strong. Instead, if a senior person seems to be in error about something, other employees will
find a quiet, private way to communicate whatever information they feel is necessary.

In addition to cultural values associated with various life stages, the multiple generations within a culture present
another dimension of diversity. Today’s workplaces can have three or. even four generations working, side by
side... Each of these generations has been shaped by dramatically different world events, social trends, and
technological advances, so it is not surprising that they oft en have different values, expectations, and
communication habits. For instance, Generation Y workers (see “Us Versus Them: Generational Conflict in the
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand33

Workplace”) have a strong preference for communicating via short electronic messages, but Baby Boomers and
Generation Xers sometimes find these brief messages abrupt and impersonal.

 Gender Differences: The perception of men and women in business varies from culture to culture, and
these differences can affect communication efforts. In some cultures, men hold most or all positions of
authority, and women are expected to play a more subservient role. Female executives who visit these
cultures may not be taken seriously until they successfully handle challenges to their knowledge,
capabilities, and patience. As more women take on positions of greater responsibility, enlightened company
leaders are making a point to examine past assumptions and practices. For instance, company cultures that
have been dominated by men for years may have adopted communication habits that some women have
difficulty relating to—such as the frequent use of certain sports metaphors or the acceptance of coarse
language.

Whatever the culture, evidence suggests that men and women tend to have slightly different communication styles.
Broadly speaking, men tend to emphasize content in their communication efforts, whereas women place a higher
premium on relationship maintenance. These are broad generalizations that do not apply to every person in every
situation, but keeping them in mind can help men and women overcome communication hurdles in the workplace.

 Religious Differences: Religion is a dominant force in many cultures and the source of many differences
between cultures. The effort to accommodate employees’ life interests on a broader scale has led a number
of companies to address the issue of religion in the workplace. As one of the most personal and influential
aspects of life, religion brings potential for controversy in a work setting. On the one hand, some employees
feel they should be able to express their beliefs in the workplace and not be forced to “check their faith at
the door” when they come to work. On the other hand, companies want to avoid situations in which openly
expressed religious differences cause friction between employees or distract employees from their
responsibilities.

Religion in the workplace is a complex and contentious issue—and it’s getting more so every year, at least as
measured by a significant rise in the number of religious discrimination lawsuits. As more companies work to
establish inclusive workplaces, and as more employees seek to integrate religious convictions into their daily work,
you can expect this issue to be increasingly discussed at many companies in the coming years.

 Ability Differences: Colleagues and customers with disabilities that affect communication represent an
important aspect of the diversity picture. People whose hearing, vision, cognitive ability, or physical
ability to operate electronic devices is impaired can be at a significant disadvantage in today’s workplace.
As with other elements of diversity, success starts with respect for individuals and sensitivity to differences.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand34

Employers can also invest in a variety of assistive technologies that help people with disabilities perform activities
that might otherwise be difficult or impossible. These technologies include devices and systems that help workers
communicate orally and visually, interact with computers and other equipment, and enjoy greater mobility in the
workplace. For example, designers can emphasize web accessibility, taking steps to make websites more accessible
to people whose vision is limited. Assistive technologies create a vital link for thousands of employees with
disabilities, giving them opportunities to pursue a greater range of career paths and giving employers access to a
broader base of talent. With the United States possibly heading for a serious shortage of workers in a few years, the
economy will need all the workers who can make a contribution, and assistive technologies will be an important
part of the solution.

IV. Adapting to Other Business Culture: Whether you’re trying to work productively with members of another
generation in your own office or with a business partner on the other side of the world, adapting your approach is
essential to successful communication. Here are four guidelines that help for adapting any business culture.

Become aware of your own biases: Successful intercultural communication requires more than just an
understanding of the other party’s culture; you need to understand your own culture and the way it shapes your
communication habits. For instance, knowing that you value independence and individual accomplishment will help
you communicate more successfully in a culture that values consensus and group harmony.

Ignore the “Golden Rule”: You probably heard this growing up: “Treat people the way you want to be treated.”
The problem with the Golden Rule is that other people don’t always want to be treated the same way you want to be
treated, particularly across cultural boundaries. The best approach: Treat people the way they want to be treated.

Exercise tolerance, flexibility, and respect. As IBM’s Ron Glover puts it, “To the greatest extent possible, we try
to manage our people and our practices in ways that are respectful of the core principles of any given country or
organization or culture.”

Practice patience and maintain a sense of humor. Even the most committed and attuned business professionals
can make mistakes in intercultural communication, so it is vital for all parties to be patient with one another. As
business becomes ever more global, even people in the most tradition-bound cultures are learning to deal with
outsiders more patiently and overlook occasional cultural blunders. A sense of humor is a helpful asset as well,
allowing people to move past awkward and embarrassing moments. When you make a mistake, simply apologize
and, if appropriate, ask the other person to explain the accepted way; then move on.

GUIDELINES FOR ADAPTING TO U.S. BUSINESS CULTURE

 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand35

Individualism: In contrast to cultures that value group harmony and group success, U.S. culture generally expects
individuals to succeed by their own efforts, and it rewards individual success. Even though teamwork is emphasized
in many companies, competition between individuals is expected and even encouraged in many cases.

Equality: Although the country’s historical record on equality has not always been positive and some inequalities
still exist, equality is considered a core American value. This principle applies to race, gender, social background,
and age.

Privacy and personal space: Although this appears to be changing somewhat with the popularity of social
networking and other personal media, people in the United States are accustomed to a fair amount of privacy. That
also applies to their “personal space” at work. For example, they expect you to knock before entering a closed office
and to avoid asking questions about personal beliefs or activities until they get to know you well.

Time and schedules: U.S. businesses value punctuality and the efficient use of time. For instance, meetings are
expected to start and end at designated times.

Religion: The United States does not have an official state religion. Many religions are practiced throughout the
country, and people are expected to respect each other’s beliefs.

Communication style: Communication tends to be direct and focused more on content and transactions than on
relationships or group harmony

As with all observations about culture, these are generalizations, of course. Any nation of more than 300 million
people will exhibit a wide variety of behaviors. However, following these guidelines will help you succeed in most
business communication situations.

c) Improving Intercultural Communication Skill: Communicating successfully between cultures requires a variety
of skills. You can improve your intercultural skills throughout your career by studying other cultures and languages,
respecting preferences for communication styles, learning to write and speak clearly, listening carefully, knowing
when to use interpreters and translators, and helping others adapt to your culture. The points that supports in
improving intercultural communication skill are : studying other culture, Studying other language, respecting
preferences for communication style, writing clearly, speaking and listening carefully, Using Interpreters,
translators and translation software and helping other to adapt your culture.

I. Studying other culture: Successful intercultural communication can require the modification of personal
communication habits. Effectively adapting your communication efforts to another culture requires not only
knowledge about the cu1ture but also the ability and motivation to change your personal habits as needed.
Fortunately, you don’t need to learn about the whole world all at once. Many companies appoint specialists for
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand36

specific countries or regions, giving employees a chance to focus on just one culture at a time. Some firms also
provide resources to help employees prepare for interaction with other cultures. On IBM’s Global Workforce
Diversity intranet site, for instance, employees can click on the Going Global link to learn about customs in specific
cultures.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions, either. People will respect your concern and curiosity. You will gradually
accumulate considerable knowledge, which will help you feel comfortable and be effective in a wide range of
business situations.

II. Studying other Language: Consider what it must be like to work at IBM, where the global workforce speaks
more than 165 languages. Without the ability to communicate in more than one language, how could this diverse
group of people ever conduct business? As commerce continues to become more globalized and many countries
become more linguistically diverse, the demand for multilingual communicators continues to grow as well. The
ability to communicate in more than one language can make you a more competitive job candidate and open up a
wider variety of career opportunities.

Even if your colleagues or customers in another country speak your language, it’s worth the time and energy to
learn common phrases in theirs. Learning the basics not only helps you get through everyday business and social
situations but also demonstrates your commitment to the business relationship. After all, the other person probably
spent years learning your language.

Finally, don't assume that people from two countries who speak the same language speak it the same way. I lie
French spoken in Quebec and other parts of Canada often noticeably different from the French spoken in France.
Similarly, it’s oft en said that the United States and the United Kingdom are two countries divided by a common
language. For instance, period (punctuation), elevator, and gasoline in the United States are full stop, and petrol in
the United Kingdom.

III. Respecting Preferences for Communication Style: Communication style—including the level of directness,
the degree of formality, media preferences, and other factors—varies widely from culture to culture. Knowing what
your communication partners expect can help you adapt to their particular style. Once again, watching and learning
are the best ways to improve your skills. However, you can infer some generalities by learning more about the
culture. For instance, U.S. workers typically prefer an open and direct communication style; they find other styles
frustrating or suspect. Directness is also valued in Sweden as a sign of efficiency; but unlike with discussions in the
United States, heated debates and confrontations are unusual. Italian, German, and French executives don’t put
colleagues at ease with praise before they criticize— doing so seems manipulative to them. However, professionals
from high-context cultures, such as Japan or China, tend to be less direct. In general, business correspondence in
other countries is often more formal than the style used by U.S. businesspeople.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand37

IV. Writing Clearly: Writing clearly is always important, of course, but it is essential when you are writing to
people whose first language is not English. Follow these recommendations to make sure your message can be
understood:

Choose words carefully. Use precise words that don’t have the potential to confuse with multiple meanings. For
instance, the word right has several dozen different meanings and usages, so look for a synonym that conveys the
specific meaning you intend, such as correct, appropriate , desirable, moral, authentic , or privilege.

Be brief. Use simple sentences and short paragraphs, breaking information into smaller chunks that are easier for
readers to process.

Use plenty of transitions. Help readers follow your train of thought by using transitional words and phrases. For
example, tie related points together with expressions such as in addition and first, second, and third. Address
international correspondence properly. Refer to Tables A. l through A.5 in Appendix A for an explanation of
different address elements and salutations commonly used in various countries.

Cite numbers and dates carefully. In the United States, 12-05-1 1 means December 5, 2011, but in many other
countries, it means May 12, 2011. Dates in Japan and China are usually expressed with the year first, followed by
the month and then the day; therefore, to write December 5, 2011, in Japan, write it as 2011-12-05. Similarly, in the
United States and Great Britain 1.000 means one with three decimal places, but it means one thousand in many
European countries.

Avoid slang, idiomatic phrases, and business jargon: Everyday speech and writing are full of slang and idiomatic
phrases —phrases that mean more than the sum of their literal parts. Examples from U.S. English include “Off the
top of my head” and “More bang for the buck.” Your audience may have no idea what you’re talking about when
you use such phrases.

Avoid humor and references to popular culture. Jokes and references to popular entertainment usually rely on
culture-specific information that might be completely unknown to your audience.

V. Speaking and Listening Carefully: Languages vary considerably in the significance of tone, pitch, speed, and
volume, which can create challenges for people trying to interpret the explicit meaning of words themselves as well
as the overall nuance of a message. The English word progress can be a noun or a verb, depending on which
syllable you accent. In Chinese, the meaning of the word may changes depending on the speaker’s tone; it can mean
mother, pile up, horse, or scold. And routine Arabic speech can sound excited or angry to an English-speaking U.S.
listener.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand38

When talking with people whose native language is different from yours, remember that the processing of even
everyday conversations can be difficult. For instance, speakers from the United States. are notorious for stringing
together multiple words into a single, mystifying pseudoword, such as turning “Did you eat yet?” into “Jeetyet?”
The French language uses a concept known as liaison, in which one word is sometimes intentionally joined with the
next. Without a lot of listening practice, new French speakers have a hard time telling when one word ends and the
next one begins.

To be more effective in intercultural conversations, remember these tips: (1) Speak slowly and clearly; (2) don’t
rephrase until it’s obviously necessary (immediately rephrasing something you’ve just said doubles the translation
workload for the listener); (3) look for and ask for feedback to make sure your message is getting through; (4) don’t
talk down to the other person by over enunciating words or oversimplifying sentences; and (5) at the end of the
conversation, double-check to make sure you and the listener agree on what has been said and decided.

As a listener, you’ll need some practice to get a sense of vocal patterns. The key is simply to accept what you hear
first, without jumping to conclusions about meaning or motivation. Let other people finish what they have to say. If
you interrupt, you may miss something important. You’ll also show lack of respect. If you do not understand a
comment, ask the person to repeat it. Any momentary awkwardness you might feel in asking for extra help is less
important than the risk of unsuccessful communication.

VI. Using Interpreters, Translators and Translation Software: You may encounter business situations that
require using an interpreter (for spoken communication) or a translator (for written communication). Interpreters
and translators can be expensive, but skilled professionals provide invaluable assistance for communicating in other
cultural contexts. 57 Some companies use back-translation to ensure accuracy. Once a translator encodes a message
into another language, a different translator retranslates the same message into the original language. This back-
translation is then compared with the original message to discover any errors or discrepancies.

A variety of software products and websites offer translation capabilities, from individual words and phrases to
documents and entire webpages. Although none of these tools can translate as well as human experts, they can oft
en give you the overall gist of a message.

VII. Helping others to adapt your Culture: Everyone can contribute to successful intercultural communication.
Whether a younger person is unaccustomed to the formalities of a large corporation or a colleague from another
country is working on a team with you, look for opportunities to help people fit in and adapt their communication
style. For example, if a nonnative English speaker is making mistakes that could hurt his or her credibility, you can
offer advice on the appropriate words and phrases to use. Most language learners truly appreciate this sort of
assistance, as long as it is offered in a respectful manner. Moreover, chances are that while you’re helping, you’ll
learn something about the other person’s culture and language, too.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand39

 Applying the Three Steps Writing Process: Writing refers bringing our ideas to life. There are different
writing such as; letter writing, email writing, memos writing etc. whatever we write we write by
applying three steps writing process; planning, writing and completing

4) Planning Business Message: Planning is the first step of writing. The factors that support on planning Business
messages are: Understanding three steps writing process, Analyzing the situation, Gathering Information,
Selecting the right medium, Organizing the (your) information

a) Understanding three steps writing process: The three step writing process consists of planning, writing and
completing a message. The planning business message first analyze the situation by defining your purpose and
developing a profile of your audience, secondly gather the information, next select the right medium (oral,
written, electronic and visual), and finally organize the information by defining the main idea, limiting the scope,
selecting the direct or indirect approach and outlining your content. The writing business message: first adapt to
your audience with sensitivity, relationship skills, and an appropriate skill and finally compose your message by
choosing strong words, creating effective sentences, and developing coherent paragraphs. The completing
business message first revise the message by evaluating the content, reviewing readability, and editing and
rewriting until the message becomes concise and clear with proper grammar, proper punctuation and effective
format, secondly produce the message into the audience receivable form that can help audience to read and
comment. Next proofread for better quality and finally distribute the message. This understanding help on two
things: “Optimizing your writing time and planning effectively.”

Optimizing time means managing the time appropriately at the time of writing. As general rule, set aside roughly
50 percent of time for planning, 25 percent for writing and 25 percent for completing. Sometimes this varies
according to length and nature of message. For example, planning takes long time generally but sometimes long
messages take time in completing. The inexperienced communicator often tempt to jump directly in writing
whereas experienced writers follow three steps and saves plenty of time and frustration. So this understanding
supports for careful or effective planning. Solid planning helps for better further processing.

b) Analyzing your situation: Any message is send by analyzing situation. The successful message starts with a
clear purpose that connects the sender’s needs with audience needs. Analyzing situation in simple routine
message includes two straightforward tasks: Identifying your purpose and developing an audience profile. In
other message too, the analysis of situation is important. If we don’t analyze situation, the message will waste time
and energy and will just produce the less-effective message. For example, you have a specific message to send to a
specific audience under a specific set of circumstances.

I. Defining Your purpose: All business messages are written to fulfill certain purposes. Those messages have
generally two purposes: general purpose and specific purpose. The general purpose of business message is to
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand40

inform, to persuade, or to collaborate with the audience. This purpose determines both the appropriate degree of
audience participation and the amount of control you have over your message. Informing purpose requires little
interaction, in which audiences absorb the information and accept or reject it but they don’t contribute to message.
In this sender has control over message. Persuading an audience often involves some degree of participation such
as giving people chance to ask question so that you can address any concerns. To collaborate includes maximum
participation of audiences, which reduces the control of sender over message. The control of sender over differs
according to situation. The Specific Purpose of business message identifies what you hope to accomplish with
your message and what your audience should do or think after receiving your message. For example, is your goal
simply to update your audience about some upcoming event, or do you want people to take immediate action? State
your purpose as precisely as possible. After defining your purpose, check whether that purpose merits the time,
message and efforts before sending by asking following questions:

 Will anything change as a result of your message? Don’t contribute to information if that change anything.

 Is your purpose realistic? Recognize whether the goal is realistic or not for good sense.

 Is the time right? Look either people are busy or distracted or not

 Is your purpose acceptable to your organization? Know the company policies and objective

When you are satisfied that you have clear and meaningful purpose only then proceeds, next understand audience
needs. Defer sending a message or do not send it at all, if; nothing will change as a result of sending it; the purpose
is not realistic, the timing is not right; the purpose is not acceptable to your organization.

II. Developing an Audience Profile: It means understand audience. For the fulfillment of purpose, the audiences
need to be interested personally or professionally to read/listen message. So the more you know about your
audience members, their needs, and their expectation, the more effectively, you’ll be able to communicate with
them. For developing/analyzing an audience profile/understanding the need of audience, follow these steps:

 Identify your primary audience

 Determine audience size and geographic distribution

 Determine audience composition

 Gauge audience member’s level of understanding

 Understand audience expectation and preferences

 Forecast probable audience reaction

 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand41

c) Gathering Information: Gathering information refers assembling the information that we will include in the
message. This is done after clearly defining purpose and picturing audience. For simple message, sender may
already have all the information at hand but for more complex message, the senders need to do considerable
research and analysis before beginning to write. The sender can use variety of informal technique too to gather
insights and guides your research efforts, which are:

 Consider the audience’s perspective: Put ourselves in the position of audience.

 Read Reports and other company documents

 Talk with supervisor, colleagues, or customers

 Ask your audience for input: If we are unsure what audience needs from our message, ask them.

For gathering better information, we follow three steps: Uncovering Audience Needs, Finding your focus and
Providing Required Information.

I. Uncovering Audience Needs: In many situations, the audience’s needs are readily apparent, but sometimes the
audiences may be unable to articulate exactly what is needed. If any audience make vague or broad request, at that
time to uncover the needs of audience, ask questions to narrow focus and narrow the investigation by asking which
aspect of the company and its business is most important. Asking a question too often forces the person to think
through the request and define more precisely what is required. Expand your report to include a brief explanation
of why the third plan should be considered and compare it to the two original plans.

II. Finding your Focus: You may encounter situation in which the assignment or objective is so vague that you
have no idea how to get started in determining what the audience needs. In such cases, use some discovery
techniques to help generate ideas and uncover possible avenues to research. One popular technique is free
writing, in which you write whatever comes to mind, without stopping to make any corrections, for a set period of
time. The best discovery option in some cases might not be writing at all, but rather sketching. If you are unable to
come up with any words, grab sketchpad and starting drawing. Thinking visually may release great ideas. These
help in finding our focus.

III. Providing Required Information: After defining audience needs, the speaker has to provide required
information. For providing required information, the first approach that help is journalistic approach in which it is
tested whether the message answers all six journalistic questions: who, what, when, where, why and how. To test
the quality of information provided in message, check to ensure that information is accurate ethical and pertinent.

 Be sure the information is accurate: Be certain that the information you provide is accurate and that the
commitments you make can be kept.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand42

 Be sure the information is Ethical: A clear sense of ethics should guide your decisions when determining
how much detail to include in your message. Message can be unethical if important information is omitted.
If you are unsure about ethicality of your message, offer much what fits on definition and more upon
request. As business man, need to be ethical.

 Be sure the information is pertinent (important): Audience responds to information that has been filtered
and prioritized to meet their needs. Rely on common sense if you don’t know enough about your audience
to know exactly what will interest them.

d) Selecting the Right Medium: A medium is the form through which you choose to communicate a message.
You may choose to talk with someone face-to-face, post to a blog, send an email message, or create a webcast. At
the time of selecting right medium, know the types of media (oral, written, visual and electronic) and its
influencing factors on choosing (media richness, message formality, media limitation, urgency, cost, and audience
preference). Although media categories have been increasingly blurred in recent years, for the sake of discussion,
you can think of those four types.

I. Types of Media

 Oral media: Oral media is the process of expressing information or ideas by word of mouth or it is the face
to face conversation. It includes face to face conversation, interviews, speeches, in person presentation
and meeting. It gives communicators the ability to see, hear and react to each other, and it is useful to
encourage people to ask questions, make comments and work together to reach a consensus or decision .
It is best when you need to encourage interaction, express emotions or monitor emotional responses.

 Written media: Written communication involves any type of interaction that makes use of the written word .
It takes many forms, from traditional memos to glossy reports that rival magazine in production quality.
Memos are brief printed document traditionally used for the routine, day to day exchange of information
within an organization. In many organizations, IM, emails, blogs and other electronic media have largely
replaced paper memos. Letters are brief written message generally sent to recipients outside the
organization. Reports and proposal are usually longer than memos and letters, although both can be created
in memo or letter format. Printed message have been replaced in many instances by electronic media,
although the print media has a place in business today.

 Visual Media: Visual Media” is a colloquial expression used to designate things like TV, movies,
photography, painting and so on. Traditional business message rely primarily on text, with occasional
support from graphical elements such as charts, graphs, or diagrams to help illustrate points discussed in
the text, but some of the communicators found the power of visual elements to deliver message by small
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand43

amount of text. Visual can play important role to convey message and for today’s audience understanding
and remembering.

 Electronic Media: Electronic media are media that use electronics or electromechanical audience to access
the content. The use of electronic media is broad and continues to grow from phone calls and podcast to
blogs and wikis to emails and text message. The use of electronic media helps deliver the message quickly,
to reach widely dispersed audience, and to take advantage of rich multimedia format. The growth of this
media is both blessing and a curse for business communicators

Electronic Versions of oral media: These media include telephone calls, teleconferencing, voice mail message,
audio recording such as compact discs and podcasts, voice synthesis (creating audio signals from computer data),
voice recognition (converting audio signals to computer data), and even animated online characters.

Electronic versions of written media: These options range from e-mail and IM to blogs, websites, social network
and wikis. These media are in a state of constant change in terms of both what is available and who tend to use
which media. For example the email was best before some time but now it is replaced by twitter, blogs, IM etc.

Electronic Versions of Visual Media: These choices include electronic presentation (using Microsoft Power Point
and other software), computer animation (using software such as Adobe Flash to create many of the animated
sequence you see on web sites) and video. Businesses have made extensive use of video for years-first on tape, then
on DVD, and now online.

II. Factors to consider when choosing Media: The factors that help on choosing media are:

 Media Richness: It is a medium’s ability to convey message through more than one informational cue
(visual, verbal and vocal), facilitate feedback and personal focus. The richest medium is face to face
communication; it’s personal and provides immediate feedback and conveys emotion behind the message.
Multimedia presentation and webpages are also rich with their quality of presenting images, text, and
sounds elements and other together in message. Many electronic media are also interactive which make
the participation of audience. Continuum is least media which provide no opportunity for audience
feedback and aren’t personalized. Use richer media to send non routine and complex message and use
leaner media to send routine message and transfer information that does not require significant
explanation.

 Message Formality: Your media choice is nonverbal signal that affects the style and tone of your message.
A printed memo formal than an email message.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand44

 Media Limitation: Every media has limitation. For example, face to face conversation rich, but for this, you
and your audience should be at same place. IM is good to send straightforward message but ineffective for
sending complex message.

 Urgency: Some media deliver message faster than others, so choose wisely if your message is urgent. For
example, talking on phone is faster than sending email. Be sure about urgency and respect audience time if
audience busy and there is not urgency, use emails.

 Cost: Cost is both a real financial factor and perceived nonverbal signal. Creating multimedia is expensive
than creating word processors file. So use media according to need. When needed, use expensive one to
otherwise use time and money of organization wisely.

 Audience Preference: When choosing the appropriate medium, don’t forget to consider your audience’s
preferences and expectations.

After the selection of best medium for purpose, situation and audience, the time is to start organizing
information.

e) Organizing your Information: It refers bringing information together to form. The ability to present
information in an organized fashion is an essential business skill. This determines success or failure. Ineffective
organization includes; taking too long time to get the point, including irrelevant material, getting ideas mixed up,
and leaving out necessary information. The factors that support to make organization effective are: recognizing
the Importance of Good Organization, Defining your main idea, limiting your scope, Choosing between Direct
and Indirect Approach and Outlining your Content.

I. Recognizing the importance of Good Organization: Good organization makes the main point clear at the outset,
present additional points to support the main idea, organized, clear, logical, efficient, relevant ideas, brief and
satisfy all the information audience needs. This organization helps your audience and listeners understand your
message, accept your message and save time. If information is disorganized, it makes confusion on audience, and
they form inaccurate confusion and understand badly. It saves the time of writer too and this skill is good for
career too which develops the reputation as clear thinker who cares to readers and people prefer. People will
ignore to disorganized writer.

II. Defining your main Idea: The topic is the overall subject; the main idea is specific statement about the topic. At
the time of defining main idea, follow the following techniques

 Brainstorming
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand45

 Journalistic Approach: the journalistic approach ask who, what, when, where, why and how questions to
distill (refine) major ideas from unorganized information.

 Question and Answer Chain: Start with question, get audience ideas and work back toward your message.

 Storyteller’s tour: Some writers find it best to talk through a communication challenge before they try to
write. Record yourself as you describe what you intend to write, then listen to the playback, identify ways
to tighten and clarify message. Continue the process until you get or concise the main idea.

 Mind Mapping: You can generate and organize ideas using graphic method called mind mapping. Start
with a main idea and then branch out to connect every other related idea that comes to mind.

III. Limiting your Scope: The scope of a message is the range/area of information presented, the overall length of
the message and the level of detail all of which need to correspond to the main idea. Some of business message have
a present length limit, whether from boss’s instruction or from the technology you are using or time frame. Even if
not that, limit the number of support points, having fewer, stronger points is better approach than using many
weaker points. For example, if your audience expects you deliver the message of certain length (such as 10 pages),
be sure to consider your main idea statement in the context of length limitation. If your message needs to be brief,
your main idea will have to be easy to understand and easy to accept. How much space you need to communicate
and support your main idea depends on your subject, your audience member familiarity with the material and
their receptively to your conclusions, and your credibility with them.

IV. Choosing between Direct and Indirect Approach: The Direct Approach start with the main idea (such as a
recommendation, a conclusion or a request) and follow that with your supporting evidence. When you know your
audience is receptive and with positive reaction, use the direct approach. The Indirect Approach start with the
evidence first and build your case before presenting the main idea. Use this approach when your audience is
negative and skeptical about or even resistant to your message. To choose appropriate message, the understanding
on types of messages can help.

 Routine and Positive Message: The most straightforward business messages are routine and positive
messages. Routine messages involve the daily matters of operating a business, from placing orders to
updating employee about process changes. When you are providing routine information as part of your
regular business, your audience will be probably neutral- neither pleased nor displeased. Positive message
convey some sort of good news, whether you are announcing a price cut, accepting an invitation, or
congratulating a colleague. In most of cases your audience will be pleased to hear from you. For these
messages, use direct approach. In the opening state your main idea directly. If you have good news to share
conveying that right away puts your audience members in a positive frame of mind and encourage them to
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand46

be receptive to whatever else you have to say. The body can provide the necessary details. The close is
cordial and emphasizes your good news or makes the statement about specific action desired.

 Negative Messages: It is bad news which makes audiences disappointed. For these messages, use indirect
approach putting the evidences first and building up to the main idea. These messages open with neutral
statement that acts as transition to the reason for the bad news, and in body reasons to justify negative
answer or announcement and close cordially.

 Persuasive Messages: This message present a special communication challenge because in this a speaker is
asking audience to give, do, or change something whether it is buying a product or agreeing to fund a new
project. In this the speaker persuades to do something such as time, money, beliefs and habits etc. Indirect
approach is good for this by opening with interesting point and provides supporting facts that encourage
audience to continue paying attention and then provide main points and request for desired action.

V. Outlining your Content (listing important parts): After choosing right approach, it’s time to figure out the
most logical and effective way to present major points and supporting details. Although there may not be habit of
using outlining in school assignments and other assignments, the habit of creating outlines is incredibly useful way
to preparing business message. This helps save times, get better results and do a better job of navigating through
complicated business situations. For example, writing two or three points in notepad too helps to reach to the main
idea. Particularly with longer message, using an outlines is an indispensable way to visualize how all points will fit
together.

Outlines present ideas in a logical way, show relationships between ideas and define boundaries and groups.
Outlines are useful for preparing research papers, essays and stories. Knowing how to create outlines is an essential
part of any writer's skill set. An outline is a formal system used to develop a framework for thinking about what
should be the organization and eventual contents of your paper. An outline helps you predict the overall structure
and flow of a paper.

Start with the main Idea

Start the major points

Illustrate with Evidences

5. Writing Business Messages: It refers bringing your/our ideas to life and this idea take more time to change on
the way than people think. In this, ideas should be expressed clearly and persuasively. For this, the points that
supports are Adapting to your Audience and Composing your message and in today’s world Using technology to
compose and shape your message too help.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand47

a) Adapting to your Audience: Whether consciously or not, audiences greet most incoming messages with a
selfish questions: ‘What is this for me?’ If your intended members think a message does not apply to them or
doesn’t meet their needs, they won’t be inclined to pay attention to it. Readers and listeners want to know how your
messages will benefit them. Readers and listeners want to know how the message will benefit them. To adapt to
your audience in a way that provides a compelling answer to what’s in this for me? Questions, with supporting
points: Being Sensitive to Your Audience’s needs, Building Strong Relationship with Your Audience and
Controlling Your Style and Tone.

I) Being Sensitive to your Audience Needs: If your readers or listeners don’t think you understand or care about
their needs, they won’t pay attention, plain and simple. We can become sensitive to our audience needs by adopting
the ‘you’ attitude, maintaining good standards of etiquette, emphasizing the positive, and using bias-free
language.

Using the ‘you’ Attitude: The “you” attitude is best implemented by expressing your message in terms of the
audience’s interests and needs. It speaks or writes messages accordingly audiences’ wishes, interests, hopes and
preferences. On the simplest level, we can adopt the ‘you’ attitude by replacing terms such as I, me, mine, we, us
and ours with you and yours

Instead of this Write this

Tuesday is the only day that we can promise if you need a quick response, please submit
quick response to purchase order requests; we your purchase order requests on Tuesday.
are swamped the rest of the week.
We offer MP3 players with 50, 75, or 100 You can choose an MP3 player with 50, 75,
gigabytes of storage capacity, or 100 gigabytes of storage.

Avoid using you and yours when doing so

 Makes you sound dictatorial
 Could make someone else feel unnecessarily guilty
 Is inappropriate for the culture
 Goes against your organization’s style
Be aware that on some occasions, it’s better to avoid using you, particularly if doing so will sound overly
authoritative or accusing:
Instead of this Write this
You failed to deliver the customer’s order on The customer didn’t receive the order on
time, time. or
Let’s figure out a system that will ensure on-
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand48

time deliveries.
You must correct all five copies All five copies must be corrected by noon.
by noon.

As you practice using the ‘you’ attitude, be sure to consider the attitudes of other cultures and the policies of your
organization.

Maintaining Standard of Etiquette: By being courteous to members of your audience, you show consideration
for them and foster a more successful environment for communication. Although you may be tempted now and then
to be brutally frank, try to express the facts in a kind and thoughtful manner. On occasions when you experience
frustration with co-workers, customers, or others, at that time too, demonstrate your diplomatic skills by controlling
your emotions and communicating calmly and politely:

Instead of this Write this

Once again, you’ve managed to bring down Let’s review the last website update to
the entire website through your incompetent explore ways to improve the process.
programming.
You’ve been sitting on our order for two Our production schedules depend on timely
weeks, and we need it now! delivery of parts and supplies, but we have
not yet received the order you promised to
deliver two weeks ago. Please respond today
with a firm delivery commitment.

Use extra tact or maintain courtesy when communicating with people higher up the organization chart or outside the
company. Written communication needs more tact than oral communication.

Emphasizing the Positive: You can communicate negative news without being negative.

Instead of this Write this

It is impossible to repair your laptop Your computer can be ready by Tuesday. Would
today. you like a loaner until then?
We wasted $300,000 advertising in Our $300,000 advertising investment did not pay
that magazine. off. Let’s analyze the experience and apply the
insights to future campaigns.

When you are offering criticism or advice, focus on what the person can do to improve.

Instead of this Write this

 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand49

People in this department consistently By choosing travel options more carefully and
fail to keep their travel spending under avoiding last-minute trips whenever possible, this
budget. department will be able to meet its budgetary goals.
You failed to provide all the necessary Please review the items marked in red on the
information on the previous screen. previous screen so that we can process your order
as quickly as possible.

Show your audience members how they will benefit from responding to your message in the way you would like
them to respond. If you’re trying to persuade audience members to buy a product, pay a bill, or perform a service
for you, emphasize what’s in it for them. Don’t focus on why you want them to do something.

Instead of this

We will notify all three credit reporting Paying your overdue bill within 10 days will
agencies if you do not pay your prevent a negative entry on your credit record.
overdue bill within 10 days.
I am tired of seeing so many errors in Proofreading your blog postings will help you
the customer service blog. avoid embarrassing mistakes that. generate more
customer service complaints.

To avoid words with unnecessarily negative connotation, use meaningful euphemisms instead. Euphemisms,
equivalent words or phrases that express a thought in milder terms, can ease the blow of negative news, but they
must be used carefully to avoid annoying or misleading the audience.

Instead of this Write this

Cheap merchandise Economy merchandise

Failing Underperforming

Fake Imitation or faux

Using Bias-Free Language: Biased language can perpetuate stereotypes and prejudices whereas Bias-free language
avoids words and phrases that unfairly and even unethically categorize or stigmatize people in ways related to
gender, race, ethnicity, age or disability. Bias can come in a variety of forms:

 Gender bias: Avoid sexiest language (Don’t call a woman a chair person and then call a man chairman; use
chair, chairperson, or chairman consistently)
 Racial and ethnic bias: Avoid language suggesting that members of racial or ethnic group have
stereotypical characteristic. The best solution is to avoid identifying people by race or ethnic origin.
 Age bias: Be careful of the context in which you use word that refers to age. For example: Young:
immature, inexperience
 Disability bias: Not handicapped employee instead employee to the disabled employee.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand50

Overcoming Bias in Language

Examples Unacceptable Preferable

Gender Bias Manmade Artificial, synthetic, manufactured,
Using words containing man constructed, human-made
(note that chairman's a Mankind Humanity, human beings, human
common exception to the race, people
rule) Manpower Workers, workforce
Businessman Executive manager, businessperson
Salesman professional
Foreman Sales representative, salesperson
Superior
Using female-gender words Actress, stewardess Actor, flint attendant
Using special designations Woman doctor, male Doctor, nurse
nurse
Using he to refer to everyone The average worker The average worker he or she
or
Average workers they
Identifying roles with gender The typical executive Most executives spend four hours a
spends four hours of day in meeting
his day in meetings the Consumers, they
consumer she the Nurses/teachers they
nurse/teacher she
Identifying women by Mrs. Norm Lindstrom Mana Lindstrom
marital status or
Ms Mana Lindstrom
Norm Lindstrom and Norm Lindstrom and Mana Drake
Ms Drake or
Mr. Linndstrom and Ms Drake

II) Building Strong Relationship with our Audience: Successful communication lies on positive relationship
between sender and receiver. For building strong relationship, establish your credibility and Project your company
image.

Establish your Credibility: Audience response to your message depend heavily on your credibility, a measure of
your believability, based on how reliable you are and how much trust you evoke in others. Well known relations
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand51

audiences prefer you to hear. People are more likely to react positively to your message when they have confidence
in you. To build, maintain, or repair your credibility, emphasize the following characteristics:
 Honesty. Demonstrating honesty and integrity will earn you the respect of your audiences, even if they
don’t always agree with or welcome your messages.
 Objectivity. Show that you can distance yourself from emotional situations and look at all sides of an issue.
 Awareness of audience needs: Let your audiences know that you understand what’s important to them.
 Credentials, knowledge, and expertise. Audiences need to know that you have whatever it takes to back
up your message, .whether its education, professional certification, special training, past successes, or
simply the fact that you’ve done your research.
 Endorsements. An endorsement is a statement on your behalf by someone who is accepted by your
audience as an expert.
 Performance. Demonstrating impressive communication skills is not enough; people need to know they
can count on you to get the job done.
 Confidence: Audiences need to know that you believe in yourself and your message. If you are convinced
that your message is sound, you can state your case confidently.
 Communication Style: Support your points with evidences, not empty terms such as amazing, incredible
or extraordinary.
 Sincerity. When you offer praise, don’t use hyperbole, such as “you are the most fantastic employee I could
ever imagine.” Instead, point out specific qualities that warrant praise.
Try to avoid phrases containing words such as if, hope, trust, which can drain the audience’s confidence in your
message.
Instead of This Write This
We hope this recommendation will be We’re pleased/glad to make this
helpful. recommendation.
We trust that you’ll want to extend your By extending your service contract, you can
service contract. continue to enjoy top-notch performance
from your equipment.

Finally, keep in mind that credibility can take long time to establish- and it can be wiped out in an instant.

Projecting Your Company’s Image: Your Company’s interests and reputation take precedence over your personal
communication style. You should be able the project image of your company clearly.

III) Controlling Your Style and Tone: Your communication style involves the choices you make to express
yourself: the words you select, the manner in which you use those words in sentences, and the way you build
paragraphs from individual sentence. Your style creates a certain tone (attitude in writing composition), or overall
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand52

impression, in your message. The style can be personal or formal, objective or forceful, colorful or dry. The right
choice of style and tone depends on nature of our message. For controlling style and tone, do: using a
conversational tone, using plain language and selecting the active or passive voice.

Using a Conversational Tone: The tone of business message can range from informal to conversational to formal.
If you are in a large organization and you are communicating with your superiors or with customers, your tone may
tend to be more formal and respectful. You can achieve a tone that is conversational but still businesslike by
following these guidelines:

 Understand the difference between texting(IM Messages) and writing (letter/memo)

 Avoid stale(unclear) and pompous language.
 Avoid preaching and bragging (boast)
 Be careful with intimacy
 Be careful with humor
Obsolete Phrase Up-to- Date Replacement
we are in receipt of we received
kindly advise please let. me/us know
attached please find enclosed is or I/we have enclosed
it has come to my attention I have just learned or [someone] has just informed me
the undersigned I/we
in due course (specify a time or date)
permit me to say that (omit; just say whatever you need to say)
pursuant to (omit; just say whatever you need to say)
in closing, I'd like to say (omit; just say whatever you heed to say)
we wish to inform you that (omit; just say whatever you need to say)
please be advised that (omit; just say whatever you need to say)

Using Plain Language: Using plain language is a way of presenting information in a simple, unadorned style so
your audience can easily grasp your meaning, without struggling through specialized, technical, or convoluted
language. If plain language used, intended audience can read, understand and act upon the first time they read it.
Audiences can understand and act on plain language without reading it over and over.
Selecting the Active or Passive Voice: The choice of active or passive voice affects the tone of message. Use the
active voice when the subject performs the action and the object receives the action. Use the passive voice when the
subject receives action. Active sentences are usually stronger than passive ones although the message on active
sentences generally sounds informal. Use active sentences to make writing more direct, livelier and easy to read,
and use passive sentences to soften bad news, to put yourself in the background, or to create an impersonal tone.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand53

In general, avoid passive voice in order to make your writing lively and direct.
Dull and Indirect in Passive Voice Lively and Direct in Active Voice
The new procedure was developed by the The operations team developed the new
operations team procedure.
Legal problems are created by this This contract creates legal problems.
contract.
Reception preparations have been Our PR people have begun planning a reception
undertaken by our PR people for the new for the new CEO.
CEO's arrival.
However, passive voice is helpful when you need to be diplomatic or want to focus attention
on, problems or solutions rather than on people.
Accusatory or Self-Congratulatory More Diplomatic in Passive Voice
in Active Voice
You lost the shipment, The shipment was lost.
I recruited seven engineers last month. Seven engineers were recruited last month.
We are investigating the high rate of The high rate of failures on the final assembly
failures line is being

b) Composing Your Message: This is the process of creating the first draft. For composing message: Choosing
strong words, creating Effective Sentences and Crafting Unified, Coherent Paragraphs.

I) Choosing Strong Words: Describe how to select words that are not only correct but also effective. Effectiveness
is the second consideration when choosing words.

Understanding Denotation and Connotation: Many words have both a denotative: literal or dictionary meaning of
the words (explicit, specific) meaning and a connotative: associations and feeling evoked with words or context
(implicit, associative) meaning.

Balancing Abstraction and Concreteness: Abstract word expresses the concept, quality or characteristic. Used
intellectual, philosophical and academic writing. The more abstract a word is, the more it is removed from the
tangible, objective world that can be perceived with the senses.

Love, honor, progress, tradition, and beauty are abstractions.

 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand54

Concrete word stands for something you can touch, see, or visualize. Most concrete terms are anchored in the
tangible, material world. Chair, table, horse, rose, kick, red, green, and two are concrete words; they are direct,
clear, and exact.

Finding words that communicate well: Try to use the words that are powerful and familiar

 Choose strong/powerful/precise words: The words that clearly, specifically and dynamically expresses our
thoughts are called powerful words.
 Choose familiar words: There can be the best communication when the used words are familiar for both
writer as well as reader.
 Avoid clichés and use buzzwords carefully: clichés are the words which have lost some of their power to
communicate. Buzzwords newly coined terms often associated with technology, business or cultural
changes.
 Use jargon carefully: language associated with particular group/profession or industry

II) Creating Effective Sentences:

Choosing from the Four Types of Sentences:

A simple sentence has one main clause (a .single subject and a. single predicate), although it may be expanded by
nouns and pronouns that serve as objects of the action and by modifying phrases. Here’s an example with
the subject noun underlined once and the predicate verb underlined twice:

Example: Profits increased in the past year.

 A compound sentence has two main clauses that express two or more independent but related thoughts of
equal importance, usually joined by and, but, for, yet, so, or. In effect, a compound sentence is a merger of
two or more simple sentences (independent clauses) that are related. The independent clauses in a
compound sentence are always separated by a comma or by a semicolon (in which case the conjunction—
and, but, or—is dropped).

Example: Wage rates have declined by 5 percent, and employee turnover has been high.

 A complex sentence expresses one main thought (the independent clause) and one or more subordinate,
related thoughts (dependent clauses that cannot stand alone as valid sentences). Independent and dependent
clauses are usually separated by a comma. In this example, “Although you may question Gerald’s
conclusions” is a subordinate thought expressed in a dependent clause:

Example: Although you may question Gerald’s conclusions, you must admit that his research is thorough.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand55

A compound—complex sentence has two main clauses, at least one of which contains a subordinate clause

Example: Profits increased 35 percent in the past year so although the company faces long- term challenges, I
agree that its short-term prospects look quite positive.

Using Sentence Styles to Emphasize Key Thoughts: Which sentence styles emphasize key thoughts, that we should
use. You can emphasize ideas in a sentence by
 Devoting more words to them
 Keeping dependent clause at the beginning or at the end of the sentence
 Making them the subject of the sentence.
Dependent clause can determine emphasis
Most emphatic: The electronic parts are manufactured in Mexico, which has lower wage rates than the United
States.
Emphatic: Because wage rates are lower in Mexico than in the United States, the electronic parts are manufactured
there.
Least emphatic: Mexico, which has lower wage rates than the United States, was selected as the production site
for the electronic parts.
III) Crafting Unified, Coherent Paragraphs: For creating effective paragraph: Elements of paragraph and Five
ways to develop a paragraph.
Elements of a Paragraph:

Topic Sentence

Most paragraphs consist of

 A topic sentence that reveals the subject of the paragraph
 Related sentences that support and expand the topic
 Transitions that help readers move between sentences and between paragraphs

Example

The medical products division has been troubled for many years by public relations problems. [In the rest of the
paragraph, readers will learn the details of the problems.] To get a refund, please supply us with the following
information. [The details of the necessary information will be described in the rest of the paragraph.]

Supporting Sentences

Example: The medical products division has been troubled for many years by public relations problems. Since 2002
the local newspaper has published 15 articles that portray the division in a negative light. We have been accused of
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand56

everything from mistreating laboratory animals to polluting the local groundwater. Our facility has been described
as a health hazard. Our scientists are referred to as “Frankensteins,” and our profits are considered “obscene.”

Transitions

Transitional elements include

 Connecting words (conjunctions)
 Repeated words or phrases
 Pronouns
 Words that are frequently paired
Concluding Sentences: Restate to the topic sentence

Five/Best ways to Develop a Paragraph: You have a variety of options for developing paragraphs, each of which
can convey a specific type of idea. Five of the most common approaches are illustration, comparison or contrast,
cause and effect, classification, and problem and solution.

C) Using Technology to Compose and Shape your Message: Style sheets, style sets, templates, and themes.
Style sheets, style sets, templates, and themes are various ways of ensuring consistency throughout a document and
from document to document.

 Style sheets and document/templates:

 Smart Documents:
 Master Documents:
 Auto-completion:
 Auto-correction
 Endnotes, footnotes, indexes, and tables of contents.
 Wizard
 Mail Merge

6. Completing Business Message: It refers moving beyond (your) first draft. First draft are rarely as effective as
they could be, or is rarely as tight, clear, and compelling as it needs to be, so take the time to improve them through
revision. It is careful revision to differentiate between a rambling, unfocussed message and a lively, direct message
that gets results. The third step of the three-step writing process involves four key tasks: revising your message to
achieve optimum quality and then producing, proofreading, and distributing it.

a) Revising your Message: The revision task can vary somewhat, depending on the medium and the nature of your
message. For informal messages to internal audiences, particularly when using instant messaging, text messaging,
email, or blogging, the revision process is often as simple as quickly looking over your message to correct before
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand57

sending it. The time required for revision can vary from just a moment or two for a simple message to many hours
or even days for a complex report or multimedia document. This task can vary somewhat, depending on the
medium and the nature of your message. This is the process often as simple as quickly looking over your message
to correct any mistakes before sending or posting it. Poor quality message create an impression of poor quality
thinking. Even minor errors can cause confusion, frustration and costly delays, so if you have time, put aside
your draft for a day or two before you begin the revision process. In revision process, do: Evaluating Your Content,
Organization, Style and Tone, Reviewing for Readability, Editing for clarity and Conciseness, Evaluating, Editing
and Revising the work of others, and Using technology to Revise your message.

I) Evaluating your Content, Organization, Style and Tone: Focus your attention on content, organization, style
and tone when beginning the revision process. To evaluate the content of the message, answer these questions:

 Is the information accurate?

 Is the information relevant to the audience?
 Is there enough information to satisfy the readers’ needs?
 Is there a good balance between general information (giving readers enough background information to
appreciate the message) and specific information (giving readers the details they need to understand the
message)?
When you are satisfied with the content of your message, you can review its organization by answering these set of
questions:
 Are all the points covered in the most logical order?
 Do the most important ideas receive the most space, and are they placed in the most prominent positions?
 Would the message be more convincing if it were arranged in another sequence?
 Are any points repeated unnecessarily?
 Are details grouped together logically, or are some still scattered throughout the document?
With the content in place and effectively organized, next consider whether you have achieved right style and tone
for your audience. Along with it, the beginning and end of a message usually have the greatest impact on your
readers, so make sure they are clear, concise and compelling. (In a longer message, ensure that the first few
paragraphs establish the subject, purpose and organization of material. Review the conclusion to be sure that, it
summarizes the main idea and leaves the audiences with a positive impression.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand58

June 21, 2017

Ms. Claudia Banks

122 River Heights Drive
Bettendort, IA 52722

Dear Ms. Banks

 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand59

Thank you for your recent purchase. We wish you many years of satisfaction with your new Yamaha CGI grand
piano. The CG1 carries more than a century of Yamaba's heritage In design and production of world-class musical
instruments arid will give you many years of playing and listening pleasure.

Our commitment to your satisfaction doesn't stop with your purchase, however. As a vital first step, please
remember to callus sometime within three to eight months after your piano was delivered to take advantage of the
Yamaha Servicebond." Assurance Program. This free service program includes a thorough evaluation and
adjustment of the instrument after you've had some time to play your piano arid your piano has had time to adapt to
its environment

In addition to this important service appointment a regular program of tuning is essential to ensure your piano's
impeccable performance. Our piano specialists recommend four tunings during the first year and two tunings every
year thereafter. As your local Yamaha dealer we are ideally positioned to provide you with optimum service for
both regular tuning and any maintenance or repair needs you may have

Sincerely.
Madeline Delauny
Madeline Delauny
Owner
Common Proofreading Symbols (See Page A-25 for more)
strikethrough Delete text
Delete individual character or a circled block for text
Insert text (text to insert is written above)
Insert period
Insert comma
Start new line
Start new paragraph

Capitalize

II) Reviewing for Readability: After confirming the content, organization, style and tone of your message, make a
second to pass to improve readability. Most professionals are overcome with more reading material than they can
ever hope to consume, and they’ll appreciate your efforts to make your documents easier to read. Creating
readable documents mean; you pay attention on audience’s time and in return people pay attention on your
work. You may be familiar with certain indexes whereas may not your audience. Readability indexes offer a useful
reference point but they are limited by what they are able to measure: word length, number of syllables, sentence
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand60

length, and paragraph length. Along with this, the documents can be readable by making the documents interesting
and easy to skim. So design the documents with the “you” attitude, clear sentence structure, smooth transitions,
and proper word usage. As a general rule, don’t assume that a piece of text is readable if it scores well on a
readability index—or that it is difficult to read if it doesn’t score well. For making documents readable, do: varying
your sentence length, using/Keeping shorter paragraphs, using lists and bullets of narrative to clarify and
emphasize instead, and add effective headings and subheadings.
Varying Your Sentence Length: Varying the length of your sentences is a creative way to make messages
interesting and readable. To keep readers’ interest, use a variety of tong, medium, and short sentences. Varying
sentence length is a good way to maintain reader interest and control the emphasis given to major and minor points.
Try for a mixture of sentences that are short (up to 15 words or so), medium (15—25 words), and long (more than
25 words).

Each sentences length has its advantages. Short sentences can be processed quickly and are easier for nonnative
speakers and translators to interpret. Medium-length sentences are useful for showing the relationship among ideas.
Long sentences are often the best way to convey complex ideas, to list multiple related points, or to summarize or
preview information. Each sentences length has disadvantages too. Too many short sentences in a row can make
your writing choppy. Medium Sentences lack the punch of short sentences and the informative power of longer
sentences. Long sentences can be difficult to understand because they contain more information and usually have
more complicated structure. By choosing the best sentence length for each communication need and mix length for
variety.

Keeping Your Paragraph Short: Short paragraph generally 100 words or fewer (this paragraph has 81 words), are
easier than long ones, and they make your writing look inviting. Longer paragraphs are visually intimidating and
can be difficult to read. Generally the optimum paragraph length is short to medium in most cases.

Using Lists and Bullets to Clarify and Emphasis: Lists are effective tools for highlighting and simplifying
material. It simplify complex subjects, highlight main points, break up a page or screen visually, ease the skimming
process for busy readers, and give readers a breather (rest/break).

Consider the differences between the following two presentation of same information
Narrative List
Owning your own business has many potential owning your own business has three
advantages. One is the opportunity to pursue your advantages:
own personal passion. Another advantage is the  Opportunity to pursue personal
satisfaction of working for yourself. As a sole passion.
proprietor, you also have the advantage of  Satisfaction of working for yourself.
privacy because you do not have to reveal your
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand61

financial information or plans to anyone.  Financial privacy.

List items can be separated with numbers, letters or bullets.

Adding Heading and Subheadings: Use headings and subheadings to show the organization of your material, draw
the reader’s attention to key points, and show connections between ideas. A heading is a brief title that tells readers
about the content of the section that follows. Subheadings are subordinate to headings, indicating subsections
within a major section.

Headings and subheadings fall into two categories. Descriptive headings, such as “Cost Considerations,” identify a
topic but do little more. Informative headings, such as “Redesigning Material Flow to Cut Production Costs,” guide
readers to think in a certain way about the topic. Well-written informative headings are self-contained. Heading and
Subheading serve these important functions:

Organization: Heading show your reader at glance how the document is organized.

Attention:

Connection: help readers see the relationship between main ideas and subordinate ones

III) Editing for Clarity and Conciseness: After you have reviewed for readability, your next step is to make sure
your message is as clear and as concise as possible.

Editing for Clarity: To ensure clarity, look closely at your paragraph organization, sentence structure and word
choices by following these steps:

 Break up overly long sentences:

 Rewrite hedging sentences: Hedging means pulling back from making a confident, definitive statement about a
topic. Students are good/ Many students may be good. If you qualify or hedge too often, you undermine your
credibility. (used seem/may words).
 Impose parallelism: Parallelism show that the ideas are related, of similar importance, and on the same level of
generality.
 Correct dangling modifiers: With red and blue, people enjoyed colors. Ram walks on the stage slowly. (with
no connection to subject of the sentence)
 Reword long noun sequence: When multiple nouns come together as a modifier that can difficult to read. The
terrific house reflection (that reflects) street) is terrifying to look. / the ice box/ fruit shop
 Replace camouflaged verbs: verbs that have been changed into nouns, adjective by adding; ion, -ment, tion, ant,
ing, ence etc. they often increase the length of sentence without adding any value. People are presented badly
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand62

with their reaction. People reacted badly. The manager undertook implementation of the rules. The manager
implemented rules.
 Clarify Sentence Structure: Subject + Predicate should be placed as close together as possible. Ram, when being
sick, quit the job
 Clarify awkward references: vague references. With the above point, I reach to the given conclusion

Method Example
Parallel words The letter was approved by Clausen, Whittaker, Merlin, and Carlucci.
Parallel phrases We are gaining market share in supermarkets, in department stores,
and in specialty stores.
Parallel clauses I’d like to discuss the issue after Vicki gives her presentation but
before Marvin shows
his slides.
Parallel sentences In 2011 we exported 30 percent of our production. In 2012 we
exported 50 percent.

Issues to Review Ineffective Ineffective

Overly Long Sentences The magazine will be published The magazine will be
Taking compound January 1, and I’d better meet published January 1. I’d bettor
sentences too far the deadline if I want my article meet the deadline because we
included because we want the want the article to appear
article to appear before the trade before the trade show.
show.
Hedging Sentences Over I believe that Mr. Johnson’s Mr. Johnson’s employment
qualifying sentences employment record seems to record shows that he is capable
show that he may be capable of of handling the position.
handling the position.
Unparallel Sentences Mr. Simms had been drenched Mr. Sims had been drenched
Using dissimilar with rain, bombarded with with rain, bombarded with
construction for similar telephone cats, and his boss telephone calls, and shouted at
ideas shouted at him. by his boss.
To waste time and missing Wasting time and missing
deadlines are bad habits. deadlines are baa habits.
Dangling Modifiers Walking to the office, a red A red sports car passed her
Placing modifiers close sports car passed hen [suggests while she was walking to the
to the wrong nouns aid that the car was walking to the
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand63

verbs office] office,

Reduced by 25 percent, Europe Europe reduced semiconductor
bad its lowest semicondector output by 25 percent. its
output in a decade. (suggests that lowest output in a decade.
Europe shrank by 25 percent)
Long Noun Sequences The window sash installation The company that installs
Stringing too many company will give us an window sashes will give us an
nouns together estimate on Friday. ostimate on Friday.
Camouflaged Verbs The manager undertook The manager implemented the
Changing verbs and implementation of the rules. rules.
nouns into adjectives Verification of the shipments
occurs weekly reach a We verify shipment weekly.
Changing verbs into conclusion about Consider
nouns give consideration to Consider
Sentence Structure A 10 percent decline in market The major problem in 2010
Separating subject and share, which was a 10 percent loss of
predicate. resulted from quality problems market share, which resulted
and an aggressive sales from quality problems and an
campaign by Armitage, the aggressive sales campaign by
market leader in the Armitage, the market leader in
Northeast, was the major the Northeast.
problem in 2010.
Separating adjectives, With its thick legs and large
adverbs, or prepositional Our antique desk lends an air of drawers, our antique desk
phrases from the words strength and substance with thick lends an air of strength and
they modify legs and large drawers. substance.
Awkward References The Law Office and the The Law Office distributes
Accounting Office distribute computer supplies for legal
computer supplies for legal secretaries; the Accounting
secretaries and beginning Office distributes those for
accountants, respectively. beginning accountants

Editing for Conciseness: This is to examine the text with the specific goal of reducing the number of words you
use. Readers appreciate conciseness and are more likely to read your documents, if you have a reputation for
efficient writing. Concise the documents following these steps:
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand64

 Delete unnecessary words and phrases: To test whether the word or phrase is essential or not, write sentence
without that phrase. Ram, who had given exam, passes B.A. in Second Division. Ram is entering into class
room soon/in the near future.
 Shorten long words and phrases: Short word and phrases are vivid and easier to understand. During the
preceding year/last year
 Eliminate redundancies: Redundancies refers the act of using words or phrases that repeats same information or
some word combination that says the same thing. ‘Visible to the eye’ is redundant because ‘visible’ is enough
without further clarification
 Recast (Change/Reform) “It is/There are” starters.
Instead of Write this
I would be grateful if you help me. Please help me.

Issues to Review Ineffective Effective

Unnecessary Words and
Phrases for the sum of for
Using wordy phrases in the event that it
prior to the start of before
in the near future soon
at this point in time now
due to the fact that because
in view of the fact that because
until such time as when
with reference to about
Using too many relative Cars that era sold after January Cant sold after January will not
pronouns wit not have a six-month have a six-month warranty.
warranty. Employees driving to work
Employees who are driving to should park in the underground
work should park in the garage.
underground garage. OR
Employees should park in the
underground garage.
Using too few relative The project manager told the The project manager told the
pronouns engineers last week the engineers last week that the
specifications ware changed, specifications were changed.
OR
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand65

The project manager told the

engineers that last Week the
specifications were changed.
Long Words and
Phrases During the preceding years the Last year the company sped up
Using overly long words company accelerated operations.
productive operations. The action was based on the
The action was predicated on belief that the company was
the assumption that the being money,
company was operating at a
financial deficit
Using wordy phrases If you want success writer, you Jo succeed as a writer you must
rather than infinitives must work bard. work hard.
He went to the library for the He went to the library to study.
propose of studying. The employer increased salaries
The employer increased to improve morale.
salaries so that she could
improve morale.
Redundancies absolutely complete complete
Repeating meanings basic fundamentals fundamentals
follows after follows
free and clear free
refer back refer
repeat again repeat
collect together collect
future plans plans
return back return
important essentials essentials
end result result
actual trust truth
final outcome outcome
uniquely unusual unique
surrounded on at sties surrounded
Using double modifiers modern, up-to-date equipment modern equipment
It is/There are Starters It would be appreciated if you Please sign the least today.
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand66

Starting sentences with it would sign in lease today. Five employees in this division
or there There are five employees in were late to work today.
this division who were late to
work today.

If you are struggling to fix a particular problem, you might be able to solve it simply by deleting the troublesome
phrase or sentence.

IV) Evaluating, Editing and revising the work of others: Evaluating and revising the work of others is an
important responsibility. While doing this, first your job is to help the other writer succeed at his or her task, not to
impose your writing style or pursue your own agenda, and second make sure you understand the writer’s intent
before you begin suggesting or making changes. If you try to edit or revise without knowing what the writer hoped
to accomplish, you run the risk of making the piece less effective, not more. With those thoughts in mind, answer
the following questions as you evaluate the work of others.

 What is the purpose of this document or message?

 Who is the target audience?
 What information does the audience need?
 Does the document provide this information in a well-organized way?
 Does the writing demonstrate the ‘you’ attitude toward the audience?
 Is the tone of the writing appropriate for the audience?
 Can the readability be improved?
 Is the writing clear? If not, how can it be improved?
 Is the writing as concise as it could be?
 Does the design support the intended message?

V) Use Technology (a tool or machine used to solve certain problems) to revise your Message: Revision marks
and commenting features are great ways to track the revision process when multiple reviewers are involved. When
it’s time to revise and polish your message, software feature can help you add, delete, and move text using as cut
and paste and search and replace. Revision can be done using technologies: revision marks, commenting feature,
Microsoft word, Adobe acrobat etc. In addition, the revision tools: spell checkers, grammar checkers, style
checkers, and computerized thesauruses can help with the revision process, but they can’t take the place of good
writing and editing skills.

b) Produce Your Message: Production quality affects readability and audience perceptions of you and your
message. The production quality of your message-the total effect of page or screen design, graphical elements,
 A note of Managerial Communication-519 by K. Chand67

typography, and so on—plays an important role in the effectiveness of your message. A polished, inviting design
not only makes your material easier to read but also conveys a sense of professionalism and importance. While
producing, do: Design for readability, Designing multiple/multimedia documents, Using technology to produce
your message, Formatting formal letters and memos.
I) Designing for readability: To achieve an effective design, pay careful attention to the following design elements:

 Consistency: Throughout each message, be consistent in use of your margins, typefaces, type sizes and space,
vertical lines, columns and borders, and also in sending message.
 Balance: Balance subjective issues: formal design or informal design etc.
 Restraint: Use only enough texts. Don’t clutter your message with too many design elements, too much
highlighting, too many colors, or too many decorative touches.
 Detail: Pay attention on details that affect to the design of your message because wide columns of a text can be
difficult to read instead in many cases better is to split wide columns in two narrow columns.
Both printed and electronic message can be made more effective by understanding the use of White Space, Margins
and Line Justification, Typefaces and Type Styles.
 White spacing: Any space that doesn’t contain text or artwork, both in print and online, is
considered white space. (It isn’t unnecessarily white, is simply blank). It separates elements in a
document and helps guide the reader’s eye.
 Margin and justification: Margins define the space around the text and between the text columns.
 Typefaces: Typeface or font refers to the physical design of letters, numbers, and other text
characters. The choice of typefaces influences the tone of message, making it look authoritative or
friendly, businesslike or casual, classic or modern, and so on. In other words, typefaces send
nonverbal signals independent of what the words themselves say, or be sure to choose fonts that
are appropriate for your message.
 Type Styles: It refers to any modification that lends contrast or emphasis to type, including
boldface, italics, underlining, color and other highlighting and decorative styles. Using bold-face
type for subheads breaks up long expanses of text.

II) Designing Multimedia Documents: A multimedia document contains a combination of text, graphics,
photographs, audio, animation, video, and interactivity (such as hyperlinks that access webpages or software
programs). Multimedia documents can be powerful communication vehicles, but they require more time, tools and
skills to create.
To design and create multimedia documents, consider the following factors:
 Creative and technical skills:
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 Tools: The hardware and software tools needed to create and integrate media elements are now widely available
and generally affordable.
 Time and Cost: The time and cost of creating multimedia documents has dropped dramatically in recent years.
 Content: To include various media elements in a document, you need to acquire them.
 Message structure: Multimedia documents often lack a rigid linear structure from beginning to end, which
means you need to plan for readers to take multiple, individualized paths through the material.
 Compatibility: Some multimedia elements require specific software to be installed on the recipient’s viewing
device.

III) Using Technology to Produce Your Message: Learning to use the basic features of your communication tools
will help you produce better messages in less time. Production tools vary widely, depending on the software and
systems you’re using.
Depending on the types of messages you’re creating, you’ll benefit from being proficient with the following
features:
 Templates, themes and stylesheets:
 Page setup:
 Column formatting:
 Paragraph formatting:
 Numbered and bulleted lists:
 Tables:
 Pictures, text boxes, and objects:
IV) Formatting formal Letters and Memos: Business letters typically have the following elements:

 Preprinted letterhead
 Date and sender’s address
 Inside address
 Salutation
 Content

 Complimentary close

 Signature block
In case of Memo:

Memos are usually identified by a title such as Memo or Memorandum. Memos have largely been replaced by
electronic media in many companies, but if they are still in use at the firm you join, the company may have a
standard format or template for you to use. Most memos begin with a title such as Memo, Memorandum, or
Interoffice Correspondence. Following that are usually four headings: Date, To, From, and Subject
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c) Proofreading your Message: Proofreading is the quality inspection stage for the documents or it is the last chance
to make sure that the documents is ready to carry the message and reputation to the intended audiences. Even a
small mistake can create problem so take proofreading seriously. While proofreading, look for two types of
problems:

 Undetected/Hidden/Invisible mistakes from the writing, design, and layout stages and
 Mistakes that crept in during production.
Proofreading should be a methodical procedure which will help you find the problems that need to be fixed. For
ensuring high-quality output, Use these techniques from professional proofreaders:

 Make multiple passes: go through the documents several times focusing on a different aspects; content
error, layout errors etc.
 Use Perceptual Tricks:
 Double-check high-priority items:
 Give yourself some distance:
 Be vigilant: Avoid reading large amounts of material in one sitting and try not to proofread when
you’re tired.
 Stay focused: Concentrate on what you’re doing.
 Review complex electronic documents on paper: If difficulty in reading on screen, review on
paper.
 Take your time: Quick proofreading is not careful reading.
d) Distributing Your Message: With the production finished, you’re ready to distribute your message. When
choosing a means to distribute messages, consider the following factors:

 Cost:
 Convenience: Make sure your delivery method is convenient for your audience members
 Time: How soon does the message need to reach the audience? Don’t waste money on overnight
delivery if the recipient won’t read the report for a week.
 Security and Privacy: