To accomplish your goals in today's workplace, you not only have to interact with personnel in other departments, you often have to coordinate or even rely on them. Protecting your turf may be instinctual, but it's also counterproductive. Therefore, learn some communication skills that will help you develop stronger, more productive work alliances across functional boundaries.

1. Welcome!
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

2. KeyPoints to develop in your own time!
Building Better Work Relationships
Introductory concepts in Business Communication @ OxfordCambridge.Org all for free and free for all.
The information gathered here are under the format of KeyPoints for readers to develop in their own
time. Some tips on how to proceed, perhaps:
- Identify all the Keypoints on which you feel a need to expand your knowledge.
- Choose a good book or two or info from Internet and then work towards gaining the needed knowledge.
Please Enjoy!
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

3. Aim of publication
To introduce the reader or the learner to
Building Better Work Relationships
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

4. Learning Objectives
After developing the KeyPoints outlined in this publication, you should
mainly be able to:
☺ overcome territorial boundaries in the workplace
☺ strengthen communication across boundaries
☺ practice intercultural relationship skills
☺ build effective intergender relationships
☺ exercise effective methods for working with customers
☺ cultivate customer relationships
☺ apply strategies for maintaining long-term relationships
☺ maintain interfunctional alliances
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

5. Building Better Work Relationships – Summary
☺ Discover how you may be inadvertently
sabotaging yourself when you let your
territorial instincts guide your interactions.
☺ Once you understand how interfunctional
relationships benefit you and your work goals,
you'll be ready to learn some communication
skills that will help you develop stronger, more
productive work alliances across functional
boundaries.
☺ The differences in the language and
communication behavior of men and women are
to be identified, so each can more easily
understand what the other is really saying.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

6. Building Better Work Relationships – Summary
☺ You ought to learn about the many ways in
which mini- to macro-cultural behavior and
attitude can vary, around your corner and
around the world.
☺ Why not discover the ingredients for creating
and maintaining more effective and productive
relationships with your customers as these
elements can generate better outcomes.
☺ There are key elements that make up a good
partnership and there are ways to combine and
apply them to build an effective relationship
with your business partners.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

7. Building Better Work Relationships - Sections List
☺ (Section 1) Effective Interfunctional Relationships
☺ (Section 2) Effective Intercultural Relationships
☺ (Section 3) Effective Intergender Relationships
☺ (Section 4) Working Effectively with Customers
☺ (Section 5) Working Effectively with Business Partners
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

8. (Section 1) Effective Interfunctional Relationships – Summary
☺ To accomplish your goals in today's workplace,
you not only have to interact with personnel in
other units, you often have to coordinate or
even rely on them. Tasks are fluid and flow
across functional boundaries.
☺ The products and services your company offers
require a cooperative effort to produce.
☺ But by nature, most companies are structured
territorially. Every department head and
manager has his or her own troops on call and a
personal domain to defend.
☺ Protecting your grounds may be instinctual, but
it's also counterproductive. By not cooperating
openly with other sections or departments, you
not only interfere with their ability to
accomplish their tasks, you undermine your own
efforts as well.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

9. (Section 1) Effective Interfunctional Relationships – HighPoints
☺ Territorial Instincts at Work.
☺ Creating Interfunctional Alliances.
☺ Strengthening Communication across
Boundaries.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

10. (Section 1) HighPoints – Territorial Instincts at Work
☺ recognize the value of understanding how
territorial instincts function in the workplace.
☺ match territorial defense strategies with types
of defensive behavior.
☺ match the three types of workplace territories
with examples.
☺ apply the steps for the successful negotiation
of workplace territory.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

11. (Section 1) HighPoints – Creating Interfunctional Alliances
☺ recognize the importance of interfunctional
alliances.
☺ choose examples of results that one can attain
through forming interfunctional alliances.
☺ identify strategies that can help improve
interfunctional relationships.
☺ apply strategies for effectively improving
interfunctional relationships in an
interdepartmental scenario.
☺ match helping behaviors that strengthen work
alliances with examples.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

12. (Section 1) HighPoints – Strengthening Communication across
Boundaries
☺ recognize benefits of improving interfunctional
communication skills.
☺ match ways to establish commonality with coworkers with examples.
☺ predict whether someone's efforts to change
communication patterns between himself or
herself and someone else will be successful.
☺ determine whether the interfunctional
communications model was effectively applied
to improve an interfunctional work relationship
in a given business scenario.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

13. (Section 2) Effective Intercultural Relationships – Summary
☺ In a shrinking world, businesses operate across
borders. All of these bordered areas, large and
small, represent differing cultures.
☺ Whether at home or abroad, chances are, your
business deals with people of varying cultures
on a daily basis.
☺ In today's expansive work environment,
employees, co-workers, customers, vendors, and
business partners can all have a different
cultural background from yours.
☺ The most obvious cultural differences you
encounter are language and dress.
☺ But there are multitudes of subtler ways in
which people from different cultures vary in
their behavior.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

14. (Section 2) Effective Intercultural Relationships – Summary
☺ If you don't understand the ways in which they
might differ, you're risking your business
communication and relationships being
misunderstood.
☺ When operating interculturally, mistakes are
easily made when you take appearances and
meaning for granted.
☺ You benefit from understanding and relate
better to people with different cultural
backgrounds, thus making your business deals
with them easier and helping you avoid costly
misunderstandings.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

15. (Section 2) Effective Intercultural Relationships – HighPoints
☺ Embracing Cultural Differences
☺ Meaning in Context
☺ Customs and Etiquette
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

16. (Section 2) HighPoints – Embracing Cultural Differences
☺ recognize the importance of embracing cultural
differences.
☺ identify ways in which cultural behaviors can
vary.
☺ match types of discrimination that occur in the
workplace with examples.
☺ identify inclusivity techniques.
☺ apply inclusivity techniques in an intercultural
business relationship.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

17. (Section 2) HighPoints – Meaning in Context
☺ recognize the importance of understanding how
cultural communication styles can vary.
☺ match components of perceptual variations in
cultural norms with examples.
☺ match modes of nonverbal communication to
corresponding examples.
☺ assess the correct use of nonverbal expression
with different cultures in a business scenario.
☺ select characteristics of the communications
style associated with content cultures.
☺ identify communication styles associated with
context cultures.
☺ determine the styles associated with context
cultures in a business scenario.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

18. (Section 2) HighPoints – Customs and Etiquette
☺ recognize the importance of understanding
cultural variations in customs and etiquette.
☺ match ways in which status is conferred with
corresponding definitions.
☺ identify guidelines for showing good manners in
different cultures.
☺ analyze whether guidelines for appropriate
cultural manners are being followed in an
intercultural scenario.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

19. (Section 3) Effective Intergender Relationships – Summary
☺ In professional situations and in the workplace,
the significant differences in male and female
communication styles can cause problems.
☺ There is no denying that women and men vary
significantly in their verbal inflections and
tone, their body language, and how they listen
to others.
☺ They pick up on different cues in conversations,
and often the meaning they interpret is not the
message the speaker intends. It's almost as if
the two genders speak different dialects.
☺ And, in fact, that's nearly the case.
Communication confusion and breakdown
between men and women at work can lead to
inefficiency and expensive business errors.
☺ It’s worth modify your own communication
behavior to be more clearly understood by the
opposite gender.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

20. (Section 3) Effective Intergender Relationships – HighPoints
☺ His / Hers
☺ Toward Gender Dexterity
☺ Unspoken Communication
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

21. (Section 3) HighPoints – His / Hers
☺ recognize benefits of understanding why men
and women communicate differently.
☺ identify examples of developmental factors
that influence the ways in which men and
women communicate differently.
☺ identify examples of typical communication
styles used by men.
☺ identify examples of typical communication
styles used by women.
☺ apply effective feminine or masculine
communication techniques in a conversational
situation.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

22. (Section 3) HighPoints – Toward Gender Dexterity
☺ recognize benefits of developing skills to
communicate better with the opposite gender.
☺ match examples of gender-specific delivery
styles with the gender that commonly uses that
style.
☺ determine which elements of gender
stereotyping to change to avoid stereotyping in
an intergender work communication scenario.
☺ identify the elements of the SAVE model for
intergender business communication.
☺ determine whether speakers are using the
SAVE model for intergender business
communication.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

23. (Section 3) HighPoints – Unspoken Communication
☺ recognize the value of understanding how
nonverbal behavior contributes to
communication.
☺ match examples of nonverbal behavior with the
associated gender.
☺ match examples of listening behaviors to the
associated gender.
☺ identify responsive listening techniques.
☺ apply responsive listening techniques in an
intergender work scenario.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

24. (Section 4) Working Effectively with Customers – Summary.
☺ It's time to disregard that old deferential
model of short-term customer relations you're
using. Why not replace it with a selection of
long-term relational skills that work for you in
the marketplace?
☺ Take control by picking the best customers and
developing equal, trusting partnerships with
them.
☺ When you limit your investment in your
customer relationships, you also limit your
growth potential. Developing strong, respectful
relationships with your customers is a win-win
situation.
☺ The most effective relationships are mutually
supportive and mutually beneficial. And they
last beyond next quarter's returns. Investing in
the relationship and creating value for your
customers rewards your business as well.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

25. (Section 4) Working Effectively with Customers – HighPoints.
☺ Defining Your Vendor Role
☺ Cultivating Customer Relationships
☺ Maintaining Long-term Relationships
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

26. (Section 4) HighPoints – Defining Your Vendor Role
☺ recognize the importance of clearly defining
the vendor role.
☺ select questions that need to be answered when
initiating a relationship with a new customer.
☺ identify three types of vendor solutions for
customers.
☺ identify supplemental training services that
create value for customers.
☺ apply supplemental training services in ways
that add value for the customer.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

27. (Section 4) HighPoints – Cultivating Customer Relationships
☺ recognize the value of cultivating customer
relationships.
☺ identify elements of customer needs.
☺ identify rapport-building techniques.
☺ apply strategies for building rapport in a
situation with a new customer.
☺ apply communication techniques that
strengthen relationships with customers in
interactive business scenarios.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

28. (Section 4) HighPoints – Maintaining Long-term Relationships
☺ recognize the benefits of maintaining long-term
relationships with customers.
☺ identify components of a trusting relationship.
☺ identify elements necessary for a long-term
committed relationship.
☺ analyze whether or not a client-vendor
relationship is ready for a committed, longterm business relationship.
☺ analyze a business scenario to determine if
long-term customer relationships will be
effectively maintained.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

29. (Section 5) Working Effectively with Business Partners – Summary
☺ There are three options when you want to
extend your base of business resources:
Expand your company, acquire another company,
or partner with a complimentary company.
☺ In many instances, partnering is the most
advantageous choice. Creating an alliance
confers the same kind of benefits as an
acquisition--but with fewer risks and better
definition.
☺ The key to creating a successful partnership
lies in the ways in which you define the
relationship with your partner.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

30. (Section 5) Working Effectively with Business Partners – Summary
☺ The more explicit the definitions, the more
productive the alliance.
☺ Recent research indicates that the most
successful business partnerships are built on
openness, trust, and mutual goals.
☺ Check how it is to set up and manage an ongoing business alliance that satisfies you and
your partner and meets both your separate and
shared objectives.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

31. (Section 5) Working Effectively with Business Partners – HighPoints.
☺ Preparing for an Alliance
☺ Building the Alliance
☺ Aligning the Companies
☺ Ensuring Success
☺ HighPoint5.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

32. (Section 5) HighPoints – Preparing for an Alliance
☺ recognize advantages of preparing for an
alliance.
☺ identify characteristics of an alliance.
☺ identify questions that should be asked to
determine alliance readiness.
☺ identify ethical principles of an alliance.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

33. (Section 5) HighPoints – Building the Alliance
☺ recognize the importance of building the
alliance correctly.
☺ identify characteristics of a good partnership.
☺ choose a potential alliance partner based on the
criteria for success in a given scenario.
☺ identify characteristics of appropriate leaders
for an alliance.
☺ choose the appropriate leaders for an alliance
in a given scenario.
☺ choose team members based on the
characteristics of effective team members in a
given scenario.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

34. (Section 5) HighPoints – Aligning the Companies
☺ recognize benefits of aligning companies.
☺ identify positive and negative indicators of
parallel goals.
☺ determine whether companies have
appropriately related goals in a given scenario.
☺ determine whether the alliance has an
appropriate risk and reward balance in a given
scenario.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

35. (Section 5) HighPoints – Ensuring Success
☺ recognize benefits of ensuring a successful
alliance.
☺ identify rules for negotiation.
☺ apply the rules for negotiating successfully
with a partner in a business scenario.
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

36. Building Better Work Relationships – Conclusion
☺ At this point you should be able to be familiar
with the following:
•
recognize the value of understanding how
territorial instincts function in the
workplace
•
recognize the importance of
interfunctional alliances
•
identify strategies that can help improve
interfunctional relationships
•
apply inclusivity techniques in an
intercultural business relationship
•
recognize the importance of understanding
how cultural communication styles can vary
•
select characteristics of the
communications style associated with
content cultures
•
…
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

37. Building Better Work Relationships – Conclusion
☺ At this point you should be able to be familiar
with the following:
•
identify communication styles associated
with context cultures
•
identify guidelines for showing good
manners in different cultures
•
recognize benefits of understanding why
men and women communicate differently
•
apply effective feminine or masculine
communication techniques
•
recognize benefits of developing skills to
communicate better with the opposite
gender
•
determine which elements of gender
stereotyping to change to avoid
stereotyping in an intergender work
situation
•
…
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

38. Building Better Work Relationships – Conclusion
☺ At this point you should be able to be familiar
with the following:
•
recognize the value of cultivating customer
relationships
•
identify elements of customer needs
•
identify elements necessary for a longterm committed relationship with
customers
•
recognize advantages of preparing for an
alliance
•
identify characteristics of an alliance
•
recognize benefits of aligning companies
•
determine whether the alliance has an
appropriate risk and reward balance
•
recognize benefits of ensuring a
successful alliance
•
identify rules for negotiation
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

39. OxfordCambridge.Org
The Seeds Of Learning
Information Gathering Links
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org

40. Thank you for your interest!
Business Skills - Communication
Contact Email
Design Copyright 1994-2013 © OxfordCambridge.Org