WK_1 Communicating in Today’s Global Business Environment

Communicating
inToday’s Global
Business
Environment
Week 1
Bovee, C., & Thill, John. (2012). Business Communication Essentials (5th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall

Objectives for this session
Course
introduction
Define
Communication
Ethical
Communication

How do you think global industries
communicate nowadays?

What is
communication?
Bovee, C., & Thill, John. (2012). Business Communication Essentials
(5th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall

Communication
▪ is the process of transferring information and
meaning between senders and receivers, using
one or more written, oral, visual, or electronic
channels.
▪ The essence of communication is sharing –
providing data, information, insights, and
inspiration in an exchange that benefits both
you and the people with whom you are
communicating.
Bovee, C., &Thill, John. (2012). Business Communication Essentials (5th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall

Why is communication
important to your career no
matter what career path you
pursue?

‘You can have the greatest ideas in the world, but
they’re no good to your company or your career if
you can’t express them clearly and persuasively’.
– Bovee &Thill, 2012

Communication is Important to a
Company
It provides:
▪ Closer ties with important communities in
the marketplace.
▪ Opportunities to influence conversations,
perceptions, and trends
▪ Ability to ‘humanize’ otherwise
impersonal business organizations
▪ Faster problem solving
▪ Stronger decision making
▪ Increased productivity
▪ Steadier workflow

What do you think
your future
employers will
expect from you?

UnderstandingWhat Employers
Expect from you
▪ Organize ideas and information logically and completely
▪ Express yourself coherently and persuasively in a variety of
media
▪ Construct compelling narratives – telling stories, in other
words – to gain acceptance for important ideas
▪ Evaluate data and information critically to know what you
can and cannot trust
▪ Actively listening to others
▪ Communicate effectively with people from diverse
backgrounds and experiences
▪ Use communication technologies effectively and efficiently

UnderstandingWhat Employers
Expect from you
▪ Follow accepted standards of grammar, spelling, and other
aspects of high-quality writing and speaking
▪ Adapt your messages and communication styles to specific
audiences and situations
▪ Communicate in a civilized manner that reflects
contemporary expectations of business etiquette
▪ Communicate ethically, even when choices aren’t crystal
clear
▪ Respect the confidentiality of private company information
▪ Follow applicable laws and regulations
▪ Manage your time wisely and use resources efficiently

The Basic Communication Process
1. Sender
has an idea
2. Sender
encodes the
idea in a
message
3. Sender
produces the
message in a
medium
4. Sender
transmits
message
through a
channel
5. Audience
receives the
message
6.
Audience
decodes
the
message
7. Audience
responds to
the
message
8. Audience
provides
feedback to
the sender

1. Practice: Pair-work
Introduce yourself to your classmate.
Address areas as your background,
interests, achievements, and goals.
Discuss ways how you think you will
succeed in this course.

Evaluating Communication Effectiveness
Use the eight phases of communication process to analyze a
communication you’ve recently had with your classmate.
• What idea where you trying to share?
• How did you encode the message and transmit it?
• Did the receiver get the message as you had intended?
• Did the receiver decode the message as you had intended?
• How do you know?
 Did you succeed in getting your message across?
 If not, based on your analysis, what do you think prevented your
successful communication in this instance?

New Approach to Business Communication:
Social Communication Model
Business Communication 1.0
Tendencies
Business Communication 2.0
Tendencies
• Publication
• Lecture
• Intrusion
• Unidirectional
• One to many
• Control
• Low message frequency
• Few channels
• Information hoarding
• Static
• Hierarchical
• Structured
• Isolation
• Planned
• Isolated
• Conversation
• Discussion
• Permission
• Bidirectional, multidirectional
• One to one, many to many
• Influence
• High message frequency
• Many channels
• Information sharing
• Dynamic
• Egalitarian
• Amorphous
• Collaboration
• Reactive
• Responsive

Social Media Communication Model
▪ interactive, conversational, and usually
open to all who wish to participate
Social media tools do present some
potential disadvantages that managers and
employees need to consider.

Ethical
communication
▪ avoids deception and
provides the information
audiences need.
▪ Includes all relevant
information that is true in
every sense and does not
violate the rights of others.
Bovee, C., & Thill, John. (2012). Business Communication Essentials (5th Ed.). Upper Saddle
River, N.J: Prentice Hall

Unethical
Communication
▪ Plagiarizing
▪ Omitting essential
information
▪ Selectively misquoting
▪ Distorting statistics or
visuals
▪ Failing to respect privacy or
information security needs
Bovee, C., & Thill, John. (2012). Business Communication Essentials (5th Ed.). Upper Saddle
River, N.J: Prentice Hall

Ethical Dilemma and
Ethical Lapse

Ethical
Dilemma
Ethical
Lapse
Ethical Dilemma
• involves choosing
alternatives that
aren’t clear-cut
Ethical Lapse
• is clearly unethical
and frequently illegal
choice
Bovee, C., & Thill, John. (2012). Business Communication Essentials (5th
Ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall

Ethical
Dilemma
Employees generally want
higher wages and more
benefits, but investors who
have risked their money in
the company want
management to keep costs
low so that profits are strong
enough to drive up the stock
price.
- Both sides have a valid
position; neither one is
‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

Ethical
Lapse
Homebuyers in an
Orlando, Florida, housing
development were sold
houses without being
told that the area was
once a U.S. Army firing
range and that live
bombs are still buried in
multiple locations around
the neighborhood.

▪ Ethical Dilemma
▪ involves choosing alternatives that aren’t clear-cut
- e.g. Employees generally want higher wages and
more benefits, but investors who have risked their money
in the company want management to keep costs low so
that profits are strong enough to drive up the stock price.
- Both sides have a valid position; neither one is ‘right’
or ‘wrong’.
• Ethical Lapse
▪ is clearly unethical and frequently illegal choice
- e.g. Homebuyers in an Orlando, Florida, housing
development were sold houses wihtout being told that
the area was once a U.S. Army firing range and that live
bombs are still buried in multiple locations around the
neighborhood.

Ethical guidelines
1. Make sure you have defined the situation fairly
and accurately
2. Make sure your intentions are honest and fair
3. Understand the impact your messages will have
on others
4. Ensure that your message will achieve the
greatest possible good while doing the least
possible harm
5. Make sure your underlying assumptions wont
change over time
6. Make sure you are comfortable with your
choices
Bovee, C., & Thill, John. (2012). Business Communication Essentials (5th Ed.). Upper
Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall

Practice
Explain why you think each of the following is or is not
ethical;
▪ Deemphasizing negative test results in a report on your
product idea.
▪ Taking an office computer home to finish a work-related
assignment.
▪ Telling an associate and close friend that she should pay
more attention to her work responsibilities or management
will fire her.

Practice 1
Knowing that you have numerous friends throughout
the company, your boss relies on you for feedback
concerning employee morale and other issues affecting
the staff. She recently approached you and asked you to
start reporting any behavior that might violate company
policies, from taking office supplies home to making
personal long distance calls.
List issues you’d like to discuss with her before you
respond to her request.

Powerful tools for
communicating
effectively

PowerfulTools
for
Communicating
Effectively
Redefining the Office
▪ Virtual Meeting Spaces
▪ Wireless Networks
▪ SharedWorkspaces
▪ Electronic Presentation
▪ UnifiedCommunication

Collaborating
▪ Wikis
▪ Social networking
▪ Crowdsourcing and Collaboration
Platforms
▪ Web-based Meetings
▪ Videoconferencing andTelepresence
Bovee, C., & Thill, John. (2012). Business Communication Essentials (5th Ed.). Upper
Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall

Sharing Information
▪ RSS Newsfeeds and
Aggregators
▪ Community Q&A
▪ SocialTagging and
Bookmarking
▪ Interactive Data
Visualization
▪ Supply Chain Management
Software

Interacting with customers
Online Customer Support
• (live sales rep via phone or instant messaging)
Podcasts
• (downloadable audio and video recordings)
User-GeneratedContent
• (let business host photos, videos, programs, technical
solutions and others for their customer communities).
Blogs
Microblogs
• (e.g.Twitter- the great way to share ideas, solicit feedback,
monitor market trends, announce special deals and events. )

Using Communication
Technology Effectively
Keep technology in
perspective so that it doesn’t
overwhelm the
communication process
Learn your tools so you can
use them productively
Guard against information
overload by sending only
those messages of value to
your audiences and by
protecting yourself from too
many low-value incoming
messages
Disengage from the computer
frequently to communicate in
person

Cost of poor
communication
34
Wasted time
• Harder to understand.
• “ping-pong” effect
• May need to be redone
Wasted efforts
Loss of goodwill
• Every instance of communication
serves to either build or
undermine a
person’s/organization’s image.

Criteria for Effective
Communication
Effective messages are…
• Clear
• Concise
• Correct
• Customer-focused
• Positive
35

Benefits of Effective
Communication
36
SAVESTIME
(EVERYONE’S)
BUILD’S
GOODWILL
MAKESYOU LOOK
PROFESSIONAL

Considerations When
Communicating
• What’s at stake—to whom?
• Should you send a message?
• What channel should you use?
• What should you say?
• How should you say it?
37

Tailor
your
message
38
Writing a memo to colleagues
• consider their position in the organization ,
expectations
Responding to a client’s request for
proposal,
• address every need outlined in the RFP
think about the client’s industry,
company size,
and culture.
Tone
• will change depending on your recipients, and
so will your content.
Highlight
• “what’s in it for them (your audience).”

The Plain
English
Handbook
39
www.sec.gov/pdf/handbook.pdf

40

41

Building
Goodwill
• Customer-focused
• Positive
• Complete and concise
42

Customer Focused 43
Understand
Understand that your
readers have no time to
waste: Get to the point
quickly and clearly to
ensure that your message
gets read.
Use
Use a tone appropriate for
your audience.
Emphasize
Emphasize the items most
important to your readers.
If they can easily see how
your message is relevant to
them, they will be more
likely to read it and
respond.
Choose
Choose an intelligent, non-
specialist member of your
audience to write for—or
invent one—and focus on
writing for that person.
Your message will be more
accessible and persuasive
to all your readers as a
result.

Staying Customer-Focused
Talk about the reader, not about yourself
X Our company has negotiated an agreement with Central
World Group* that gives you a discount on purchases over
3,000 baht.*
☺ As an employee, you can now get a 10% discount when you
buy goods worth 3,000 baht or more at CentralWorld.
*Note: used as an example not as factual information.
44

Be Relentlessly Clear
Clarity can be a double-edged sword.When you’re forthright enough to
take a position or recommend a course of action, you’re sticking your
neck out. People who don’t want to commit make their writing muddy.
Perhaps they’re trying to leave room for their views to evolve as events
unfold. Or perhaps they’re hoping they can later claim credit for good
results and deny responsibility for bad ones.
Adopt the reader’s perspective
Always judge clarity from the reader’s standpoint—not your own.Try
showing a draft to colleagues with fresh eyes and asking them what
they think your main points are. If they can’t do that accurately, then
you’re not being clear enough.
Your ideal should be to write so unmistakably that your readers can’t
possibly misunderstand or misinterpret. Anything that requires undue
effort from them won’t be read with full attention—and is bound to be
misunderstood.
45

Make Your Writing Easier to Read
Put your readers in your sentences.
X Funds in a participating employee’s account at the end of each six
months will automatically be used to buy more stock unless a
“Notice of Election Not to Exercise Purchase Rights” form is
received from the employee.
☺ Once you begin to participate, funds in your account at the end of
each six months will automatically be used to buy more stock
unless you turn in a “Notice of Election Not to Exercise Purchase
Rights” form.
46

Complete and Concise
Refer to the reader’s request or order specifically
X We are shipping your order No. 007 of 21 December this
afternoon.
☺The five Sony 3DTVs (modelTV27) you ordered will be shipped
this afternoon and should reach you by Friday, 18 January.
47

Staying Customer-Focused
In positive situations, use ‘you’ more often than ‘I’. Use
‘we’ only when it includes the reader.
X We provide health insurance to all employees.
☺ You receive health insurance as a
Procter & Gamble employee.
48

Keep Your
Language
Simple
49
Simplicity breeds clarity. Strive to use short
words and sentences.
Over the years, research has confirmed
again and again that the optimal average
for readable sentences is no more than 20
words.
You’ll need variety to hold interest—some
very short sentences and some longer
ones—but aim for an average of 20 words.
With every sentence, ask yourself whether
you can say it more briefly.

Keep Your Language Simple
NOTTHIS BUTTHIS
Efficiency measures that have been
implemented by the company with strong
involvement of senior management have
generated cost savings while at the very
same time assisting in the building of a
culture that is centred around the value of
efficiency.We anticipate that, given this
excising of unnecessary expenditures and
enhanced control of other expenditures, the
overall profitability of the company will be
increased in the near term of up to four
quarters.
Our senior management
team has cut costs and made
the company more efficient.
We expect to be more
profitable for the next four
quarters.
50
300 Business Communication

Show, Don’t Tell
• You probably heard writing teachers in school say, “Show,
don’t tell.”
• It’s excellent advice no matter what you’re writing—even
business documents.
• The point is to be specific enough that you lead your readers
to draw their own conclusions (conclusions that match yours,
of course), as opposed to simply expressing your opinions
without support and hoping people will buy them.
51

Keep Your Language Concrete
NOTTHIS BUTTHIS
He was a bad boss. He got a promotion based on his
assistant’s detailed reports, but then—
despite the company’s record profits—
denied that assistant even
routine cost-of-living raises.
The company lost its focus and
struggled.
The CEO acquired five unrelated
subsidiaries—as far afield as a paper
company and a retailer of children’s
toys—and then couldn’t service the $26
million in debt.
52

DiscussionWeek 1:
▪ Locate an example of professional communication from a
reputable online source. It can reflect any aspect of business
communication, from an advertisement or a press release to a
company blog or website. Evaluate this communication effort in
light of any aspect of this lesson that is relevant to the sample
and interesting to you. For example, what medium is used? Is the
piece effective? Ethical?
▪ Write a brief analysis of the piece (2-3 paragraphs), citing specific
elements from the piece and support from the lesson discussed.
▪ Post your analysis in the Discussion. Post at least 2 comments on
others’ posts.

WK_1 Communicating in Today’s Global Business Environment

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