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1: Professional Communication in a Digital, Social, Mobile World 1-1
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
1.1. Your communication skills will benefit you in the following ways:
Promoting your ideas to colleagues, bosses, investors, and customers
Gaining a competitive advantage in the job market
And your communication skills will contribute to your company in the following ways:
Be-er financial results and higher return for investors
[LO-1] AACSB: Written and oral communication (See MyBCommLab for additional insights)
1.2. The five a-ributes of effective business communication are:
offering compelling, persuasive arguments and recommendations
[LO-1] AACSB: Written and oral communication (See MyBCommLab for additional insights)
1.3. Professionalism can be broken down into six distinct traits: striving to excel, being dependable
1.4. By taking an audience-centered approach to communication, a communicator can focus on the
AACSB: Written and oral communication
1.5. Before they can perceive an incoming message as an actual message, audience members need
1.6. The most common barriers in any communication environment are noise and distractions,
1.7. “BYOD” refers to the “bring your own device” trend, in which employees want to use their own
digital devices to perform work functions and access company information networks (with or
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1: Professional Communication in a Digital, Social, Mobile World 1-2
1.8. Information overload occurs when people receive more information than they can effectively
1.9. An ethical dilemma involves choosing among alternatives that aren’t clear-cut. Perhaps two
APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE
1.11. Business is largely a ma-er of relationships and transactions, both of which are critically
dependent on communication. effective communication fosters closer relationships, which are
1.12. The interactive nature of social media is an invitation for audiences to let their voices be heard in
1.13. Overuse of social media on the job can affect an employee’s ability to receive truly important
business messages because the volume of incoming messages can make it difficult to sense the
1.14. Students will learn more about writing and formaDng messages for mobile devices in
subsequent chapters, but they can answer this question by using what they’ve learned in this
1.15. This situation is an ethical dilemma because it does not present one alternative that is clearly
right and one or more alternatives that are clearly wrong. Both options (informing employees
now about the possibility of a layo# or waiting until you are sure) have positive and negative
elements that can help or harm various stakeholders. For example, if you share the possibility of
Ethical understanding and reasoning (See MyBCommLab for additional insights)
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1: Professional Communication in a Digital, Social, Mobile World 1-3
PRACTICE YOUR SKILLS
1.16. Message for Analysis
Students will recognize this document as ineffective because it presents so many barriers to effective
communication. The blog:
To revise the message, students should start by deleting all the information that isn’t necessary so that
the message can focus on the problem at hand and the potential consequences. To avoid starting with an
accusation, the message could start by reminding employees that accurate time records are a ma-er of
Exercises
1.17. Look for information about students’ majors, hobbies, likes, dislikes, and career plans. The email
1.18. This question provides a good opportunity to discuss the advantages and limitations of utilizing
social media for business communication, specifically the length limitations imposed by a
1.19. This exercise reveals how well students translate the chapter material into a practical analysis of
business communication—the first step to cra@ing more effective messages of their own. Look
1.20. In completing this exercise, students should recognize the often-significant difference between
1.21. This message needs to communicate the importance of the situation without preemptively
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1: Professional Communication in a Digital, Social, Mobile World 1-4
o#ending anyone (since there have been no instances of etique-e mistakes and only a general
concern about them). The first paragraph could provide the general manager with a brief
overview of the situation, describing how customers come in contact with production personnel
1.22. Before writing the report, the team will want to know:
a. The audience’s culture (so that cultural biases can be avoided)
[LO-2] AACSB: Interpersonal relations and teamwork
1.23. Regarding the issue of employee blogs and information that is critical of an employer, a much
stronger case can be made for placing such restrictions than for not doing so. Publicly aired
criticism of internal company ma-ers is likely to cause harm to the company (by scaring away
potential customers, employees, or investors, for instance) while probably doing li-le or nothing
1.24. This exercise challenges students to apply their understanding of the communication process.
Ask them to be specific about how they encoded and transmi-ed the idea they wanted to share;
also ask them to explain exactly how they knew whether the message had been accurately
decoded.
Students might identify such barriers as a difference in perception due to differences in age,
1.25. Students should evaluate the websites using the criteria for effective business communication
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1: Professional Communication in a Digital, Social, Mobile World 1-5
and the discussion of the audience-centered approach. For example, a website that isn’t mobile
1.26. To improve the discussion that this exercise can generate, consider assigning different services to
different students. The wide variety of services students will access can provide powerful
1.27. Students should recognize that the boss’s request itself is potentially unethical, puDng the
employee in a situation of policing his or her colleagues—which will surely lead to circumstances
in which the employee is forced to be disingenuous with colleagues (e.g., not saying anything to
a colleague who steals o0ce supplies but then reporting the behavior to the boss). The
1.28. Here is a brief ethical assessment of each situation:
a. Keeping quiet about the possible environmental hazard would be an ethical lapse that could
possibly affect lives if not wildlife.
[LO-6] AACSB: Ethical understanding and reasoning
1.29. Students should be able to identify dozens of potential violations of Cisco’s Code of Conduct.
Three examples include: entering into or sustaining a business relationship that creates a conflict
of interest with an employee’s professional responsibilities at Cisco; providing financial
ASSISTED GRADING QUESTIONS (accessed on MyBCommLab)
1.30. Critical thinking is an essential aspect of business communication because it involves the ability
to evaluate evidence completely and objectively in order to form logical conclusions and make
1.31. Mobile technology is changing business communication in multiple ways. Students’ answers
should include key points from the chapter:
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1: Professional Communication in a Digital, Social, Mobile World 1-6
[LO-4] AACSB: Information technology
Copyright © 2018 Bovée and Thill LLC
