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1 Establishing a Framework for Business
Communication
IN THIS CHAPTER YOU WILL FIND:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
KEY CONCEPTS
KEY TERMS
CHAPTER OUTLINE
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
REVIEW QUESTIONS & SUGGESTED ANSWERS
FEATURED ASSIGNMENTS
ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS
CASE ASSIGNMENTS
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1Define communication and describe the value of communication in business.
2Explain the communication process model and the ultimate objective of the communication
process.
3Discuss how information flows in an organization.
4Explain how legal and ethical constraints, diversity challenges, changing technology, and
team environment act as contextual forces that influence the process of business
communication.
KEY CONCEPTS
Understanding what communication is and how it occurs is central to successful transactions in
the workplace. Business communication does not take place in a vacuum but is impacted by
various external forces, including legal and ethical constraints, diversity challenges, team
environment, and changing technology.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a
publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
1
KEY TERMS
TERM PAGE TERM PAGE
Chronemics 14 Internal messages 8
Diversity skills 13 Kinesics 14
Downward communication 6 Organizational communication 4
Ethics 10 Proxemics 14
Ethnocentrism 13 Social media
Stakeholders 9
16
External messages 8 Stereotypes 13
Formal communication network 4 Synergy 18
Horizontal (or lateral) communication 8 Team 17
Informal communication network 5 Telecommuting 15
Interferences 4 Upward communication 7
CHAPTER OUTLINE
1-1 Value of Communication 3
1-2 The Communication Process 3
1-3 Communicating within Organizations 4
1-3a Communication Flow in Organizations 4
1-3b Levels of Communication 8
1-4 Contextual Forces Influencing Business Communication 9
1-4a Legal and Ethical Constraints 9
1-4b Diversity Challenges 12
1-4c Changing Technology 14
1-4d Team Environment 17
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1
Define communication and describe the main purpose for value of communication in business.
Value of Communication
Communication is critical to satisfy needs in an individual’s private and professional life.
Students need to be impressed with the importance of communication to be successful in
business. Managers spend up to 80 percent of their time communicating—working in small
groups, writing reports, and speaking with employees and clients. Students can talk with
working business professionals to get a realistic sense of how many communication activities
occur within a given day.
Companies are successful, in part, only when they communicate effectively—both internally
within the company and externally to outside customers and stakeholders. With students, list
the many communication-related activities an organization is involved in.
© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a
publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
2
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 2
Explain the communication process model and the ultimate objective of the communication
process.
The Communication Process
Build upon students’ own experiences communicating. Ask them to briefly give a definition
of communication and draw a picture of how communication happens. Discuss when they
have been in a situation where communication went well and situations when it didn’t.
Relate their experiences with the Transactional Process Model of Communication.
Initiate a class discussion to identify breakdowns in the communication process. You may
repeat the activity, allowing the speaker to use nonverbal signals and to answer questions
from the class. Consider improvements in the communication process and lead students into a
discussion of the communication process model. Discuss the importance of context and an
audience’s experience in understanding the intended message.
Summarize the section by emphasizing the following points:
Communication is complete only when the message has been understood as it was
intended at its destination.
Although it is not always readily available (as in written communication), feedback
normally provides senders with information about the effectiveness of their
messages.
Our ability to understand one another draws upon shared or similar experience.
To illustrate the complexity of the communication process, complete the following
activity:
Have a regular sheet of paper for each member of the class. Ask them to shut their
eyes and follow the instructions given. No one is to peek or to ask questions. Ask
students to fold the paper in half and tear a off a small piece in the lower right-hand
corner. Tell them to fold it in half again and tear off the upper left-hand corner. Have
them fold it in half one more time and tear off the upper-right hand corner. Tell them
to open their eyes and see if anyone has a page that looks like the instructors.
Discuss why there are differences, ambiguity in whether the page is held landscape or
portrait when folding, how the lack of questions and feedback led to different
interpretations, and so forth.
Ask a student to leave the classroom and make a paper airplane from a single piece of
paper or build a model with building blocks. Ask another student to study the design
of the airplane. Tell the class that the student will give them instructions for making
something from a piece of paper. Vary the activity by having the student create a
simple origami object (e.g., paper cup). Complete illustrations are available in
origami books you can obtain from the library or on the Internet.
Ask the student to give the instructions to the class, giving only verbal instructions
(no nonverbal cues) and answering no questions from the class.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 3
Discuss how information flows in an organization.
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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
3
Communicating within Organizations
Because the course is new to most students, vocabulary, theory, and background for later study
are introduced here. Major concepts to cover include the following topics:
The major purpose of communication is to satisfy needs—personal, social, task, or job.
Interpersonal communication grows into group communication, which grows into
organizational communication as size and complexity lead to different needs.
Formal organizations are marked by characteristics that call for increases in the amount and
effectiveness of communication: specialization of individuals and units and interdependence
of individuals and units.
The concept that all people have task and maintenance goals—get the job done and feel good
about themselves—is an important factor in understanding the difference between an
externally imposed system and an internally (within the person) generated system.
Formal and Informal Communication Networks
Discuss formal and informal channels of communication in organizations and the importance
of the grapevine as an informal communication system.
Directions of Communication Flow
Discuss the directions of communication flow within organizations—upward, downward, and
laterally (vertically or horizontally as you view an organizational chart).
Describe the efforts of organizational managers to exercise control and effective coordination.
Levels of Communication
Differentiate between internal and external messages.
Review the basic communication levels: intrapersonal, interpersonal, group, organizational,
and public.
Discuss examples of each level of communication, providing examples from students’
experiences and from business settings.
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 4
Explain how legal and ethical constraints, diversity challenges, team environment, and changing
technology influence the process of business communication.
Contextual Forces Influencing Business Communication
Introduce the concept of environmental “contexts” that influence communication.
Lead a class discussion of changes that have occurred in the business environment over the
last 25 years. Solicit comments on changes that have affected the four external factors:
legal/ethical issues, diversity challenges, changing technology, and team environment.
Summarize with ways that communication has been affected by these changes.
Legal and Ethical Constraints
Initiate a class discussion to arrive at a definition of ethics, which should lead to the
principles of right and wrong that guide individuals in making decisions that affect others.
Then, to initiate a discussion of the foundation of ethical behavior, ask how people know
what’s right and wrong.
Discuss the ethical issues in the “Ethical Dilemmas . . .” section. Explore how morals and
values dictate action.
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Discuss how compromises in personal values can affect a person’s value system. This
discussion should lead naturally into a discussion of commonplace unethical behavior in a
student’s academic life and in the workplace. Encourage students to contribute other
examples from their own experiences. Students’ responses might include the following:
copying from another student’s test paper to achieve a certain grade point average
not contributing a fair share to a group project
plagiarizing on a term paper
copying a computer software program so class assignments can be completed on
one’s own computer rather than in a computer lab
not reporting a student witnessed cheating on an exam
listing false qualifications to increase chances of getting a job, scholarship,
internship, and so on.
To create immediate interest in the topic and to emphasize the widespread presence of unethical
behavior, ask students to locate in a current newspaper or magazine an example of an illegal act
or an unethical act.
Discuss the ethical dilemmas often presented in résumé writing. Discuss the need to be honest
on a résumé. (This topic is discussed further in Chapter 13.)
Initiate class discussion with recent examples from the news (samples follow):
Bernie Madoff, Ponzi scheme
AIG, Lucrative exec bonuses
Tokyo Electrical Power, false report to regulators
Former Illinois Governor Rod Bladgojevich
Enron, Worldcom, & HealthSouth, and other financial scandals
Lance Armstrong’s use of performance enhancing drugs; stripped of Tour de France
titles
Foundation of for Legal and Ethical Behavior
Defining ethics is challenging. Ethics refers to principles of right and wrong that guide decision
making. Explore why businesses should make ethical decisions and what difference it makes
whether they do or don’t.
Causes of Illegal and Unethical Behavior
Emphasize that being aware of the major causes of unethical behavior will assist students in
recognizing the forces that can cause unethical behavior. Recognizing the causes of unethical
behavior is the first step in making business decisions that may require students to compromise
their personal values.
Discuss the causes of unethical behavior in the workplace and each of the examples provided.
To increase relevance, encourage students to share incidents they have experienced or those
reported in the newspapers and magazine articles.
Provide examples to spark ideas.
Excessive emphasis on profits. Ask students to recount other incidents in which ethics
were sacrificed for profit.
Misplaced corporate loyalty. Lead students in a discussion of the seductive quality of
an unethical environment and potential risks and remedies.
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Obsession with personal advancement. Ask students the following question: When
does personal ambition become obsessive?
Expectation of not getting caught. Many people think they will never get caught
downloading music illegally from the internet. The Recording Industry Association
of America (RIAA) estimates 30 billion songs were downloaded illegally between
2004 and 2009. Explore reasons for downloading illegally and what effective
deterrents may be. Additionally, ask students why radar detectors were invented? Is
speeding wrong as long as no police are around?
Unethical tone set by top management. This problem is deep-rooted in the corporate
culture of some organizations. Corporate culture is extremely difficult to change and
can take years. The time factor should, however, not be a deterrent to efforts to bring
about an ethical work environment.
Uncertainty about whether an action is wrong. Find current news stories that explore
legal and ethical issues. For instance, many manufacturers use third world labor to
produce less expensive products. Although legal, discuss such practices and why
organizations may want to avoid actions that may be legal but questionable ethically.
Unwillingness to take an ethical stand. Lead a discussion about whistle-blowing and
the consequences that result. Have students use an online index to locate a newspaper
or magazine article that features whistle-blowers.
Framework for Analyzing Ethical Dilemmas
To introduce the “Four Dimensions of Business Behavior,” lead students in a discussion of
ethical principles or systems that would be helpful in determining whether an issue is ethical.
This discussion will emphasize that various methods can be used to resolve ethical dilemmas
and incorporated into a systematic plan for analyzing ethicality. Having “tools” to use when
faced with an ethical dilemma will help students find solutions that better conform to their
own personal values.
Continue your discussion of analyzing ethical dilemmas by walking students through the
framework on the resource slide by relating it to an ethical issue that has been in the news—
e.g., Bernie Madoff, AIG, Tokyo Electrical Power, Enron, Worldcom, & HealthSouth, and
other financial scandals.
Diversity Challenges
Emphasize that people will have to work in, supervise, and manage businesses in a culturally
diverse environment. Ask students to identify other areas of diversity: social, educational,
geographic, etc. Depending on the cultural mix in your classes, you can do much in the way
of relating the chapter to your community.
Provide examples of U.S. companies that have experienced intercultural blunders:
EuroDisney is a good example of what can go wrong when a company tries to create
a new venture in a foreign country without taking the context of the national culture
into consideration. Executives at EuroDisney presumed U.S. company policies would
be equally as successful at EuroDisney. Immediate problems occurred: Employees
resisted Disney’s disregard for national customs—the unpopular dress code
prohibiting facial hair and limiting make-up and jewelry and the
no-alcohol-in-the-park policy (the French generally include wine with most meals).
When Wal-Mart opened a Supercenter in Mexico City, thousands of local residents
poured in to see and buy the latest products from the United States. Managers
decided to leave the English labels on products when they discovered that Mexican
customers actually preferred products in “American” packaging to the ones with
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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
6
Spanish labels. For Mexicans, buying goods from the United States is a mark of
status.
A similar phenomenon occurred in Moscow. When McDonald’s opened its first
restaurant in the former Soviet Union, Muscovites took home the styrofoam
containers as souvenirs and were willing to stand in line just to sample the food
Americans take for granted here.
Coca-Cola committed an offense similar to McDonald’s when they placed the flags
of the 24 nations participating in the World Cup on their packaging. Among the flags
was Saudi Arabia’s, which includes sacred words from the Koran. Muslims were
incensed, as they believe that holy words should not be used as a sales device, much
less on packaging destined for the trash.
Communication Opportunities and Challenges in Diversity
Whether you present a lecture on this section before students read it or whether you conduct a
session of questions and answers, lecture, and discussion after they have read the chapter, you
should be able to draw on current examples from magazines, newspapers, and television
about problems in intercultural communication.
Barriers to Intercultural Communication
Discuss the barriers that can interfere with intercultural communication and suggestions for
dealing with them.
Lead the class in a discussion of the issue of cultural stereotypes. How do movies and
television stereotype U.S. citizens? Other cultural groups? Have students to discuss the
following scenarios in relation to their school, work, and social lives:
Interpretation of time: Ask students to share experiences.
Personal space requirements: Ask students to share experiences.
Body language: Ask students to share experiences.
Translation limitations: Ask a student who speaks another language to give an
example of an English word for which there is no literal translation into the other
language or vice versa.
Lack of language training: Ask students why the study of foreign languages is not
more highly valued in the U.S.
Have students identify and discuss areas of diversity in the classroom including: age, gender,
race, culture, geographic origin, etc.
Assign students to interview an international student at their institution. Compare challenges
international students face living and getting educated at an institution not in their native
country.
Changing Technology
Technology has increased not eliminated the need for effective communication.
Lead a student discussion about how technology has changed over the last 30 years and what
changes are on the horizon.
Have students brainstorm a list of communication technology products. What are the
advantages? Are there disadvantages?
Discuss what telecommuting/teleworking is. What are the advantages and disadvantages to
employers and employees?
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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
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Lead a student discussion of the various databases of which the average citizen is a part.
What are the advantages? Discuss benefits of data organization, data integrity, and data
security.
Have students brainstorm tasks for which a spreadsheet is useful. Then have them compile a
list of safeguards for proper use of spreadsheets.
Discuss document production software, electronic presentation tools, web publishing tools,
and collaborative software.
To summarize the various types of information technology needed to ensure a company’s
efficiency and effectiveness, have students identify technological solutions to the following
dilemmas:
A memo takes two or three days to get from one department to another.
Solution: Use email instead of memos for routine internal messages.
Sales executives are frustrated about the excessive time spent in air travel for regional
product information meetings.
Solution: Use videoconferencing instead of traveling to meetings.
Telephone tag is a problem for many employees.
Solution: Use voice mail or email.
Proposals with misspelled words often reach supervisors.
Solution: Require the use of spell check on all word processed documents.
Information is lost in crowded file cabinets and cannot be retrieved in time to assist in
decision making.
Solution: Transfer files to electronic databases.
Co-workers, contractors, and bank loan officers frequently need to reach the vice
president of a land development company readily so that they can make or implement
decisions. However, reaching the vice president is nearly impossible as he is often
away from the home office visiting building sites, meeting with contractors,
negotiating bank loans, or traveling between these various locations.
Solution: Provide a cellular phone for the vice president.
Administrative assistants become upset when asked to make changes or revisions in
documents because they have to spend hours retyping entire documents.
Solution: Use word processing software for the creation of documents.
A producer in a California film studio is irritated when filming is stopped to wait for
a scriptwriter working in a remote location to rewrite and mail a portion of script.
These delays are the major cause of a film’s exceeding budget, a common occurrence
for this producer recently.
Solution: Have the writer fax updated scripts rather than mailing.
Team Environment
Work Team Defined
Discuss the influx of the team-oriented approach global business.
Have students bring in a magazine or newspaper article that describes how teams are being
used in a particular business setting.
Lead a discussion as to what terms are used to describe the teams discussed in the articles.
For what tasks and purposes were the teams formed?
Discuss the concept of synergy and 1+1=3. Focus on how the whole can be greater than the
sum of the parts due to the fact that complementary skills of team members result in greater
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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
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results. Furthermore, creativity is fostered through the exchange of ideas and building on each
other’s ideas.
Communication Differences in Work Teams
Lead a discussion in the benefits of work teams. Ask students to list advantages and
disadvantages of teams. Encourage students to contribute other examples from their own
academic life and workplace experiences.
Have students refer to the articles located earlier on teams in business settings.
Discuss what communication issues were different after the formation of teams. Trust, open
exchange, shared leadership, listening, problem solving, conflict resolution, and negotiation,
among other issues, should likely surface.
Maximization of Work Team Effectiveness
Discuss the skills necessary for successful teams.
Lead a discussion on gender, cultural, and age differences that can present barriers to team
communication.
Summary
Lead students in a discussion of the communication issues of a present-day businessperson
and those of a businessperson of 25 years ago. Reflect changes in legal/ethical issues,
diversity, technology, and team environment. What issues would be consistent for the two
groups? What issues would be different?
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1Shadowing a Manager’s Communication Activities: Shadow a business manager for a day.
Keep a log of his/her communication activities for the time period you are observing. Divide
the communication activities into the following categories: (1) attending meetings, (2)
presenting information to groups, (3) explaining procedures and work assignments, (4)
coordinating the work of various employees and departments, (5) evaluating and counseling
employees, (6) promoting the company’s products/services and image, and (7) other
activities. Calculate the percentage of time spent in each activity. Be prepared to share your
results with the class.
Solicit responses that require thought and reflection from students. Compare the percentage
breakdowns calculated by each student.
1. Clocking Your Own Communication Activities: Prepare a record of your listening, speaking,
reading, and writing activities and time spent in each during the hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for
the next two days. You should attempt to record the time spent doing each activity for each
one-hour time block in such a way that you obtain a total time for each activity. Be prepared
to share your distribution with the class.
This activity illustrates the enormous amount of time we spend communicating and how that time
is distributed among various communication activities. A student’s time distribution of
communication activities may reinforce studies showing that a manager’s time is distributed as
follows: listening, 45 percent; speaking, 30 percent; reading, 15 percent; and writing, 10 percent.
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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
9
2. Communication Barriers: In groups of three, develop a list of 10 to 12 annoying habits of
yours or of others that create barriers (verbal and nonverbal) to effective communication.
Classify each according to the portion of the communication process it affects. For each, give
at least one suggestion for improvement.
The lists will probably include items related to interrupting the speaker, ignoring the speaker, not
looking at the speaker, fidgeting, exercising poor personal habits of cleanliness and mannerisms,
passing the buck, getting too far ahead of the speaker, and failing to provide feedback.
3. Organizational Communication Flows: Draw an organizational chart to depict the formal
system of communication within an organization with which you are familiar. How is the
informal system different from the organization chart? How are the five levels of
communication achieved in the organization? Be prepared to discuss these points in class.
Divide students into groups of four to five and instruct them to discuss each student’s analysis of
the external and internal communication system of an organization. Then as a group, students
should attempt to predict management’s reactions to the recommendations. A group leader could
be asked to present a brief report to the class.
4. Identifying Ethical Dilemmas: Using an online index, locate a current newspaper or
magazine article that describes an illegal or unethical act by a business organization or its
employee(s). Choose an incident as closely related as possible to your intended profession.
Be prepared to share details of the incident in an informal presentation to the class.
Selected incidents will vary; the summary may include a reference citation, an overview,
discussion of major points, and an application section that summarizes the contribution of the
article to individuals or the profession
5. Diversity Challenges: Conduct an online search to locate examples of intercultural
communication mistakes made by U.S. companies doing business in another country. How
can an organization improve its diversity awareness to avoid such problems? Be prepared to
share your ideas with the class.
This assignment encourages students to explore current new ideas and analyze diversity issues.
Articles might focus on problems in marketing campaigns, contract negotiations, etc. Improving
diversity awareness involves researching the appropriate culture and determining ways to
communicate effectively.
6. Classroom Diversity Initiative: In your class, locate other students to form a “diverse”
group; your diversity may include age (more than five years difference), gender, race,
culture, geographic origin, etc. Discuss your areas of diversity; then identify three things the
group members all have in common, excluding your school experience. Share your group
experiences with the class.
Use what you have learned about your students to place them in groups with diversity, whether
based on age, race, ethnicity, geography, or experience. Experiences will vary from group to
group. Students should focus on identifying experiences that are different, whether personal or
business related.
7. Technology’s Impact on Communication: In pairs, read and discuss an article from a
current magazine or journal about how technology is affecting communication. Send your
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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
10
instructor a brief email message discussing the major theme of the article. Include a
complete bibliographic entry so the instructor can locate the article. Your instructor will
provide directions for setting up an email account and composing and sending an email
message.
The primary purpose of this assignment is to get students online and familiar with course email
practices. Students should be able to complete the assignment outside of class and without
instructor assistance. The bibliography citation provides application of knowledge that will be
developed further in Chapter 9 and on the Style Cards. If you are following the sequence of
chapters in the text, students will not yet have been exposed to concepts related to message
impact, such as adaptation and strategy. Consequently, evaluation of this assignment should not
focus heavily on such factors. Depending on the editing capabilities of your email system, you
may grade spelling, grammatical content, and basic formatting.
8. Exploring Use of Teams in the Workplace: Using the Internet, locate an article that
describes how a company or organization is using teams in its operation. Write a one-page
abstract of the article.
Located articles will vary; the abstracts should focus on how teams are being used in the
particular organization. Evaluate for clarity, completeness, and conciseness.
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publicly accessible website, in whole or in part
11
