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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
1 Define communication and describe the value of communication in business.
2 Explain the communication process model and the ultimate objective of the
communication process.
3 Discuss how information flows in an organization.
4 Explain 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.
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
16
9
External messages
8
Stereotypes
13
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
1-4 Contextual Forces Influencing Business Communication 9
1-4b Diversity Challenges 12
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.
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 did not. 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),
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 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
LEARNING OBJECTIVE 3
Discuss how information flows in an organization.
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
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,
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.
• 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
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 do not.
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.
Obsession with personal advancement. Ask students the following question:
When does personal ambition become obsessive?
Expectation of not getting caught. 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 deeply-rooted in the
corporate culture of some organizations. Corporate culture is extremely
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
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.
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.
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.
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 media 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 programs stereotype U.S. citizens? Other cultural groups? Have students
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.
• 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? What are the disadvantages?
• Discuss what telecommuting/teleworking is. What are the advantages and
disadvantages to employers and employees?
• 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.
Telephone tag is a problem for many employees.
Proposals with misspelled words often reach supervisors.
Information is lost in crowded file cabinets and cannot be retrieved in time to
assist in decision making.
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.
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.
Team Environment
Work Team Defined
• Discuss the influx of the team-oriented approach global business.
• Have students bring in a news-source 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 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.
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
1. Shadowing 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
2. 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
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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.
6. 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
7. 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,
8. 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 instructor a brief email message discussing the major theme of the article.
Include a complete bibliographic entry so the instructor can locate the article.
The primary purpose of this assignment is to get students online and familiar with course
9. 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.
REVIEW QUESTIONS & SUGGESTED ANSWERS
1. What are the three purposes for which people communicate? What percentage
of a manager’s time is spent communicating? Give examples of the types of
communication managers use.
The three purposes of communication are to inform, to persuade, and to entertain.
Managers spend approximately 60 to 80 percent of their time involved in some form of
communication, including attending meetings, writing reports, presenting information to
2. Describe the elements of the Transactional Process Model of Communication,
the various parts and how interference or barriers impede communication.
The Transactional Process Model of Communication includes the following.
a. The sender who creates or encodes a message;
3. How is the formal flow of communication different from the informal flow of
communication?
4. What is the difference between intrapersonal and interpersonal communication?
5. What are some common causes of unethical behavior in the workplace?
The common causes of unethical behavior in the workplace are (a) excessive emphasis on
6. Describe several intercultural communication barriers and how they might be
overcome.
7. What aspect of cultural diversity do you feel will impact you most in your
career: international, intercultural, intergenerational, or gender? Explain your
answer, including how you plan to deal with the challenge.
Answers will vary, but student responses should focus on one of the four listed here,
8. Describe several ways that communication technology can assist individuals and
organizations.
9. What legal and ethical concerns are raised over the use of technology?
10. How does communication in work teams differ from that of traditional
organizations?
11. Why has communication been identified as perhaps the single most important
aspect of team work?
FEATURED ASSIGNMENTS
1. Writing About Your Team Orientation: Take the team player quiz at the Monster
career site and write a brief paper about their team orientation and how being a team
player may affect their career success.
2. Analyzing an Ethical Dilemma: Research a scandal in the business or popular press
using campus resources. Read the article and respond to the following questions:
a. Who are the stakeholders in the case? What does each stand to gain or lose,
depending on your decision?
b. How does the situation described in the case relate to the four-dimension model
shown in Figure 1–4?
c. What factors might influence your decision as the manager in the case?
Students’ answers will vary depending on the article(s) they select.
3. Intercultural Interview: Assemble a group of three and interview an international
student at your institution. Generate a list of English words that have no equivalents
in his or her language. You should also find out about nonverbal communication that
may differ from that used in American culture. Be prepared to share your findings in
a short presentation to the class.
4. Communication Failure: Assemble a group and discuss experiences where
“communication failure” was blamed for problems that occurred in your work,
academic, or personal interactions. Generate three to five additional ways
communication can fail, with suggestions for correcting them. Your instructor may
ask you to share your results in a short presentation.
Sample: Five reasons communications fail:
• It’s not my responsibility: Employees don’t want to shoulder responsibility for
ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS
1. Miscommunication Cause and Solution: Identify and describe a miscommunication
that you have had with a fellow college student, friend, family member, co-worker, or
representative of a company with which you have dealt. Explain the source or cause
of the communication. Was it due to some type of interference? Or was it a problem
with encoding? What feedback might you have given to eliminate the problem?
Some of the interferences that may occur at various stages of the communication process
include:
• Differences in educational level, experience, culture, and other characteristics of the
sender and the receiver increase the complexity of encoding and decoding a message.
Various behaviors can cause breakdowns in the communication process at the encoding
stage, such as when the sender uses:
• Words not present in the receiver’s vocabulary.
2. Formal Network Flows: Identify an organization with which you are part. This
organization can be your workplace, or a church, sports, or university organization
in which you participate. Try to identify the formal network flows that are dominant
in the organization. Does organization primarily flow upward, horizontally, or
downward? Based upon this observation, can you see ways that network flow might
be improved and its benefits to the organization?
Downward communication flows from supervisor to employee, from policy makers to
operating personnel, or from top to bottom on the organization chart. A simple policy
statement from the top of the organization may grow into a formal plan for operation at
Upward communication generally is feedback to downward communication. Accurate
upward communication keeps management informed about the feelings of lower-level
Horizontal or lateral communication describes interactions between organizational
3. History and Development of Your Career Field: Research the history and
development of your chosen career field as well as some of the companies and
organizations that offer employment in that area. How have their business practices
changed over the years? What has been the effect of technology on the
organization(s)? What has been the effect of globalization? Has the legal
environment changed in such a way as to affect its practices and communication?
Ideally, responses would demonstrate an understanding of some of the strategic forces
issues related to technology, globalization and the legal environment that are discussed in
CASE ASSIGNMENT 1
CAN THE UNITED STATES SUCCEED WITHOUT REWARDING RUGGED
INDIVIDUALITY?
A basic element of the fabric of U.S. entrepreneurship is the faith in the ingenuity
of the individual person’s ability to conceive, develop, and profit from a business
endeavor. The frontier spirit and triumph of the individual over looming odds have been a
predominant force in the development of the United States. Such individualism has also
been recognized by organizations, with reward going to those who contribute winning
ideas and efforts.
The recent shift in organizational structures toward team design has caused
management to reassess reward systems that focus on individual recognition and to
consider rewards that are based on team performance. Some fear that removing
Questions
1. How would you respond to those with concerns about loss of individual
incentive? Argue for or against the increased emphasis on team reward, using
either personal examples or examples from business.
Arguments in favor of increased emphasis on team reward include: (a) team reward
2. Structure a reward system that would recognize both individual and team
performance. You may use an organization of your choice to illustrate.
3. Select a specific corporation or nation that has implemented the team model.
Describe the transition away from a hierarchical structure and the consequences
that have resulted from the shift, both positive and negative.
Organizations selected will vary. Focus on how well the student described the transition
from hierarchical structure to teams and the positive and negative consequences that
CASE ASSIGNMENT 2
Your state’s Department of Transportation, in connection with the Governor’s Office, has
proposed a master plan for the expansion of Interstate highway between two major cities
in your state. The freeway currently has four lanes and will be expanded to six lanes. Two
approaches have been proposed: (1) take two years, close major sections of the road
during off hours, and complete the work quickly, or (2) take seven years, keep two lanes
of traffic open at all times, impacting local businesses and residents less. Some feel the
seven year estimate is conservative for the project, especially with over 100 bridges and
overpasses needing significant work as well. The decision has been made to follow
option 1. Prepare a communication plan (list types and frequency of communication
messages that would be appropriate to develop), and be prepared to respond to potential
concerns business owners and the public may have in a press conference to be held where
the decision will be announced.
You are now in a public meeting with a group of citizens responding to their concerns.
Questions
1. Who are potential audiences or groups who would be concerned about the
decision?
2. What communication messages would be appropriate for a variety of the
audiences?
3. Divide the class into groups that develop responses to the hard questions that
may be asked at a press conference. Remind students of the following in
creating responses: acknowledge the emotion, restate the concern expressed,
stay cool and composed and avoid arguing or debating, identify the value or
principle that is the basis of person’s question or feelings. Have groups share
responses to the questions.
a. I own a small business in just in front of where the traffic will be diverted. I
barely make it now. The Chamber of Commerce says that the increased traffic
will cost me 30% of my walk-in business. What are you going to do to keep me
from going into bankruptcy?
