Subject Name: Business Communication

Unit 5: Crisis, International and Group

Communication
Negative News and Crisis Communication

Delivering a Negative News Message

• Communication is constant therefore when an emergency arises; rumors can spin out of control.

• Negative news is something that an audience does not want to hear or receive. However, in an
emergency situation or a time when bad news must be delivered, it is important that the news be
shared as effectively and clearly as possible.

• Choosing how to deliver the message can influence its response a great deal. Some people prefer
their bad news to be direct and concise, at one shot. Others may prefer a less direct approach with a
little touchy language.

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Delivering negative news

Goals to keep in mind when delivering negative news, in person or in written form:

• Be clear and concise in order not to require additional clarification.

• Help the receiver understand and accept the news.

• Maintain trust and respect for the business or organization and for the receiver.

• Avoid legal liability or erroneous admission of guilt or culpability.

• Maintain the relationship, even if a formal association is being terminated.

• Reduce the anxiety associated with the negative news to increase comprehension.

• Achieve the designated business outcome.

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Crisis Communication Plan

• Team members with contact information: The team members can decide what actions to take, carry

out those actions and offer expertise or education in the relevant areas.

• Designated spokesperson: A person needs to be designated as the spokesperson that will listen to

everyone and then speak the common point.

• Meeting place/location: A place where un-disturbed meeting and planning can be done is required

for such a plan.

• Media plan with procedures: To avoid rumors passing on and to enable spreading of the correct and

confirmed news.

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Intercultural & International Business Communication

• Nation to nation and culture to culture the way the business is conducted differs.

• Hence in order to strengthen business communication across cultures and across nations,
some common ground has to be reached.

• Business is enhanced when people from different cultures find new approaches to old
problems, creating solutions by combining cultural perspectives and learning to see issues
from the viewpoint of others.

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Intercultural & International Business Communication

ETHNOCENTRISM

• Refers to the problems in business communication conducted across cultures.

• Ethnocentrism is the belief that one's own cultural group is somehow innately superior to others.

• Ethnocentrism is deceptive because people tend to believe that the values of the culture around them
are absolute values.

• One needs to understand how the perception of a given message changes depending on the culturally
determined viewpoint of those communicating.

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FACTORS AFFECTING CROSS-CULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

• Language

• Environment and Technology

• Social Organization and History

• Conceptions of Authority

• Nonverbal Communication

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FACTORS AFFECTING CROSS-CULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

• Language: Language is one of the most often cited barriers in cross-cultural business

communication. The view that a particular accent suggests loyalty or familiarity to a nation or region is

very common in many languages.

• Environment and Technology: Some people fail to modify their cross-cultural communications to

understand environmental differences because of inflexibility toward culturally learned views of

technology, while cultures have widely divergent views of technology and its role in the world.

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FACTORS AFFECTING CROSS-CULTURAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

• Social Organization and History: Social organization is often determined as per the culture. It is
often difficult to prevent business communication from a judgmental bias when social organization
varies markedly.

• Conceptions of Authority: Every culture has its own distribution of authority in their society. Thought
process of the authority in a given society affect business communication significantly, since they
decide the way of working and transfer of messages based on the relative status or rank of the
message sender and receiver.

• Nonverbal Communication: Knowledge of a culture can also be conveyed through non-verbal

communication like body language, clothing choices, eye contact, touching behavior, and conceptions
of personal space.

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Group Communication

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Group Communication

• When more than two individuals are involved, it is called group communication.

• An individual may belong to one or many groups.

• A group is defined by the number of people sharing common goals which distinguish them
from other groups based on behavior patterns and interpersonal relationships.

• Group communication is interaction and exchange of information between culturally,

geographically or linguistically alike people who are a member of a group.

• In an organization, group communication may be defined as the mode by which the

employees and employers, team members communicate with each other.

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Group Communication

Verbal and Non-Verbal Group Communication

• The communication can be both verbal as well as non-verbal.

• Both the ways of communicating are equally important because it is through this communication that

group members can participate in determining goals, making decisions and solving problems.

Quality Group Communication

• The group members must possess a sense of belonging and mutual respect to each other along with

common goals.

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Group Communication

Group Norms in Group Communication

• Group norms are standards, customs, and behavioral expectations.

• These emerge from the members as a group forms. These are self and group imposed expectations.

Psychologies with group communication

• The more a group discusses, the more, it tends to polarize into two extreme opinions.

• The group either takes cautious decisions, or it takes risky decisions.

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Advantages of Group Communication

• The primary purpose of group communication is to share information.

• A group may communicate to manage conflicts or make decisions to overcome the difficult
circumstances. Group communication helps in generation of ideas because of the different
viewpoints that create a valuable knowledge pool for the organization.

• Group Communication helps the organization come up with more comprehensive solutions.

• A group interacting with superior authorities about some common issues like pay raise,
chances of favorable outcomes

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Disadvantages of Group Communication

• If a few dominate over others, sharing of actual and accurate points of view
may not take place.

• Personally related group members of may get involved in personal

discussion leading them to deviate from the company goals, thus affecting
personal goals.

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Teamwork and Leadership

• Teamwork : Teams are a form of group normally dedicated to production or problem solving and work
is the activity. Teamwork is the collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete
a task in the most effective and efficient way.

• Leadership: In a business setting, this can mean directing workers and colleagues with a strategy to
meet the company's needs.

• Leaders take on the role because they are appointed, elected, or emerge into the role. The group
members play an important role in this process.

• We are not born leaders but may become them if the context or environment requires our skill set.

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Writing Effective Routine and Positive Messages

• It is very crucial that you being a leader know how to write an effective message.

• It’s a three step process to write routine and positive messages:

• Planning: Analyze the situation, gather information, and select the right medium for the
messages.

• Writing: Adapt to the audience. Open by stating the request or main idea, give necessary
details in the body, close with a cordial request for specific action.

• Completing: Revise, produce, proofread and distribute it.

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 Any Questions????
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