1

Learning Outcome 1
Describe how strong communication skills
will improve your career outlook,
strengthen your credibility, and help you
succeed in today’s competitive digital age
marketplace.

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 Mastering the Tools for Success in
the Twenty-First Century Workplace
Communication Skills in
a Competitive, Networked World:
Mobility and access 24/7

Skills always on display

A learned ability, not inborn

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 Strong Communication Skills:
Your Key to Success

1 Most desirable competencies

in employers’ view

2
Critical to effective job
placement, performance, and
career advancement

3
“Career sifter,” leading to great
job opportunities or out
the door
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 What Are
Communication Skills?
Traditional abilities New requirements

Reading Media savvy, credibility

Listening Analytical thinking
Nonverbal skills Teamwork
Speaking Positions requiring people
Writing skills more likely to resist
automation
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 The Digital Revolution

Social media are playing

an increasingly prominent
role in business.

Life-changing critical
judgments about people are
being made based solely on
their writing ability.

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 The Digital Revolution
Writing matters more than ever;
digital and social media require
more of it, not less.

Messages travel instantly to

distant locations to potentially
huge audiences.

Work teams collaborate even

when physically apart.

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 Workplace Survival Skills
“Communication makes the world go round.
It facilitates human connections, and allows us
to learn, grow and progress. It’s not just about
speaking or reading, but understanding what is
being said—and in some cases what is not being
said.”
—Richard Branson, business tycoon, investor,
and philanthropist
[Source: Branson, R. (2015, May 11). My top 10 quotes on communication. ]

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 The Digital Revolution and You

Your reputation and personal

credibility are vital assets.

Even technical fields require

communication skills.

Professional workplace writing

is in your future.

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 Employers Want Professionalism
Ability to
Excellent oral work in
and written teams
communication
skills Positive social
media presence

Critical thinking
and analytical Professionalism
reasoning and work ethic

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 Your Education
May Determine Your Income
Advantages of a college degree
Higher lifetime earnings

Less unemployment

Wider variety of career options

Access to highest-paying,
fastest-growing careers
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 The Challenges of the Information
Age Workplace
 Rapidly changing communication technologies
 Heightened global competition
 Flattened management hierarchies
 Self-directed work groups and virtual teams
 Anytime, anywhere availability and nonterritorial
offices
 Renewed emphasis on ethics

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 Learning Outcome 2
Confront barriers to effective listening, and
start building your listening skills.

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 Developing Listening Skills
• Many of us are poor listeners.

• We listen at only 25 to 50 percent

efficiency.
• Poor listening skills affect professional
relationships.
• Costly errors may result from poor
listening habits.

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 Barriers to Effective Listening
Nonverbal
Physical distractions Thought
barriers speed
Grandstanding
Psychological Faking
barriers attention
Language
problems

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 Ten Keys to Building
Solid Listening Skills
1 Stop talking.

2 Control your surroundings.

3 Be receptive and keep an open mind.

4 Listen for main points.

5 Capitalize on lag time.

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 Ten Keys to Building
Solid Listening Skills
6 Listen between the lines.

7 Judge ideas, not appearances.

8 Avoid interrupting.

9 Take selective notes to ensure retention.

10 Provide feedback and confirmation.

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 Learning Outcome 3
Explain the features of nonverbal
communication, and recognize the
importance of improving your nonverbal
communication skills.

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 Learning Nonverbal
Communication Skills
Nonverbal communication
includes all unwritten and
unspoken messages, both
intentional and unintentional.

Nonverbal cues can speak

louder than words.

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 Your Body Sends Silent Messages
• Eye contact
• Facial expression
• Posture and gestures
• Time, space, and territory
• Eye appeal of business
documents
• Personal appearance

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 Mastering Nonverbal Skills
Establish and maintain eye contact.

Use posture to show interest.

Reduce or eliminate physical barriers.

Improve your decoding skills.

Probe for more information.

© 2019 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in Ch. 1 / Slide 21
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 Mastering Nonverbal Skills
• Interpret nonverbal meanings
in context.

• Associate with people from

diverse cultures.

• Appreciate the power of appearance.

• Observe yourself on video.

• Enlist friends and family.

© 2019 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in Ch. 1 / Slide 22
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 Learning Outcome 4
Name five common dimensions of
culture, and understand how culture
influences communication and the
use of social media and
communication technology.

© 2019 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in Ch. 1 / Slide 23
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 Recognizing How Culture
Influences Communication
What Is Culture?
The complex system of values, traits,
morals, and customs shared by a
society
A powerful operating force that molds
the way we think, behave, and
communicate
© 2019 Cengage Learning®. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part, except for use as permitted in Ch. 1 / Slide 24
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 Characteristics of High-Context and
Low-Context Cultures
High Context High-Context Cultures
Japanese Relational
Arab Collectivist
Latin American Intuitive
Spanish Contemplative
English
Italian
French
Low-Context Cultures
North American Logical
Scandinavian Linear
German Individualistic
Swiss Action-oriented
Low Context

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a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website or school approved learning management system for classroom use.
 High and Low Context
Low-context cultures
• Tend to be logical, linear, and action oriented.
• Favor explicit messages that they consider
to be objective, professional, and efficient.
High-context cultures
• Tend to be relational, collectivist, intuitive,
and contemplative.
• Leave much unsaid and transmit
communication cues by posture, voice
inflection, gestures, and facial expression.
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 Individualism and Collectivism
Low-context High-context
cultures cultures
• Tend to prefer initiative, • Tend to prefer group
self-assertion, and values, duties, and
personal achievement. decisions.
• Believe in individual • Emphasize membership
action and personal in organizations, groups,
responsibility. and teams.
• Desire a large degree of • Encourage acceptance of
freedom in their group values, duties,
personal lives. and decisions.
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 Time Orientation
Low-context High-context
cultures cultures
• Time is precious. • Time is seen as
• Time correlates unlimited and never-
with productivity, ending.
efficiency, and money. • Time is an opportunity
• Keeping someone to develop interpersonal
waiting is considered relationships.
rude.

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 Power Distance
Hofstede’s Power Distance
Index compares societies based
on how far the less powerful
members of organizations and
institutions accept an unequal
distribution of power.

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 Power Distance
High-power Low-power distance
distance countries countries
Subordinates expect • Subordinates consider
formal hierarchies and themselves as equals of
embrace relatively their supervisors.
authoritarian, • Relationships between
paternalistic power individuals of varying
relationships. power tend to be more
democratic, egalitarian,
and informal.
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 Communication Style
High-context Low-context
cultures cultures
• Rely on nonverbal cues • Emphasize words,
and the total picture to directness, and openness
communicate • People tend to be
• Meanings are embedded informal, impatient, and
at many sociocultural literal.
levels.

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 How Technology and Social Media
Affect Intercultural Communication

Social media may potentially Global businesses adopt

bridge cultural differences as technology to a varying degree,
well as reinforce them. revealing each culture’s values
and norms.

The online environment In real life as online, we

may deepen feelings of gravitate toward people who
isolation. seem like us.

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 Learning Outcome 5
Discuss strategies that help
communicators overcome negative
cultural attitudes and prevent
miscommunication in today’s diverse,
mobile, social-media driven workplace.

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 Becoming Interculturally Proficient
Understanding generalizations
and stereotyping
Remaining open-minded
Practicing empathy
Curbing ethnocentrism
Building cultural self-awareness

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 How We Form Judgments

Stereotype Negative

An oversimplified perception of a
behavior or characteristic applied
uncritically to groups

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 Successful Intercultural
Oral Communication
i m p le Speak sl
Use s lish. and enun
owly
Eng ciate
clearly.

ag e
o ur Che
nc t e com ck fo
E cur a preh r
ac back. ensi
on.
e ed
f

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a license distributed with a certain product or service or otherwise on a password-protected website or school approved learning management system for classroom use.
 Successful Intercultural
Oral Communication

s te n Observe eye Smile when

Li u t
h o messages.
wit ting. appropriate.
rr u p
inte

Follow up Accept
in writing. blame.

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 Successful Intercultural
Written Communication
• Consider local styles • Use short sentences and
and conventions. short paragraphs.

• Hire a translator. • Avoid ambiguous wording.

• Observe titles and • Cite numbers carefully.

rank.

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 Globalization and
Workplace Diversity
North-American
corporations
operate globally.

The domestic
workforce is
becoming more
diverse.

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 Defining Diversity

Age National
origin

Race Religion
Physical
ability
Ethnicity

Sexual
Gender orientation

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  Growing Population Diversity
2010 2020 2050
70
65%
60%
60

50
Percent

46%

40

30%
30

20 19%
16%
13% 13% 13%
10 8%
5% 6%

0
White Non-Hispanics Hispanics African Americans Asians and Pacific Islanders

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 Benefits of a Diverse Workforce
Benefits to consumers, work teams,
and businesses
• A diverse staff is better able to respond to
increasingly diverse customer base locally and
globally.
• Team members with various experiences are more
likely to create products that consumers demand.
• Consumers want to deal with companies
respecting their values.

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 Tips for Communicating With
Diverse Audiences on the Job
• Seek training.
• Understand the value of
differences.
• Learn about your cultural self.
• Make fewer assumptions.
• Build on similarities.

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Ch. 1 / Slide 44