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Business Communication & Report Writing: Jeta Majumder
Business Communication & Report Writing: Jeta Majumder
Jeta Majumder
Assistant Professor
Department of Marketing
University of Dhaka
Introduction to
Business
Communication
Course Outline
Introduction to the course
What is Business Communication?
Resources
Core Textbook:
Lesikar’s Business Communication: Connecting in a Digital
World by Kathryn Rentz and Paula Lentz, 13th Edition, McGraw-
Hill International Edition.
Recommended Textbooks:
Business Communication (7th Edition), A. C.“Buddy” Krizan,
Patricia Merrier, Joyce Logan & Karen Williams (Thomson)
Business Communication Today (10th Edition), Courtland
L.Bovee, John V.Thill & Abha Chatterjee
Business and Administrative Communication by Kitty O. Locker
and Donna S. Kienzler, 10th Edition, McGraw-Hill International
Edition.
Business Communication- Building Critical Skills by Kitty O.
Locker and Stephen Kyo Kaczmarek, 4th Edition, McGraw-Hill
International Edition.
Participative Learning
Interactive Sessions
Participative Discussions
Group Activities
Critical Focus!
Rules!!
Learning Outcomes
1. Understand the meaning of communication
2. Explain why business communication is a
form of problem solving
3. Describe the elements of communication
process
Communication
It comes from Latin word “communis” that means “common”.
It tells us that communication is something involving with
common things.
It represents a common platform of understanding upon
which one can act together or live together.
Communication is the ability of conveying information. It
requires a sender and a receiver. It refers to sharing of
ideas and information.
Purchase
Sales
Administration
Vertical Communication
1. Downward Communication
Flow of information from the top management to middle or
lower level of managers is called downward communication.
superior to subordinate.
o involves direction, instructions, order, advice.
Employees'/workers
Vertical Communication
2. Upward Communication
Employees'/workers
Diagonal Communication
Communication that takes place between a manager and
employees of other workgroups is called diagonal
communication.
It generally does not appear on organizational chart. For
instance - To design a training module a training manager
interacts with Operation personnel to enquire about the way
they perform their task.
External Communication
Communication that takes place between a manager and
external groups such as - suppliers, vendors, banks,
financial institutes etc. For instance - To raise capital the
Managing director would interact with the Bank Manager.
Process of Business Communication
Communication simply means exchange of ideas &
information between two persons.
A person sends a message to another person and gets
the response from the receiver on the message. This
whole phenomenon can be explained as under.
1. Sender’s thoughts:-
The very first step in the process of communication is
generation of thought in the sender’s mind. These
thoughts may be about a request, order, inquiry
production or any other such activity.
2. Encoding / Message:-
The thought generated in the mind of sender is ambiguous and
unable to be communicated unless it is put into a receivable
form. This step is known as encoding where the sender
converts his thought into a message by means of a
language. For example, a sender thinks about having a job.
Now, she/he will put his thought on a paper. That is called job
application. In his/her way, his/her thought becomes a
message.
3. Transmission through media:-
Once a thought is converted into message, it should be
transmitted to the receiver through a suitable medium. This
media might be electronic media as T.V., E-mail, radio etc. or
it may be print media like newspaper, magazines, letters or
merely sound that is transmitted through the medium of air.
4. Noise and Barriers:-
While transmitting the information to the receiver, the
sender faces lots of barriers. These noise and barriers are
explained as under:
(i) On sender’s side:- Noise and barriers may take place
during the process of encoding. Some of them may be
caused by distraction, lack of concentration, typing
mistake, poor language etc.
(ii) In the medium:- Some barriers are caused by medium
such as poor transmission on T.V. and radio misprinting
in newspapers etc.
(iii) On receiver’s side:- The receiver can also create
certain barriers to the receiving of message such as poor
reading ability, emotions, lack of concentration etc.
5. Decoding by Receiver:-
Having received the message from the sender, the receiver
attempts to understand and interpret the message. This
process of converting the language of message into
thoughts is known as decoding. For instance, the receiver,
having received job application, reads the application and
understands the message conveyed by the applicant.
6. Idea Received:-
As soon as the process of decoding is finished, the idea given
by the sender is received by the receiver. It means the
thought that was generated in the mind of sender has been
transmitted to the mind of receiver. In our example, the
sender wanted to inform the receiver about his/her thought of
having a job. Now the receiver has got this idea.
7. Feed back:-
Process of communication is incomplete until the receiver
responds to the sender. This response may be negative,
positive, or for further enquiry. It means when the receiver
of job application welcomes or regrets the sender, the
process of communication is deemed to be complete.
This whole process can be depicted through the following
diagram.
Sender’s Thought Encoding Transmission through media
Noise Decoding
Idea
Feedback
Received
7 C’s of Effective Communication
The 7 C’s provide a checklist for making sure that
your meetings, emails, conference calls, reports,
and presentations are well constructed and clear - so your
audience gets your message.
According to the 7 Cs, communication needs to be:
• Completeness
• Conciseness
• Consideration
• Clarity
• Concreteness
• Courtesy
• Correctness
Completeness
The communication must be complete. It should convey all facts
required by the audience. The sender of the message must take
into consideration the receiver’s mind set and convey the
message accordingly.
Every communication must be complete and adequate.
Incomplete messages keep the receiver guessing, create
misunderstanding and delay actions.
Every person should, therefore, be provided with all the required
facts.
For example, when factory supervisor instructs workers to
produce, she/he must specify the exact size, shape, quality and
cost of the product. Any assumptions behind the messages should
also be clarified.
While answering a letter, all the questions raised in the letter must
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be replied.
A complete communication has following features:
Complete communication develops and enhances
reputation of an organization.
Moreover, they are cost saving as no crucial information
is missing and no additional cost is incurred in
conveying extra message if the communication is
complete.
A complete communication always gives additional
information wherever required. It leaves no questions in
the mind of receiver.
Complete communication helps in better decision-
making by the audience/ readers/ receivers of message
as they get all desired and crucial information.
It persuades the audience.
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Conciseness
Conciseness means expressing or covering much in few
words, i.e, communicating what you want to convey in
least possible words without forgoing the other C’s of
communication.
Conciseness is a necessity for effective communication. Concise
communication has following features:
– It is both time-saving as well as cost-saving.
– It underlines and highlights the main message as it avoids
using excessive and needless words.
– Concise communication provides short and essential
message in limited words to the audience.
– Concise message is more appealing and comprehensible to
the audience.
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– Concise message is non-repetitive in nature.
Communicating what you want to convey in least
possible words.
o Wordy :At the time
o Concise: Now
o Wordy: Due to the fact that
o Concise: Because
Consideration
• Effective communication must take the audience into consideration,
i.e, the audience’s view points, background, mind-set, education
level, etc.
• Make an attempt to visualize your audience, their requirements,
emotions as well as problems. Ensure that the self-respect of the
audience is maintained and their emotions are not at harm. Modify
your words in message to suit the audience’s needs while making
your message complete. Features of considerate communication are
as follows:
– Give emphasis on “you” approach.
– Empathize with the audience and exhibit interest in the audience.
This will stimulate a positive reaction from the audience.
– Show optimism towards your audience. Emphasize on “what is
possible” rather than “what is impossible”. Lay stress on
positive words such as committed, thanks, warm, healthy, help,
61 etc.
Clarity
Clarity implies emphasizing on a specific
message or goal at a time, rather than trying to
achieve too much at once.
Clarity in communication has following features:
It makes understanding easier.
Complete clarity of thoughts and ideas enhances the
meaning of message.
Clear message makes use of exact, appropriate and
concrete words.
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Concreteness
Concrete communication implies being
particular and clear rather than fuzzy and
general.
Concreteness strengthens the confidence.
Concrete message has following features:
It is supported with specific facts and figures.
It makes use of words that are clear and that build
the reputation.
Concrete messages are not misinterpreted.
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Courtesy
Courtesy in message implies the message should show the
sender’s expression as well as should respect the receiver. The
sender of the message should be sincerely polite, judicious,
reflective and enthusiastic. Courteous message has
following features:
Courtesy implies taking into consideration both viewpoints
as well as feelings of the receiver of the message.
Courteous message is positive and focused at the audience.
It makes use of terms showing respect for the receiver of
message.
It is not at all biased.
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Correctness
• Correctness in communication implies that there are no
grammatical errors in communication. Correct
communication has following features:
– The message is exact, correct and well-timed.
– If the communication is correct, it boosts up the confidence
level.
– Correct message has greater impact on the audience/
readers.
– It checks for the precision and accurateness of facts and
figures used in the message.
– It makes use of appropriate and correct language in the
message.
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Communication Barriers
Communication is a process beginning with a sender
who encodes the message and passes it through some
channel to the receiver who decodes the message.
Communication is fruitful if and only if the messages
sent by the sender are interpreted with same meaning
by the receiver.
If any kind of disturbance blocks any step of
communication, the message will be destroyed.
Due to such disturbances, managers in an organization
face severe problems. Thus the managers must locate
such barriers and take steps to get rid of them.
Communication Barriers…
There are several barriers that affects the flow of
communication in an organization.
These barriers interrupt the flow of communication
from the sender to the receiver, thus making
communication ineffective.
It is essential for managers to overcome these barriers.
The main barriers of communication are summarized
on the following slide:
Main barriers of communication
Perceptual and Language Differences: Perception is
generally how each individual interprets the world around him.
All generally want to receive messages which are significant
to them. But any message which is against their values is not
accepted.
A same event may be taken differently by different
individuals. For example : A person is on leave for a month
due to personal reasons (family member being critical). The
HR Manager might be in confusion whether to retain that
employee or not, the immediate manager might think of
replacement because his team’s productivity is being
hampered, the family members might take him as an
emotional support.
Main barriers of communication…
The linguistic differences also lead to communication
breakdown.
Same word may mean different to different
individuals.
For example: consider a word “value”.
What is the value of this Laptop?
I value our relation?
What is the value of learning technical skills?