Pham Thi Bich Ngoc

Business communication
Business communication
in the digital age
 Business communication in the digital age

Learning outcomes
Explain how communication skills fuel career success and understand why writing
skills are vital in a digital, mobile, and social-media-driven workplace.
Describe significant trends in today’s dynamic, networked work environment, and
recognize that social media and other communication technologies require
excellent communication skills, in any economic climate.
Examine critically the internal and external flow of communication in
organizations through formal and informal channels, explain the importance of
effective media choices, and understand how to overcome typical barriers to
organizational communication
Business communication in the digital age

Communication skills can fuel career success

 Communication skills matter more than ever before as communication
technology has provided businesspeople with unprecedented mobility and
workers write more, not less.
 Superior communication skills are critical to job placement, performance,
career advancement, and organizational success; they can set you apart from
other candidates.
Workers must write their own messages and use fast communication channels
such as social media that connect vast numbers of people.
Writing skills can be learned; they are not inherent
Business communication in the digital age
Business communication in the digital age

Tools for success in 21century workplace

 Business communication in the digital age

Trends and challenges

in the information age workplace
 New communication technologies such as social media
 Flattened management hierarchies, team-based projects, a diverse workforce,
and the virtual office operating practically 24/7/365 are other significant trends
Workers need new skills and attitudes to collaborate successfully as team
members in workplaces that are increasingly diverse and as potential
telecommuters.
Businesspeople need to have strong communication skills to make effective
decisions and stay connected across time zones as well as vast distances.
Business communication in the digital age

Communication
Technology in a
Mobile and
Social World—
Costs and
Benefits
Business communication in the digital age

Media Richness and Social Presence

Media richness theory attempts to classify media in organizations
according to how much clarifying information they are able to
convey from a sender to a recipient.
Social presence is the degree of salience (being there) between a
sender and receiver using a communication medium.
• Media with high social presence convey warmth and are personal.
Business communication in the digital age

Media Richness and

Social Presence
Business communication in the digital age

Formal communication channels

Business communication in the digital age
 Business communication in the digital age

Improve information flow

 Downward information flow:
• Restructuring & reengineering for shorter communication chains
• Company publications, announcements, meetings, videos, podcasts, and other channels
 Upward Information Flow
• hiring communication coaches to train employees
• asking employees to report customer complaints
• encouraging regular meetings with staff
• providing a trusting, nonthreatening environment in which employees can comfortably share their
observations and ideas with management
• offering incentive programs that encourage employees to collect and share valuable feedback
 Horizontal Information Flow.
• training employees in teamwork and communication techniques
• establishing reward systems based on team achievement rather than individual achievement
• encouraging full participation in team functions
Business communication in the digital age

Informal communication channel

 Grapevine is an informal channel of communication that carries
organizationally relevant gossip.
Respecting the power of the grapevine
Understanding the potential benefits of the grapevine
Using the grapevine productively
• respecting employees’ desire to know
• increasing the amount of information delivered through formal channels
• sharing bad as well as good news
• monitoring the grapevine
• acting promptly to correct misinformation
 Business communication in the digital age

Introducing yourself
Your introduction should include information such as the following:
a. Where did you grow up?
b. What work and extracurricular activities have you engaged in?
c. What are your interests and talents? What are you good at doing?
d. What have you achieved?
e. How familiar are you with various computer technologies?
f. What are your professional and personal goals? Where do you expect to be five
years from now?
g. Name one thing about you that others might not guess when first meeting you.
 Planning
business messages
Business communication in the digital age

Learning outcomes
 Understand the nature of communication and its barriers in the digital era
Summarize the 3-x-3 writing process and explain how it guides a writer.
Analyze the purpose of a message, anticipate its audience, and select the best
communication channel
Employ expert writing techniques such as incorporating audience benefits, the
“you” view, conversational but professional language, a positive and
courteous tone, bias-free language, plain language, and vigorous words
Understand how teams approach collaborative writing projects and what
collaboration tools support team writing
Business communication in the digital age

Communication
Process
 Communication: the
transmission of
information and
meaning from a sender
to a receiver
Business communication in the digital age

Barriers that create

Misunderstanding
Bypassing
Differing frames of reference
Lack of language skill
Distraction
Business communication in the digital age

Business Writing Goals

Purposeful. Economical. Audience oriented.

You will be writing to solve You will try to present ideas clearly You will concentrate on looking at a
problems and convey information. but concisely. Length is not problem from the perspective of
You will have a definite strategy to rewarded. the audience instead of seeing it
fulfill in each message. from your own
Business communication in the digital age

3X3
WRITING
PROCESS
Business communication in the digital age
Business communication in the digital age

Analyzing and Anticipating the Audience

 Determining your purpose:

• Why am I sending this message?

• What do I hope to achieve?
Business communication in the digital age

Analyzing and Anticipating the Audience

Anticipating and Profiling the Audience
Business communication in the digital age

Analyzing and Anticipating the Audience

Selecting the
Best Channel
Business communication in the digital age

Analyzing and Anticipating the Audience

How to select the best channel?
• Importance of the message
• Amount and speed of feedback and interactivity required
• Necessity of a permanent record
• Cost of the channel
• Degree of formality desired
• Confidentiality and sensitivity of the message
• Receiver’s preference and level of technical expertise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E-oqahDnb8&t=291s
Business communication in the digital age

Techniques to Adapt your audience

Spotlight audience benefits.
Cultivate the “you” view.
Sound conversational but professional.
Express yourself positively.
Choose courteous language.
Adopt bias-free language.
Use plain language and familiar words
Business communication in the digital age

Spotlighting Audience Benefits

 Developing the “You” View
Emphasize second-person pronouns (you/your)
instead of first-person pronouns (I/we, us, our)
Business communication in the digital age

Sounding Conversational but Professional

Business communication in the digital age

Levels of Language Use

Unprofessional Conversational Formal

Found in

Some comic strips and Business messages, Scientific writing, legal

songs, some commercials, novels, most documents, scholarly
some conversations, some newspapers, and most books, formal essays,
text and magazines proclamations
e-mail messages
Levels of Language Use
Unprofessional Conversational Formal

Characterized by

Incorrect grammar, Correct grammar and Correct grammar,

unpredictable sentence punctuation, serious tone, complex
structure, inappropriate conversational tone, sentence structure,
punctuation, slang, simple sentence polysyllabic words
vulgarisms structure, familiar words
Business communication in the digital age

Levels of Language Use

Unprofessional Conversational Formal
Examples
wasted ruined annihilated
nab catch apprehend
bad-mouth criticize disparage
dough, bread money currency
stewed, plastered intoxicated, drunk inebriated
I ain’t I’m not I am not
ginormous enormous prodigious
tight frugal penurious
Levels of Language Use
Expressing Yourself Positively
 Hidden Messages
Some words and phrases convey a negative and unpleasant
tone. They may imply a hidden message that the writer does
not intend. Think twice before using the following negative
expressions.

Negative Language Hidden Message

You failed to You are careless
You claim that But I don’t believe you
You are wrong I am right
You do not understand You are not smart
Expressing Courtesy
Employing Bias-Free Language
Employing Bias-Free Language

Mary Ellen Guffey & Dana Loewy, Essentials of Business Communication, 9th Edition Chapter 2, Slide 39
Business communication in the digital age

Using Plain Language

Avoid federalese, bureaucratese, and inflated language.

Federalese: Each person to whom the request is herein addressed is

henceforth solicited to submit, or to have his or her department
representative submit, to the Department of Labor official described
above, a comment on whether the proposed plan, in his or her
considered view, meets the requirements of the 2012 law.

Simple Translation: Please comment on whether the proposed plan

meets the requirements of the 2012 law.
 Using Familiar Words
Avoid long, difficult, and unfamiliar words. Use short,
simple, and common words whenever possible.

Less familiar words Simple alternatives

encounter meet
extrapolate project
obligatory required
terminate end
Using plain language and familiar
words
Using precise, vigorous words
Business communication in the digital age

“Regardless of the changes in

technology, the market for well-crafted
messages will always have an
audience.”

--Steve Burnett
The Burnett
Group
Business communication in the digital age