Business Communication

TY B. Tech
Mr. Sandeep G. Shah
 Course Outline
Lesson 1. Lesson 2.
Introduction, Definitions and Intercultural Communication, Nonverbal
Concepts, Communicative Communication, Thought and Speech,
Competence Translation as a Problematic Discourse

Lesson 3. Lesson 4.
Barriers to Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Relational
Listening, Communication Communication, Organizational Communication,
Rules, Communication Collaboration, Communication in Groups and
Styles Teams, Persuasive Communication

Lesson 5.
Negotiation and conflict management, Leadership, Written Communication in
International Business, Role of Technology in International Business
Communication, Moving to another Culture, Crisis Communication, Ethics in
Business Communication
 Course Evaluation and Assessment
Assessment Assessment Methodologies
End Semester Examination: 60 Marks CA I : Online Quiz

Mid Semester Examination: 20 Marks

MSE: Descriptive Written Test
Continuous Assessment I: 10 Marks
Continuous Assessment II: 10 Marks CA II: Assignment

Total: 100 Marks

 Course Outcomes
At the end of the course students will be able to
• Explain communication as a process and importance of communicative competence. (1)
• Interpret the importance of different types of communication in business environment (2)
• Identify the failures of ineffective communication (3)
• Discover the protocols for effective communication (3)
• Relate effective communication with different processes in an organization (4)
• Extend the role of communication for socializing in an organization and working
collaboratively in a team (4)
• Discover use of written communication, role of technology for ethical communication in
business environments (5)
Why Business Communication is Important?
 Why Business Communication is Important?

Source: LinkedIn
 Why Business Communication is Important?
• You have been asked by the team leader to represent your group in an interview with vice
president of the company. You are naturally nervous and apprehensive (Anxious or fearful).
This is your first meeting with the VP and you are not sure weather you will be able to
communicate the message. Strange thoughts begin to crowd in your mind
• “Will I be able to explain my point of view to the Vice President?”
• “What will I say?”
• “If a question is asked, will I be able to respond?”
• “How will I respond?”
• “Will I be able to live up to the expectations of my group and communicate effectively?”
• etc, etc, ……………….
• Similar other apprehensions to content, methodology, process and strategy of communication come into the picture
 Beginning…
Communication

• "Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions, or emotions by two or "more"

persons.“

• “The connection between two or more people for exchanging their knowledge/ideas is
Communication“

• According to Keith Davis—

"Communication is the process of passing the information and understanding

from one person to another“

Communication is the continuous, complex, collaborative process of

verbal and nonverbal meaning making through which
we construct the words of meaning we inhabit.”
 Beginning…
Business Communication

Business Communication is a process in which one person express their thoughts,

opinions, ideas etc. to another in business organization for carrying out business activities.“

Nature or Characteristics of Business Communication

• Communication involves at least two person...

• Message is must.
• Communication is a two-way process.
• Communication is a continuous process.
• Communication may be written/oral/gestural.
 Beginning…
• Broadly Two Types of Communications : Verbal and Non-verbal

Parameter of
Verbal Communication Non-Verbal Communication
Comparison

Non-verbal communication involves the use of

Verbal communication involves the use of words or
visual or non-verbal cues such as facial
Definition speech or auditory language to express emotions or
expressions, eye or body movements, gestures,
thoughts or exchange information.
and many more without speaking.

Communication Type Formal as well as Informal Informal

Very comprehensive as it shows the actual

Impact of the Message Very impactful as it is documented.
emotions of the person.

Communicates Precise information. Required and at times more information.

Emails, letters, notes, reports, i.e. Anything in written Through Body posture, gestures, eye contacts,
Conveyed Through
and oral format where words are used. face expressions i.e. any form of expression.

Transparency Status Clear and Concise. Complex and sometimes confusing.

 Why do Humans Communicate?
• We communicate…….
• “ To make sense of our worlds”
• We communicate to understand our environment by sending out signals into
our environment and using the feedback from our environment to understand
what different things in our environment mean.
• According to Dance and Larson (1972), we communicate for
• Linking of the individual with his environment,
• Development of higher mental processes, and
• Regulation of behavior
 Communication
Communication is a process which
• Two or more entities come together in a particular context or situation
• These entities exchange some information
• They ascribe (Assign) some meaning,
• May or may not have the intention of acting upon it,
• Or intend that the people this information is exchanged with will act upon it.
• Communication does not happen in isolation.
• Something always precedes it in the form of a stimulus, and something always results from it
in the form of a response.
• The meaning drawn or interpreted from the experience of a communicative or interactive
situation depends upon the context of the people involved in the interactive experience
 Communication
• In simple words, communication is ongoing process which includes transmission
and reception of message.
• It is a meaningful exchange in which ideas, thoughts, emotions and concepts
are transferred.
• Adequate comprehension of the transmitted message and subsequent action
which forms an integral part of this process.
 Communication Models
• Simple Communication Model
• Lasswell’s Model of Communication
• Berlo’s SMCR Model of Communication
 Simple Communication Model 1

Can you identify problem in this model

 Simple Communication Model 2

Can you identify problem in this model

Simple Communication Model 3
 Laswell’s Model of Communication
• Laswell proposed a simplified linear model of the process of communication.
• According to this model the impact of communication depends upon
• Who says? (Sender of the message)

• What? (Content of the message)

• Through which channel?

• To whom? (Receiver)

• With what effect?

• The primary reason why this model was not considered complete was because it did not
take into account the role of noise on the impact of the message or the role of feedback
on future messages
 Berlo’s SMCR Model

▪ Source

▪ Message

▪ Channel

▪ Receiver
 Berlo’s SMCR Model
▪ Source
▪ The communication skills, knowledge, attitude, social system and culture of the Source
influence the way the message is encoded,
▪ i.e. the tone of the message, the directness or indirectness of the message, the desired
goal of the message and so on.

▪ Message
▪ The Message thus encoded, acquires a unique shape with respect to its content, elements,
treatment of its elements, structure and code,
▪ i.e. the language that is used, the words that are selected, the placement of the different
parts of the message, the buffers used between difficult parts of the message and so on.
 Berlo’s SMCR Model
▪ Channel
▪ Channel is the medium of communication,
▪ i.e. auditory(hearing), tactile(touch), visual(vision/see), olfactory(smell) or
gustatory(taste), and in recent times, digital.
▪ The channel through which the message passes also adds some flavor to it in terms of the
sender’s perception of the effectiveness and appropriateness of the channel, and the
receiver’s interpretation of the same channel.

▪ Receiver
▪ The Receiver receives the message and interprets it within his/ her own context which
involves, the receiver’s communication skills, knowledge, attitude, social system, and
culture
▪ These determine how the receiver perceives and interprets the attributes of the original
words that the message has come with and the meaning the receiver gives to the content
that is received.
Berlo’s SMCR Model
 Berlo’s SMCR Model
• Source
• Message
• Channel
• Receiver.
• Sources - consist of communication skills, attitudes, knowledge, social system and culture.
• Message - consists of the content, element, treatments, structure and code.
• Channel - consists of hearing, seeing, touching, smelling and tasting.
• Receiver - block consists of the communication skills, attitude, knowledge, social system and
culture.
Berlo’s SMCR Model
 Berlo’s SMCR Model
Source – The skills of source are important. He has to be advanced in terms of listening skills,
speaking, writing, reading and reasoning. All these five skills are important to develop maturity
and intellectual level. Because of reading, knowledge power develops to shape writing skills. The
reading and reasoning can build analytical power.
Attitude - is most important part of communication because it determines what you want to say.
The attitude towards a subject creates an ability to speak and analyze. This is impacted by
perception of positive or negative attitude.
Content - The attitude towards receiver is important because if you respect the receiver, you can
have a positive feeling and communication would be effective but if you are disrespecting and
the receiver, communication will not be effective, because your heart is not into it. This will be
reflected through personality. Having positive attitude towards receiver is important in the total
 Berlo’s SMCR Model
Knowledge - is important because it develops understanding power of a person to develop
message, content, variety. The treatment, which a person gives, depends on his ability to analysis
things. The knowledge is developed through reading and intellectual development done through
training in colleges or education.
Social system - is important. The interactions in society and with friends, relatives or your family
can guide our social behavior. It is important to do a conversation with wise people. It has been
rightly said, that “one conversation with an intellectual man or with a wise man is more than a
10-year study The social system puts a major impact on attitude and personality development.
Culture is important for receiver or sender because both are impacted by these variables. The
culture, in which you grow up impact's personality, perception and belief. If cultures are
advanced, people are advanced in terms of their emotional maturity. Maturity is essential to
 Berlo’s SMCR Model
If culture is conducive, you have a religious tolerance which gives power to accept people in a
better way.
Content - is important because it is basic idea which promotes us to undergo a treatment.
Treatment is of elements which are to be incorporated. It is structures and systems to be framed.
Coding in language is important. The signs make message more understandable and the receiver
to takes it in an easy way.
Channel- is important because it is a process or voice or energy which transforms through waves
or channel. Channel is a system which transmits message. It could be material, energy, sounds,
and waves. They are transmitted through air and water. Sounds can be transmitted through
various sources of channels. Build a system which makes receiver to understand message.
 Communicative Competence
• Definition
• Different Theories and Propositions
• Four Skills
• Importance
• Importance in Business Environment
• How successful managers are at their day-to-day dealings with the people they deal with
depends greatly on how competent they are in their interactions
• Competency/ Competent : having the ability or skill needed for something
• Competence is an ability of an individual to be effective in a particular job or role
 Communicative Competence
Definition:
Competence is an ability of an individual to be effective in a particular job or role.
It is an ability to communicate competently in specific contexts.
It is Performance in Communication.
It is what a speaker needs to know in order to be communicatively competent in a speech
community.
Origin:
The idea was originally derived from Chomsky’s distinction between competence and
performance.
Communicative Competence
Communicative Competence
 Communicative Competence
There are five types of Communicative Competence:

1. Linguistic Competence

2. Discourse Competence

3. Social Competence

4. Strategic Competence

5. Interculture Competence
 Communicative Competence
Linguistic Competence:

The linguistic competence deals with grammar.

It includes vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, and pronunciation.

It is simply the knowledge of knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary of a
language.

One has to know rules that govern sentence structure, word formation, tenses, sound
interactions, word and phrase meanings, and collocations.

For example:
She is lengthy than me I was boring in the class

She is taller than me I was bored in the class.

 Communicative Competence
Discourse Competence:

It is knowledge of knowing how to interpret the larger context and how to construct longer
stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole.

We organize words, phrases, and sentences and produce and comprehend conversations,
articles, messages, and literature.

We can speak, write, read, and listen to information of various types.

So simply, we know how to build sentences, how to use them, and how to connect them in a
communication setting.
 Communicative Competence
Social Competence:

It is the ability to recognize the effects of contexts on strings of linguistics events and to use the
language appropriate in specific social situations.

Social competence is the awareness of cultural background knowledge, expressions, and social
rules of language.

It includes what you say, when you say and how you say it.

E.g., how to express a particular attitude like respect, friendliness, or what phrases or words will
suit a particular situation.
 Communicative Competence
Strategic Competence:

Strategic competence means that how to use techniques to get conversational fluency.
Strategic competence is the ability to recognize and repair communication breakdowns before,
during, or after they occur.
For instance, the speaker may not know a certain word, thus will plan to either paraphrase, or
ask what that word is in the target language.
Strategic competence asks….
How do I know when I've misunderstood or when someone has misunderstood me?
What do I say then?
How can I express my ideas if I don't know the name of something or the right verb form to use?
What strategies can I use to manage and increase my sociolinguistic and discourse competence?
 Communicative Competence
Intercultural Competence:

Intercultural competence is the ability to function effectively across cultures, to think and act
appropriately, and to communicate and work with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Interculture competence-based activities helps us to understand how we belong to different

communities and are multi-faceted in terms of our cultures.

Bringing a foreign language to the classroom means connecting learners to a world that is
culturally different from their own.
 Importance of Communicative Competence
• Every human being feels the need to communicate in a competent manner.
• It develops an ability to accomplish interpersonal tasks.
• It Helps achieve goals

• Second, the people need to know how to communicate effectively and reach consensus
quickly.
• They need to know how to work through complex issues on their own; they need to know
how to resolve conflicts without relying on a boss.
 Importance of Communicative Competence
• Third, the increasing number of people who work in global organizations drives the demand
for more skillful communicators.
• When people collaborate on projects from offices separated by thousands of miles, when
cultural differences can exacerbate (Intensify / Make matter worse) any shortfalls in
communication, there simply aren’t the same opportunities to build trust and good will.
• Fourth, technology is driving people toward new ways of communicating.
• More and more people are working in virtual offices, spread across multiple (sometimes
moving) locations.
• At dozens of companies, tele-conferencing and e-mail are replacing staff meetings. But virtual
teams can grind to a virtual halt in a hurry if poor communications prevail.
 Importance of Communicative Competence
• Technology certainly increases the amount of communication. But quantity alone improves
very little.
• Technology does nothing to alter the quality of the communication i.e. the human software.
• Fifth, there’s a widespread recognition that the old ways of interaction among employees
have simply reached the end of their useful life span.
• Today, new competitors arise so quickly that organizations that don’t continuously change and
improve are left in the dust.
• Organizational thinkers, like Chris Argyris and Peter Senge, have laid out strong, persuasive
arguments for “learning organizations” in which culture, structure, and interpersonal
behaviors create a process of continuous improvement.
 Communicative Competence in Business Environment
Why is an understanding of communication competence important in the business environment?
The international Business Communication competence is categorized in
• Clarity of the purpose of communication
• Effective interface between the interactants
• Effective sharing of information,
• Consistency in the communication behaviors of leaders.
• The effectiveness of the actual work of managers rests not on what they know but how they
use and share what they know.
• Research has revealed that one of the primary concerns regarding new management trainees
and professionals is the fact that management graduates these days are just not able to
demonstrate their knowledge of the skills they claim to have
 Communicative Competence in Business Environment
• Learn What the situation is:

• Know the situation/episode

• Closed Episode (Known and expected situation)

E.g., Entrance Exam, Term work Evaluation

• Open Episode (Unknown and unexpected situation)

E.g., Job Interviews, Team Meetings

• Know the environment e. g. Workplace/Home

 Communicative Competence in Business Environment
• Learn Who you are dealing with:

• Use of personal constructs

• Physical constructs (tall – short, beautiful – ugly)

• Role constructs (buyer – seller, teacher – student)

• Interaction constructs (friendly – hostile, polite – rude)

• Psychological constructs (motivated – lazy, kind – cruel)

• Note that all of us judge people differently

 Communicative Competence in Business Environment
• Learn to Decide your script
• Depending upon the identified situation, personal constructs decide your
script/dialogue
• Regardless of the script, almost in every situation, be polite and make use of
either of four Magic Words:

• Please, Sorry, Thank You, Excuse Me

 Example
• Learn What the situation is: Lecture
• Know the situation/episode: Lecture of Business Communication
• Closed Episode (Known and expected situation): Time, date, Contents, Audience Decided
• Open Episode: Que and Ans Session
• Know the Environment: Workplace and Classroom mode of Teaching

• Learn Who you are dealing with: T.Y. CSE Students

• Use of personal constructs: Knowledge about the students
• Physical constructs: tall – short, beautiful – smart
• Role constructs: teacher – student
• Interaction constructs: friendly – hostile, polite
• Psychological constructs: motivated – lazy, kind – cruel
 Example
• Learn to Decide your script: Ready with the lecture topic, content and study, Quiz etc
 What Managers Do???
• In a typical business environment managers are engaged in
• Involve (Occupied/Busy)
• Allocation of resources
• Motivation
• Direction/Guide
• Co-ordination
• Monitoring and Evaluation of employees
• Planning for the future
• Reacting to situations and people
• Developing the existing resources and systems
• Bottom Line: As is evident, a large chunk of what managers do involve interaction with
people. This consumes Managers’ lot of time.
 Factors Affecting Competency
• Identity
• a consistent set of attitudes that defines who you are
 Factors Affecting Competency
• Identity
• To understand identity, look at it through the view of the iceberg exercise.
• Icebergs typically have a small portion of their mass visible above the water.
• Most of the iceberg, in whatever form it takes, is below the surface of the water, out of sight.
• If you’re trying to navigate around it, you must make some guesses and hope you aren’t wrong.
• Identity is simply defined as the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is.
• Elements or characteristics of identity would include face, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation,
physical attributes, personality, political affiliations, religious beliefs, professional identities, and so
on.
 Factors Affecting Competency
• Culture
• What is Culture?
• Culture is “…the deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings,
hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and
material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations
through individual and group striving.”
• “manifested through artifacts, concepts and behaviors”
• Culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing
language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
• "Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language, marriage,
music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet visitors, how
we behave with loved ones, and a million other things”
 Factors Affecting Competency
• Culture
• Culture plays an important role in shaping the style of communication.
• Generally, people react to how we speak rather than what we say. ...
• The culture in which individuals are socialized, influences the way they communicate, and
the way individuals communicate can change the culture.
 Culture and Communicative Competence
• It is important to understand the role culture plays in determining what can and cannot be
considered as competence in interaction, and how competence, in turn defines the cultural
environment of the interactants.
• According to Berlo’s SMCR Model, context affects the communication and thus competence.
• A communicator’s competence is a function of the interpretation of the message by the
receiver of the message – a message designed in and carrying characteristics of the sender’s
intra and interpersonal context, the sender’s reasons for designing the message in a certain
manner, and the sender’s reason’s for choosing the channel used to send the message, the
receiver’s interpretation of why message was designed the way it was designed and why the
channel selected was selected, and the receiver’s intra and interpersonal context in which the
message is interpreted.
 Culture and Communicative Competence
• It is virtually impossible to remove all traces of context, preconceived notions, scripts and
bias from any message designed and/ or interpreted by a human being.
• According to Spitzberg (1994), intercultural communication competence is, “An impression
that behavior is appropriate and effective in a given context.”
• Spitzberg describes appropriateness as the enactment of the ‘values, norms, and rules’ of
the relationship between the interactants in an expected or as close to an expected manner
(on both sides) as possible.
• Spitzberg describes effectiveness as the achievement of the intended goal of the message
especially considering the costs incurred and alternatives available to the interactants in case
the goals are not achieved.
 Culture and Communicative Competence
• Spitzberg describes the importance of a balance between appropriateness and effectiveness
of interaction such that,
• “Communication that is inappropriate and ineffective is clearly of low quality
• Communication that is appropriate but ineffective suggests a social chameleon who does
nothing, but also accomplishes no personal objectives through interaction.
• Communication that is inappropriate but effective would include such behaviors such as lying,
cheating, stealing, and so forth, messages that are ethically problematic.”
 Culture and Communicative Competence
• Spitzberg’s model of relational competence
• This model exemplifies the importance of context in interpersonal interactions.
• The model portrays the process of dyadic interaction as a function of two individuals.
• According to this model competence depends upon
• Motivation to Communication
• Knowledge of communication in that context
• Skills in implementing their motivation and knowledge
• According to Spitzberg the model of relational competence describes the interplay between
three systems between the interacting parties:
• Individual system
• Episodic system
• Relational system
 Culture and Communicative Competence
• Individual System
• Includes the characteristics inherent in the interactants
• These are the characteristics or traits individuals possess that help them interact in an
appropriate manner in a social setting.
• Episodic System
• Includes the characteristics or traits or features in the actor that help the coactor perceive
that the actor knows what s/he is doing in the specific interaction.
• These are the characteristics or traits individuals possess that help them interact in an
appropriate manner in a social setting.
• These are those features that help the coactor perceive the actor as a competent
communicator and vice versa in a specific interaction.
 Culture and Communicative Competence
• Relational System
• It is more overarching and inclusive than the individual and episodic systems.
• It includes those features that facilitate competence in interactions “across the entire span of
relationships rather than in just a given episode of interaction.”
 Why is a study of culture important for managers?
• Management, at the very core, means doing what needs to be done with as optimal use of
resources as possible.
• And a manager cannot do all this alone.
• A manager depends upon his/her team and their teams and their teams, and so on. i.e. as
discussed earlier, a lot of what a manager does and can do depends upon the people the
manager deals with.
• And this ‘dealing with’ people involves expression of one’s needs to the people who can fulfill
these needs and the ability to make oneself understood by these people who are in a position
to fulfill one’s needs, and who one may or may not share a background, or common
understanding, or many times, even a common language with!
 Why is a study of culture important for managers?
• And therein comes the need to understand different cultural backgrounds and how these
cultural backgrounds may be influencing the intrapersonal environments of the people one
deals with and how that in turn might be influencing the way people express themselves and
respond to situations.
• Intercultural communication is communication that takes place between people from different
cultures, which may or may not span geo-political boundaries. e.g. India is as diverse as a
country gets in terms of culture.
• The country is administered in 16 different languages with one or two languages, namely,
Hindi and/ or English, used for communication between different regions and states, and with
the Central Administration.
 Why is a study of culture important for managers?
• The facial features of people, the height and build of people, the language people speak, the
way they speak, the food they eat, the way they dress, even the colors and fabric women use
for their saris and the way they drape their saris, the family structure, the kinds of houses they
live in, the customs they follow and so on, vary distinctly especially between states that do not
share a border with each other.

• So, the communication between people living in Amritsar, which is in India, and Lahore, which
is in Pakistan, is much more like each other because of the similarity of spoken language, and
dress, and food etc. (and hence international but not intercultural) than the communication
between people living in Amritsar and say, Lucknow, or Ahmedabad, or Kolkata, which could
possibly be considered intercultural.
 Why is a study of culture important for managers?
• For this, it becomes essential to understand what makes us different from each other. The
sources of difference between people may be
• Race
• Religion
• Ideology
• Nationality
• Ethnicity
• Appearance
• Personal artifacts
• Body structure (Height, weight, height-weight ratio)
• Behavioural style
• Gender
• Sexual identity
• Age
• Family constellation
• Socio-economic status
• Educational qualifications and system of education one has gone through
• Professional and personal experiences, and
• Occupation
 Why is a study of culture important for managers?
• The above list is by no means exhaustive. It only gives us an idea of the categories of
differences that we find between ourselves and the people we interact with.
• After going through the above list, one may ask what the purpose of categorizing people is
especially since the range of attributes we bring to any experience coupled with the
continuous change in our intrapersonal environments due to the continuous dance between
our interactions and experience, make us unique, and not really similar to any other human
being on the planet.
• As discussed earlier, categorization gives us a direction, a way to understand our
environments. The wisdom lies in understanding that the subjects in one category may or may
not have all the attributes of the category assigned to them and are most certainly not clones
or exact replicas of the other subjects in the same category.
 Why is a study of culture important for managers?
• A business application of an attempt to maintain this balance is the fact that in many multi-
national organizations, the line staff are usually referred to as ‘resources (as opposed to being
referred to by their names or designations, as in “Please send x number of resources to this
department” etc.), and at the same time encouraged to approach the human resource
managers or liaison officers with their problems and concerns especially on an individual level.
 Verbal Communication
• According to Stewart (2002), “Communication is the continuous, complex, collaborative
process of verbal and nonverbal meaning-making through which we construct the worlds of
meaning we inhabit.”
• Verbal communication is the use of sounds and words to express yourself, especially in
contrast to using gestures or mannerisms (non-verbal communication).
• An example of verbal communication is saying “No” when someone asks you to do something
you don't want to do.
 Verbal Communication
• The definition proposed by Stewart implies
• Human worlds are made up not simply of objects but of people’s reactions to objects, or
their meanings. This in turn indicates that no individual person can completely control a
communication even, and therefore no single person or action causes, or can be blamed
for, a communication outcome.
• Context, and culture significantly affect the communication process and are, in turn,
significantly affected by it.
• Meanings are collaboratively created by the verbal and nonverbal messages exchanged
between the interactants. These meanings in turn are influenced by the context
accompanying the messages that are being exchanged.
 Verbal Communication
• The definition proposed by Stewart implies
• “The most influential communication events are conversations”. Managers prefer verbal
media, telephone calls, and meetings, over documents.”
• Conversations form a significant part of a managers work, whether it is sharing
information, convincing people to pay attention to an important piece of work, or just
establishing rapport.
 Verbal Communication
• “The most useful single communication skill is nexting”.
• Nexting means doing something to keep the conversation going, responding to what’s just
happened, taking an additional step in the communication process.
• Whenever you face a communication challenge or problem the most helpful question you can
ask yourself is, What can I help happen next and how?”
 Significance of Verbal Communication
• Words are powerful. Words are important tools that help us understand our worlds and stay
connected with our worlds.
• The following footage demonstrates how words came to acquire meaning in the life of
someone who was born with all her facilities but lost her visual and auditory capacities at a
very early age:
Significance of Verbal Communication
 Important Terms with respect to Verbal Communication
• Language is a “set of principles that specify the relations between a sequence of symbols and
a sequence of meanings.” McGlone & Giles (2011).
• “It is a ‘structured system of signs, sounds, gestures, or marks (symbols) that allows people to
express ideas and feelings to others.” (Seiler and Beall, 2005).
• Talk is what we do everyday.
• Speech is the transmission of language using vocal cords.
• Verbal communication is communication using words, which is what language is made up of.
• The primary elements of a language includes
• Words: Symbols that stand for objects and concepts
• Sounds and/ or Script: The ways in which these words are expressed through sounds (usually produced by
human vocal cords) and/ or in writing (or print)
• Grammar: Organization and modification of words through rules
• Meaning: Which may be ‘denotative’ or absolute and ‘connotative’ or contextual
 Important Terms with respect to Verbal Communication
• Some characteristics of language are
• It is symbolic
• It is subjective
• It is rule governed
• Phonological rules govern how sounds are combined to form words
• Syntactic rules govern the way symbols can be arranged or how the different elements of
the sentence are placed
• Pragmatic rules tell us what uses, and interpretations of a message are appropriate in a
given context.
 Important Terms with respect to Verbal Communication
• Some aspects of the interaction in which pragmatic rules of language may be categorized as:
• Content of the message or the actual words that are used
• Speech act or the intent of the message
• Relational contract or the perceived relationship between the communicators
• Episode or the situation in which the interaction occurs
• Life script or the self concept of each communicator
• Cultural archetype or the cultural norms that shape the perceptions and actions of the
interactants
• The following table adapted from Adler, Rosenfeld & Proctor (2004), demonstrates how
pragmatic rules play out in real life situations
 Important Terms with respect to Verbal Communication
Boss (Male) Employee (Female)

Content: Actual words “You look very pretty today”

Speech Act: The intent of a
Compliment an employee Unknown
statement
Relational Contract: The Subordinate employee,
Boss who treats employees like
perceived relationship between dependent on boss’s approval for
family members
communicators advancement
Episode: Situation in which the
Casual conversation Possible come-on by boss?
interaction occurs
Life-script: Self-concept of each Woman determined to succeed
Friendly guy / person
communicator on her own merits
Cultural archetype: Cultural Middle-class family in a relatively
Working-class family in a
norms that shape member’s liberal
relatively conservative city
perceptions & actions city
 Important Terms with respect to Verbal Communication
• The above table describes a typical incident in a typical office environment.
• Let us assume that the boss is a handsome well-educated man in his early 30s from a middle-
class family in a relatively liberal city, and the subordinate employee is a pretty looking woman
in her late 20s from a working-class family in a relatively conservative city.
• The boss perceives himself as a friendly person who makes casual conversations with the
people in his office and treats his employees as buddies and members of his family.
• The subordinate employee belongs to a working-class family in a relatively conservative city
who is now working in a bigger city.
• She sees herself as hard-working woman determined to succeed on her merits.
 Important Terms with respect to Verbal Communication
• One day, as the boss and the subordinate pass each other in the office corridor, the boss looks
at her and says, ‘You look very pretty today’.
• The intent of the comment from the boss’s perspective is to compliment a colleague (in light
of the above-mentioned life script).
• Considering her background, the employee is not sure of what her boss’s intention is.
• The relational contract from the boss’s perspective is a friendly relationship with colleagues
and subordinates.
• The subordinate employee perceives her relationship with her boss as an asymmetrical
relationship in which the boss is in a position to control her progress in her career, and
conversely, she is dependent upon the boss for her advancement in her career.
 Important Terms with respect to Verbal Communication
• When the boss sees her and says, ‘You look very pretty today’, based on what we know about
the boss’s background, we can safely assume that the episode is perceived as the boss as a
casual compliment that is possibly forgotten as soon as both of them leave the scene.
• When the subordinate employee hears the words, ‘You look very pretty today’, based on what
we know about her, we might be able to foresee her as interpreting this statement as a
possible come on by her boss.
• The content is the same, but the interpretation of the same content is based on many
different factors, and in order to communicate competently, one needs to put oneself in the
other person’s shoes and try to see what the other person might have intended.
 Important Terms with respect to Verbal Communication
• Language and interpersonal communication:
Language plays a very significant role in interpersonal communication. Similarity in
understanding of the rules of language is a significant indicator of similarity in interpretation of
the intended message.
• How does language affect interpersonal communication?
Language and thought:
The words we use to understand our environment and respond to our environment, in turn,
shape the way we think about our environment
Some more ways in which language influences our interpersonal communication are:
• Language as Action (McGlone & Giles, 2011):
• Speech Act Theory
• The cooperative principle
 Important Terms with respect to Verbal Communication
Language in interpersonal interaction (McGlone and Giles, 2011)
• Politeness and face management
• Discourse
• Language attitudes
• Communication accommodation
• Language in relational communication
 Non-Verbal Communication
• What is nonverbal communication?
• “Nonverbal communication includes all behaviors, attributes, or objects (except words) that
communicate messages that have social meaning.” (Angell, 2004)
• Speaking literally, ‘non-verbal’ communication is any communication without the use of
words.
• Nonverbal or ‘no word’ communication uses communication through means other than
words.
• The media of transmission of messages through something other than words are collectively
known as modalities. (Burgoon, Guerrero & Manusov, 2011)
• Ekman and Friesen(1969, in Littlejohn, 2002) analyzed the behaviors performed through these
modalities in three different ways:
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Origin: “The source of the act”
• Coding: “The relationship of the act to its meaning”,
• Usage: “The degree to which a nonverbal behavior is intended to convey a message”
• According to Ekman and Friesen (1969, in Littlejohn, 2002), based on the origin, non-verbal
behaviors could be
• “...innate (Natural) [or] built into the nervous system,
• species constant [or] universal behavior required for survival,
• Variant across cultures, groups and individuals.
• ” For example, Crying when sad and laughing when happy could be classified as innate
behaviors.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Forming groups and families could be classified as species specific behaviors and forming or
avoiding eye contact when speaking to a senior member of the group could be classified as
culture-specific nonverbal behaviour.
• According to Ekman and Friesen (1969, in Littlejohn, 2002), based on the usage, nonverbal
behaviors could be classified as:
• Communicative acts: “Used deliberately to convey meaning.”
• For Example , Nodding one’s head when one sees, and acquaintance pass by.
• The nod of the head conveys that one has acknowledged the existence of the acquaintance
who just passed by.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Interactive acts: Acts that “influence the behavior of the other participants”.
• For Example, Turning one’s hand palm up and moving the forefinger towards one’s own self. This
would mean that the person in the direction of the finger is expected to come towards the person
moving his/her finger.
• Informative acts: Acts that convey information without the actual or overt (noticeable) intention to
convey information or meaning.
• For example, Establishing eye contact with someone and walking towards them would, in most
cultures, be interpreted as one’s intention to speak with the person one is walking towards.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Your Body Sends Silent Messages
Eye Contact: The eyes have been called the windows to the soul. Even if they don’t reveal the
soul, the eyes are often the best predictor of a speaker’s true feelings.
• Most of us cannot look another person straight in the eyes and lie.
• As a result, in North American culture we tend to believe people who look directly at us.
• Sustained eye contact suggests trust and admiration; brief eye contact signals fear or stress.
Good eye contact enables the message sender to see whether a receiver is paying attention,
showing respect, responding favorably, or feeling distress.
• From the receiver’s viewpoint, good eye contact, in North American culture, reveals the
speaker’s sincerity, confidence, and truthfulness.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Your Body Sends Silent Messages
Facial Expression: The expression on a person’s face can be almost as revealing of emotion as
the eyes.
• Experts estimate that the human face can display over 250,000 expressions.
• To hide their feelings, some people can control these expressions and maintain “poker faces.”
(an inscrutable (Unreadable) face that reveals no hint of a person's thoughts or feelings)
• Most of us, however, display our emotions openly.
• Raising or lowering the eyebrows, squinting the eyes, swallowing nervously, clenching the
jaw, smiling broadly—these voluntary and involuntary facial expressions can add to or
entirely replace verbal messages.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Your Body Sends Silent Messages
Posture and Gestures: A person’s posture can convey anything from high status and self-
confidence to shyness and submissiveness.
• Leaning toward a speaker suggests attentiveness and interest; pulling away or shrinking back
denotes fear, distrust, anxiety, or disgust.
• Similarly, gestures can communicate entire thoughts via simple movements.
• However, the meanings of some of these movements differ in other cultures.
• Unless you know local customs, they can get you into trouble.
• In the United States and Canada, for example, forming the thumb and forefinger in a circle
means everything is OK.
• But in parts of South America, the OK sign is obscene (Dirty/ Vulgar)
 Non-Verbal Communication
•
Posture and Gestures.
• What does your own body language say about you?
• To take stock of the kinds of messages being sent by your body, ask a classmate to critique
your use of eye contact, facial expression, and body movements.
• Another way to analyze your nonverbal style is to record yourself making a presentation.
• Then study your performance.
• This way you can make sure your nonverbal cues send the same message as your words.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Time, Space, and Territory Send Silent Messages
• In addition to nonverbal messages transmitted by your body, three external elements convey
information in the communication process: time, space, and territory.
• Time: How we structure and use time tells observers about our personalities and attitudes.
• Space : How we order the space around us tells something about ourselves and our
objectives. Whether the space is a bedroom, a board room, or an office, people reveal
themselves in the design and grouping of their furniture. Generally, the more formal the
arrangement, the more formal and closed the communication style.
• Territory : Each of us has a certain area that we feel is our own territory, whether it is a
specific spot or just the space around us.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Time, Space, and Territory Send Silent Messages
• Territory :
• Your father may have a favorite chair in which he is most comfortable, a cook might not
tolerate intruders in the kitchen, and veteran employees may feel that certain work areas and
tools belong to them.
• We all maintain zones of privacy in which we feel comfortable.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Time, Space, and Territory Send Silent Messages
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Appearance sends silent Messages
• Much like the personal appearance of an individual, the physical appearance of a business
document transmits immediate and important nonverbal messages.
• Ideally, these messages should be pleasing to the eye.
• Eye Appeal of Business Documents: The way an e-mail, letter, memo, or report looks can have
either a positive or a negative effect on the receiver.
• Sloppy e-mails send a nonverbal message that you are in a terrific hurry or that you do not
care about the receiver.
• Envelopes—through their postage, stationery, and printing—can suggest that they are routine,
important, or junk mail.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Appearance sends silent Messages
• Letters and reports can look neat, professional, well organized, and attractive—or just the
opposite.
• Personal Appearance : The way you look—your clothing, grooming, and posture—
telegraphs an instant nonverbal message about you.
• Based on what they see, viewers make quick judgments about your status, credibility,
personality, and potential. If you want to be considered professional, think about how you
present yourself.
 Non-Verbal Communication
Codes: The codes or relationships one may expect to find between behaviors and their
meanings could be classified as

• arbitrary “...with no meaning inherent in the sign itself”,

• iconic “...resemble the thing being signified”,

• intrinsic “... Cues (Signal / Indication) contain their meaning within them and are themselves
part of what is being signified.”

The behaviors of the body expressing the above-mentioned relationships may be classified as:
• Body Codes or expression using various parts of the body
• Contact Codes or expression using various forms of physical contact, and
• Spatio-temporal Codes or expression through the way we treat time and the space around us.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Occulesics: Expression transmitted through our eyes.

• Understanding, Avoiding, Masking, Intensifying

• Kinesics: Movement and the messages conveyed to the environment through the way the
body moves.

• Emblems: “… have a verbal translation of a rather precise meaning, [and] … may be either
arbitrary or iconinc.”

• Illustrators: “… are used to depict what is being said verbally [and] … are intentional.”

• Physical actions like drawing pictures in air, pacing motions, sketching, pointing out etc.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Adapters: Facilitate in releasing body tension

• Biting one’s nails, pacing up and down, clicking a pen, moving your foot/leg at a faster
rate in sitting position

Affect displays: “… used to control or coordinate interaction.” e.g. showing the palm of
the hand to someone who we think should stop talking.

Regulators: “…involve the display of feelings and emotions.” e.g. smiling.

• Vocalics: Use of our voice apparatus to add meaning to the words we use.

• Pronunciation, pitch, tone, speed, pauses

 Non-Verbal Communication
• Olfactics: Smells and odors

• Food Smell, Body Smell, Deodorants

• Physical Appearance: One’s treatment of one’s own body sends out signals into the
environment as to how one wants to be treated by the people one is around.
• Height, weight, size of the skeletal frame, height to weight ratio, texture, color, and
treatment of one’s hair (hairstyles, preferred length of one’s hair, accessories etc.), length,
shape, and treatment of one’s nails, color and treatment of one’s skin (lotions, make up,
jewelry, piercings)
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Contact codes refer to the interpretation of touching behavior between human beings.
• Also called as Haptics – Study of touch
• Classification of Contact Codes:
• Depending upon the part of the body that was touched, the pressure applied, and the
duration of touch, haptic behaviors could be classified as:
Functional: Minimal contact preferably hand to hand. A handshake with just the peripheries of
palms touching each other and lasted only a few seconds
Social: More prolonged touch and may involve more than just hand to hand touch but restricted
to arm region. May hold hands a couple of seconds longer than professional touch.
 Non-Verbal Communication
Friendship: Longer than the social touch and may involve touching of body parts other than just
hands or arms. e.g., a casual side hug or front torsos hug.
• Signifies warmth and affection and considered appropriate between family members and
close friends
Love: Prolonged physical contact. Indicate a very close familial or romantic bond between
partners.
 Non-Verbal Communication
• Spatio-Temporal Codes
• Spatio-temporal codes are behaviors related to the treatment of time and space.
• Proxemics: Describes the treatment of personal space between people and what this treatment
indicated regarding the relationship between interacting parties.
• Public space: 12 ft plus
• E.g., Public Assembly
• Social space: 4 to 12 ft
• E.g., Parties
• Personal space: 1.5 to 4 ft
• E.g., Family and Close Friends
• Intimate space: 0 to 1.5 ft
• E.g., Parents and Children or Life Partners
 How Nonverbal Behaviors Support Verbal Behaviors
▪ Repeating
▪ Nonverbal behaviors may repeat the transmission of meanings conveyed by verbal
messages, thereby emphasizing the importance of verbal messages.
▪ E.g. Giving a person verbal instructions on how to reach a certain destination and then
pointing in that direction

▪ Contradicting
▪ Nonverbal behaviors are more spontaneous and difficult to mask. It is commonly said that
one’s eyes are the windows to one’s soul. So, nonverbal behaviors may result in the
transmission of what one is really feeling even if one is saying something totally contrary
to it.
▪ E.g. Shaking and perspiring heavily and stammering while making a speech in which you
claim you are not nervous.
 How Nonverbal Behaviors Support Verbal Behaviors
▪ Accenting
▪ Sometimes, one needs to exaggerate what one is saying, just to get the point across to the
people who can do something about it. At such times, non-verbal expressions can be very
helpful in adding a lot of visual and auditory
▪ E.g. Banging one’s hand on the desk with an accompanying gaze every time one wants to
emphasize a point.

▪ Relating and Regulating

▪ Nonverbal behaviors also serve to effectively regulate the behaviors of others in one’s
environment.
▪ E.g. A head nod, eye movement, or shift in position which signals another person to
continue to speak or stop speaking
 Situations and the Non-Verbal Signals
• Match the Situations with the Signals that affect the Interpersonal Interaction and the Office
Environment
Situations Match Non-Verbal Signals
• Greetings • Occulesics (study of eye movement, eye behavior, gaze, and eye-related
• Business cards nonverbal communication.)
• Introductions • Management of facial expressions
• Dress code • Proxemics (amount of space between two persons)
• Accessories • Haptics (people and animals communicate and interact via the sense of touch)
• Telephone • Chronemics (use of time in nonverbal communication)
• Emails • Language
• Cubicles • Vocalics (the way you speak, such as your tone of voice)
• Offices • Paralanguage (the non-verbal elements of communication used to modify
• Dining meaning and convey emotion)
• Networking • Silence
• Olfactics (communicative functions associated with the sense of smell)
• Artifacts
• Personal Environment
 Situations and the Non-Verbal Signals
Situations Match Non-Verbal Signals
• Greetings Almost • Occulesics (study of eye movement, eye behavior, gaze, and eye-related
• Business cards everything in nonverbal communication.)
• Introductions column on the • Management of facial expressions
• Dress code Right would • Proxemics (amount of space between two persons)
• Accessories impact • Haptics (people and animals communicate and interact via the sense of
• Telephone everything in touch)
• Emails the column on • Chronemics (use of time in nonverbal communication)
• Cubicles the Left and • Language
• Offices these effects • Vocalics (the way you speak, such as your tone of voice)
• Dining would be • Paralanguage (the non-verbal elements of communication used to modify
• Networking interpreted meaning and convey emotion)
within specific • Silence
contexts. • Olfactics (communicative functions associated with the sense of smell)
• Artifacts
• Personal Environment
 Implications of Nonverbal Expressions in the Workplace
▪ In the workplace, nonverbal expressions could affect:
▪ Identity
▪ We are constantly negotiating and managing our identities in order to look good to our own selves
and to the others in our environments.
▪ Nonverbal expressions can make or mark this picture we present of ourselves to our own selves
and to the others in our environments

▪ Impression formation
▪ Impressions are the different ways in which people see us.
▪ We manage impressions about ourselves to convey a specific type of identity to the other people
in our environments.
▪ Our nonverbal expressions, both intended and unintended, affect the formation and management
of these impressions about us in the minds of people around us.
 Implications of Nonverbal Expressions in the Workplace
▪ Conversation management

▪ Nonverbal expressions support our verbal behaviors and assist us with our verbal conversations

with our colleagues.

▪ Emotional expression

▪ Nonverbal expressions convey our emotions. The energy generated when we are experiencing
emotions can support or interfere with the task at hand.
▪ Relational messages

▪ Nonverbal expressions may also serve to convey our perceptions of and our understanding of the

relationship we share with our colleagues.

▪ Deception
▪ Nonverbal expressions may also result in behavior that makes the recipient of the message believe
something that is not true
 Intercultural Communication
• In international business, the failure to understand cultural differences can bear serious
consequences.
• It’s not surprising that intercultural understanding and communication are top priorities for
international businesses today.
• Employees with intercultural communication competence are highly sought-after.
• What is intercultural communication?
• Intercultural communication studies communication across different cultures and social groups
and describes the many communication processes and related issues among groups of
individuals from varied cultural backgrounds.
• Knowing a foreign language is just part of the story. Cultural background, values, and beliefs
also need to be understood. This is where intercultural communication skills are indispensable.
 Intercultural Communication
• They are needed to successfully communicate with people from other cultures and social
groups.
• And intercultural communication skills also include a willingness to be adaptable and accept
that other cultures may communicate and do things differently.
• Definition:
• Intercultural communication essentially means communication across different cultural
boundaries.
• When two or more people with different cultural backgrounds interact and communicate with
each other or one another, we can say that intercultural communication is taking place.
• So intercultural communication can be defined as the sharing of information on different levels
of awareness between people with different cultural backgrounds.
 Intercultural Communication
• Simply Putting: individuals influenced by different cultural groups negotiate shared meaning in
interactions.
• Multicultural communication, Cross Cultural and Intercultural Communication:
• Multicultural refers to how a group or team is composed, in particular a group that is made up
of people with different nationalities. In fact, communication in multicultural settings has
become common place today.
• Cross-cultural means comparing two or more different cultures; so cross-cultural
communication examines the varying communication styles of different cultural groups.
• Intercultural, finally, refers to exchanges taking place between different cultures.
Intercultural Communication
Intercultural Communication
 Intercultural Communication
• Intercultural communication is a symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process, in
which people from different cultures create shared meanings.

• Intercultural communication refers to the effects on communication behavior, when different

cultures interact together. Hence, one way of viewing intercultural communication is as
communication that unfolds in symbolic intercultural spaces.
 Intercultural Communication
• Intercultural communication skills are those required to communicate, or share information,
with people from other cultures and social groups.

• While language skills may be an important part of intercultural communication, they are by no
means the only requirement.

• Intercultural communication also requires an understanding that different cultures have

different customs, standards, social mores, and even thought patterns.

• Finally, good intercultural communication skills requires a willingness to accept these

differences and adapt to them.
 Intercultural Communication
• Starting Point for Intercultural Communication

• A desire for intercultural communication starts from the point of view that communication is
better if it is constructive and does not suffer from misunderstandings and breakdowns.
Intercultural communication requires both knowledge and skills. It also requires
understanding and empathy.
• Effective intercultural communication is a vital skill for anyone working across countries or
continents, including those working for multinational companies either in their home country
or abroad (expatriates).

• It is also crucial for anyone working with people from other cultures to avoid
misunderstandings and even offence. Those studying languages often encounter issues of
intercultural communication.
 Intercultural Communication
• Knowledge for Intercultural Communication
• Key areas of knowledge for improving their intercultural communication are:
• Some knowledge of the cultures, organizations and institutions, history and general way of
living of different communities and nations.
• Recognition that these aspects affect behavioral norms.
• For example, there is considerable ‘history’ between the Greeks and Turks, and therefore it
may be considered potentially a problem to serve Turkish food to a Greek person.
• An understanding of how culture can affect communication and language.
• For example, people from Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden)
are often said to speak more directly than native English speakers who tend to use more
‘polite’ language.
 Intercultural Communication
• Knowledge for Intercultural Communication
• Some understanding of the conventions that may govern behavior in certain specific
intercultural environments, such as views on the role of women, or the license (or otherwise)
permitted to children.
• Crucially, awareness of your own and other people’s beliefs and values, and a willingness to
recognize when these may clash.
• Sensitivity towards cultural stereotypes that may affect and interfere with intercultural
communication.
 Intercultural Communication
• Applying Your Knowledge
• Once you have developed this knowledge and understanding, you can start to apply it to your
communications across cultures and even languages.
 Examples of Intercultural Communication
• American and Indian cultures share certain cultural traits when it comes to communication.
For example, they both tend to value politeness and friendliness. However, they also have
differences. For example:
• Americans tend to communicate explicitly whereas Indians to be implicit.
• Americans are comfortable with dealing with conflict openly whereas in Indian culture it requires
subtlety.
• In the USA, “yes” may have very limited interpretations whereas in India, “yes” can mean many
things.
• Strong eye contact is a positive behavior in the USA whereas in India it can be disrespectful or
aggressive.
• Personal space is expected in the USA whereas in India keeping your distance from someone could
be interpreted as rude or cold.
 Thought and Speech
• Speech :
• The expression of or the ability to express thoughts and feelings by articulate sounds.
• It is also person’s style of speaking.
• Good speech habits are considered as soft skills in the business environment.
• Slang, street talk or bad grammar can give customers a impression that you are not a
professional.
• Employees must be able to convey instructions, orders and guidelines to other employees in a
clear and concise manner.
• The ability to speak well is also related to ability to listen well too.
• Business speeches can be important when it comes to promoting a new achievement or
product.
 Thought and Speech
• Speech :
• Speech means what the speaker says in front of the audience.
• It is fully audience-oriented system, and it promotes social communication.
• Generally, the political leaders, the managers, the businessman or the workers’ leaders use
these language skills sometimes.
• It can build tension, or it can relax tension.
• This system is practiced in human communication, public gathering, at company meetings,
inauguration and seminars etc.
• It needs considerable communication skills, otherwise, it is not effective.
 Thought and Speech
• Speech :
• Human speech is the formal vocal sounds that the speaker addresses through spoken
language words in front the audience gathered in a place to hear massage.
• Characteristics of a good speech:
• Clear: Clarity is the first major characteristic of a good speech.
• Success of speech is fully dependent on the clarity of the idea.
• Otherwise, it will result in bad speech sounds.
• Informal talk: A good speech is closer to a personal and informal chat between two intimate
friends. When somebody speaks, there should be a perfect report between the speaker and
the audience. The employment of speech should appear as an informal speech with tone of
familiarity and mutual understanding.
 Thought and Speech
• Speech :
• Concreteness: Abstractions kill a speech. The successes of human speech are dependent on
its concreteness.
• Concise: The concentration of an average audience does not last more than fifteen to twenty
minutes.
• So, the speeches should be concise. Having a good voice command will also boost
effectiveness of cognitive-communication.
• Interesting: Quotation's anecdotes and humorous touches often make a speech interesting. It
should only be form accepted authorities. They should be familiar but not worn out.
Anecdotes should be new, brief and in good taste. Humor should be topical, spontaneous and
gentle.
 Thought and Speech
• Speech :
• Audience-oriented: A good speech is always tuned to the wavelength of the audience.
• Before giving the speeches, the speaker consider some the points carefully which means is the
audience general or specialized one or how large the audience or what is the age group of the
listener and what are the social, religious, political and economic views of the listeners.
• The speaker should also avoid speech repetition to avoid boring the audience.
 Translation as a Problematic Discourse
• One of the important aspect of intercultural communication.
• Because of global nature of business
• People from different backgrounds come together and work together in one, in the same
environment.
• People from different ideologies, people speaking different languages, thinking in different
languages, come together and agree on common things and work on common goals.
• Styles of learning and problem-solving change across different cultures and people in different
environments think differently about learning and problem solving.
• This play out in your work in a multicultural environment, and this influence the way you work
in a multicultural environment.
 Translation as a Problematic Discourse
• These days, the mobility has increased, and people are moving out of their houses, going to
different cities, people do not think twice about leaving their hometown or leaving their
comforts zone very much these days, because people still can stay connected with their
families.
• The nature of employees has also become multilingual.
• More and more people are speaking more and more languages these days, Indians by default
are multicultural.
• Most organizations have multilingual employees and you do not know what language the
person sitting next to you would be thinking in.
• In India, we do not think twice, we are switching from one language to another, so if I am
thinking about my family, I could be using Marathi and Hindi in my head.
 Translation as a Problematic Discourse
• When we are thinking about work or specifically the theories of communication, it is all
English and when I am thinking about some hobby that I may be interested in, it is mostly in
mother tongue.
• When we come from such different backgrounds our ideologies are at stake when we are
doing something
• Our belief systems are at stake when we are trying to learn something new, do something
different
• Our interests are at stake, we have different kinds of interests in the organization, we have
different personal goals, we have different professional goals.
 Translation as a Problematic Discourse
• And we have this plethora of diversity that is constantly colliding with each other, most of us
come from these different backgrounds and are diverse thoughts, and beliefs and ideals could
be colliding with each other and interfering with the alignment of our comfort's zones.
• So, that is pretty much the issue here that we bring so much of diversity to our workplace,
that it becomes difficult that times to think along the same lines.
• We are translating things constantly.
• Translation is not only across different languages, but it can also be translation across different
technical disciplines, different areas of expertise.
• SMS, FB, Insta etc.
 Translation as a Problematic Discourse
• Translation as an organizational activity is critical to the effective functioning of many
institutions and is becoming ever more commonplace as our society grows increasingly
multilingual and culturally diverse.
• An integrated theory of translation provides a foundation for identifying three major
categories of problematics involving translation in workplaces: inaccuracies, losses of common
sociocultural contexts, and changes to power relationships.
• HOW TRANSLATION CAN BE PROBLAMATIC?
• We think in a language different from the one we speak in or conduct our business in
• Our language and the response to the language we use in our work environments determines
how we frame our future inputs to the organization.
 Translation as a Problematic Discourse
• Translation can cause degradation of meaning or actual context because when we try to
express our thoughts or ideas to our peers we try to oversimplify what we are saying.
• Meaning is embedded on context and lack of familiarity with the context results in inhibition
of the accurate interpretation of the meaning
Translation as a Problematic Discourse
Translation as a Problematic Discourse
Translation as a Problematic Discourse
Translation as a Problematic Discourse
Translation as a Problematic Discourse
Translation as a Problematic Discourse
Translation as a Problematic Discourse
Translation as a Problematic Discourse
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• We can never know the state of mind (the attitudes, feelings and thoughts) of other people:
• Difference in thinking, To enter others comfort zone etc…
• We depend on signals, which are frequently ambiguous, to inform us about the wishes and
attitudes of other people:
• We depend heavily on non-verbal signals to interpret meanings of the words we read and
hear.
• The choice of words, syntax, and language, however, depends upon the context of the
person who designs the message.
• Even if we understand the language we read or hear, the non-verbal signals accompanying the
words we use, obfuscate (Confusion) the interpretation of the meanings of these words.
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• We use our own coding system to decipher these signals:
• Our interpretation of the signals we perceive depends upon our memories of our past
experiences with those signals.
• These memories help us tag the signals we receive with similar memories stored away in
our subconscious.
• Every person goes through a different set of experiences and therefore, has a different type
of memory associated with each experience.
• This, in turn, results in the creation of unique coding systems for the signals each one of us
receives.
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• The way we decode the signals we receive depends on our own state of mind at the time,
and may be biased:
• To add to the complexity of the above-mentioned tags of personal experiences and
memories, our emotions which are constantly being influenced by the experiences we go
through, raise or lower our energy levels, and these elevated or lowered energy levels in
turn affect how we understand and respond to the signals we receive from our
environments.
• When we interact with people who come from backgrounds vastly different from us, we are
likely to run into some problems. Following obstacles, we face while interacting with people
from other cultures:
 Barriers to Communication
• Assumption of similarities:
• When we interact with another person, we tend to assume that the other person perceives
situations concepts and behaviors in manners like ours.
• This, if true, can be very helpful because our message goes through as intended and is
perceived as we intend it to be perceived.
• But, if our assumption is incorrect, which is the case, especially when we interact with people
from different backgrounds, the person receiving our message interprets our message, and
the context that we transmit along with our message, through his/ her own filters and within
his/ her own context.
• This causes differences in the way we intended the message to be perceived and the way it is
really interpreted by the recipient.
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• Assumption of similarities:
• When we interact with another person, we tend to assume that the other person perceives
situations concepts and behaviors in manners like ours.
• This, if true, can be very helpful because our message goes through as intended and is
perceived as we intend it to be perceived.
• But, if our assumption is incorrect, which is the case, especially when we interact with people from
different backgrounds, the person receiving our message interprets our message, and the context that
we transmit along with our message, through his/ her own filters and within his/ her own context.
• This causes differences in the way we intended the message to be perceived and the way it is really
interpreted by the recipient.
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• Language differences:
• We need words to express ourselves to others. These words are language specific.
• We assign words to what sense, feel, or experience.
• But we also come across experiences, sensations, and feelings, that others, who use the same
words (or language) as us, have never experienced.
• We also meet people who have felt, sensed, and experienced in manners different than us,
and so have assigned specific ‘names’ or ‘terms’ to these sensations, feelings, and
experiences.
• This results in differences in our respective vocabularies.
• This leads to gaps or obstacles in the interaction event.
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• Nonverbal misrepresentations:
• Nonverbal signals are ambiguous.
• Nonverbal signals are designed in many ways.
• Each nonverbal signal is subject to multiple interpretations in a myriad of contexts even by the
same set of people.
• For Ex. Interaction between a conversative and non conservative persons.
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• Preconceptions and stereotypes:

• We categorize our perceptions to enhance our understanding of the world

around us.
• Everything we see, hear, taste, smell and touch around us is unique in its
entirety.
• But most of what we perceive has traits or characteristics that can be clubbed
together to form one category.
• We categorize to simplify the complexity of stimuli in our environments. stimuli
that we are not able to fit completely into the categories we have already made.
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• Preconceptions and stereotypes:

• This categorization helps us remember a larger number of things.

• But one big drawback of this categorization is the difficulty we face when we
come across stimuli that we are not able to fit completely into the categories
we have already made.
• At that point, we put these stimuli or collections of stimuli into categories that
seem like the best fit.
• This results in a tendency to ignore the unique features of these stimuli.
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• Preconceptions and stereotypes:

• This process of defining collections of stimuli by the parameters of the category

they are a part of, is called stereotyping.
• Preconceptions and stereotyping act as blinders in perception where, in our
attempt to perceive signals a certain way, we miss out on the bigger picture, and
this leads to misinterpretation of the signals we receive.
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• Tendency to evaluate:
• In addition to categorization of stimuli, we also tend to evaluate or assess or judge the stimuli
we receive.
• This means that we tend to judge situations and people based on our own experiences and
notions of appropriateness.
• Based on this judgement we decide,
• Whether to communicate with them or not
• The structure and content of our message if we decide to communicate
• How to interpret messages that we receive
• We start filtering out messages based on these arbitrary assessments and judgements, and that causes problems in communication
 Barriers to Communication
Why problems arise when two people try to communicate with each other
• High Anxiety:
• Anxiety is the surge of energy we experience when we feel uncertain or unsure of our
environments.
• When we encounter unfamiliar situations, we feel anxious and uncertain about how to deal
with these situations.
• This results in a surge of energy and a choice of decision whether to deal with the situation at
hand or to ignore it (or flee from it).
• This urgent need to decide, sparks of an intrapersonal debate and interferes with the
reception and adequate processing of the stimuli coming to us from our environments.
• This in turn causes problems with communication.
 Barriers to Communication
• Barriers to communication are classified as
• Social barriers
• Barriers related to the transmission of messages
• Physical barriers
• Psychological barriers
• Semantic barriers
• Organizational barriers
 Barriers to Communication
• Social Barriers:
• Are the problems we experience with an interaction situation as a result of the constraints in
our social environment.
• They are further classified as
• Cultural barriers:
• Are the obstacles that come up when two people coming from vastly different backgrounds
interact with each other.
• The difference in the backgrounds and contexts leads them to either miss out on the cues
being transmitted or interpret the messages within their own contexts.
• This causes interpretation of only part of the message and loss of vital information that can
lead to an accurate representation of the intended message.
 Barriers to Communication
• Social Barriers:
• Language barriers:
• Sometimes the language we choose to speak in and the style we use cause problems in our
communication.
• In multilingual societies, an international language usually has hegemony (Dominance) over
the local language.
• Anyone who uses the international language with more finesse (Expertise) is regarded as
someone higher up in the social ladder.
• For example, in India, where most people speak English, Hindi, and a regional language,
anyone speaking fine English is elevated to a higher social position.
 Barriers to Communication
• Social Barriers:
• This creates a social gap between groups of people that use different languages or that prefer
one language over the other.
• In order to bridge this gap, the people who speak the language that is perceived to be inferior
to the language used by the elite, are not paid very much attention to.
• This leads to a breakdown in communication.
 Barriers to Communication
• Social Barriers:
• Gender barriers:
• As they say ,”Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus”.
• Styles of communication are perceived to be gender specific.
• Choice of topics is also found to be gender specific.
• So, when men and women interact with each other, there is a great deal of apprehension
regarding the flow of messages from one gender to another.
 Barriers to Communication
• Social Barriers:
• Interpersonal barriers:
• Sometimes, we just do not like some people, and this dislike forces us to shift our attention to
the other features of these people instead of the content that are being transmitted.
• This dislike is so potent that it colors our perception of the signals coming our way.
• This leads to a breakdown in communication.
 Barriers to Communication
• Barriers related to the medium of transmission of the message:
• Sometimes our perception of the medium we choose to transmit the message differs from the
perception of the person receiving the message.
• We choose the medium of transmission based on our understanding of the appropriateness of
the medium for a particular message, the speed with which the message can be transmitted,
the ease of access of that medium by the receiver, and the response we expect from the
receiver.
• From the receiver’s perspective, the notion of appropriateness, the speed that the message
actually takes, the accessibility of a particular message, and the response the receiver thinks
we expect, could be different.
• The larger these differences, the bigger the gaps between the communicators in the interaction process.
 Barriers to Communication
• Physical barriers:
• Are the obstacles present in the physical environment that prevent us from getting our
message across.
• These may be:
• Design barriers: Sometimes the physical design of the location where the communication
takes place proves to be an impediment (Obstruction) in the transmission of messages.
• For Example, the shape of the room where the conversation is taking place.
• Volume and pitch of the speaker
• Physical ability of the receiver of the message:
• Sometimes the receivers of oral messages are not able to hear properly.
• This causes problems with the reception of messages.
 Barriers to Communication
• Psychological barriers:
• Are related to the psyche or thought processes of the speaker as well as the listener.
• These may further be classified as:
• Attitudinal barriers:
• Attitudes refer to our inclination towards or feelings toward particular people, objects,
concepts, or situations.
• Many times, our reasons for feeling positively or negatively towards particular situations or
people or objects or concepts cannot be explained.
• Despite this and knowing fully well that we may not be able to explain our reasons for
believing the way we do, we tend to let these positive or negative feelings interfere with and
govern the way we frame and receive messages.
 Barriers to Communication
• Psychological barriers:
• Our attitude towards situations, objects, people or concepts prevents us from keeping an open
mind and receiving and sending signals that convey the complete meaning of the messages
being transmitted.
• Emotional barriers:
• As the name suggests, these refer to the interference caused by emotions during interaction.
• For Example, When we are happy, we are in such a need to expel our positive energy that we
are unable to empathize with, or sometimes even find the words and the appropriate
nonverbal expressions to express our empathy towards a friend who may have lost a loved
one.
 Barriers to Communication
• Psychological barriers:
• Perceptual barriers:
• Perceptual barrier refer to the obstacles in our communication because of the way we
perceive the signals coming from our environments.
• One of the first stages in the perceptual subprocess is confrontation, i.e., a choice that we
make in terms of attention to specific stimuli coming from our environments.
• We are constantly being bombarded with stimuli from our environment.
• Based on our past experiences, attitudes, needs and relationship with our environments, we
choose the stimuli we want to respond to.
• This itself poses a barrier in the interaction because when we make our selection of stimuli, we
leave out
 Barriers to Communication
• Psychological barriers:
• Perceptual barriers:
• This itself poses a barrier in the interaction because when we make our selection of stimuli, we
leave out
• Stimuli that we do not understand or stimuli that are vastly different from the ones we have
had experience within the past (Preconceptions)
• Stimuli that we cannot ‘fit’ into categories (We stereotype, i.e., fit stimuli into predefined
categories and then limit our definition of the stimuli in a particular category to the way we
define the category, and this results in the deselection of traits that are unique to stimuli that
may not necessarily represent the category as a whole)
 Barriers to Communication
• Psychological barriers:
• Perceptual barriers:
• Any new information that may help us define what we are experiencing. We assume that we
know what the stimuli we are experiencing can result in, and these assumptions prevent us
from understanding anything new.
• Any information that we cannot associate with past experiences or understanding. This results
in our inability to acknowledge anything that cannot be connected to what we already know.
• For Example, unless we can associate the sounds of the new words, we hear from another
language with the words we already know, we tend to not hear them the way they are spoken.
• Our brain is so busy trying to make that connection that it is not able to grasp or acknowledge
the existence of this new word.
 Barriers to Communication
• Psychological barriers:
• Personality differences:
• Our inclination towards expressing ourselves to our peers categorizes us as extroverts or
introverts.
• The common perception is that extremes on either side are not conducive to effective
communication.
• Introverts tend to be good listeners but not great talkers.
• So, what goes in, stays in.
• The lack of feedback from an introvert who is very good at listening, can be uncomfortable for
a person who wants to continue the conversation.
 Barriers to Communication
• Psychological barriers:
• On the other hand, an introvert expects the person s/he is talking to, to have the patience to
listen to what is being said.
• When an introvert speaks to an extrovert, the introvert expects the extrovert to listen to the
complete account, process it, and then respond to it.
• When the extrovert starts speaking before the introvert has had a chance to complete what
s/he has had a chance to say, the introvert feels insulted or pressured to stop talking.
• This creates problems in the interaction situation.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Semantics in the context of communication refers to the meanings of words.
• Semantic barriers refer to the obstacles caused in communication due to problems with the
interpretation of word meanings.
• Categories of Semantic Barriers:
• Allness: Allness is an attitude of finality in communication.
• Allness refers to a tendency to convey or assume or believe that what someone says about a
particular subject is all there is to say on that subject.
• For example, someone may say that bananas contain large amounts of sugar, which when
consumed produces large amounts of energy (calories) and that makes people fat, which is
bad for health, and so they must be avoided.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• They may not even be open to the idea that in addition to calories, bananas are also one of
the richest sources of potassium, and consuming bananas may be good for health.
• Some ways in which allness may be reduced or dealt with are:
• Indexing: One can tag memories or knowledge of what one is saying with units of the category
the memory belongs to.
• This can stimulate ideas that are connected to what one is saying. This in turn helps accept a
larger range of ideas.
• Date: Using dates for the information one is sharing helps contextualize what is being said,
thereby opening possibilities of and an acceptance of additional perspectives.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Use et cetera: Using the word etcetera is indicative of one’s acknowledgement of additional
opinions or perspectives on what one is talking about.
• Use quotations: Using quotations or acknowledging the author(s) of the ideas one is sharing
helps situate the conversation and the information that is being shared, within a context.
• This, in turn, is indicative of the acknowledgement of the existence of other possibilities
outside.
• Avoid labelling: Labelling is akin to stereotyping.
• Labelling involves attaching pre-decided descriptors (that may or may not fit) to what one is
talking about.
• Avoiding the use of these descriptors enhances one’s ability to accept other points of view.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Be aware of self-reflexiveness
• Keep in mind that the word is not the actual thing, and no word can completely describe the
actual ‘thing’:
• In essence what we describe depends upon our past experiences and our perceptions.
• Both are limited. We may miss out on important information while describing situations
people or concepts.
• The kind of information different people tend to miss out is reflected in the differences in our
behavior.
• This in turn, creates problems, and should be avoided.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Levels of abstraction: This deals with the complexity of concepts we use to define what we
experience.
• In simple words, this could be labelled as ‘non-specific’ conversation where we seem to be
saying too many things about the same thing at the same time.
• Abstraction depends upon:
• Extensional knowledge: This operates on perceptions and uses names, statistics, and
descriptions from actual observation which can be verified by someone else.
• Intentional knowledge: This involves inferences, opinions, assumptions, judgments, and
generalizations. While using intentional knowledge, a person is more concerned with verbal
description of an event than with the event itself.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Abstraction may manifest itself in our conversation as:
• Closed-mind syndromes: Closed mind syndromes stems from allness. We start believing that
since we are exploring various points of view, we are in a person to cover all points of view
there may be about a particular subject, and so others cannot have points of view that we may
not have thought about it.
• Bypassing: Bypassing is the tendency to ignore the fact that the same word can have different
meanings (e.g., run, fast, mouse), and that different words can have the same meaning (e.g.,
restroom, washroom, loo).
• This leads to our unwillingness to understand the other person’s perspective or way of
describing the same things.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• This also leads to our unwillingness to acknowledge that what we are saying may be
interpreted differently by the receiver of our message since the words we use may have
different connotations in different contexts.
• This can lead to a breakdown in communication.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• In order to deal with abstraction, we can:
• Increase our vocabulary by reading and listening to auditory information (conversations,
television and radio programs, movies etc.) that use the language in question: This would
help us realize what else is out there and how what we say might be interpreted.
• Actively seek feedback from the receiver of our messages to find out if what we have said is
being interpreted the way it was intended.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Tendency to evaluate or judge:
• We tend to evaluate or judge the messages we receive based on our past experiences with
that category of messages.
• We evaluate to help us decide whether we are comfortable or uncomfortable with the
information we are receiving and whether we understand what we are receiving.
• Categorization helps us reduce the complexity of information in our environment.
• So, when we are bombarded with information in quantities and complexities that we are
unable to handle individually, and we feel the need to understand it, we tend to evaluate the
information we are receiving.
• This causes problems with effective understanding as we tend to miss out vital information that is connected to what we perceive.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Some ways in which we may evaluate the meanings of words we hear are:
• Confusion of facts with inferences: Sometimes, when facts are presented to us for the sake of
analysis, we take them at face value and decide that these facts are in fact the final message
or the inference.
• An inference is a statement about the unknown made based on the known.
• Collections of facts logically tied in with each other should lead us to an inference.
• For example, one of our students comes and tells us that she has not been able to study
because there was a party the previous night.
• As teachers who feel that students do not want to study and so they find excuses to not come prepared to class, we
assume, based on just one statement, that all students were not able to study because of a party the previous night.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Some ways in which fact inference confusion can be handled are:
• Avoid guessing what is going on in other people’s minds.
• Trust your own interpretation of facts instead of blindly believing any interpretation that
you come across.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Polarization: Polarization refers to ‘either or’ thinking, or judging people and events in terms
of extremes.
• Most of the times situations, people, and concepts are not absolute.
• Human behavior and its reasons are not absolute. They are relative.
• Relative descriptions require more complex thinking and more time to understand.
• In order to simplify our understanding and move on to the next item on our agenda, we tend
to take the easy way out and classify the descriptions we hear and read as good or bad, right
or wrong, this way or that way.
• This leads to misinterpretation of the message and causes problems in communication.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Some ways in which our tendency to polarize may be curbed are:
• Observe the contrary or middle ground
• Specify the degree between the extremes
• Use a quantitative index when possible
• Use substantive middle terms when available
• Recognize differing perceptions as products of different conditionings
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Bias and prejudice: Bias deals with our tendency to skew (Change in Direction) our
understanding of the words we hear in favor of or against particular situations, concepts or
people depending upon how we feel about them.
• Prejudice specifically deals with our hostile (unfriendly) attitude towards people, situations
and concepts that we feel uncomfortable about.
• Prejudice causes us to believe that the people, situations and concepts we dislike are, in fact,
flawed, and any information that indicates otherwise does not need to be taken into account
while trying to understand them.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• This causes us to leave out relevant information while perceiving messages pertaining to the
people situations and concepts we are biased against and add additional information to
complete the picture of goodness and appropriateness while perceiving messages pertaining
to the people, situations and concepts we are biased towards.
• This results in the reception and transmission of an imbalanced message and causes difficulty
in interpretation.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Stereotyping: As discussed earlier, stereotyping is our tendency to define collections of stimuli
in terms of the categories they belong to.
• This leads to the addition or deletion of important descriptors of the situations, people or
concepts that are the subjects of these interactions.
• Some ways in which we can reduce or avoid biases and prejudices and stereotypes are:
• Remember that no two people, statements, or events, are identical
• Remember that all individuals and organizations are constantly undergoing change
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Frozen evaluations: Frozen evaluations are judgments set in concrete.
• At times, we tend to be stuck in our evaluations of people, concepts and situations.
• We may have formed a judgement or an opinion at a different time, under different
circumstances.
• And we are so set in our understanding of what we see and hear that we stick to the same
judgement even in a totally different time and context.
• An example of this could be the belief that an employee who was found to be disloyal five
years ago, is still working against the organization.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Some ways in which we can avoid making frozen evaluations are:
• Ask ‘when’ did a particular event or evaluation take place and question its validity in the
present time and context
• Remember that people and organizations are constantly evolving according to the feedback
they receive from their environments
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Snap judgments: A snap judgment is a direct, uncontrolled immediate response to some
circumstance.
• As the term suggests, snap judgments refer to immediate reactions we have to what we
experience.
• By definition, these are imbalanced interpretations and analyses based on incomplete
information we receive from the environment.
• Since while making snap judgments, we selectively perceive only a small fraction of the
medley (mix) of stimuli we are bombarded with, the interaction is ridden with gaps.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Some ways in which Snap Judgments may be dealt with are:
• Consciously giving oneself the opportunity to consider the words heard and weighing the
evidence before reacting.
• Controlling one’s emotions and considering facts before reacting.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Misuses of the language:
• Sometimes we use language incorrectly or interpret the use of language incorrectly.
• We may do this in the following ways:
• Misuse of small talk: Small talk refers to information exchanged in casual conversations.
• Sometimes, we misinterpret this information exchanged in casual conversations as vital
information on which we can base our decisions and interpretations.
• This, if incorrect, can cause problems with communication.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Misuse of ‘Is’:
• The use of the word, ‘is’ stems from allness and refers to absolute interpretations of events.
• When we use the word, ‘is’, we indicate that our interpretation of events is absolute, and fully
correct, and that there is not and cannot be another interpretation of the events we are
referring to.
• Such absolute interpretation, as one may agree, should be understood as flawed.
 Barriers to Communication
• Semantic barriers:
• Misuse of ‘And’:
• Sometimes we use the word, ‘and’ to connect the content of interaction.
• Sometimes this content contains ideas that may not be related.
• Indiscriminate use of the word, ‘and’ may lead to misinterpretation regarding the existence of
complex relationships where there are none.

• One way of dealing with problems caused due to misuse of language is to remember to
focus on the context of messages in order to understand how they must be interpreted.
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• In professional environment the obstacles are created by organizational structure and
processes.
• According to Lewis (1980), common problems in communication that result in reduced
effectiveness in professional environments are
• “Managers use communication as a corrective process rather than as a preventative
process” :
• This means that managers notice the interactive processes in organizations only when there is
a problem.
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Metaphorically speaking, managers also try to use communication as a medicine to cure
‘diseases’ in the organizational processes instead of as a vitamin that makes the organizational
processes strong enough to prevent and/ or deal with minor breakdowns before these
breakdowns occur.
• “Managers mistake information processing for communication”:
• Information processing is a part of communication.
• The communication event involves reception or information, processing or analysis of this
information, and interpretation of the information that has been received.
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Managers are usually hard pressed for time, and in this hurry, they willingly or unwillingly tend
to start looking for solutions and interpretations while the information is still being processed,
and willingly or unwillingly mistake the information that is being processed as the interpreted
meaning in the communication event.
• “Managers do not have accurate self-concepts of their role in the communication process”:
• Managers usually are not very clear of what they need to do in the communication process.
• Communication is ongoing, and dynamic, and meanings re constantly being constructed and
modified.
• Managers need to find out where and how their contribution to this process can tie in with
other organizational processes.
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• “Managers do not recognize organizational communication as a functional area subject to
improvement and sophistication”:
• We start communicating as soon as we are born.
• We start connecting our thoughts to our speech around the age of 2.
• We grow up believing that communication is the one thing that comes naturally to us and so it
doesn’t deserve any special attention, till we analyze a crisis and realize that the only thing
that caused it was lack or distortion of communication.
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Lewis (1980) categorizes organizational barriers to communication as a result of :
• Different organizational levels
• Faulty transmission of information
• Bypassing
• Blinderedness
• Defensiveness
• Managerial unconcern
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Different organizational levels:
• When the organizational structure is hierarchical, there is a chance of misinterpretation of
messages travelling from one layer of the hierarchy to the next.
• Some ways in which a hierarchical structure in the organization may lead to problems within
the organization are:
• The status relationship
• Lack of understanding of the organization
• Physical distance between members
• Specialization of tasks
• Emphasis on formal vs. informal communication
• Information ownership
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Faulty transmission of information:
• Sometimes, the way we transmit information causes difficulties in understanding the intended
message.
• This may be due to
• Careless use of words
• Receiver-sender deficiencies
• Deliberate filtering within the organization
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Bypassing:
• In the context of organizational communication, bypassing happens “when someone is
dropped from or ignored in the organizational chain of communication.”
• Why Bypassing happens
• When it is necessary to get things done faster
• When it is easier to instruct the operator than to train a supervisor
• When there is an emergency
• When the supervisor tries to corral more responsibility
• When someone is bypassed, they feel confused, anxious, and threatened in some ways. This
may lead to defensiveness or even backlash at their end.
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Blinderedness:
• The term, ‘blinderedness’ was coined by William V. Haney.
• Blinders are the contraptions put on the heads of animals that are used for transportation
(especially horses) that keep them focused on the road ahead of them and make it almost
impossible for them to see anything else around them without turning their heads completely.
• “The manager who appears to be wearing blinders is prevented from seeing more than one
way of doing something.”
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Blinderedness:
• Even though blinderedness helps us stay on track and may be the only way to complete our
work when we are working towards a tight deadline, blinderedness is one of the biggest
barriers to listening and reception of feedback.
• An effective way to deal with blinderedness is to actively and consciously make every effort
possible to acknowledge an appreciate the points of views of others around us.
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Defensiveness:
• Defensiveness is the “act of protecting one’s own views.”
• One becomes defensive when one feels a conscious threat to what one believes in, and
actively tries to protect it usually by asserting oneself.
• Defensiveness usually reflects a “hostile emotional state of mind” where the person
concerned gets ready to actively fight impending challenges.
• Some reasons why people become defensive are:
• When they feel their self image being challenged or threatened in some way.
• When they are unable to tolerate differences from their points of view.
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Managerial Unconcern:
• Managerial unconcern refers to the lack of concern on the part of the managers for the need
their subordinates feel for vital information within the organization.2
• The primary causes of managerial concern regarding this need for information may be:
• Failure to transmit messages because
o Managers assume everyone knows
o Managers are lazy or tend to procrastinate
o Managers tend to hog information
• Organizational culture does not encourage and facilitate optimum quality and quantity of two-
way communication
 Barriers to Communication
• Organizational barriers:
• Managerial Unconcern:
• Preoccupation
• Mind wandering or poor attention span
 Listening
✓ Listening refers specifically to the reception and interpretation of auditory
signals.
✓ Passive listening refers to subconscious perception of sounds by the brain.
✓ When we listen passively, we may not actively listen to achieve a specific goal
or to interpret specific messages, but the sounds received by our brain are
interpreted and stored away into the right memory files.(ex. Listening for
pleasure/casual listening
✓ In effective communication, listening is the active process of receiving,
constructing meaning from, and responding to spoken or non-verbal messages
 Listening
✓ Our brain prioritizes the signals coming to us from our environments through
our sense organs and interprets the signals that are more important and ignores
the ones that aren’t so important.
✓ Active listening refers to a conscious effort to receive and interpret selected
sounds.
 Listening
• Reasons for Active listening
✓ Listening to learn: Consciously listening for new information that can be
incorporated into our existing repertoire of knowledge.
✓ Critical listening: Listening to understand and critically analyze the information
being received so that the said information can be agreed upon, or disputed, or
discussed for further clarity.
✓ Sensitive or empathic listening: Listening with an active effort to understand the
feelings of the speaker.
✓ Dialogue listening: Listening for cues that can facilitate nexting, which can result
in a dialogue between the speakers.
 Listening
• Five Levels of Listening
✓ Ignoring: A form of passive listening, where we may recognize the voice of the
person, say in a crowd, but may not be able to recall the content of the
conversation.
✓ Pretending: We pretend to ‘listen’ to get a gist of what is going on, but may not
necessarily participate in the conversation or remember details of the
interaction
✓ Selective listening: When we listen selectively, we listen actively for specific
information and pick out specific ideas from the input, but we may not be able
to recall the complete message.
 Listening
• Five Levels of Listening
✓ Attentive listening: Attentive listening refers to listening to the complete
message with the intention to understand the message in its entirety.
✓ When we listen attentively, we are able to recall and represent our
understanding of the message including references to specific details of the
message.
✓ Empathic listening: When we listen with empathy, we are able to understand
the message and also relate to the feelings of the speaker.
 Listening
• Stages of Effective Listening
✓ Hearing: Receiving sounds through the ears
✓ Understanding: Interpreting the sounds received through the ears within
specific contexts
✓ Remembering: Tagging understood sounds with existing memory traces
✓ Interpreting: Revisiting remembered understood sounds with the specific
intention to understand where they may have come from and why, and what
they may be aimed towards and why
✓ Evaluating: Deciding whether and how to act upon the interpreted sounds
 Listening
• Common Forms of Ineffective Listening
✓ Pseudo listening or false listening: Pseudo listening takes place when we
pretend to listen, we appear attentive, but we do not take in what is being said.
✓ Monopolizing: Monopolizing refers to the tendency of the person who is
supposed to listen, to hog the scene by talking only about himself or herself
instead of listening.
✓ Selective listening: Selective listening is a form of ineffective listening where the
listener focuses only on particular parts of the interaction.
 Listening
• Common Forms of Ineffective Listening
✓ Defensive listening: Defensiveness refers to a perception of being under attack.
Defensive listening includes actively listening for criticisms, hostile undertones,
or sometimes even accusations, and being mentally ready to fight these
‘threats’ when required
✓ Literal listening: Literal listening refers to listening just for content.
✓ Emotional deafness: Emotional deafness refers to “the mental ‘tuning out’ that
happens when the speaker uses terminology that turns off the listener or uses
words so embodied with feeling that the listener gets caught up in what is being
said.
 Listening
• Intrapersonal Barriers in Listening
✓ Comparing (the speaker to yourself or others): when we are listening to
someone, we start comparing what the speaker is saying, or the style the
speaker is using to say what is being said, by us or someone else who might
have delivered the speech differently
✓ Mind reading : Sometimes we get so involved in what is being said that we try
to predict what will be said next.
✓ Rehearsing (what to say next): Sometimes, when we are participants in the
ongoing interaction, instead of listening to what is being said, we tend to focus
on rehearsing our part.
 Listening
• Intrapersonal Barriers in Listening
✓ Filtering (selective listening): Already discussed
✓ Judging: When we are listening to a message, we have a tendency to assess
(usually before the message has been communicated fully) whether the
message makes sense or not, and whether the information transmitted through
the message is of any use
✓ Identifying (with what is being presented): Sometimes, the subject being
discussed is so interesting or so close to our personal experiences, that we start
connecting to it and feeling it.
 Listening
• Intrapersonal Barriers in Listening
✓ Advising (the speaker): Instead of listening to what is being said, we start
looking for areas for improvement and making mental notes about what can be
changed in the what the speaker is saying.
✓ Sparring (being quick to disagree): Sparring is what we do when we disagree
with what the speaker is saying as soon as the speaker’s words reach our ears.
✓ Being right (our inability to accept criticism): Sometimes, we are so focused on
believing that we are always right, that we are unable to accept criticism. When
we listen to messages, we tend to block out the information that goes against
us or criticizes us.
 Listening
• Intrapersonal Barriers in Listening
✓ Derailing (changing the topic): Sometimes, we tend to be in a hurry to change
topics, and we do not realize that the topic we are about to change has not
been transmitted fully.
✓ Placating (agreeing with everything): Sometimes we tend to agree with
whatever is being said. We do not want to risk being labeled as difficult
listeners, so we agree with everything that is being said without actually
analyzing the message for coherence or consistency
 Listening
• Feedback as an Application of Listening
✓ Feedback is described as …a basic response to what is heard, read, or seen;
information that is fed back to the sender, indicating to what degree a message
has been understood, believed, assimilated (Grasped), and accepted
✓ Two ways to work out on feedback:
✓ Critical Listening: involves analyzing and assessing the accuracy of the
information presented, determining the reasonableness of its conclusions,
and evaluating its presenter.
✓ Critical Thinking, i.e. the ability to analyze and assess the accuracy of the
information presented.
 Listening
• Delivering Feedback
✓ Be assertive (Positive) and dynamic
✓ Be dynamic, fair and credible
✓ Be relaxed and responsive
✓ Preserve face or the public image of the person receiving the feedback by being
as respectful as possible and presenting the feedback as a mutual function
instead of an allegation.
✓ The person giving feedback should be direct and specific to minimize the
chances of misinterpretation.
 Listening
• Delivering Feedback
✓ Support feedback by evidence to ensure credibility of the reasons for feedback
and convince the recipient of the feedback that the feedback is necessary.
✓ Sandwich the negative messages between positive ones to help the recipient
tune her/himself to receive the negative messages
✓ Deliver feedback close to occurrence
 Listening
• Receiving Feedback
✓ Accept criticism gracefully
✓ Take the lead to find mutually acceptable solutions to the problems
✓ Thank the person giving the feedback
Active Listening Skills
Active Listening Skills
Active Listening Skills
Active Listening Skills
 Communication Rules
✓ Although there are many rules to become a good communicator, following 7
rules (Commonly Called as 7 Cs of communication) are useful.
 Communication Rules
✓ Clear:
✓ There are several stages to clarity.
✓ Firstly, it’s important to be clear about the purpose of the message you’re
delivering. The recipient should be made aware of why they are receiving
the message and what you’re trying to achieve by delivering it. If there are
multiple goals, each should be laid out separately.
✓ Secondly, it’s essential that the content of the communication is itself clear.
You should avoid jargon, use simple language, use simple structures and
focus on the core points of your message.
 Communication Rules
✓ Correct:
✓ It’s essential that both the factual information and the language and grammar
you use are correct.
✓ If your audience spots errors in either, they will be distracted, and your
credibility will be greatly reduced.
✓ This will reduce the effectiveness of your communication.
 Communication Rules
✓ Complete:
✓ Completeness is often one of the most important of the 7 Cs of communication.
✓ When creating a message, it’s important to give the recipient all of the
information they need to follow your line of reasoning and to reach the same
conclusions you have.
✓ This level of detail will be different in different situations, and you should adjust
your communications accordingly.
✓ In addition, you should make things as easy as possible for the recipient. For
example, if you are issuing a “call to action”, provide explicit guidance on that
 Communication Rules
✓ Complete:
✓ Increasingly it’s common to include things like hyperlinks in written
communications or to attach FAQs, both of which help audiences access a
complete set of information while also ensuring that core communications
focus on core messages.
 Communication Rules
✓ Concrete:
✓ When shaping your communication, you must ensure that you are specific and
that the logic and messages that you’re using fit together, build on each other
and support each other.
✓ Your arguments should be based on solid facts and opinions from credible
sources, and you should share irrefutable (indisputable) data to support your
argument.
✓ It may be important to help bring the solid nature of what you’ve created to life for
your audience through examples that show the relevance of your messages for
them as individuals.
 Communication Rules
✓ Concise:
✓ When communicating messages, it’s important to stick to the point and keep
your messages short and simple.
✓ Don’t use 10 words if you can use five.
✓ Don’t repeat your messages.
✓ The more you say, the more risk there is of confusion.
✓ Avoid that risk by focusing solely on the key points you need to deliver.
 Communication Rules
✓ Courteous (Well Mannered):
✓ You can increase the effectiveness of your communications by being polite and
showing your audience that you respect them.
✓ Your messages should be friendly, professional, considerate, respectful, open
and honest.
✓ To help ensure you are courteous, you should always use some empathy and
consider your messages from the point of view of the audience.
 Communication Rules
✓ Courteous (Well Mannered):
✓ You can increase the effectiveness of your communications by being polite and
showing your audience that you respect them.
✓ Your messages should be friendly, professional, considerate, respectful, open
and honest.
✓ To help ensure you are courteous, you should always use some empathy and
consider your messages from the point of view of the audience.
 Communication Rules
✓ Communication rules can also be seen as a social aspect of process of
communication i.e., the rules governing communication between two people,
and how these rules affect the perception of the messages that are
exchanged.
✓ To converse, we use combinations of sounds that we all understand. We term
these combinations of sounds as language.
✓ Language can be described as
✓ Symbolic: Combination of sounds
 Communication Rules
✓ Subjective: Language is subjective, i.e., the interpretations of these graphic and
auditory symbols are contextual. We interpret these symbols in connection to
the environment we use them in.
Rule Governed:
✓ Phonological rules govern how sounds are combined to form words. The
attached clip demonstrates how similar sounding words can be interpreted
differently in different contexts.
Communication Rules
 Communication Rules
Rule Governed:
✓ Syntactic rules govern the way symbols can be arranged. With reference to
language, syntactic rules govern the way words are placed within a sentence.
✓ Pragmatic rules tell us what uses, and interpretations of a message are
appropriate in a given context
✓ Coordinated Management of Meaning – We use rules at several levels to
create our own messages and interpret others’ statements.
 Communication Rules
✓ As per the work of Monge & Russell (1997) content and relational control
aspects of the exchange of the said message between two people can be
described as:
✓ Complementary interaction:
✓ Complementary interaction refers to interaction that involves exchange of
information that is actively sought by one of the interactants (usually a
superior) and delivered by the other (usually a subordinate).
✓ In this type of interaction, the way the messages are structured indicates who is
superior and who is subordinate.
 Communication Rules
✓ The superior demands or orders or asks for information, and the subordinate
either confirms or disconfirms the availability of information or reports whether
the work that had to be done has been done.
✓ For Example:
✓ “ Manager: By the way, what’s the status of that memo you’re writing for
me? Is it ready to go out?
✓ Subordinate: Yes, it’s done and ready for your review.”
✓ These interactions are not limited to interactions between superiors and
subordinates.
 Communication Rules
✓ It can take place even between peers where the teamwork requires
interdependency which brings with it mutual expectations especially those
that are related to completion of inter-related tasks that lead to the
achievement of the goal for the team.
✓ So, if one teammate expects another team mate to complete one stage of the
task assigned without which the next stage cannot be completed, then the
person who is waiting attains a superior status for the brief period where the
team-mate who has been delayed has not been able to deliver as expected.
 Communication Rules
✓ Symmetrical Interaction:
✓ Symmetrical interaction refers to interaction where both the interactants are at
par with each other (Same Level).
✓ In this type of interaction, both the interactants are meeting each other’s
expectations, so neither one considers him/herself to be inferior to the other in
any manner.
✓ For Example:
“ Manager: By the way, what’s the status of that memo you’re writing for me? Is it
ready to go out?
 Communication Rules
Subordinate: Are you actually ready to read the memo? I need to know before I
can answer you.”
✓ The above interaction may seem haughty (egoistical) and arrogant and, in some
ways, unpleasant.
✓ But this may happen when the superior does not respond to the subordinate as
expected.
✓ Just as superiors expect work from subordinates, the subordinates also expect
acknowledgement of the work they submit to their superiors, and in most
cases, a feedback regarding the quality of the work they have submitted.
 Communication Rules
✓ When that does not happen, subordinates feel slighted (insulted) and angry and
may retort (Counter/Respond) in the manner shown in the example above.
✓ Procedural Rules:
✓ Farace, Monge and Russell (1977) describe procedural rules as the rules that
govern how speakers carry out communication events.
✓ They describe procedural rules as a cyclical process that feeds into itself in
dyadic communication.
Communication Rules
 Communication Rules
✓ In dyadic (Pair) conversations, it is very important to understand who makes the
decisions regarding various stages of the conversation/ interaction process. The
procedural rules determine the level of involvement and expectation from
either party.
✓ Who decides to initiate the interaction and why?
✓ How does the other interactant receive and respond to the interaction? How
are delays factored in or dealt with? i.e. If the interactant receiving the message
after the initiation is not in a position to respond as expected, does s/he
communicate the reasons for the delay? If so, how are the delays and reasons
thereof communicated?
 Communication Rules
✓ Which of the interactants decides to choose the topic of interaction and how?
✓ How do the interactants decide that the topic being discussed needs to be
changed, and how is the change of topic decided, and who picks the new topic
for discussion and how?
✓ How are outside interruptions handled? Who in the interaction feels more
comfortable receiving a phone call or speaking to another person who happens
to walk in during the interaction?
✓ Who decides that the conversation is over? How is this decision communicated
to the other interactant? How does the interaction end?
 Communication Rules
✓How frequently do the interactants communicate with each other? Is the frequency
of communication based on the need to complete the task at hand, or is it more a
function of the level of comfort the interactants enjoy with each other?
✓How do the above issues affect the comfort levels of the interactants? Are the
interactants satisfied with the way the decisions are made at each stage? Are the
interactants satisfied with their roles in the interaction? If yes, how does this
satisfaction affect their future communication? If no, is the dissatisfaction
communicated to the other interactant, and if so, how? How does the
dissatisfaction affect the way the above stages are dealt with in the next
interaction?
 Communication Rules
✓ The roles the interactants play and the reasons for the way each stage of the
above process is dealt with determine how the interaction progresses between
two people.
 Communication Rules
✓ Pragmatic Rules:
✓ Adler, Rosenfeld and Proctor (2004) describe the pragmatic rules of human
interaction in terms of the different aspects of the interpretation of a single
interaction.
✓ The Content of a conversation refers to the actual words that are used in the
conversation. These words are interpreted in terms of the Cultural Archetype
(Cultural norms that shape a person’s perceptions and actions), Life Script (Self
concept or identity of each person in the interaction), the Episode (Actual situation
in which the interaction occurs), the Relational Contract (the perceived relationship
between the communicators), and the Speech Act (the intent of the statement).
 Communication Rules
✓ Pragmatic Rules:
Boss (Male) Employee (Female)

Content: Actual words “You look very pretty today”

Speech Act: The intent of a
Compliment an employee Unknown
statement
Relational Contract: The Subordinate employee,
Boss who treats employees like
perceived relationship between dependent on boss’s approval for
family members
communicators advancement
Episode: Situation in which the
Casual conversation Possible come-on by boss?
interaction occurs
Life-script: Self-concept of each Woman determined to succeed
Friendly guy / person
communicator on her own merits
Cultural archetype: Cultural Middle-class family in a relatively
Working-class family in a
norms that shape member’s liberal
relatively conservative city
perceptions & actions city
 Collaboration
✓ Need for Collaboration:
✓ Team based organizations
✓ Multiple people having different skills
✓ Influence over others in our environment is necessary to accomplish tasks that
require inputs by more than one person.
✓ This task achievement starts with the process of convincing others to believe in
the existence of a common goal, and the need to work together to achieve that
common goal.
✓ This is where the need for collaboration or collective labor comes in.
 Collaboration
✓ Need for Collaboration:
A collaboratively designed organization includes:
✓ A collaborative culture
✓ Collaborative leadership
✓ A strategic vision
✓ Collaborative team processes
✓ A collaborative structure
 Relational Communication
✓ In order to achieve the collaborative design and take the organization from
where it is to where we want it to be, we need to bring people together and
facilitate their work.
✓ And in order to do that, we need them to accept each other as members of a
‘team’ and form collegial work relationships.
✓ The better we know a person, the easier it is to predict his/her behavior
 Relational Communication
✓ Steps in Relational Communication:

Initiating Experimenting Intensifying

Termination Integrating

Stagnating Bonding

Avoiding Circumscribing Differentiating

 Relational Communication
✓ Steps in Relational Communication:
✓ Initiating: “Ice Breakers” or Knock on the other person’s comfort zone
✓ Experimenting: “Probe the unknown” or Explore
✓ Intensifying: “Friendship” or Develop better mutual understanding
✓ Integrating: ‘I’ and ‘I’ integrate into ‘We’ or Both stand as one unit
✓ Bonding: ”Commitment” or Enhanced co-dependence between each other
✓ Differentiating: ”Interactants start realizing that their ‘I’ was getting lost
somewhere in the ‘We’ while still realizing that ‘We’ is more important than
individual ‘
 Relational Communication
✓ Steps in Relational Communication:
✓ When the focus starts shifting from ‘We’ to ‘I’ in a relationship, it indicates or
signals trouble in the relationship
✓ Circumscribing: “Breakup/Continuation” or Decision to repair or break the
relationship is made at this stage depending upon the intensity of exhaustion
and pain.
✓ The quality and quantity of communication declines. Interactants continue to
feel dissatisfied with the communication rules defining their relationship but do
not talk about this dissatisfaction yet.
 Relational Communication
✓ Steps in Relational Communication:
✓ Avoiding: “Unpleasantness and Disconnect” or Once the interactants have
decided to move on away from the decaying relationship, the disconnect
between them becomes obvious to significant others. Unpleasantness creeps in
and the interactants actively start trying to avoid interacting with each other.
✓ Stagnating: ”Realization of THE END” or The communication between them
comes to a standstill. They go their own separate ways and hope that the
relationship will die its natural death. Since they have accepted that the end is
near, the strain, pain and exhaustion they experience reduces considerably.
 Relational Communication
✓ Steps in Relational Communication:
✓ Termination: “Formal ending of a relationship” or It may be pleasant or
unpleasant, cordial or bitter, short and straightforward or long-drawn.
✓ Termination of a contract or splitting of a company or a resignation are all
examples of this stage of various types of business relationships.
✓ The function of this stage is a formal final signal that it is time to wind up, close
the file, archive, and move on to something new.
 Organizational Communication
✓ Socializing with Co-Workers
✓ Becoming familiar and working with supervisors
✓ Becoming acquainted with coworkers
✓ Being recognized
✓ Becoming involved
✓ Negotiating roles
✓ Developing job competency
 Organizational Communication
✓ Newcomers and Co-Workers
✓ Newcomers prefer to exchange information with co-workers because:
✓ They feel that co-workers can empathize better since they at the same
hierarchical level.
✓ They feel that it is less risky to admit their vulnerabilities and weaknesses to
coworkers. Becoming familiar and working with supervisors
✓ It helps them gain information about the organization
✓ Connecting with co-workers and getting relevant information from them helps
shape their attitudes regarding their work and the organization they work for
 Organizational Communication
✓ Newcomers and Co-Workers
✓ Having relevant information makes it a little easier to learn the tasks required in
the workplace
✓ Connecting with co-workers helps newcomers from formal and informal
networks, which may help with professional advancement
✓ Connecting with co-workers facilitates support and friendship with people who
one spends most of one’s waking hours with
 Organizational Communication
✓ Importance of Relationship with Supervisors
✓ For supervisors: To influence, convince and get the work done from others
✓ For subordinates: To support and coordinate the other team members
✓ For organization: To succeed
 Organizational Communication
✓ Communication in Groups and Teams
✓ Group: A group comprises of “…three or more individuals who interact over
time, depend on one another, and follow shared rules of conduct to reach a
common goal.”
✓ Group behavior is a function of the following elements:
✓ Activity: Something a person does
✓ Interaction: Communication between people in which the activity of one is
in response to the behavior of another
✓ Sentiment: is a thought about someone or something
 Organizational Communication
✓ Communication in Groups and Teams
✓ Team: A team is “ … a special kind of group that is characterized by different
and complimentary resources of members and by a strong sense of collective
identity.”
✓ A team is a group with a specific goal with members armed with unique and
specific skills coming together only to achieve a pre-decided goal.
 Organizational Communication
✓ Difference between Groups and Teams
 Organizational Communication
✓ Stages in Forming a group / Team:
✓ Forming: This is the stage at which members mutually decide that they want to
connect with each other and establish or ‘form’ a group
✓ Storming: This is the stage at which members tend to air out their differences
with each other and re-define their position within their group.
✓ Norming: After the individual members have aired out their differences and
connected with each other, they start bonding with each other.
✓ At this stage, members decide the norms of group interaction and what
should and should not be done within the group.
 Organizational Communication
✓ Stages in Forming a group / Team:
✓ Performing: After the details of interdependence have been worked out and
the group has acquired and identity of its own, members start ‘performing’ or
working on specific tasks.
✓ In order to do that, they identify how their individual skill sets can help the
common goal.
✓ They then assume responsibility for the task assigned to the group and for
their individual contributions to the group activity and work primarily
towards solutions for the problem being faced by the group.
 Organizational Communication
✓ Stages in Forming a group / Team:
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ What is Interpersonal Communication:
✓ Interpersonal communication involves the information, ideas, and feelings being
exchanged verbally or non-verbally between two or more people. Face-to-face
communication often involves hearing, seeing, and feeling body language,
facial expressions, and gestures.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ What is Interpersonal Communication:
✓ In other words, Interpersonal communication is exchanging information,
meaning, feelings, and opinions between two or more people via verbal and
non-verbal means.
✓ Although we have mentioned “face-to-face” communication, today’s
technology compels us to expand its definition to include media such as phone
calls and online messaging.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Difference between Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Communication:
✓ “Inter” refers to dealings between people, groups, or other entities (e.g.,
intercontinental, international).
✓ “Intra,” on the other hand, describes actions within a person or a group.
✓ Intrapersonal communication describes how we communicate with ourselves,
including an accurate idea of our perceptions, expectations, and concepts.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Types of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ Verbal: In other words, speaking. This term covers the words you use, how
persuasively you speak, the language you use, which words you emphasize, and
even the use of affirmative sounds and short phrases like “Yup” or “Uh-huh.”
✓ Listening: You can make a good case for listening as the most important
interpersonal communication skill.
✓ It covers the ability to listen attentively, whether you’re using your ears to
listen “in-person” or some other means, say, over the Internet.
✓ Listening also includes special techniques like reflection and clarification.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Types of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ The best listeners are people who can focus their attention on the speaker to
make the latter feel like they're the sole and most important person in the
room.
✓ The Written Word: Thanks to the Internet age and situations requiring isolation
(e.g., the pandemic), good written communication skills have become an asset.
✓ Whether you're on social media, in the workplace, or even texting on your
phone, you must know how to get your point across in writing.
✓ This type includes emojis, grammar, clarity, tone, and even punctuation.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Types of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ Non-Verbal: This final type covers body language, facial expressions, tone of
voice, and gestures.
✓ Again, it's essential that the listener picks up and correctly interprets non-
verbal cues.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Elements of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ The Communicating Parties: There’s no communication without a sender and a
receiver. However, many people mistake assigning only one speaker and one
listener to the conversation.
✓ Effective interpersonal communication requires all parties to assume both
roles, sending and receiving the message at the appropriate time.
✓ The Message Itself: This element covers the information in all possible forms,
including speech and non-verbal communication.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Elements of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ Extraneous Noise: Noise includes anything that interferes with, distorts, or
overpowers the message.
✓ This element comprises everything from physically-based noises (e.g., traffic
sounds, a screaming baby at the next table over) to more abstract difficulties
such as cultural misunderstanding, overblown corporate jargon, showing
disinterest, or inappropriate body language.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Elements of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ Feedback: Feedback is limited to immediate reactions to a sent message.
Feedback could be anything from verbal (e.g., “I agree,” or “I’m confused; what
do you mean?”) to non-verbal (e.g., facial expressions, changes in body
language/stance).
✓ Context: Have you ever heard the phrase “Read the room!”? That means the
speaker should be paying attention to the general mood and atmosphere of the
listeners and where they are. Context includes physical location, the
mood/emotional climate of the audience, and social context.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Elements of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ The Channel: This element covers moving the message from the sender to the
receiver and refers to vision and speech.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Principles of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ Whenever you communicate with people, you should keep in mind these four
principles.
✓ If you do, your interpersonal communication technique will improve, and your
messages will be more effective.
✓ The four principles are
✓ It’s Unavoidable: Unless you’re a hermit (a person prefers to live alone) living in
a cave, you will inevitably interact with others in one manner or another. Even if
you’re a shut-in, thanks to something like a quarantine, you will still have the
opportunity for interpersonal communication (e.g., phone, Skype, texting).
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Principles of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ It’s Irreversible: You may be familiar with the phrase “I can’t unsee that.”
✓ You can't take back what you have written or said.
✓ Even if you make amends with an apology or try to walk back your comments,
people don't forget words easily. And remember, Internet content is forever.
✓ It’s Contextual: Sometimes, we can't control what people hear our message,
where they are, their mood and mindset, and their level of comprehension.
✓ But, again, this harkens (represents) to the section dealing with interpersonal
communication elements, specifically the context.
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Principles of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ It’s Complicated: You would think the act of speaking and hearing would be a
no-brainer.
✓ Unfortunately, everyday life is complicated and interpersonal communication is
filled with pitfalls.
✓ Not everyone has the same frame of reference or is equally adept at picking up
subtle clues or getting the hint.
✓ Some speakers assume that everything they say is taken the right way because
the listeners must obviously be on the same wavelength as they are (spoiler
alert: this is not always the case).
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Examples of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ Email
✓ Phone Call
✓ Presentations
✓ Texting
 Interpersonal Communication
✓ Uses of Interpersonal Communication:
✓ Impart and gather information
✓ Influence the attitudes and behaviors of others
✓ Create contacts, make friends, and maintain relationships
✓ Make sense of our world and better understand our experiences in it
✓ Express our personal needs and understand the needs of others
✓ Make decisions and solve problems
✓ Set social and professional boundaries
✓ Provide and receive needed emotional support
✓ Anticipate and predict people’s behavior
✓ Regulate the balance of power in a workplace or social circle
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Different Scholars have defined negotiation as
✓ McKay, Davis and Fanning (2009) describe negotiation as, “A skill that helps
you get what you want from others without alienating (detaching) them….
A process whereby people with different or even opposing needs can arrive at
a fair agreement.”
✓ Sebenius (1987) defines negotiation as, “…a process of potentially
opportunistic interaction, by which two or more parties, with some apparent
conflict, seek to do better through jointly decided action than they could
otherwise.”
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Gulliver (1979) defines negotiation as, “…a process in the public domain, in
which two parties, with supporters of various kinds, attempt to reach a joint
decision, on issues under dispute.”
✓ Robinson and Volkov (1998) define negotiation as, “…a process in which
participants bring their goals to a bargaining table, strategically share
information, and search for alternatives that are mutually beneficial.”
✓ Putnam and Roloff (1992) define negotiation as, “…a special form of
communication that centers around perceived incompatibilities and focuses
on reaching mutually accepted agreements.”
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ From above definitions it is clear that
✓ It requires two parties
✓ It reaches an agreement.
✓ It’s a continuous process.
✓ No winner/no loser.
✓ Requires flexibility.
✓ Effective communication.
✓ It’s a process not an event.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Why Should we learn about Negotiations:
✓ Important part of daily lives
✓ Personal interactions to business dealings
✓ What to wear today ?
✓ What to have in breakfast ?
✓ Auto rickshaw fare ?
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Elements of Negotiations:
✓ Context: Context refers to the physical and ideological environment in which
the negotiation takes place.
✓ Norms: Norms refer to the acceptable patterns of behavior of the people
involved in the process of negotiation.
✓ Issues: Issues refer to the reasons that led to the need for negotiation.
✓ Goals: Goals refer to the “specific measurable outcomes” at the end of the
negotiation situation, or a clear statement of what negotiators desire at the end
of the negotiation process.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Dimensions of Negotiation Process:
✓ Following dimensions affect the outcomes of the negotiation process
✓ Tactics: Which refer to the people involved in the process and the processes
they engage in during the negotiation process to get what they want.
✓ Deal design: Deal design refers to the manner in which negotiators present
what they want in terms of the tangible and intangible outcomes desired as
a result of this process to the other party.
✓ Setup: Setup refers to the physical environment in which the negotiation
process takes place.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Stages of Negotiation Process:
✓ Stage 1: Preparation: This is the stage in which the participants decide on the
✓ goal
✓ the relative importance of tangible and relationship outcomes for them and
for the other party,
✓ the range of acceptable solutions for them and for the other party,
✓ the bottom-line or least desirable solution that will be acceptable to them
and to the other party,
✓ and the resources they have and the resources the other party has.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Stages of Negotiation Process:
✓ Stage 2: Discussion: Individual participants then meet with the other party and
discuss what they would like and what the other party might want.
✓ The primary objective of this stage is to find out as much as each party can
about the other party’s interests, needs and limitations.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Stages of Negotiation Process:
✓ Stage 3: Proposal-Counter Proposal: At this stage, the actual negotiation or
discussion about the desired and possible outcomes begins.
✓ In this stage, one party makes an offer (proposal), and the other party
responds with whether it would be acceptable to them and why or why not.
✓ Then the other party modifies the offer (counter-proposal) made by the first
party and responds with their reasons for the modification and why they
think that their offer should be acceptable to the first party.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Stages of Negotiation Process:
✓ Stage 4: Agreement / Disagreement: After several rounds of proposals and
counter-proposals, the parties either arrive at an acceptable solution or decide
to re-convene at another time with more information or range of offers or agree
to cut their losses and move on without each other.
✓ This last stage forms the basis for future negotiations based on how satisfied or
dissatisfied the parties are with the process, the result and with the inter-party
relationship.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Types of Negotiations:
✓ Competitive or Distributive Negotiation: A situation in which one party wins
and the other loses.
✓ Collaborative or Integrative Negotiation: A situation in which both parties
come to a common understanding and acceptability of drawing part of what
they desire from the situation, losing a little on both sides, but resulting in an
overall a win-win situation for both parties.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Characteristics of Distributive Negotiations:
✓ Distributive negotiations are characterized by win-lose situations in which one
party gets all it wants, and the other party does not get anything but is force to
accept the outcome for various reasons.
✓ In distributive negotiations, the seller’s goal is to negotiate as high a price as
possible, and the buyer’s goal is to negotiate as low a price as possible.
✓ In distributive negotiations, the lesser one side knows about the weaknesses
and real preferences of the other party, and the more it knows about the
bargaining strength of the other party, the better the other party’s position
becomes.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Characteristics of Distributive Negotiations:
✓ Since the outcome of distributive negotiations leaves the losing party with
nothing at all, distributive negotiations typically signal the end of the
relationship between the negotiating parties.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Characteristics of Collaborative Negotiations:
✓ Collaborative negotiations are characterized by win-win situations in which
both parties lose a part of their desired outcome in the interest of increasing
the size of the pie and taking away something that means more to each of them
than what they lose during the process.
✓ In collaborative negotiations, both parties come to the table with a common
understanding and acceptance of the fact that they may end up losing a little
and gaining a little. So, they make offers that they may not ideally desire but
that they know the other party will be in a position to accept.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Characteristics of Collaborative Negotiations:
✓ In such negotiations, since both parties accept that the common goal is
collaboration, they tend to disclose a realistic and open picture of their
bargaining strength to the other party.
✓ Since collaborative negotiations leave both parties with a feeling of having
gained a little as a result of collaborating with each other, the relationship
between the negotiating parties tends to continue even after the specific
negotiation situation is over and dealt with.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Factors affecting Negotiations:
✓ The factors that can potentially affect the process and outcomes of negotiation
situations may be listed as below:
✓ Legal pressure: Laws mandate disclosure of certain types of information to
the negotiating parties which the negotiating parties may not want to
disclose.
✓ For example, the law requires that when companies collaborate with each
other, they need to inform each other of their financial liabilities and any
cases pending in court involving them.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Factors affecting Negotiations:
✓ Investment criteria: The criteria for investment of material and nonmaterial
resources determine if and how much investors invest in certain business
opportunities.
✓ These criteria for investment may need to be negotiated among possible
collaborators to ensure maximum benefit to both parties.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Factors affecting Negotiations:
✓ Common goal: The collaborative definition of what constitutes a common
goal for both parties is a major concern and issue for discussion and
negotiation for the parties interacting with each other.
✓ Behavior of negotiators: Maddux, Mullen and Galinsky (2007) propose that
negotiating parties tend to mimic each other’s behaviors and adapt to each
other’s needs in order to convince the other party about their commitment
to compromise. The perception of this mimicry and adaptation by the party
being mimicked and adapted to determines the outcome of the negotiation
situation.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Factors affecting Negotiations:
✓ Maturity of problem: Bartos (1977) proposes that maturity or age of the
problem is also a significant determinant in the manner in which proposals
and counterproposals are made in the negotiation situation, and the
ultimate outcome of the negotiation situation.
✓ Persistence: Brams and Doherty (1993) suggest that the time and energy the
negotiating parties are willing to invest into the negotiation situation till the
issue is resolved, is an important factor in determining the ultimate
outcome.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Factors affecting Negotiations:
✓ Culture: Bartos (1967) proposes that cultural perceptions of negotiators
regarding the preparation for negotiation, the possible goals and issues of
the other party and the desired outcomes can greatly influence how the
negotiation process progresses.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Cultural Variations in Business Negotiations:
✓ Negotiation atmosphere: The where, when and how of the actual situation
in which the negotiation process takes place may be culturally determined.
✓ Detail: The detail that negotiators go into to resolve their issues regarding
their goals and interests is dependent to a large extent on their cultural
ideologies.
✓ Communication styles: The final outcome desired by individual negotiating
parties in terms of goals vs. public image, and interpersonal relationships,
determine the style people use to negotiate.
 Negotiation and Conflict Resolution/ Management
✓ Cultural Variations in Business Negotiations:
✓ Selection of negotiators: The cultural ideologies of the negotiating parties
may also determine how they select the people who come to the table to
actually participate in the negotiation process.
✓ Some cultures may believe that a representative who is senior in the
hierarchical status may be more suitable while another party may believe
that a representative with proven expertise and/ or individual skills (even if
s/he is not very high up in the organizational hierarchy) may be in a better
position to take the right decision during the negotiation process.
 Persuasive Communication
✓ What is ?
✓ The act of convincing a person by argument or inducement (encouragement), to
do something, or believe that something should be done is called Persuasion.
✓ Simons (1976, in Ross & Anderson, 2002) describes persuasion as the “…human
communication designed to influence others by modifying their beliefs, values,
or attitudes."
✓ Simply putting Persuasion is the act of getting someone to do what they may
not have been doing earlier, or what they may not have wanted to do earlier.
✓ For persuasion we need to influence the peoples with the use of language and
our communication.
 Persuasive Communication
✓ What is ?
✓ The techniques we use to influence people are called appeals (Attract /
Fascinate).
✓ These techniques may be classified as Inartistic and Artistic persuasive appeals
 Persuasive Communication
✓ The inartistic means of persuasion: Point the attention of the listeners to the
facts of a given situation that are evident to all who view the situation.
✓ These facts are just there, in front of everyone, and may have the same kind of
impact (with varying intensity) on everyone who views them. No further
interpretation is required to interpret the inartistic means of persuasion.
✓ The artistic means of persuasion:
✓ Artistic means of persuasion indicate a need to interpret the facts that are
presented to the person being targeted to be influenced.
✓ Facts must speak for themselves; they must be interpreted and presented
creatively in order for them to have an influence on an audience”
 Persuasive Communication
✓ Ways of Presenting Artistic Proofs:
✓ Ethos : Refers to the 'Personal proof' or 'ethical proof' that builds on the
personal qualities of the speaker.
✓ Ethos connotes (Signify), ‘Believe me because I am who I am.’
✓ The use of ethos is most effective when the speaker demonstrates a certain
level of
✓ Credibility or believability and trustworthiness
✓ Expertise
✓ Dynamism
 Persuasive Communication
✓ Ways of Presenting Artistic Proofs:
✓ Pathos : Pathos refers to the use of language that convinces or influences
listeners by stimulating or connecting to the emotions of the audience.
✓ Pathos connotes, “Believe me because what I am saying makes you feel a
certain way.”
✓ Politicians use pathos to convince their audiences that whatever they are saying
is for the benefit of the audience and so must be believed by the audience.
 Persuasive Communication
✓ Ways of Presenting Artistic Proofs:
✓ Logos: Persuasion using logos pertains to persuasion using facts and figures and
logical arguments.
✓ The speaker organizes the facts in a certain order so as to lead the audience to a
certain conclusion.
✓ Persuasion through logos is akin to persuasion through emotions or the heart.
✓ Logos connotes, “Believe what I am saying not because I am asking you to believe
it or because you feel like believing it, but because the facts lead you to believe it.”
✓ Logos, used effectively, leads everyone viewing the facts to the same conclusion.
 Persuasive Communication
✓ Persuasion is an essential tool in any kind of business-related activity, especially for
a leader.
✓ One needs to be able to exert some amount of influence over one’s team mates to
help them focus and contribute to the goals of the organization.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Feinberg and Pritzker (1985) observe wordiness, problems with formatting,
organization of ideas, and problems with grammar and vocabulary as the main
problems with messages drafted by managers in professional business
environments.
✓ Milne (1991) observes that messages drafted by professionals who use writing as a
means of communication in professional environments seem to be too long or
word, poorly organized, confusing, with no clear purpose.
✓ Most often written messages contain either incomplete or inaccurate information
or too much data, and use trite (Common) and overused expressions to
communicate this information/ data.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Monipally and Sharma (2001) observe that managers in professional environments
seem to lack proficiency in writing reports, memos, business letters, business
proposals, email, and descriptions of products and services to customers.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Common categories of mistakes:
✓ Abstraction: Abstraction refers to the use of complicated rather than concrete
language. For example, “She plunged into a sea of platitudes, and with the
powerful breaststroke of a channel swimmer, made her confident way towards
the white cliffs of the obvious”
✓ Bypassing: Bypassing happens when different meanings are associated with the
same word symbol or when different symbols are used to identify the same idea or
object. For example, when your colleague tells you that her “mouse is dead”.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Common categories of mistakes:
✓ Fact inference: Fact inference refers to a need to conclude without taking the
time to analyze all the facts. Such errors prevent us from being thorough with our
work. For example, if a person finds an important file missing from his/her office,
he/she immediately concludes that the cleaning staff may have either taken it or
misplaced it.
✓ Overgeneralization: Overgeneralization refers to stereotyping or sweeping statements. These
stereotypes or sweeping statements can prevent us from providing enough information in our
messages. For example, after observing a couple of television programs on yoga in which the
instructor belongs to India, a person belonging to a country other than India concludes that all Indians
are proficient in yoga.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Common categories of mistakes:
✓ Extremism: Extremism refers to a tendency to see the world simplistically, in
black and white, rather than in shades of grey. For example, statements like,
‘Research essentially deals with proving or disproving a hypothesis’
✓ Inflexibility: Inflexibility refers to rigidity in our awareness of the world around us.
For example, when I was growing up, I learnt that apples cannot grow at the
foothills of mountains, so even now I believe that it is impossible to grow apples at
the foothills of mountain ranges.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Common categories of mistakes:
✓ The above mentioned mistakes confound meanings of messages and put a
question on the credibility of the author of these messages.
✓ When one is communicating orally, there is always a chance to seek clarity on the
meaning of the message. But in written communication, this is almost impossible.
✓ Many times, the reasons for the above-mentioned mistakes lie in the differences
in the styles and procedures adopted by different organizations in different kinds
of cultures. People write the way they have been trained to, and many times they
do not realize that the receivers of their messages may be interpreting their
messages in ways that are not intended.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Specific challenges to written communication in international business:
✓ Some of these challenges that managers face while drafting messages for
readers in other countries are:
✓ Language to be used: Bi- and multi-lingual personnel sometimes feel confused
about the language they should use with readers who understand more than
one language.
✓ The purpose of messages in such communication usually is to get things
done, which is why any language that the reader understands should be
okay.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Specific challenges to written communication in international business:
✓ The choice of the medium through which the written message should be sent
also depends greatly on the understanding of the sender of the message
regarding the acceptability of the medium by the receiver of the message.
✓ Communication networks: The shape and size of the organization that the
written message goes into also has a bearing on what may be considered more
appropriate.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Specific challenges to written communication in international business:
✓ Sometimes, the policies of organizations require that messages go through
proper channel to reach their target.
✓ In such cases, the authors of written messages need to sensitize themselves to
the organizational hierarchy of the target organization, and budget for the
time it might take for the message to reach the target personnel.
✓ Gender issues : Some cultures exhibit a clear preference for communicating
with men as opposed to women in professional settings.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Specific challenges to written communication in international business:
✓ This may not appeal to many an educated women who are working alongside
their male counterparts, but if the target of the message is professionally
important to the sender of the message, in the interest of the goals of the
organization, it may not be a bad idea to be sensitive to the gender specific
preferences of the target and draft the message accordingly.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Specific challenges to written communication in international business:
✓ Transactional culture: Transactional culture refers to the new 'culture' or
context that is created in and through interactions between people from
different cultures.
✓ The manner in which native users of a language communicate with other
native users would differ from the manner in which native users of a
language communicate with non-native users of that language, and that
would differ from the manner in which non-native users of a language
communicate with other non-native users of the language being used in the
professional setting.
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Communicative purposes of written messages in professional environments
✓ Written messages serve specific purposes in professional environments. Some
of these purposes with the type(s) of documents used towards these intents are
tabulated below:
 Written Communication in International Business
Intent Examples of documents
Persuasion Resume, cover-letter, business proposals, sales pitches,
advertisements
Direction Orders, policies, rules and regulations
Advice Letters, emails
Giving Information Reports, memos, notices, circulars, blogs, quotations and other
financial documents
Seeking information Inquiries, requests, calls for explanation
Defending Legal
Acknowledgement Letters of recommendation, awards
and appreciation
Idea generation Blogs, discussion boards
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Communicative purposes of written messages in professional environments
✓ Different documents serve different purposes.
✓ The key lies in recognizing the intent of the message that is required to be sent,
choosing the appropriate document to send this message, and maintaining
unity between the intent and content of the message.
✓ Lunsford (2001) suggests that before they (People) begin, writers must consider
✓ task (analysis, classification, comparison, contrast, definition, description,
discussion or inquiry, etc.),
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Communicative purposes of written messages in professional environments
✓ purpose (explanation, summary, persuasion, recommendation, entertainment,
refutation etc.),
✓ their readership, (the role they perceive to be viewed in from the reader’s
perspective, e.g. expert, superior, student, inquirer, discussant, etc.),
✓ the genre and language that will be most appropriate for the document at
hand,
✓ and specific technological issues (e.g. accessibility of internet based
communication, ability to receive large documents over the internet,
serviceability by common service operators, etc.)
 Written Communication in International Business
✓ Communicative purposes of written messages in professional environments
✓ Fielden (1964) suggests that in order to be a good writer, one must pay
attention to
✓ reader characteristics (reader’s level of understanding of the material,
familiarity with the words used, intended direction for reader, and focus of
the document),
✓ in addition to grammatical correctness, factual accuracy, and the thought
that goes into writing a document (preparation, competence, fidelity to
document, and analysis of the available information).
 Ethics In Business Communication
✓ Thinkers and philosophers over the ages have proposed a variety of approaches
to ethical choice-making
✓ Deontological approaches:
✓ Deontological approaches to ethical behavior suggest that if something is right
for one member of a group, it is right for everyone else in that group.
✓ This, in turn, points towards the relative interpretation of acts by different
members of a group. i.e. The interpretation of an act of a member of an
organization as ethical or unethical depends upon the interpretation of similar
acts of other members of the same organization as ethical or unethical.
 Ethics In Business Communication
✓ Teleological approaches
✓ Teleological approaches deal with a philosophical study of how goals and
outcomes can shape human behavior.
✓ Teleologists believe that the choices people make about their behavior are a
result of their interpretation of the goal they hope to achieve as a result of the
choices they make.
✓ So, if the end result serves a purpose (utilitarianism), the choices must have
been right. Or if the end result seems right, the process involved in achieving
that end result does not matter (consequentialist ethic).
 Ethics In Business Communication
✓ Teleological approaches
✓ Teleologists believe that the explanation of events should be based on the ‘ends
of aims, intentions or purposes’ instead of the reasons that led to those aims,
intentions and purposes.
 Ethics In Business Communication
✓ Teleological approaches
✓ Teleologists believe that the explanation of events should be based on the ‘ends
of aims, intentions or purposes’ instead of the reasons that led to those aims,
intentions and purposes.