Business Communication

& Leadership
 Varinder Kumar- Managerial Communication –
Kalyani Publishers

 K Sundar -Business Communication- Tata McGraw

Hill

 M K Sehgal & Vandana Khetarpal Business

Communication – Excel Books

 Asha Kaul Effective Business Communication

 Raman M and Singh P – Business Communication,

Oxford University Press

 Business Communication – P D Chaturvedi – Pearson

Education
 It is the sum total of all the things that a
person does when he wants to create an
understanding in the mind of another. It
involves a systematic and continuous process
of telling, listening and understanding –
Louis Allen
 It is a process of exchange of ideas, facts,
opinions or emotions from one person
(sender) to another person (receiver). It builds
bridges of meaning between people, enabling
them to safely cross the rivers of
misunderstanding-
George Terry and Keith Davis
1. Choice of Information
What to be communicated
Negative information should be
substantiated
2. Whom to share information with
Find the critical communication points
Select the appropriate vocabulary /language
3. How to Deliver the message
Words / Tone / Body language
 • 2 way / Dynamic
Process • Ongoing / Social
• Feedback essential

• Pervasive
Universal • Repertoire

• Dispels
Contextual misunderstanding
• Goal oriented
To perform:

1. Interpersonal role
2. Informational role
3. Decisional role
1. Forecasting & Planning
2. Organising
3. Instructing
4. Coordinating
5. Controlling
1. Harmonious Industrial relations
2. Maintaining relations with external parties
3. Virtual organizations
4. Better human relations
5. Personal asset
6. Global village
Serves as a
Lubricant for
fostering the
smooth operations
7. Technological advancement
8. Coordination within the organisation
9. Economic advancement
10. Updating employees
11. Motivating employees
12. Persuade
Serves as a
Lubricant for
fostering the
smooth operations
 Internal operational communication
 External operational communication
 Personal communication
1. Sensing a communication need
2. Defining / understand the situation
3. Considering possible communication
strategies
4. Selecting a course of action considering cost
and benefit
5. Composing the message
6. Sending the message
1. Receives the message
2. Interprets the message
3. Decides on a response
4. May send a responding message
1. Face to Face Meetings
2. Letters
3. Memos
4. Reports
5. Fax
6. Web pages
7. E mails
8. Telephones
9. Virtual meetings
10. Teleconferencing & Video conferencing
 Intrapersonal
 Interpersonal Number of persons
 Mass communication

 Verbal communication
◦ Oral or written Medium
 Non verbal communication
 One way and two way communication
 Formal communication
 Informal communication
 Upward communication
 Downward communication
 Lateral or Diagonal communication
 Communication
Network

Formal Informal

Upward Lateral
1. Superior has immediate contact with the
subordinates – better understanding , co-
operation, co-ordination
2. No overlapping of information
3. More trustworthy
4. Easy follow up actions and compliances
5. No chance of bias to creep in
6. Minimal chance of information leak or flow
of gossip
1. Time consuming – increases the workload of
various managers
2. Inhibit or stand in the way of free flow of
communication between levels
3. No Social and emotional bonds between
various organisational levels
4. May delay decision making
 Downward Communication
 Upward Communication
 Lateral Communication
 Diagonal Communication
 Written Oral
instructions instructions
memo speeches
letters meetings
policy statements telephone
 Communication gap
 Time consuming
 Filtered, modified or distorted
 Information withheld to keep the employees
dependent on them
 Reports
 Performance appraisals
 Suggestions
 Complaints
 Higher ups do not like to told anything
against their wishes.
 It may be distorted or misrepresented in the
absence of open door policy
 Poor listening
 Hesitation of employees
 Periodical Meetings
 Open door policy
 Suggestion boxes
 Interviews
 Informal gatherings
 Between two or more people who are
subordinates
 Communication between functional
managers.
 Serving the organisation in different
capacities through a common goal
 Flow of information among persons at
different levels who have no direct reporting
relationships.
 It may create difficulties.
 Includes all the information received by the
organisation from external agencies in the
form of:
 Letters
 Mails
 Offers
 Orders
 Requests, suggestions
 complaints
 The communication which the organisation
maintains with the outside world.
 Advertisements
 Public relations
 Negotiations
 Mails
 Notices
 Tenders
 Feeling of uncertainty when the organisation
is passing through a difficult period.
 Feeling of inadequacy – lack of self
confidence
 Feeling of isolation – a favoured group
formation
 Some unusual happening in the organisation
 Personal problems of the employees
1. Speedy transmission
2. Feedback value
3. Support to other channels
4. Psychological satisfaction
5. Uniting force
6. Creation of ideas
7. Good personal relations
1. Cannot be taken seriously
2. Does not carry complete information
3. Distorts information
4. May prove counter productive
5. Chances of misinterpretation
6. Lack of accountability
Oral Vs Written communication
1. Know your Objective/Purpose of communication
2. Know your audience
3. Know your topic
4. Deliver the speech with
Clear pronunciation
Brevity
Precision
Logical sequence
Suitable words
Courtesy
5. Take care of Visual elements
6. Organize your speech
High impact Introduction
Body of the speech
Conclusion
7. Review your speech
8. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
1. Immediate Feedback
2. Better relationships
3. Time saving
4. Effective tool of persuasion
5. Effective tool of group communication
6. Economical
1. Distortion in passing the message
2. Lack of retention/documentation
3. No legal validity
4. Scope for misunderstanding
5. Not suitable for long messages
6. Constrained by physical barriers
7. Not effective when the target group is
spread out
1. Scope for alteration
2. Legal validity
3. Ready reference
4. Promotes uniformity
5. Mass access
6. Suitable for lengthy communication
7. Accurate and unambiguous
8. Permanent in nature
 Time consuming
 Limited to literates
 Lot of paper work
 Needs expertise in expression
 Lack of immediate feedback /clarification
 Expensive
1. Self awareness –not disturbed mind
2. Credibility
3. Capability
4. Content
5. Context
6. Channel
7. Consistency and clarity
8. Simple words
9. Concrete expression
• Avoid vague words – sometime tomorrow
• Have active sentences
• Avoid jargon
• Avoid cliché
• Avoid ambiguity
• Wrong punctuation
10. Completeness
11. Time and space
 Also known as Dyadic Communication
1. Kinesics
2. Proxemics
3. Time language
4. Paralanguage
5. Sign language
 Facial expressions
 Eye contact
 Gestures
 Postures
 Appearance
Loss
Versatility
Victory
None of the
above
Grief over loss
Sheer joy on achievement
Enthusiasm
None of the above
Frustration
Disgust
Sadness
Stress
Joy
Surprise
Shock
Disgust

55
 Nodding the head up and down
 Patting the adjacent seat
 Yawning
 Cupping hand behind ear
 Placing first finger on lips
 Forming the first and second finger in the
shape of a ‘V’
 Shrugging shoulders and raising palms
upward
 While listening:
leaning a little towards the speaker
Tilting the head
Eye contact with the speaker
Gently nodding the head in agreement
 You shouldn’t cross
your arms as it might
make you seem
defensive or
guarded. This goes
for your legs too.
Keep your arms and
legs open.
 If there are several
people you are talking to,
give them all some eye
contact to create a better
connection and see if
they are listening.
Keeping too much eye-
contact might creep
people out.
 Nod once in a while
to signal that you are
listening. But don’t
overdo it like woody
woodpecker. Let your
nod be clear to
indicate agreement
and disagreement
Sit straight but in a relaxed
way, not in a too tense
manner like an army
officer
If you want to show that
you are interested in
what someone is
saying, lean toward the
person talking. But
don’t lean in too much
or you might seem
needy and desperate
for some approval.
Use your hands to describe
something or to add weight
to a point you are trying to
make. And don’t let your
hands flail around, use them
with some control.
Nobody likes a close-
talker. It is
embarrassing if the
more we move
back the more the
other person
comes forward. Let
people have their
personal space,
don’t invade it.
 Voice
Pitch variation
Speaking speed
Pause /Rhythm in speech
Non-fluencies
Volume variation
Pronunciation
 Word stress
 Intonation
1. Visual signs
2. Audio / sound signals
3. Touch - Haptics
1. Semantic barriers
2. Organizational barriers
3. Interpersonal barriers
4. Individual / Psycho-sociological barriers
5. Cross cultural / Geographic barriers
6. Physical barriers
7. Technological barriers
1. Homophones
2. Lack of clarity and usage of jargons
3. Wrong interpretation
“The container was marked
‘inflammable’. Why can’t we smoke?”
4. Assumptions
5. Technical language like cloud, mouse
1. Organizational culture and climate
2. Organizational rules and regulations
3. Status relationships – lack of cooperation
4. Complexity in organizational structure
5. Wrong choice of channel
 Emanating from Superiors
1. Shortage of time for employees
2. Lack of trust
3. Wish to capture authority
4. Fear of losing power of control
5. Information overload
 Emanating from Subordinates
1. Lack of proper channel
2. No interest to communicate
3. Lack of co operation
4. Lack of trust
5. Poor relationship between superior and
subordinate
6. Fear of Penalty
1. Filters
2. State of health
3. Closed minds
4. Defensiveness
5. Inattention and poor retention
6. Halo effect
7. Selective perception
8. Individual style of speaking
1. Concept of time
2. Concept of space
3. Basic personality
4. Non verbal communication
5. Values and norms of behaviour
1. Noise
2. Environment
3. Defects in the media
4. Circumstantial factors
◦ Temperature
◦ Lighting
◦ Room size
◦ Seating arrangement
1. Sender should be clear with all the ‘wh’
questions
2. Receiver should be attentive
3. Listen, listen, listen
4. Foster good relationships
5. Co ordination between superior and
Subordinates
6. Avoid technical language
7. Right feedback
8. Flat organizational structure
9. Organizational policies
10. Minimize semantic problems
11. Proper communication channels
12. Share opinions, perceptions generated by the
message
13. Avoid information overload
Hearing – Physical process,
Natural and passive

Listening – Physical and Mental process

Active and a skill. It is hard
1. Gap between listening speed and speaking
speed
2. Understand of non-verbal cues
3. Yielding easily to distractions
4. Pretending to listen
5. Perceptual barriers
Experience
Relationship with the speaker
6. Passive activity – no movement
 Listener related barriers

1. I know it all attitude

2. Mental state of listener
3. No interest on the subject
4. Criticizing physical appearance or delivery
5. Rejecting persons
 Speaker related barriers

1. Rate of speech
2. Volume of speech
3. Monotone
4. Body language
5. Too many fillers
6. Accent
 Environmental barriers

1. Extreme hot or cold conditions at the venue

2. Odd time of presentations
3. Disturbing doors or windows and fans
4. Poor ventilation and light
5. External noise
1. Selection of listening mode
Careful listening
Attentive listening
2. Concentration and thinking
Focus
Review
Will power
Stop talking
3. Taking notes
Concentrate on contents
Identify the purpose
Listening for sign posts
Ask questions to clarify
Include only important details
Notes in concise form
Review notes
4. Retention listening
Use memory aids
Setting priorities
Paraphasing
Thinking
5. External conditions
Temperature
Noise
Have good eye contact
1. Golden
2. Uncomfortable
3. Confusing
4. A welcome relief
 Write a note on the important characteristics of a
successful communication? Discuss the steps for
making communication effective 10
 Discuss the importance of tone in oral
communication 5
 Discuss the main forms of communication in
business. How does personal communication affect
the performance of a business organisation
10
 Discuss the various forms of external
communication with a suitable example 10
 What are the physical barriers to communication
5
 Highlight the role of communication in business. Quote
some evidence 10
 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of written
communication 5
 Discuss the main principles of oral communication
5
 Discuss how communication is a two way process of
exchange of information 10
 Explain the communication process. What are the basic
elements or concepts of the process of communication
10
 Describe the communication process. Identify the key
components. Illustrate how different types of network
influence the effectiveness of communication
 Give five reasons for choosing oral communication
instead of written form 10
 Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of
written communication 5
 Discuss the nature of communication 5
 List and explain the barriers to communication 5
 What are the essential characteristics of good
communication system? Discuss the steps for
making communication effective. 10
 “Communication is sharing of understanding”
Discuss this and bring out the process of
communication. 10
 Importance of communication in Business? 5
 What is communication? How is it classified? 5
 What are the barriers to communication? How will you
overcome these barriers? 10
 What are some of the potential problems with upward
and downward communications? How can managers
alleviate these problems? 10
 Discuss the nature of communication? 5
 List and explain the barriers to communication. 5
 Distinguish between Formal and Informal. Various
forms of informal communication 10
 In what way is communication important for effective
managerial performance? As a manager, how would you
ensure that you are an effective communicator?