Business communication
Introduction to communication
INTRODUCTION
Communication is an important component of success in our personal and professional lives.
It is the key to building favorable relationships. It is a part of 'soft skills' as opposed to the
domain or technical knowledge, which is part of 'hard skills.' A formal study of business
communication is important since the average business executive today spends a good part of
his time on the job communicating in some form or the other.
Telecommuting is a work arrangement in which employees work from a remote location
usually their homes and communicate with their company using electronic means. It is
flourishing both in Australia and other countries. Telecommuting may significantly decrease
interpersonal communication requirements and is therefore affecting effective communication.
Meyers, N., & Hearn, G. of the Queensland University of Technology conducted a survey on
about 39 telecommuters working for 12 different Australian organizations. The participants
were working in the following different categories:
➢ Administrators
➢ Computer system designers
➢ Journalists
➢ Legislative drafters
➢ Managerial consultants
➢ Project workers
➢ Public relations consultants/executives
➢ Sales-marketing personnel
➢ Solicitors
About 46% of the participants of the survey were female telecommuters.
Meetings were considered an important formal office communication. Meetings were
conducted based on the following three situations:
➢ Complexity of task and required feedback
➢ Management predictions for contacting their telecommuters
➢ Need for currency of information
The satisfaction levels of telecommuters varied across the three situations. For example, the
sales-marketing telecommuters met with their superiors weekly, to share what they were doing
and set goals for the week.
About 18% of the participants found meetings either difficult to attend or a disturbance to
their work-at home schedule.
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, Also, the lack of communication on the meeting schedules made few telecommuters miss the
meetings.
Daily telephone or other forms of contact was the main means of communication for nearly
30% of telecommuters. Daily communication through channels like e-mail and telephone was
viewed as an important means of communication for sales-marketing telecommuters.
Once the communication patterns were established, the telecommuters began to use two-way
communication.
Other participants of the survey pointed out that co-workers were reluctant to call them at
home. Consequently, they sometimes did not receive critical information on time. Some
participants pointed out that they did receive memos even though they were absent.
Timeliness of communication is more important for telecommuters since they lack proximity
and quick referral to co-workers as well as other information.
COMMUNICATION – MEANING
Communication in simple terms is a transfer of information between people, resulting in a
common understanding between them.
Communication has been defined differently by different writers and behavioral theorists.
Some popular definitions are as follows:
➢ According to Newman and Summer, "Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas,
opinions or emotions by two or more persons".
➢ According to Allen Louis, "It is the sum of all the things one person does when he wants
to create an understanding in the mind of another".
➢ Bellows, Gilson, and Odiorne define communication as "A communion by words,
letters, symbols or messages, and as a way that one organization member shares
meaning with the other"
➢ Hoben defines communication as "The verbal interchange of thoughts or ideas".
➢ In the words of Anderson, "Communication is the process by which we understand
others and in turn, endeavor to be understood by them. It is dynamic, constantly
changing and shifting in response to the total situation".
➢ According to Berelson and Steiner, "Communication is the transmission of information,
ideas, emotions, skills, etc. by the use of symbols, words, pictures, figures, graphs, etc."
➢ In the words of Fotheringham, "Communication is a process involving the selection,
production, and transmission of signs in such a way as to help a receiver perceive a
meaning similar to that in the mind of the communicator".
From all these definitions, it is clear that communication has the following
characteristics:
➢ It is unavoidable - It is impossible not to communicate, since we communicate
unintentionally all the time, even without the use of words. Our body language, the way
we dress, the importance we give to arriving on time, our behavior, and the physical
environment in which we work, all convey certain messages to others.
2|Page
Introduction to communication
INTRODUCTION
Communication is an important component of success in our personal and professional lives.
It is the key to building favorable relationships. It is a part of 'soft skills' as opposed to the
domain or technical knowledge, which is part of 'hard skills.' A formal study of business
communication is important since the average business executive today spends a good part of
his time on the job communicating in some form or the other.
Telecommuting is a work arrangement in which employees work from a remote location
usually their homes and communicate with their company using electronic means. It is
flourishing both in Australia and other countries. Telecommuting may significantly decrease
interpersonal communication requirements and is therefore affecting effective communication.
Meyers, N., & Hearn, G. of the Queensland University of Technology conducted a survey on
about 39 telecommuters working for 12 different Australian organizations. The participants
were working in the following different categories:
➢ Administrators
➢ Computer system designers
➢ Journalists
➢ Legislative drafters
➢ Managerial consultants
➢ Project workers
➢ Public relations consultants/executives
➢ Sales-marketing personnel
➢ Solicitors
About 46% of the participants of the survey were female telecommuters.
Meetings were considered an important formal office communication. Meetings were
conducted based on the following three situations:
➢ Complexity of task and required feedback
➢ Management predictions for contacting their telecommuters
➢ Need for currency of information
The satisfaction levels of telecommuters varied across the three situations. For example, the
sales-marketing telecommuters met with their superiors weekly, to share what they were doing
and set goals for the week.
About 18% of the participants found meetings either difficult to attend or a disturbance to
their work-at home schedule.
1|Page
, Also, the lack of communication on the meeting schedules made few telecommuters miss the
meetings.
Daily telephone or other forms of contact was the main means of communication for nearly
30% of telecommuters. Daily communication through channels like e-mail and telephone was
viewed as an important means of communication for sales-marketing telecommuters.
Once the communication patterns were established, the telecommuters began to use two-way
communication.
Other participants of the survey pointed out that co-workers were reluctant to call them at
home. Consequently, they sometimes did not receive critical information on time. Some
participants pointed out that they did receive memos even though they were absent.
Timeliness of communication is more important for telecommuters since they lack proximity
and quick referral to co-workers as well as other information.
COMMUNICATION – MEANING
Communication in simple terms is a transfer of information between people, resulting in a
common understanding between them.
Communication has been defined differently by different writers and behavioral theorists.
Some popular definitions are as follows:
➢ According to Newman and Summer, "Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas,
opinions or emotions by two or more persons".
➢ According to Allen Louis, "It is the sum of all the things one person does when he wants
to create an understanding in the mind of another".
➢ Bellows, Gilson, and Odiorne define communication as "A communion by words,
letters, symbols or messages, and as a way that one organization member shares
meaning with the other"
➢ Hoben defines communication as "The verbal interchange of thoughts or ideas".
➢ In the words of Anderson, "Communication is the process by which we understand
others and in turn, endeavor to be understood by them. It is dynamic, constantly
changing and shifting in response to the total situation".
➢ According to Berelson and Steiner, "Communication is the transmission of information,
ideas, emotions, skills, etc. by the use of symbols, words, pictures, figures, graphs, etc."
➢ In the words of Fotheringham, "Communication is a process involving the selection,
production, and transmission of signs in such a way as to help a receiver perceive a
meaning similar to that in the mind of the communicator".
From all these definitions, it is clear that communication has the following
characteristics:
➢ It is unavoidable - It is impossible not to communicate, since we communicate
unintentionally all the time, even without the use of words. Our body language, the way
we dress, the importance we give to arriving on time, our behavior, and the physical
environment in which we work, all convey certain messages to others.
2|Page
