Chapter 1

Professional Communication in a Digital, Social, Mobile World

Learning Objectives

1. Explain the importance of effective communication to your career and to the companies you
where you will work.

2. Explain what it means to communicate as a professional in a business context.

3. Describe the communication process model and the ways social media are changing the nature
of business communication.

4. Outline the challenges and opportunities of mobile communication in business.

5. List four general guidelines for using communication technology effectively.

6. Define ethics, explain the difference between an ethical dilemma and an ethical lapse, and list
six guidelines for making ethical communication choices.

(LO 1) Explain the importance of effective communication to your career and to the companies where
you will work.

Communication is the process of transferring information and meaning between senders and receivers,
using one or more written, oral, visual, or electronic channels. The essence of communication is sharing
—providing data, information, insights, and inspiration in an exchange that benefits both you and the
people with whom you are communicating.

You will invest a lot of time and energy in this course to developing communication skills, so it’s fair to
ask if it will all be worthwhile. This section outlines the many ways in which good communication skills
are good for your career and your company.

Communication Is Important
(1 of 2)

Aside from the personal benefits, communication should be important to you because it is important to
your company. Effective communication helps businesses in numerous ways:

• Closer ties with important communities in the marketplace

• Opportunities to influence conversations, perceptions, and trends

• Increased productivity and faster problem solving

• Better financial results and higher return for investors

• Earlier warning of potential problems, from rising business costs to critical safety issues
 • Stronger decision making based on timely, reliable information

• Clearer and more persuasive marketing messages

• Greater employee engagement with their work, leading to higher employee satisfaction and
lower employee turnover

What Makes Business Communication Effective?

Effective communication strengthens the connection between a company and its stakeholders, those
groups affected in some way by the company’s actions. Conversely, when communication breaks down,
the results can range from time wasting to tragic. To make your communication efforts as effective as
possible, focus on making them practical, factual, concise, clear, and persuasive.

• Provide practical information.

• Give facts rather than vague impressions.

• Present information in a concise, efficient manner.

• Clarify expectations and responsibilities.

• Offer compelling, persuasive arguments and recommendations.

Communicating as a Professional

Elements of Professionalism

Professionalism is the quality of performing at a high level and conducting oneself with purpose and
pride. True professionals go beyond the minimum expectations and commit to making meaningful
contributions. Professionalism can be broken down into six distinct traits:

• Striving to excel

• Being dependable and accountable

• Being a team player

• Demonstrating a sense of etiquette

• Making ethical decisions

• Maintaining a positive outlook

All of the elements in this list depend on effective communication.

Understanding What Employers Expect from You

No matter how good you are at accounting, engineering, law, or whatever professional specialty you
pursue, employers expect you to be competent at a wide range of communication tasks. In fact,
employers start judging your ability to communicate before you even show up for your first interview,
and the process of evaluation never really stops. Fortunately, the skills that employers expect from you
are the same skills that will help you advance in your career:

• Recognizing information, using efficient search techniques to locate reliable information

sources, and using gathered information ethically (This collection of skills is often referred to as
digital information fluency.)

• Organizing ideas and information logically and completely

• Expressing yourself coherently and persuasively in a variety of media

• Actively listening to others

• Communicating effectively with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences

Communicating in an Organizational Context

Every organization has a formal communication network in which ideas and information flow along the
lines of command (i.e., the hierarchical levels) in the company’s organization structure. In a formal
network, information flows in three directions: downward communication flows from executives to
employees; upward communication flows from employees to executives; and horizontal communication
flows between departments.

Every organization also has an informal communication network (i.e., the grapevine or the rumor mill)
that encompasses all communication that occurs outside the formal network. Some of this
communication takes place naturally as employees interact on the job and in social settings; some of it
takes place when the formal network doesn’t provide information that employees want. In fact, the
inherent limitations of formal communication networks helped spur the growth of social media in the
business environment.

Exploring the
Communication Process

(LO 3) Describe the communication process model and the ways social media are changing the nature of
business communication.

By viewing communication as a process, you can identify and improve the skills you need to be more
successful.

1. The sender has an idea. The success of a communication effort starts here and depends on the
nature of the idea and the motivation for sending it.
 2. The sender encodes the idea as a message. When someone puts an idea into a message, he or
she is encoding it, or expressing it in words and images.

3. The sender produces the message in a transmittable medium. The sender needs a
communication medium to present the message to the intended audience.

4. The sender transmits the message through a channel. The communication channel is the system
used to deliver the message.

5. The audience receives the message. It is not enough for the message to reach the intended
audience. The audience must also sense the presence of a message, select it from all the other
messages, and perceive it as an actual message.

6. The audience decodes the message. Decoding is complex; receivers often extract different
meanings from messages than the meanings that senders intended.

7. The audience responds to the message. Before a receiver can respond as the sender hopes, the
receiver must remember the message long enough to act on it, must be able to act on it, and
must be motivated to respond.

8. The audience sends feedback—verbal, nonverbal, or both. Just like the original message,
however, this feedback from the receiver needs to be decoded carefully.

This process is complex, so communication efforts often fail to achieve the sender’s objective.

Using Technology to Improve Business Communication

(LO 5) List four general guidelines for using communication technology effectively.

Perhaps the single most important point to remember about technology is that it’s simply a tool, a
means by which you can accomplish certain tasks. It’s an aid to interpersonal communication, not a
replacement for it. Technology can’t think for you or communicate for you. If you lack some essential
skills, technology can’t fill in the gaps.

You don’t have to become an expert to use most communication technologies effectively; but to work
efficiently, you do need to be familiar with basic features and functions. Conversely, don’t worry about
learning advanced features unless you really need to use them. Many software packages contain dozens
of obscure features that typical business communicators rarely need. 

The overuse or misuse of communication technology can lead to information overload, in which people
receive more information than they can effectively process. Information overload makes it difficult to
discriminate between useful and useless information, lowers productivity, and amplifies employee stress
both on the job and at home.
As a recipient, control the number and types of messages you receive. Use filtering to isolate high-
priority messages that deserve your attention. Also, be wary of subscribing to too many Twitter streams
and other sources. Instead, focus on the information you truly need to do your job.

As a sender, make sure every message you send is meaningful and important to your receivers.

Technology can hinder communication if it’s overused. Speaking with people over the phone or in
person can take more time and effort than sending an email or text message, but it’s often essential for
solving tough problems and maintaining productive relationships.

Moreover, even the best communication technologies can’t show people who you really are. Step out
from behind the technology frequently to learn more about the people you work with—and to let them
learn more about you.

Committing to
Ethical Communication

(LO 6) Define ethics, explain the difference between an ethical dilemma and an ethical lapse, and list six
guidelines for making ethical communication choices.

Ethics are the accepted principles of conduct that govern behavior within a society. Ethical
communication includes all relevant information, is true in every sense, does not violate the rights of
others, and is not deceptive in any way.

Unethical communication can distort the truth or manipulate audiences in a variety of ways.

• Plagiarizing involves using someone else's words or other creative products and ideas and
claiming them as your own.

• Omitting essential information the audience needs to make an intelligent, objective decision is
unethical.

• Selective misquoting involves distorting or hiding the true intent of someone else’s words.

• Misrepresenting numbers involves manipulating data by decreasing numbers, altering statistics,

or omitting numerical data.

• Distorting visuals involves making a product look bigger or changing the scale of graphs and
charts to exaggerate or conceal differences.

• Finally, failing to respect privacy or information security needs is unethical and may be illegal.

The widespread use of social media has exposed the issue of transparency. In this context, transparency
involves a sense of openness—of giving everyone involved in a conversation the information they need
to process a message accurately. A key aspect of transparency is knowing who is behind the message.

Distinguishing Ethical Lapses from Ethical Dilemmas

Every company has responsibilities to its stakeholders, and those various groups often have competing
interests. In some situations, what's right for one group may be wrong for another.

An ethical dilemma involves choosing among alternatives that aren't clear-cut (perhaps two conflicting
alternatives are both ethical and valid, or perhaps the alternatives lie somewhere in the gray area
between clearly right and clearly wrong). Unlike a dilemma, an ethical lapse is a clearly unethical or
illegal choice.

Making Ethical Choices

Whether or not formal guidelines are in place, every employee has the responsibility to communicate in
an ethical manner. In the absence of clear guidelines, ask yourself the following questions about your
business communications:

• Have you defined the situation fairly and accurately?

• What is your intention in communicating the message?

• What impact will the message have on the people who receive it, or who might be affected by
it?

• Will the message achieve the greatest possible good while doing the least possible harm?

• Will the assumptions that you have made change over time? That is, will a decision that seems
ethical now seem unethical in the future?

• Are you comfortable with your decision? Would you be embarrassed if it were printed in
tomorrow’s newspaper or spread across the Internet?

If you’re unsure of the legal ramifications of a message you intend to send, ask for guidance from your
company’s legal department.