Vocabulary

Chapter 1
Achieving Success through Effective Business Communication
1. Audience-Centered Approach

2.

Understanding and respecting the members of your audience and making every effort to
get your message across in a way that is meaningful to them

Code of Ethics

A written set of ethical guidelines that companies expect their employees to follow.

3. Communication Barriers
Forces or events that can disrupt communication, including noise and distractions,
competing messages, filters, and channel breakdowns.

4. Corporate Culture
The mixture of values, traditions, and habits that give a company its atmosphere and
personality.

5. Decoding

Extracting the idea from a message.

6. Encoding

Putting an idea into a message (words, images, or a combination of both).

7. Ethical Communication

Communication that includes all relevant information, is true in every sense, and is not
deceptive.

8. Ethical Dilemma

Situation that involves making a choice when the alternatives arent completely wrong or
completely right.

9. Ethical Lapse

The accepted principles of conduct that govern behavior within a society.

10. Intellectual Property

Assets including patents, copyrighted materials, trade secrets, and even Internet domain
names.

11. Social Communication Model

An interactive, conversational approach to communication in which formerly passive

audience members are empowered to participate fully.

12. Stakeholders

Groups affected by a companys actions: customers, employees, shareholders, suppliers,

neighbors, the community, and the world at large.

13. Workforce Diversity

All the differences among the people who work together, including differences in age,
gender, sexual orientation, education, cultural background, religion, ability, and life
experience.

Chapter 4
Planning Business Messages
1. Direct Approach

Message organization that starts with the main idea (such as a recommendation, a
conclusion, or a request) and follows that with your supporting evidence.

2. General Purpose

The broad intent of a message to inform, to persuade, or to collaborate with the audience.

3. Indirect Approach

Message organization that starts with the evidence and builds your case before presenting
the main idea.

4. Journalistic Approach

Verifying the completeness of a message by making sure it answers the who, what, when,
where, why, and how questions.

5. Medium

The form through which you choose to communicate a message.

6. Scope

The range of information presented in a message, its overall length, and the level of detail
provided.

Chapter 15
Building Careers and Writing Rsum
1. Applicant Tracking Systems
Computer systems that capture and store incoming rsums and help recruiters find good
prospects for current openings
2. Chronological Rsum
The most common rsum format; it emphasizes work experience, with past jobs shown
in reverse chronological order.

3. Combination Rsum

Format that includes the best features of the chronological and functional approaches

4. Functional Rsum
Format that emphasizes your skills and capabilities while identifying employers and
academic experience in subordinate sections; many recruiters view this format with
suspicion

5. Networking
The process of making connections with mutually beneficial business contacts

Chapter 16
Applying and Interviewing for Employment
1. Application Letter

Message that accompanies a rsum to let readers know what youre sending, why youre
sending it, and how they can benefit from reading it

2. Behavioral Interview

Interview in which you are asked to relate specific incidents and experiences from your
past

3. Employment Interview

Formal meeting during which you and an employer ask questions and exchange
information

4. Open-ended Interview

Interview in which the interviewer adapts his or her line of questioning based on the
answers you give and any questions you ask

5. Situational Interview

Similar to a behavioral interview, except the questions focus on how you would handle
various hypothetical situations on the job

6. Structured Interview

Interview in which the interviewer (or a computer) asks a series of prepared questions in
a set order unsolicited application letter Message