Facing Todays

Communication
Challenges
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
Why do YOU need good communication
skills?
COMMUNICATION AT WORKPLACE
Communication skills are essential for
Job placement
Job performance
Career advancement
Success in the new world of work

TRENDS IN THE NEW WORKPLACE
Flattened management hierarchies
More participatory management
Increased emphasis on teams
Heightened global competition
Innovative communication technologies
New work environments
Focus on information
NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
The eyes, face, and body send silent
messages.
Eye contact
Facial expression
Posture and gestures
Appearance sends silent messages.
Appearance of business documents
Appearance of people
TIPS FOR IMPROVING YOUR NONVERBAL
SKILLS
Establish and maintain eye contact.
Use posture to show interest.
Improve your decoding skills.
Probe for more information.
Avoid assigning nonverbal meanings out of
context.
TIPS FOR IMPROVING YOUR NONVERBAL
SKILLS
Associate with people from diverse cultures.
Appreciate the power of appearance.
Observe yourself on videotape.
Enlist friends and family.
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION
Good communication demands special
sensitivity and skills when communicators
are from different cultures.
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION
Key North American Beliefs:
Individualism
Initiative, self-assertion, personal achievement
Informality
Little emphasis on ceremonies, rank; preference for
informal dress
Direct communication style
Impatient, literal, suspicious of evasiveness
Importance of time
Precious, correlates with productivity

CULTURAL BARRIERS
Ethnocentrism:
The belief in the Superiority of ones own
culture is known as ethnocentrism

Stereotyping:
A stereotype is an oversimplified perception
of behavioral pattern applied to entire
group.

ADAPTING ORAL MESSAGES TO
INTERCULTURAL AUDIENCES
Learn some language of the host country.
Use plain English.
Observe nonverbal communication.
Encourage feedback.
Check frequently for comprehension.
Speak slowly and enunciate clearly.
Accept blame for any misunderstandings.
Listen without interrupting.

ADAPTING WRITTEN MESSAGES TO
INTERCULTURAL AUDIENCES
Use a translator for important and
persuasive documents and those with
wide distribution.
Write with short sentences and short
paragraphs.
Include relative pronouns (that, which,
who).
Use precise, simple words (end instead of
terminate).

ADAPTING WRITTEN MESSAGES TO
INTERCULTURAL AUDIENCES
Avoid contractions (they are instead of
they're).
Avoid idioms (right as rain), slang (burned
out), acronyms (snafu), abbreviations (ad,
rep), and jargon (green mail).
Write out most numbers; for money, use
the listener's currency.
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH
DIVERSE WORKPLACE AUDIENCES
Understand the value of differences.
Dont expect total conformity.
Create zero tolerance for bias and stereotypes.
Practice focused, thoughtful, and open-minded
listening.
Invite, use, and give feedback.
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH
DIVERSE WORKPLACE AUDIENCES
Make fewer workplace assumptions.
Learn about your own cultural self.
Learn about other cultures and identity groups.
Seek common ground.
HIGH-CONTEXT AND LOW-CONTEXT
CULTURES
High Context
Japanese
Arab
Latin American
Spanish
English
Italian
French
North American
Scandinavian
German
Swiss
Low Context
CBS MODEL

I. Clarity
II. Brevity
III. Sincerity

This model argues that the aforementioned
are the only purpose to prose discourse,
therefore communication.
ACTIVITY
Due to the fact that
Employed the use of
Basic fundamentals
Completely eliminate
Alternative choices
Actual experience
Connected together
In as few words as possible


BREVITY ACTIVITY
o Due to the fact that
o Employed the use of
o Basic fundamentals
o Completely eliminate
o Alternative choices
o Actual experience
o Connected together
o In as few words as
possible

o Because
o Used
o Fundamentals
o Eliminate
o Alternatives
o Experience
o Connected
o Concisely
LINEAR MODEL
Linear Model is a one way model to
communicate with others. It consists of the
sender encoding a message and channeling it
to the receiver in the presence of noise. Draw
backs the linear model assumes that there is
a clear cut beginning and end to
communication. It also displays no feedback
from the receiver.
For example; a letter, email, text message,
lecture.

LINEAR MODEL
INTERACTIVE MODEL
Interactive Model is two linear models stacked on
top of each other. The sender channels a message to
the receiver and the receiver then becomes the
sender and channels a message to the original
sender. This model has added feedback, indicates
that communication is not a one way but a two way
process.

For example instant messaging. The sender sends
an IM to the receiver, then the original sender has to
wait for the IM from the original receiver.

INTERACTIVE MODEL
TRANSACTIONAL MODEL

It assumes that people are connected
through communication; they engage in
transaction. First, it recognizes that each of
us is a sender-receiver, not merely a sender
or a receiver. Secondly, it recognizes that
communication affects all parties involved.
So communication is simultaneous. This is
what most conversations are like.
THANK YOU
TEXT BOOKS
Gerson, Sharon J and Steven M. Gerson.
Technical Writing: Process and Product. Fifth
edition. New Delhi: Pearson, 2009.
Business Communicatin Today by Dogar
Sons .
REFERENCE BOOKS
Lesikar Raymond V. and Marie E. Flatley. Business Communication
Today-Empowering the Internet Generation. Academic Internet
Publishers. 2006
Bentley T.J. Report writing in Business: The Effective Communication of
Information.
Fitzgerald, Suzanne Sparks. Schaums Quick Guide to Great Business
Writing. McGraw-Hill. 1998.
Gerson, Sharon J and Steven M. Gerson. Empowering Internet
Generation.
Roy. M. Berko/Andrew D. Wolvin/Ray Curtis, The Business of
Communicating
Maira Treece, Communication for Business and the Professions
Business Communication-Building Critical Skills, Kitty O. Locker/
Kaczmarek
Locker, Kitty O. Business and Administrative Communication.