SUMARY OF CHAPTER 1-3, Excellence in Business Communication ( 10th ed.

)
by Bovee and Thill

Adinda Wongwatana , 1606898910

Chapter 1: Achieving Success Through Effective Business Communication

Communicating is important to your career because you need to be able to communicate with people
in order to succeed in business. Your ability to connect with people outside your field is as important
as your technical expertise. Having strong communication skills give you an advantage in the job
market.
Effective communication can have business benefits such as closer ties with important communities
in the marketplace, increased productivity and faster problem solving, etc.
Effective messages are practical, factual, concise, clear, and persuasive.
Employers expect you to possess a wide range of communication skills, for examples are
communicating ethically, organizing ideas and information logically and completely, etc.
An audience-centered approach involves understanding, respecting, and meeting the needs of your
audience members. A vital element is etiquette, the expected norms of behavior in any particular
situation, can have a profound influence on your companys success and your career.
There is a new approach in business communication which is the social communication model is
interactive, conversational, and usually open to all who wish to participate. The approach can
increase the speed of communication, lower costs, improve access to expertise, and boost employee
satisfaction.
4 general guidelines for using communication technology effectively are keeping technology in
perspective, guard against information overload and addiction, use technological tools productively,
and reconnecting with people.
Ethics are the accepted principles of conduct that govern behavior within a society.
An ethical dilemma is having to choose between alternatives that may all be ethical and valid while
an ethical lapse is making a choice that you know to be unethical.

Chapter 2: Mastering Team Skills and Interpersonal Communication

Effective teams have a clear sense of purpose, open and honest communication, consensus-based
decision making, creativity, and effective conflict resolution.
Conflict in teams can be either constructive or destructive. When you encounter resistance or
hostility, try to maintain your composure and address the other persons emotional needs.
Successful collaboration on writing projects requires a number of steps, from selecting the right
partners and agreeing on project goals to establishing clear processes and avoiding writing as a
group.
When you give writing feedback, make it constructive by focusing on how the material can be
improved.
 To ensure a successful meeting, decide on your purpose ahead of time, select the right participants,
choose the venue and time, and set a clear agenda.
Virtual meeting technologies connect people spread around the country or around the world, making
it easier to communicate and replace in-person meetings.
Nonverbal signals play a vital role in communication because they can strengthen a verbal message
(when the nonverbal signals match the spoken words), weaken a verbal message (when nonverbal
signals dont match the words), or replace words entirely
Business etiquette includes a variety of behaviors, habits, and aspects of nonverbal communication.
It can represent yourself and also your company.

Chapter 3: Communicating in a World of Diversity

The diversity of todays workforce brings distinct advantages to businesses: A broader range of views
and ideas, a better understanding of diverse, fragmented market, a broader pool of talent from which
to recruit.
Elements of human diversity can affect communication at every stage of the communication process.
In particular, your instinct is to encode your message using the assumptions of your culture.
However, members of your audience decode your message according to the assumptions of their
culture. The greater the difference between cultures, the greater the chance for misunderstanding
Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and behavior norms.
Culture is learned both directly (by being instructed) and indirectly (by observing others).
Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge all other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and
customs of ones own group. While stereotyping is assigning generalized attributes to an individual
on the basis of membership in a particular group.
Learn how people in other cultures want to be treated by recognizing and accommodating eight main
types of cultural differences: contextual, legal and ethical, social, nonverbal, age, gender, religious,
and ability.
General guidelines for adapting to any business culture: Become aware of your own biases, Ignore
the Golden Rule, Exercise tolerance, flexibility, and respect, Practice patience and maintain a sense
of humor.
You can improve your intercultural skills throughout your career by studying other cultures and
languages, respecting preferences for communication styles, learning to write and speak clearly,
listening carefully, knowing when to use interpreters and translators, and helping others adapt to your
culture.