LECTURE 1:

FUNDAMENTALS OF
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
MBA 1305: Business Communication

Kazi Sharmin Pamela

Assistant Professor
Bangladesh Open University
 Learning Objectives
2

Introduction to Business Communication

Definition of Business Communication
Nature of Business Communication
Communication Situation ,
Importance of Business Communication
Scope of Business Communication
Principles of Business Communication
Functions of Business Communication
Barriers of Business Communication and
Process of Business Communication

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 Introduction to Business Communication
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Communication is an essential part of all human

activity. Communication takes place:
In personal life.
In professional life.
In social life, with other members of our society
(both in formal and informal situations).

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 Introduction to Business Communication
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Businesses want and need people with good

communication skill.
Four Communication Skill:
Writing
Speaking
Listening
Interpersonal Communicating

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 Definition of Business Communication
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Communication means sharing or exchanging or

sharing information, news, ideas etc.
Communication is the process of transmitting meanings,
ideas and understandings of a person or a group to
another person of group.
Communication can broadly be classified as:
Verbal
Oral and Written
Non-verbal
Expressions, gestures.

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 Definition of Business Communication
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Communication takes a wide variety of forms –

One to one.
One to many.
Common forms of communication include speaking, writing,
listening, reading, gesturing and broadcasting.
Communication means to inform, tell, show, or spread
information. When a person communicates, he/ she
establishes a common ground of understanding. In the
organizational context, it brings about a unity of purpose,
interest and effort.

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 Definition of Business Communication
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Business communication is the giving and receiving of feedback

between individuals and/or groups for the purpose of
exchanging information and altering or enhancing performance
in the business.
The successful transmission of information through a common
system of symbols, signs, behavior, speech, writing or signals.
The creation of shared understanding through interaction
among two or more agents.
The skill of business communication shapes the impressions on
colleagues ,employees, supervisors, investors and customers.

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 Nature of Business
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Communication
It is a process
It is inevitable
Meaning based
Communication can be intentional and unintentional
Communication is systematic
A two-way traffic
Communication is a social process
A Dynamic process
A Continuous process

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 Nature of Business
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Communication
Communication involved interaction and transaction
Needs proper understanding
Leads achievement of the organizational objectives
Dispels misunderstandings
It is the lifeblood of the business.
Requires Four skills
Reading, writing, speaking and listening.

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 The Communication Situation
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These are the media through which Business Communication

occur.
Memorandum, Notice, Circular, Minutes, Letters, Emails,
Telephone/Mobile/Cellular phone Calls, Meetings, Billboards,
Advertisements, Internet, Magazines, Newspaper, SMS, Social
media

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 Importance of Business Communication
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The importance of communication to an organization is critical

to the-success of any organization and has a very significant
impact on the ultimate effectiveness of the whole organization.
Business Communication is a means by which behavior is
modified, change is effected, information is made productive
and goals are achieved.
Business communication can be internal when it is directed to persons
within the organization such as superiors, co-workers or subordinates.
Business communication can be external when directed to customers,
suppliers, government, public, etc.

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 Importance of Business Communication
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Internal External
Communicatio Communicatio
n n

Superiors Customers

Co-workers Suppliers

Subordinat Public
es

Governme
nt
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 Importance of Business Communication
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INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
Effective internal communication works towards establishing and
disseminating of the goals of an enterprise, evolving plans for their
achievement, organizing human and other resources in an efficient way.
It helps in selecting, developing and appraising members of the
organization, in motivating and encouraging people to put in their best,
and in controlling their performance.
Growth in the size and multiple locations of organizations require keeping
in touch with employees spread over different states of a country or over
different countries. Sending directions and getting feedback from them
would be possible only through effective communication.

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 Importance of Business Communication
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EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION
External communication relates an organization to the environment outside.
No enterprise can thrive in a vacuum. It has to be aware of the needs of
the customers, the availability of suppliers, regulations of the government
and the concerns of a community.
Only through effective communication can an organization become an
open system interacting with its environment.

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 External Communication
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 Importance of Business Communication
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Business Communication also-

Brings people closer
It saves time in any formal set up.
It breaks the barrier between individuals/ groups.
It adds the knowledge base
It removes many misunderstanding and misconceptions,
It can influence the actions of people.
It can change the attitude of people

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 Scope of Business
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Communication
Scope of Business Communication

Information Feedback Control Influence

sharing

Problem Decision Facilitating Group

Solving making change building

Gate keeping Management Industrial International

Relations Affairs
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 Scope of Business Communication
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Communication in business: Today, we cannot think of business without

communication. Communication is the lifeblood of business as it provides
necessary information in formulating business plans and policies. It also
ensures effective performance of business activities like production,
distribution, finance, warehousing etc. Thus; ultimate success of the business
depends on successful communication.
Communication in management: Management is the means of achieving
organizational goals. Efficiency and effectiveness of management depend on
effective communication with the various internal and external parties. Every
function of management depends on communication. In fact, without
information; plans cannot be formulated, activities cannot be organized,
directives cannot be issued and control cannot be ensured.

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 Scope of Business Communication
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Communication in personal life: Communication is closely related with

every sphere of human life. From dawn to dusk, a person communicates with
others. This reveals that communication is the part and parcel of human life.
Communication in social life: Human civilization lives in an integrated
society. In social life, people need to develop social bondage.
Communication helps us in creating and strengthening this social bondage.
Communication in the state affairs: Communication also pervades all areas
of state affairs. Without it, state neither can administer its various wings nor
can maintain relationships with the other part of the world. Due to
revolutionary change in communication technologies, the whole world has
turned into a global village.

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 Scope of Business
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Communication
Communication in industrial relations: communication is essential in labor
management relationship in the industry or in an organization. Congenial
industrial relation is a precondition for business success. On the other hand, free
and fair communication is a pre-requisite for creating good industrial relation.
Free flow of information lessens doubt, confusion and controversies between
workers and management. As a result, harmonious relationship develops in the
organization.
Communication in international affairs: In this age of globalization,
communication is not merely confined within the national boundary. Countries
are exchanging their cultural, economical, social, political, educational and
technological affairs with each other continuously. In order to facilitate
cooperation and communication among countries, various regional and
international bodies namely the United Nations, World Bank, NAFTA, SAFTA,
ASEAN, SAARC, EU etc. have been formed. Through these bodies, counties
communicate various bilateral and multilateral issues among them.
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 Principles of Business Communication
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7 principles of Business Communication

Principles of Courtesy
Principles of Completeness
Principles of Conciseness
Principles of Clarity
Principles of Concreteness
Principles of Correctness
Principles of Considerations

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 Functions of Business
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Communication
Information refers to the role of communication in facilitating decision making
and problem solving. In the organizational context,

Control refers to the power to influence people’s behavior.

Motivation refers to the fostering of motivational spirit among the

employees.

Decision making relates to the function of making right decisions.

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 Barriers to Business Communication
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If the sender’s message does not reach the receiver as it is meant to, then
there must be some barrier or hindrance. What can it be? And how to avoid
such barriers?

Good organizers of communication need to anticipate the barriers and

remove them. The barriers range from a poor microphone to an emotional
attitude that rejects the message before it is received.

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 Barriers of Business Communication
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 Barriers of Business Communication
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For convenience of analysis, we may classify the barriers into five types:
Mechanical barriers
Physical barriers
Psychological barriers
Semantic and language barriers
Status barriers

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 Barriers of Business Communication
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1. Mechanical Barriers/Faulty Mechanism

A communication may not reach properly if the mechanism that carries it breaks down.
If the computer typing has been done in Bijoy Bangla Font, and while taking the
printout the computer is in the Roman mode, not a single letter would be understood.
Similarly, if the mirror image of a letter is sent by some mechanical fault, it will be
hard to decipher.
Other problems can be:
weak microphone or poor sound system at the meeting place
Defective telephone lines
Electricity/computer breakdown
Poor printing /paper quality
Atmospherics on radio or TV, especially in a cloudy weather

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 Barriers of Business Communication
2. Physical Barriers
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Sometimes background noise, whether in a face-to-face

meeting or at either end of the telephone, reduces the
audibility of the spoken words.
If the listener is too far from the speaker, s/he may not be
able to hear him, in which case distance is the barrier.
The time taken for the message to reach its destination can
become a barrier, e.g. a telegram delivered too late.

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 Barriers of Business Communication
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3. Psychological Barriers

A person of weak hearing or eyesight cannot always receive the

communication in full.
The age of the listener puts its own limitations on his ability to receive
messages. One may be too young or too old to understand certain things.
A person’s educational level governs his understanding. Some background
knowledge is required to understand certain messages.
A wandering mind cannot fully gather the inputs given to it.
Ideological loyalties may form a barrier to communication.
Loyalty to a brand or an organization is also a barrier.

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 Barriers of Business Communication
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Emotional states of a person can act as barriers.

One’s prejudices (a judgment formed without proper information) act as a
hindrance to reason.
Personality limitations, too, put a barrier. These are similar to ideological
barriers, as some personalities are naturally attracted to certain ideologies.
One’s aspirations, viewpoints, analyses makes one open or closed to certain
messages.
Fixed images about other people stand as barriers to see them in a new role.
A comedian coming in as a hero of a film may not be acceptable to an
audience which sees him typed in comedy roles.
Poor retention power is a barrier. If one fails to take timely notes when
instructions are given, hoping to remember them all, often leads to forgetting
part of the message.
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 Barriers of Business Communication
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4. Semantic and language barriers):
Semantics is the study of how words convey meanings. What happens if the
speaker/writer means one thing and the listener/reader takes it in another
meaning?
Yet in business life, dealing with matter-of-fact situations, semantic barriers arise
from the inability to read the receiver’s mind. If the sender knows the receiver’s level
of understanding, fine. The sender’s experience with words differs from the
receiver’s.
Words from one environment may not fit in into another environment.
An abstract word is used (in order to be more general and safer) when a concrete
word is required. One may want to say that some young men may be impatient, but
one might say “Youth is impatient.”
Idioms are meant to be understood in the idiomatic sense but are taken in the literal
sense. e.g., tick your ts and cross your fs. (t=true and f=false)
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 Barriers of Business Communication
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4. Semantic and language barriers (Continued):
Advertisement:
Bad Dog for Sell
An advertiser offered to sell a
“big, bad dog”. While the
word “bad” is meant to convey
its attacking power to guard a
house, some readers may take
it otherwise. The context
changes the meaning of the
word.

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 Barriers of Business
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Communication
5. Status Barriers

(A type of psychological barrier)

The higher or lower social status of a party disables the other from
expressing one’s meaning fully.
E.g. A modest farmer may feel nervous in expressing his problems to
a high-ranking official or politician.
Status symbols (e.g. luxury, power, property) may halt communication.
Cultural barriers are a special case of collective psychological barriers.
A culture brings its own habits, modes of dressing, greeting, eating,
food preferences etc. Most people have an element of xenophobia
(fear or aversion of foreigners)

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 Process of Business Communication
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 Process of Business Communication
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1. The sender : The sender is the person who originally has the information,
thought, idea or emotion which is required to be communicated.
2. Encoding : It is then encoded. Encoding is the process of conversion of
information, thought, idea or emotion into a message, in such a way that it
can be understood both by the sender and the receiver.
3. Transmission of message: Message is the content, which the sender wants
to send to the receiver. A message can be written or oral or in the form of
gestures. This is a very important part of the communication process since it
carries the idea from the sender to the receiver.
4. Channel: Messages are conveyed through a channel. These channels may
be of two types; namely Oral or Written. Oral communication can be
conducted over the telephone, through seminars, video-conferencing,
meetings, etc. Written communication includes letters, fax, email, memo and
reports etc.
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5. Receiver : Receiver is the person who receives the message. He decodes the
message to understand it. It is important to understand that the receiver has
his own set of beliefs, ideas and feelings. These beliefs, ideas and feelings
affect the way the receiver interprets the message that he receives. There is
a possibility of misinterpretation at this stage. Words often mean
differently to different people and the receiver may interpret the message
on the basis of past experience thus making assumptions about its meaning.
6. Feedback: In the process of communication the receiver is not a passive
object. A receiver provides ‘feedback’ to the sender in the form of verbal
or nonverbal reaction to the communicated message. This feedback is very
important because it enables the sender to understand whether the receiver
has understood the message in the desired manner or not.

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 Practice
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1. Because of your excellent communication skills, your boss always ask you to
write his reports for him. When you overhear the CEO complimenting him
on his logical organization and clear writing style, he responds as if he had
written all those reports himself. You’re angry, but he is your boss, What
can you do?
2. Pick three jobs that you might like to have after you complete the study.
What communication skill do you think would be most important to you in
these position?
3. Name three ways you might encourage your employees to give you
feedback on daily operations. Briefly explain your answer.

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 Reference
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1. Basic Business Communication, Raymond Vincent Lesikar, John D. Pettit,

Marie Elizabeth Flatley, 10th edition.
2. Excellence in Business Communication, J. V. Thill & C L. Bovee
3. Business Communication, Betty R. Ficks & K. F. Gow.
4. Essentials of Business Communication, Rajendra Pal & J. S. Korlahalli (New
Delhi, S. Chand & Sons)
5. Business Communication- Lecture materials, Ms. Adiba Anis. BOU

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Thank You

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