UNIT-I

COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS

What is Business Communication?

Business communication refers to exchanging information, knowledge, ideas, thoughts and messages
between individuals or groups within or between organizations. The objective of business
communication is to convey information effectively and efficiently to achieve the goals and objectives
of the organization.

Effective business communication helps to build and maintain relationships, facilitate decision-
making and promote understanding among employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders.
It enables organizations to share information, coordinate activities and achieve common goals.

Business communication is the process of expression, channelling, receiving and interchanging of

ideas in commerce and industry.

In simple words, Business communication is the process of sharing information between people
within and outside a company in order to promote an organization’s goals, objectives, aims, and
activities, as well as increase profits.

What is Communication?
Communication is the process of passing information and understanding the same from one person
to another. Thus, communication means to understand information, facts or opinions of someone.

Business Communication Definition

Business communication can be defined as the sharing of information between people within and
outside the organization that is performed for the commercial benefit of the organization. It can also
be defined as relaying of information within a business by its people. Wikipedia

According to Ricks and Gow, Business communication is a system that affects change within the total
organization.

According to (Will Hughes) W. H., The exchange of ideas, news and views in connection with the
business among the related parties is called business communication.

According to Brennan, Business communication is the expression channelling, receiving and

interchanging of ides in commerce and industry.

According to Newman & Summer “Communication is exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions
by two or more persons”

According to Keith Davis “Communication is the process of passing information and understanding
from one person to another.”
Objectives of Business Communication
The objectives of business communication are wide and large. Communication is one of the most
useful tools for a business. Information, Order, permission, Warning, Motivation, Advice and Raising
morale are activated through the means of communication.

1. To Exchange Information: The prime objective of communication is to exchange

information internally and externally i.e. to deal within the organization and outside the organization.

2. To Achieve Goal: The goal of the organization can be obtained through effective organizational
communication. Everybody tries to acquire such goal and therefore it requires effective
organizational communication.

3. To Maintain Co-ordination and Co-operation: Co-ordination and co-operation among three levels
i.e. corporate level, divisional level and functional level of an Organization are maintained through
communication.

4. To Plan: Planning decides what is to be done in future. All the information and data which are
required to make a plan for business can be obtained or gathered through communication.

5. To Facilitate Direction and Motivation: The boss gives direction or order to his subordinate.
And managers need to motivate their employees to increase the concentration and productivity.
Hence, communication helps to facilitate direction and motivation.

6. To Achieve Efficiency: Communication can provide information regarding past and present. It also
helps to anticipate about future. So, Communication increase efficiency of the workers by providing
instant information.

7. To Solve Problem: Communication can remove the gap between employees and employer. Fruitful
communication ensures a network in an organization to solve problems or conflicts.

8. To Create Consciousness: Communication helps both employer and employee to be conscious

about their respective roles, duties and activities. As a result, responsibility and accountability is
located among the concerned persons.

9. To Increase Job Satisfaction: Job satisfaction requires better job environment and better job
environment is possible if there exists communication chain. Strong chain helps to overcome job
related stress and increase job satisfaction.

10. To Improve Employer-Employee Relationship: To achieve the Organizational objectives, there

must be good relationship between employee and employer. And to improve such relationship, there
must be effective communication.

11. To Manage Human Resources: To recruit, train-up & motivate human resource properly, There
must be effective communication. Skilled manpower are professional and work for achievement and
development.

12. To Attract Customer: To knock the door of potential customers with new product and service of
an enterprise, there should exist an efficient communication. So better communication will cause
more customers and more customers will cause more profit.
13. To Facilitate Join Effort: Joint effort requires unique motive. And unique motive means mutual
trust & unity arising from mutual communication.

14. To alter/Change Future Plan: In today's modern competitive world, there is requirement of
changing the plan according to environment and communication environment. This involves
awareness through proper communication.

15. To Obtain Overall Development: The overall development of an Organization involves existence
of efficient Internal Control Structure. And it can be possible through effective communication
system.

16. To Provide Necessary Data for Decision-Making: Managers require different types of data and
information for decision-making. Through communication managers collect necessary data and take
accurate decision.

17. To Educate Workers: Communication helps the Organization to train-up the employees/workers
through organized programs. For example, Orientation, workshops, film show, internship etc.

Process of Human Communication

Good communication skills are essential to effective business communications. At its core, the aim
of communication is to transmit information from one person to another so that
the sender and receiver understand the message in the same way. The responsibility for clear
communication usually falls on the sender. But the receiver is also responsible to confirm a clear
understanding of the message. Communication is a dynamic and cyclical process.

The 5 Step Communication Process

Step 1: Idea Formation – The communication process begins when the sender has an idea to be
communicated. The idea will be influenced by complex factors surrounding the sender. The sender
must begin by clarifying the idea and purpose. What exactly does the sender want to achieve? How
is the message likely to be perceived? Knowing this information provides a higher chance of
successful communication

Step 2: Message Encoding – The idea must be encoded into words, symbols, and gestures that will
convey meaning. Because no two people interpret information in the exact same way, the sender
must be careful to choose words, symbols and gestures that are commonly understood to reduce the
chances of misunderstanding. Therefore, a sender must be aware of the receiver’s communication
skills, attitudes, skills, experiences, and culture to ensure clear communication.

Step 3: Message Transmission: Choosing the medium to transmit the message is the next step in the
communication process. Messages can be transmitted in a verbal, written, or visual. For clear
communication to occur, the medium and message must match

Step 4: Decoding – When the message reaches the receiver, the message must be decoded into its
intended meaning. Therefore, the receiver must translate the words, symbols, and gestures as the
sender intended. Because no two people interpret information in the exact same way, incorrectly
decoding a message can lead to misunderstanding. Successful decoding is more likely when the
receiver creates a receptive environment and ignores distractions. Alert receivers strive to
understand both verbal and nonverbal cues, avoid prejudging the message, and expect to learn from
the communication.

Step 5: Feedback – A vital part of the communication process is feedback. Feedback occurs the
sender and receiver check to ensure the message was understood as intended. Feedback is a shared
responsibility between the sender and the receiver and can be verbal or non-verbal. For example,
the sender can elicit feedback by asking, “Do you have any questions?” The sender can also improve
the feedback process by only providing as much information as the receiver can handle. Receivers
can encourage clear communication by providing clear, timely, descriptive, and non-judgmental
feedback. For example, the receiver can shake his/her head up and down to confirm “yes” I have a
question.

Types of Communication
The five types of communication you need to know about are

1. Verbal communication,
2. Nonverbal communication,
3. Written communication,
4. Visual communication, and
5. Listening.

1. Verbal Communication (Oral Communication)

Verbal communication encompasses all communication using spoken words, or unspoken words as in
the case with sign language. It is important to understand how to effectively communicate your ideas
verbally in order to avoid misunderstandings and maximize interest while you speak. Make sure to
use the right type of language, speak clearly, know your audience, respond in the best way, and use
an appropriate tone when speaking.
2. Nonverbal Communication

What is actually being said is only half the battle — the rest lies in what isn’t being said. This means
your tone, facial expressions, body language, hand movements, and eye contact. When you make
yourself aware of what the rest of you is doing as you speak, you can make corrections and
eventually use all the right nonverbal cues to convey your point.

3. Written Communication

Written communication is a form of verbal communication, but it is so different than spoken verbal
communication that this form gets its own separate type. Written communication can take the form
of anything you write or type such as letters, emails, notes, texts, billboards, even a message written
in the sky! With written communication, it is important you know your audience, your purpose, and
maintain consistency throughout your written message.

4. Visual Communication

Visual communication is one you may not have heard of, but it is one that complements the other
types of communication well. Visual communication is delivering information, messages, and points
by way of graphical representations, or visual aids.

Some commonly used examples are slide presentations, diagrams, physical models, drawings, and
illustrations. When you use visual communication in addition to verbal, nonverbal, and written
communication, you create a very effective way for your message to be heard and understood.

5. Listening

Listening is a surprisingly important part of communication and in order to be a great communicator,

you must master the art of listening. Remember that listening doesn’t just mean hearing, or politely
waiting for your turn to speak. When others are speaking, you should practice active listening, which
means that you are engaging your mind while the person speaks, intently focusing on what they are
saying.

DEVELOPING LISTENING SKILLS

Listening is a significant part of communication process. Communication cannot take place until and
unless a message is heard and retained thoroughly and positively by the receivers/listeners. Listening
is a dynamic process. Listening means attentiveness and interest perceptible in the posture as well as
expressions. Listening implies decoding (i.e., translating the symbols into meaning) and interpreting
the messages correctly in communication process.

Listening differs from hearing in sense that:

• Hearing implies just perceiving the sounds while listening means listening with
understanding whatever you are listening. Both the body as well as mind is involved in
listening process.

• Listening is an active process while hearing is a passive activity

• Hearing is an effortless activity while listening is an act requiring conscious efforts,

concentration and interest. Listening involves both physical and psychological efforts.
Effective listening requires both deliberate efforts and a keen mind. Effective listeners appreciate flow
of new ideas and information. Organizations that follow the principles of effective listening are
always informed timely, updated with the changes and implementations, and are always out of crisis
situation. Effective listening promotes organizational relationships, encourages product delivery and
innovation, as well as helps organization to deal with the diversity in employees and customers it
serves.

To improve your communication skills, you must learn to listen effectively. Effective listening gives
you an advantage and makes you more impressive when you speak. It also boosts your performance.

Effective Listening Skills

1. Discover your interests’ field.

2. Grasp and understand the matter/content.
3. Remain calm. Do not lose your temper. Anger hampers and inhibits communication. Angry
people jam their minds to the words of others.
4. Be open to accept new ideas and information.
5. Jot down and take a note of important points.
6. Work upon listening. Analyze and evaluate the speech in spare time.
7. Rephrase and summarize the speaker’s ideas.
8. Keep on asking questions. This demonstrates that how well you understand the speaker’s
ideas and also that you are listening.
9. Avoid distractions.
10. “Step into the shoes of others”, i.e., put yourself in the position of the speaker and observe
things from his view point. This will help creating an atmosphere of mutual understanding
and improve the exchange of ideas in communication process.

Characteristics of Good and Effective Listener

Good and effective listener tries to give maximum amount of thought to the speaker’s ideas being
communicated, leaving a minimum amount of time for mental exercises to go off track. A good
listener:

1. Is attentive- Good listener must pay attention to the key points. He should be alert. He
should avoid any kind of distraction.
2. Do not assume- Good listener does not ignore the information he considers is unnecessary.
He should always summarize the speaker’s ideas so that there is no misunderstanding of
thoughts of speakers. He avoids premature judgements about the speakers message.
3. Listen for feelings and facts- Good listener deliberately listens for the feelings of the speaker.
He/She concentrates totally on the facts. He/She evaluates the facts objectively. His/Her
listening is sympathetic, active and alert. He/She keenly observes the gestures, facial
expression and body language of the speaker.

In short, a good listener should be projective (i.e. one who tries to understand the views of
the speaker) and empathic (i.e. one who concentrates not only on the surface meaning of
the message but tries to probe the feelings and emotions of the speaker).

4. Concentrate on the other speakers kindly and generously- A good listener makes deliberate
efforts to give a chance to other speakers also to express their thoughts and views. He tries
to learn from every speaker. He evaluates the speaker’s ideas in spare time. He focuses on
the content of the speaker’s message and not on the speaker’s personality and looks.
 5. Opportunities- A good listener tries to take benefit from the opportunities arising. He asks
“What’s in it for me?”

To conclude, effective listening enhances the communication quality. It makes all attentive. It
encourages optimistic attitude, healthy relations and more participation. It leads to better decision-
making in an organization. Effective listening is directly related to our ability to do team work. It must
be noted that “We listen at about an efficiency rate of 25 percent maximum, and we remember only
about 50 percent of what is delivered during a ten minute speech/lecture/communication.”

Types of Listening Skills

As now you know the importance of listening skills, let’s know how the different styles of listening
work. We use informational, critical and empathic styles when we listen to people. Those who use
informational listening are usually in school or work in an office setting. They are also likely to take
physical notes and pay attention to body language. Developing informational listening skills is ideal
for beginning a new job or self-development study. We can use all eight styles. But which one is best
for you?

1. Empathetic Listening
As the name implies, empathic listening is based on understanding beyond the facts and providing
support and empathy to the speaker. Using this type of listening style builds trust and positive
interactions. The benefits of empathic listening extend beyond interpersonal relationships.

Empathetic listening is the most common type of listening. It involves identifying with the other
person's feelings and experiences. The listener is not necessarily required to experience the same
thing as the speaker, but he or she should try to imagine the other person's experience. For example,
if your coworker is facing an increase in workload, you will understand his or her struggle. By
understanding the other person's feelings, you will be able to make a better decision.

2. Active Listening
If we talk about how to improve listening skills, active listening is among the most important ones.
When you are communicating with someone, active listening is crucial. The active listener will pay
attention to every word of what is being said and will often show their own response by verbally
giving feedback.

Active listeners are the holy grail of audiences. While active listening can be tricky to master, it's
vitally important to know how to effectively communicate with an active listener.

The most effective way to listen is to engage in active listening. People who practice this style are
generous and considerate listeners who place the needs of others above their own. They prioritise
the point of view of others, even if this requires filtering out other points of view.

3. Time-oriented Listening
Time-oriented listeners are concerned with timeliness and time limits. This type of listener is similar
to an "executive" in that they will verbally express time constraints. These listeners have short
attention spans and will prefer to hear the message quickly without unnecessary details. As a result,
time-oriented listeners may be impatient and rude if they don't get their point across quickly.
There are many different types of listening styles. One type of listening style is referred to as "time-
oriented," which refers to a person's interest in time and deadlines. Time-oriented listeners also tend
to verbalise these constraints. These individuals typically listen with their minds focused on what
they will get from the message.

4. Action-oriented Listening
Action-oriented listeners value concise, error-free messages. They enjoy lists and are quick to spot
inconsistencies. They are also likely to notice mistakes and inconsistencies in a speaker's message.

Action-oriented listeners are also more likely to ask for clarifications. They also tend to focus on the
emotional aspects and try to understand the message as clearly as possible. Ultimately, this
approach can lead to miscommunication and misunderstandings.

5. People-oriented Listening
People-oriented listeners are interested in the speaker's background and beliefs. They often ask
questions about what motivates the speaker and their goals or desires. They are also concerned with
the facts and figures. Also, they may quickly cut people off, whereas action-oriented listeners may
take more time to conclude if the information is complex.

6. Informational Listening
When we listen to information, we engage in a highly active process that involves concentration,
critical thinking and acceptance of responsibility. As we listen to information, we become more adept
at identifying and understanding its meaning.

Learning informational listening skills is particularly useful for new workers and people in business
settings. In addition, it can make us more fulfilled at home, too. This chapter will explain the different
types of listening styles.

This style requires listening to take into account the thoughts of others while forming a shared
understanding. People who use this style are good at taking input from speakers and developing
ideas based on those ideas.

7. Biased Listening
Biased listening involves minimal participation from the listener. They listen to important information
without asking questions or offering their opinions. People who practice this style often think they
are not listening well and aren't empathetic. This style can also hurt relationships because it can
reinforce one's bias for future communications. This type of listening is most effective when paired
with other listening styles.

8. Critical Listening
The term "critical" has multiple meanings; however, in this instance, it's simply saying that you're
evaluating data but not necessarily judging. Critical listening refers to the method of listening that
listeners use when trying to evaluate and analyse the complexity of the information being conveyed
to them.

It is possible to use critical listening when you're working on a problem-solving job and need to
determine whether you appreciate the idea being presented by one of your colleagues or not.
ESSENTIALS FOR GOOD LISTENING SKILLS
Listening is an incredibly important skill for leaders to possess. Managers need to be able to hear out
their employees, understand their needs and concerns, and respond in an effective and sympathetic
manner.

But listening goes beyond simply hearing what one has to say. There are several types of
important listening skills that ensure that the speaker feels heard, understood, and respected. To
strengthen your workplace relationships, maintain positive workplace morale, and gain the trust of
your colleagues and team members, it’s important to develop strong active listening skills.

To help you understand how to be a better listener, here are six essential types of listening skills.

Why Listening Matters

In leadership, listening means understanding the needs, concerns, and preferences of your
colleagues and team members.

Leaders with strong listening skills are able to:

• Resolve employee conflict

• Understand their team members’ needs

• Create a workplace environment that fosters productivity

• Gain the trust of their employees

• Understand the business objectives communicated to them by higher-ups

Being able to effectively listen to and understand your employees ensures that they feel valued,
respected, and heard. Leaders with poor listening skills are often not able to develop strong
relationships with colleagues and may lose the respect of their employees as they feel that their
concerns aren’t being taken seriously.

Six Important Listening Skills

Listening requires more than hearing. To fully understand what someone is telling you, you need to
actively engage in the conversation, reflect on what you hear, and clarify their message so that you
can truly understand their message.

Here are six key listening skills that all leaders need to develop.

1. Empathetic listening
Empathetic listening means putting yourself in the shoes of the speaker in an attempt to fully
understand their message. This involves attentively listening to their feelings, concerns,
wants, and needs, and making it clear to them that you have heard everything they have to
say and will respond in an appropriate and sympathetic manner.
2. Respect dissenting opinions
As a leader, it’s important to listen to and respect the opinions of your employees, even
when they disagree with you. When an employee comes to you with a dissenting opinion,
hear them out and try to understand their point of view. Even if you’re not able to reach an
agreement, it’s important to ensure the employee feels as though their opinion is respected
and not easily dismissed.
 3. Reflection
Reflection is an active listening technique that helps you convey your understanding of what
the speaker is telling you. It involves occasionally paraphrasing the speaker’s key points to
make it clear that you have heard and understood what they’ve said so far.
4. Paying attention
Paying attention to the speaker is the primary aspect of active listening. Don’t cut people off.
Instead, let them finish speaking, and give them a little bit of time before responding to let
them add anything that they may have forgotten. Always be respectful and pay attention to
your own body language to ensure you aren’t coming off as impatient or distracted.
5. Clarifying
Clarifying means asking questions about anything that is confusing, ambiguous, or requires
elaboration. If you are confused about something the speaker said, once they are finished,
ask them to clarify their meaning.
Doing this ensures two things: that you fully understand what the speaker is trying to
communicate to you, and that the speaker feels heard and understood. Asking for
clarification tells the speaker that you are trying to understand their message and that you
care about what they have to say.
6. Summarizing
Summarizing simply means restating what you have been told to ensure you have
understood what the speaker is trying to convey to you. Throughout the conversation, and at
the end of the conversation, summarize the key points of the discussion to demonstrate that
you have truly listened to what they have to say. This also gives the speaker the opportunity
to clarify anything that you might have misunderstood.

Ways/Tips to improve your listening skills

It can be beneficial to evaluate your current listening skills to determine areas for improvement. Here
are some ways to improve your listening skills:

1. Maintain eye contact with the speaker

When you are listening to someone talk, you should avoid looking out a window, texting or scrolling
through your phone, or scanning a computer screen. Limit any unnecessary distractions, provide the
speaker with your undivided attention and make an effort to look at them. This provides them with a
nonverbal cue that you are interested in what they are saying, which encourages them to continue
expressing themselves.

Consider that the speaker may not look at you because they might be shy, feel uncertain, or their
culture may not use direct eye contact for communication. You should continue to face the speaker
even if they do not look at you.

2. Visualize what the speaker is saying

Try to conjure up mental images of what the speaker is talking about while you are listening to help
retain information. This may be a literal picture or other concepts that relate to the topic. This will
help you to remember keywords and phrases when you listen for long periods. Visualizing what the
speaker is saying will also help you to not have to prepare for what to say next. If you happen to lose
focus, make sure to immediately refocus.
3. Limit judgments
Listen without criticizing the speaker in your mind while they talk. Even if the message causes you
agitation or alarm, try to avoid thinking about negative or judgmental comments because this
compromises your ability to listen. You also want to listen with an open mind and understand that
the person is giving you their perspective. You may realize that they make more sense as they
continue to talk to you, and you won't know the full story without listening.

4. Don't interrupt
Everyone speaks and processes information at different rates. If someone is delivering their message
slowly, try to cultivate patience and wait for them to finish before trying to rush them along by
guessing the next thing they are going to say or replying before they have finished talking.
Interrupting sends the wrong message to the speaker. It may suggest that what you have to say is
more important, that you don't care about what they are saying or that the conversation is a
competition.

It is also important to refrain from offering solutions. Most often people just want you to listen.
However, if you have a brilliant idea, you may consider asking if you can share your ideas before you
offer your solution.

5. Wait for a pause to ask questions

You may not understand everything someone says to you. It is best to wait until they pause to ask
them to back up and provide clarification for the topic or phrase you misunderstood.

6. Ask clarifying questions

Asking clarifying questions helps to keep the conversation on topic. You only want to ask questions
that pertain to your understanding rather than ask a question about something that is not related to
the main idea the speaker is trying to get across. When you ask clarifying questions without
interrupting, it shows that you are listening, paying attention and willing to discuss things further.

7. Empathize with the speaker

Empathy is essential to effective listening. You should mirror the emotions the speaker has. For
instance, if their face conveys sadness or joy then your facial expressions and words should also
convey similar emotions. Empathizing with the speaker takes concentration and expends energy, but
it allows for open communication and establishes relationships.

8. Pay attention to nonverbal cues

Some of the communication that takes place between individuals is nonverbal. You can learn a great
deal about someone through their body language and tone of voice when they are communicating
with you. It is easy to detect boredom, enthusiasm or irritation on someone's face when they talk
depending on their eyes, mouth and position of their shoulders. Therefore, listening also includes
paying attention to nonverbal cues. It helps you to make inferences based on what a person means
when they are talking to you.

9. Provide the speaker with feedback

Feedback can be verbal and nonverbal. You can use verbal feedback by saying things like, "I
understand that must be difficult," or "OK." You can use nonverbal cues such as nodding your head
and using appropriate facial expressions.

The goal is to send signals to the speaker so they know that you are actively listening. In a situation
where someone is giving you tasks, make sure to repeat the task list back to the speaker so they
know you understand what to do. Writing down what they say also shows attentiveness.

10. Practice listening

You can practice listening by being aware of what you do when someone is talking to you. Do this by
writing down what you heard, understood and acknowledged after an in-person interaction with
someone, or listen to audiobooks or podcasts without any text in front of you. Try listening to no
more than four-minute clips and replay them to see how much information you can retain. This will
help you to become more aware of your role as a receiver of information and it can enhance your
overall communication skills

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