CMST 2061 MIDTERM

Chapter 1

Effective communication is one of the most important skills for professional success
Communication is more than simply talking. Communication is a complex and challenging process because:
o Communicators vary in their skills and comfort
o Communication can cause misunderstanding and conflict
o Communication problems can be pronounced in business settings
The basic communication process is illustrated by the linear model. In this model:
o A sender encodes a message by translating thoughts and feelings into symbols
o The sender then transmits the message through a channel to a receiver
o The receiver attends to message, perceives it, and then decodes it
A more sophisticated model of communication is the simultaneous transactions model. In this model:
o Feedback flows between the sender and receiver continuously
o Senders and receivers both encode and decode messages simultaneously
o Their communication is influenced by a number of factors (ex: culture and experience)
An important predictor of communication effectiveness is communication competence
o Communication competence is your ability to choose an appropriate communication behavior to reach
your goals during an exchange
In the business and professional context, competent communicators know whats appropriate in a
communication situation, cultivate their communication skills, and are motivated to communicate
Common barriers to effective business communication are:
o mindless messaging
o ethical dilemmas
o self-interest
o communication apprehension
o incompetence
o ineffective use of new media
Challenges to business communication in the digital age are:
o knowing when face-to-face communication is best
o being interculturally sensitive
o managing stress, burn-out, and information overload
Common forms of business and professional communication are:
o Interviews
o Relationship communication
o Mediated communication
o Presentational speaking
o Group discussions and meetings
o Written documents
o Consulting and training
Communication is a complex and challenging process
o Human communication is a complex, but fascinating, activity that routinely presents some challenge

Communicators vary in their communication skills and comfort

o In business situations involving quiet people, problems tend to be solved less quickly and their decisionmaking process is often difficult
o Although there is no relationship between quietness and intelligence, quieter employees are often
viewed as less competent than their more verbal counterparts
Linear Model of Communication
o Stage 1: Deciding on the message
o Stage 2: Encoding the intended message
o Stage 3: Transmitting the messages as information
o Stage 4: Perceiving the information as a message
o Stage 5: Decoding and interpreting the message
The Receiver Perceives the Information as a Message
o When a receiver perceives something, she is using her senses to see, hear, or feel a stimulus, and she
then identifies the stimulus based on her knowledge and her cultural experience
Chapter 2

Presentation of self from the verbal and nonverbal messages you send, others form impressions of you
Impression management you can influence the initial impressions your co-workers and supervisors have of
you
To present yourself effectively in the workplace, select the impression you want to make and then make a plan
An effective plan includes these steps:
o Carefully assess the person you are presenting yourself to
o Be honest about who you are
o Consider the physical setting or context of the encounter
o Use all available communication channels to get your positive qualities across
o Look closely for subtle feedback messages
Make the effort to change another persons negative impression of you if you feel the benefits of doing so
outweigh the difficulty of the process
There are several verbal strategies you can use to encourage others to form a good impression of you:
o Speak to be understood by speaking simply, avoiding unnecessary jargon and acronyms, and using clear
and specific language
o Speak to show strength by using power language, animated and intense language, concrete examples,
and the active voice
o Speak to include rather than exclude by using bias-free language. Use the terms others use to identify
themselves, dont mention group membership unnecessarily, use parallel labels, and avoid masculine
terms as generics
o Speak to stimulate others interest in you by using verbal immediacy strategies to encourage positive
feelings and perceptions of closeness and inclusion

Chapter 5

Sustaining pleasant and productive relationships in the workplace is important for several reasons:
o You spend a lot of your time in the workplace
o Unpleasant work relationships can lead to stress, ineffective performance, and employee turnover
o Good relationships contribute to more effective and collaborative work groups and teams
o Friendships often evolve from work relationships
2

Communication competence, or the ability to interact with others effectively and appropriately, contributes to
productive relationships at work
A number of factors influence your ability to get along with others at work:
o All organizations create rules and expectations that define how employees must interact with one
another in order to attain the organizations goals. These rules and expectations are known as norms,
roles, ranks, and controls
o Norms are rules that everyone in an organization is expected to follow
o Roles are specialized activities that each member of an organization fulfills, typically defined by the
jobs members do
o Ranks are hierarchical roles that define status, authority, and power in an organization
o Controls are positive and negative sanctions used to maintain the norms, roles, and ranks within an
organization
There are a number of strategies you can use to successfully initiate and sustain workplace relationships:
o Initiate relationships
o Communicate respect
o Be trustworthy
o Be careful what you reveal
o Confirm or praise others
o Be open to criticism
Getting along with a diverse group of co-workers can be challenging and sometimes leads to conflict.
To facilitate and manage diverse and challenging relationships at work, co-workers can match their styles of
communicating. This is called accommodation.
No workplace relationship is more important than the one you have with your boss, so its important to
develop a productive way of working with him or her:
o Show that you are trustworthy by doing what you say you will do, when you say you will do it
o Prioritize your bosss wants and needs
o Find ways to help your boss be successful, efficient, and productive
o Allow your boss to mentor you
o Be sensitive to your bosss moods and habits
o Try matching your work style with that of your boss
o Identify the standards of quality that your boss requires
o
Chapter 6

Regardless of your comfort level, experience, or skill with new media, you will need to be prepared for a
technology-intensive workplace
New media are digital, networked information and communication technologies that have emerged since the
later part of the twentieth century:
o Examples: internet, computer games, DVDs, email, instant messaging, and mobile phones
o New media help create and maintain social ties among communities of people
Certain characteristics of new media are significant for business and professional communication:
o New media allow for increased information and communication
o They also remove the barriers of time and space, enabling people to be productive from just about
anywhere
o They provide increased opportunities for social interaction
o New media allow professional organizations to become global in their communication and reach
3

Mediated communication differs from face-to-face communication in key ways that may reduce the accuracy
of messages and how messages are perceived, prevent personalness, and limit important feedback
Effective business communication is partially dependent on your ability to select the right medium. In order to
use the appropriate media, you must:
o Understand your goals and the nature of your message
o Consider the characteristics of your audience
o Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the available media
o Ensure the dynamic interplay among your audience, media, and message
When you use new media, use it in a mindful way that attracts and interests rather than alienates others

Chapter 7

Delivering a business presentation as good story helps you excite, involve, and captivate your audience
o Delivering a speech as a story reflects the fact that interactive media impact what todays audiences
prefer and expect from speakers (ex: interaction, personal expression, and collaboration)
o Compelling stories are also persuasive because audiences tend to respond to narratives that resonate
with their own experiences
In the business and professional context, good stories have several characteristic:
o Realistic
o Relevant and have value for audiences
o Coherent
o Interactive
o Have memorable take-away lessons
Having a clear understanding of the general purpose for a presentation helps you select appropriate content,
meet your audiences expectations, and appropriately inform, influence, or entertain your listeners
A helpful strategy for identifying a general purpose is identifying the type of presentation that will best meet
your needs and goals
Most common types of business presentations:
o Sales presentations and proposals
o Briefings
o Team presentations, such as symposiums and panel discussions
o Special occasion speeches
A critical step in speech preparation is audience analysis the systematic gathering of information about an
intended audience
You must also evaluate your speaking environment, including the size of the audience, physical setting for a
presentation, and so on
Build support for you and your ideas by using evidence that is credible, appropriate, and tailored to your
audience
o Establish your own credibility as a speaker
o Consider the different types of support (ex: facts and data, stories, and examples)
o Select only the best supporting material, ensuring that it is relevant, recent, and credible
Organize your presentation appropriately so that you remember your ideas, deliver your presentations
coherently, and help audiences follow the logic of your information and arguments
Select the organizing framework that best suits your presentation and your audiences needs and goals
4

There are two common organizational frameworks speakers use to make sense of information:
o Linear Framework
Clear and fact-based approach to organizing a speech that follows a straightforward pattern:
preview main points, discuss one point at a time, and summarize each point
o Configuring Framework
An approach to organizing a speech that is relatively indirect, relies on speaker self-disclosure,
allows the audience to engage with the speaker, and asks audience members to impose their
own structure and meaning onto the presentation

Chapter 11

A meeting is two or more people who get together either in person or in virtual space to communicate in such a
way as to achieve some common goal or objective
Almost all workplace meetings are held to achieve one of three objectives:
o Information sharing
o Problem solving
o Collaboration
Holding a meeting is not always necessary and can be counterproductive when it takes employees away from
their work unnecessarily.
o Do NOT call a meeting when:
There is no reason to meet
The objectives can be better accomplished in another way
Decisions arent likely to be converted into action
Two heads arent better than one
A decision must be made now
The effectiveness and success of a meeting for all participants is directly related to the amount of time spent
planning it.
o To plan for a successful meeting:
Identify your objectives
Choose your participants
Set an agenda
Schedule the meeting
Send reminders
Prepare to take minutes
Arrange for catering and AV equipment
A meetings facilitator, or chair, leads a meeting
To ensure that participants leave a meeting feeling that their time was well spent, begin, conduct, and end a
meeting according to these guidelines:
o Arrive early to set up the room, begin on time, and make participants feel welcome and comfortable
o Set a professional tone; follow some established rules of order; manage the time so that critical agenda
items are covered; ask the right kind of questions to stimulate participation; be impartial, assertive, and
tactful, and reinforce participation; maintain momentum; and try to seek consensus
o Conclude the meeting when the scheduled time is up, summarize important points, note items that
need to be discussed another time, and review follow-up tasks

After a meeting, follow up by:

o Providing the meeting minutes
o Monitoring the progress of follow-up tasks
o Evaluating the outcomes of the meeting
o Preparing the next agenda as needed
If you are a meeting participant, do what you can to make the meeting as effective as possible
o Be on time, be prepared, stay on topic, and stay until the meeting is over
o Actively participate. Listen to others contributions, acknowledge others ideas and opinions, and ask
relevant questions
o Be respectful. Take turns and try not to monopolize the discussion, disagree with ideas rather than with
people, leave your personal or political agendas at the door, and be open to compromise
o Be friendly, positive, and solution-oriented
o Be engaged and enthusiastic. Look and act interested-make eye contact, smile encouragingly, and lean
forward

Chapter 12

Organizations use teams to make complex tasks more doable and a large workforce more manageable
Teams also offer greater workforce flexibility and focus, and a sense of commitment and ownership
Teams dont always make sense, especially when a particular task can be better accomplished by one individual,
among other factors
A group of people becomes a team when they share a common purpose or goal
Unlike groups, team members are carefully chosen for the particular and complementary skills that allow the
team to achieve or complete complex goals and tasks
Effective teams dont just happen: they need to be planned, built, maintained, and sustained.
Too often teams fail. Several obstacles to making them work include:
o Team members dont know what to do
o Employees and managers mistrust teams
o Team training is expensive, time consuming, and takes effort
o The team lacks urgency
o Team members have other priorities
o One bad apple can spoil the team
Team leaders can make a difference by communicating a vision, stimulating and challenging members,
providing support, and modeling good behaviors
Team members can make a difference by contributing to the teams work, communicating effectively with
teammates, keeping the team on track, demanding quality, and bringing with them special talents and skills
important to the task

Chapter 15

Organizational training is a particular type of consulting activity where individuals are trained or taught
particular skills or knowledge to enhance their work performance
Communication trainers must be able to teach a variety of communication skills, ranging from active listening
and managing conflict to delivering a sales presentation and conducting an employee appraisal interview
6

In order to be able to teach others to do so many different communication skills, communication trainers need
the following credentials or skills:
o Credible background in communication theory and skills
o The ability to translate what they know academically for workplace consumption
o The ability to work with clients by initiating and sustaining long-term relationships
o A working knowledge of andragogy and instructional design
o The ability to draw upon current theory and research findings that can be used in training workshops
and seminars
o A sense of self-efficacy or expertise; the self-confidence that they can successfully do the work
Developing a well-designed training plan requires repeated meetings with the client, discovering the
organizations unique training needs, and specifying detailed written objectives
The content of any training workshop or seminar is tied directly to the objectives that have already been defined
and approved by the client. What is taught should be guided by those objectives
How a trainer teaches requires careful consideration of a variety of instructional methods available. A
combination of methods should be used with a preference for active learner participation, such as roleplaying, presentations, demonstrations, simulations, and small group activities
Because clients are preoccupied with their return on investment, the trainer must demonstrate in some overt
way that the training itself was useful.
o Three types of data can help to illustrate that the training program was warranted and successful:
Evaluate the process through some kind of formative review
Evaluate the outcomes; assess or demonstrate the extent to which each participant met each
and every objective
Evaluate the trainers performance through self and participant assessments