Business Communications Exam 3 (Chapters 7,9,10,11)

Reciprocation

-A principle of influence based on returning favors

Liking

-A principle of influence whereby people are more likely to be persuaded by people who they like

Social proof

-A principle of influence whereby people determine what is right, correct, or desirable by seeing what others do

Authority

-A principle of influence whereby people follow authority figures

Scarcity

-A principle of influence whereby people think there is limited availability of something they want or need, so they must act quickly

Apologies

-Acknowledgment of a mistake or an offense -An expression of regret for the harm caused -Acceptance of responsibility -A commitment that the offense will not be repeated

Reinterpretation

-Adjusting your initial perceptions by making more objective, more fact-based, and less personal judgments and evaluations

Token appreciation

-An expression of thanks or gratitude for a request or idea while immediately dismissing the request or idea as implausible or even inappropriate

Defusing

-Avoiding escalation and removing tension to focus on work objectives

Consistency

-Based on the idea that once people make an explicit commitment, they tend to follow through or honor that commitment

Asynchronous communication

-Does not occur in real time -Individuals involved in such communication can pay attention to and respond to communications at a time of their choosing.

Flames

-Emails or other digital communications with "hostile intentions characterized by words of profanity, obscenity, and insults that inflict harm to a person or an organization

Manipulation

-Involves attempting to influence others by some level of deception so you can achieve your own interests

Composing Mass Sales Messages

-Messages sent to a large group of consumers and intended to market a particular product or service

Cyber silence

-Nonresponse to emails and other communications

synchronous communication

-Occurs in real time -Individuals give immediate responses to one another and engage in turn-taking.

Mum effect

-Occurs when the chain of messages within an organization is filtered at each level to leave out or inaccurately state the bad news The message that top executives often hear ends up being unrealistically rosy

Negativity effect

-Recipients are more likely to perceive messages that are intended as neutral as negative.

Neutrality effect

-Recipients are more likely to perceive messages with an intended positive emotion as neutral.

Relaxation

-Releasing and overcoming anger and frustration so that you can make a more rational and less emotional response

Teaser message

-Signal to recipients that an upcoming conversation or other communication may involve unpleasant news -Prepares recipients emotionally, yet does not reveal specific information -Often written

Control

-The degree to which communications can be planned and recorded, thus allowing strategic message development

Cyber incivility

-The violation of respect and consideration in an online environment based on workplace norms -Can be active incivility or passive incivility

Showing Appreciation

A sincere expression of thanks helps achieve business goals and strengthens work relationships.

Responding to Inquiries

to set off each question so your readers can quickly identify responses to particular questions. You generally can do this using bullets or numbered lists and/or special formatting.

Providing Directions

typically include specific—often step-by-step—guidelines for accomplishing particular tasks In messages with procedures and directions, make the steps stand out clearly by enumerating each one. •State goal. •Give step-by-step directions. •State goodwill.

Announcements

updates to policies and procedures, notices of events, and other correspondences that apply to a group of employees and/or customers. •Gain attention. •Give announcement. •Provide details. •Call to action (in some cases). •State goodwill. To prevent employees and customers from ignoring announcements, the subject line must be specific and must create interest.

Delivering Negative Feedback

•Adopt a team-centered orientation. •Avoid sugarcoating the bad news. •Explain the impacts of the individual's poor performance on organizational performance. •Link to consequences. •Probe for reasons performance is not higher. •Emphasize problem solving rather than blaming. Be firm.

Getting the Tone, Style, and Design Right

•Aim for a tone of genuine concern in a professional manner. •Inject some positive direction to the message, but don't provide false hope. •Use a writing style that is simple, accurate, and jargon-free. Maintain a simple design.

Choose the Right Mix of Channels

Bad news is best delivered in person. This allows rich communication, where you can use verbal and nonverbal cues to show your concern and sensitivity. An advantage to placing bad news in writing is being able to control the message more carefully and ensure that you state the bad news precisely and accurately. •Severity -How serious or detrimental the bad news is •Controllability -The degree to which the bad-news message receiver can alter the outcome Likelihood -Relates to the probability of the bad event occurring

Delivering Bad News to Customers

Bad-news messages to customers contain the same essential components as other bad-news messages. However, when writing this kind of bad-news message, you want to emphasize the options available—solutions the customer has control over. In most bad-news situations, customers are interested only in solutions.

Understand How the Bad News Will Affect Your Audience

Delivering bad news often creates stress, anxiety, and other strong emotions. More than with other types of messages, you may need to work hard to focus your message on serving others.

Set Up the Message

Direct -You begin with a main idea or argument and then provide the supporting reasons. Explicit -Nothing is implied. -Statements contain full and unambiguous meaning. Indirect -You provide the rationale for a request before making the specific request. Implicit -The request or some of the rationale for the request may be implied. -The reader needs to read between the lines to grasp the entire meaning.

Developing Routine Messages

During any given business day you will need to produce credible messages quickly. Excellent business communicators can develop routine written messages in a matter of minutes. Routine messages require proportionately less time for planning and reviewing.

Maintaining Credibility When Delivering Bad News

Honesty and openness are key. Although people do not like to get bad news, they expect the truth. Research shows that honesty and openness can lead to more trust in the bad-news bearer. Many people assume that communicating bad news to customers shakes relationships and breeds mistrust. Delivering bad news the right way can actually strengthen customer relationships and lay the foundation for increased trust when conditions improve. Although one should never view the delivery of bad news opportunistically, those who deliver bad news appropriately enhance their credibility.

Planning

Implies that the communication can be tightly drafted, edited and revised, rehearsed, and otherwise strategically developed before delivery

Delivering Bad-News Announcements

In all management positions, you will need to give bad news to your boss, your peers, or those you supervise from time to time. Your ability to deliver bad-news messages constructively will foster a transparent and open work culture.

Sympathize with the Bad-News Recipient and Soften the Blow

In-person, most people make a judgment about your genuine concern for them based on many factors, including your past treatment of them and your nonverbal behavior. You may use a one- or two-sentence buffer to start the bad-news message, which softens the blow. Buffer -A statement to establish common ground, show appreciation, state your sympathy, or otherwise express goodwill

Richness

Involves two considerations: the level of immediacy and the number of cues available

Immediacy

Relates to how quickly someone is able to respond and give feedback

Persuade through Emotion and Reason

Savvy business communicators understand the importance of injecting emotion into their persuasive messages. Effective communicators find ways to appeal to the core emotional benefits of products, services, and ideas.

Coordination

The effort and timing needed to allow all relevant people to participate in a communication

Permanence

The extent to which the message can be stored, retrieved, and distributed to others

Resources

The financial, space, time, and other investments necessary to employ particular channels of communication

Constraints

The practical limitations of coordination and resources

Understand Your Audience

To convince others to modify their own ideas and accept yours, you need to show that you care about them and that your ideas fit into their interests. •Persuade through shared purpose and shared values. •Show people they are sincerely needed and appreciated. •Understand methods of influence. Persuade through emotion and reason.

Reviewing Bad-News Messages

When writing bad-news messages, always reread them several times. Place yourself in the position of the recipients so you can try to imagine how they may feel and react. Consider asking trusted colleagues to review your message and give feedback. They may be able to give you a neutral and objective view of the situation.

Receiving Negative Feedback

You will have many opportunities to get feedback about your performance and potential. Seeking and receiving feedback, even when it's negative, will help you develop the skills you need to make an impact in the workplace and move into new positions.

Turning Down Requests and Ideas (1 of 2)

Your colleagues will often approach you with requests and ideas. Turning down colleagues is challenging because you want to preserve productive and comfortable working relationships. When turning down requests or ideas with close colleagues, one of the most common mistakes is to offer token appreciation.

Requests

the essence of people coordinating work efforts, buying and selling products and services, and maintaining work relationships.

Gather the Right Information

developing your ideas for persuasive messages is critical. Since your audience is resistant to the message, one of your key tasks is to establish credibility. Developing strong ideas in the interest of your audience helps you demonstrate your voice of competence

Setting Expectations

is directly tied to your credibility and ability to foster interpersonal trust in the workplace. Failure to do so can lead to lasting professional disappointments and breakdowns in working relationships. •Explain overall expectation. •Describe responsibilities. •Provide deadlines. •Discuss coordination. •State goodwill.

External Persuasive Messages

messages are personalized, upbeat, positive, and pressure-free. They avoid guilt trips and extremely negative terms

Claims

requests for other companies to compensate for or correct the wrongs or mistakes they have made. keep in mind that your goal is to have your claim honored. Focus on facts first and emotions second, if at all. Lay out a logical, reasonable, and professional explanation for your claim.

Tangible Statements

something can be touched; it is material or substantial. In a business communications context, making the statement tangible implies that the readers can discern something in terms that are meaningful to them. This allows the reader to sense the impact on a personal level.

Expressing Sympathy

that it be sincere. Your genuine concern will compensate for any deficiencies in the words you use. When possible, handwrite your expression of sympathy on a nice card.

Applying the AIM Planning Process to Persuasive Messages

•Analyzing your audience to understand their needs, values, and how they are influenced •Gathering the right information as you wrestle with the complicated business issues at hand •Developing a message that most effectively reduces resistance and gains buy-ins

Getting the Tone and Style Right for Persuasive Messages

•Apply the personal touch. •Use action-oriented, lively language. •Write with confidence. •Offer choice. Show positivity.

Maintain Professionalism and Appropriate Formality

•Avoid indications that you view email as casual communication. •Apply the same standards of spelling, punctuation, and formatting you would for other written documents. •Use greetings and names.

Managing Your Digital Communication Efficiently

•Check digital messages just four to five times each day at designated times. •Wean yourself off checking your mobile devices constantly. •Develop strategies to manage your inbox. •Turn off message alerts. •Use rich channels, such as face-to-face and phone conversations, to accomplish a task completely. •Reply immediately only to urgent messages. •Avoid unnecessarily lengthening an email chain. •Use automatic messages to help people know when you're unavailable.

Guidelines for Bad-News Messages

•Deliver the bad news in a timely manner. •Choose the right mix of channels. •Sympathize with the bad-news recipients and soften the blow. •Provide a simple, clear rationale. •Explain immediate impacts. •Focus on solutions and long-term benefits. •Show goodwill.

Instant Messaging Rules in the workplace

•Evaluate the meta message of instant messaging. •Use IM for simple and brief conversations, not for important decisions. •Make sure your tone is positive, supportive, and appropriately fun. •Don't ask questions you can get answers to yourself. •Be careful about abbreviated language, emoticons, acronyms, and emoji. •Avoid sarcasm and jokes in most cases. •Avoid rescheduling meeting times or places. •Consider turning off sound alerts for incoming messages/emails. •Identify yourself. •Clearly end the IM exchange. •Avoid personal IM during work hours. •Avoiding sending instant messages after work hours. •Establish rules with your colleagues for instant messaging during meetings.

Components of Persuasive Messages

•Gain attention. •Raise a need. •Deliver a solution. •Provide a rationale. •Validate the views, preferences, and concerns of others. •Give counterpoints (optional). •Call to action.

Participating in and Leading Group Voice and Video Calls

•Practice using the technology before the group call. •Use your webcam effectively. •Use interactive tools wisely. •Start the call with purpose and take charge. Follow the guidelines of effective virtual meetings

Ensure Ease of Reading

•Provide a short, descriptive subject line. •Keep your message brief yet complete. •Clearly identify expected actions. •Provide a descriptive signature block. •Use attachments wisely.

Routine Messages Impact Credibility (1 of 2)

•Responsiveness •Reliability •Attention to detail •Commitment Professionalism Credibility has three components: •Competence, which refers to the knowledge and skills needed to accomplish business tasks, approach business problems, and get a job done. •Caring, which implies understanding the interests of others, cultivating a sense of community, and giving to others and showing generosity. •Character, which refers to a reputation for staying true to commitments made to stakeholders and adhering to high moral and ethical values.

Building Connections with Phone Conversations

•Schedule and plan for your phone calls. •Ensure quality audio. •Open with a warm greeting, and use your caller's name. •After brief small chat, direct the conversation to the issues at hand. •Speak with a pleasant, enthusiastic voice. •Share conversation time equally. •Apply the rules of active listening and avoid multitasking. •Take notes on important points and summarize next steps at the end of the call. •Close with appreciation. •Follow up on agreements.

Show Respect for others time

•Select message recipients carefully. •Provide timelines and options. •Be careful about using the priority flag. •Let others know when you will take longer than anticipated to respond or take action. •Avoid contributing to confusing and repetitive email chains.

Principles of effective emails

•Use it for the right purposes. •Ensure ease of reading. •Show respect for time. •Protect privacy and confidentiality. •Respond promptly. •Maintain professionalism and appropriate formality. •Manage emotion effectively. Avoid distractions