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Business Communication

Mary Ellen Guffey Professor Emerita of Business

Los Angeles Pierce College

Dana Loewy Business Communication Program California State University, Fullerton

9th Edition

Process & Product

G U F F E Y & L O E W Y

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Printed in the United States of America Print Number: 01 Print Year: 2016

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Unless otherwise noted all items © Cengage Learning.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016958170

ISBN: 978-1-305-95796-1

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Business Communication: Process & Product, 9th Edition

Mary Ellen Guffey, Dana Loewy

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BK-CHE-GUFFEY_BCPP_9E-160013-FM.indd 2 11/21/16 9:22 PM

Business Communication: Process & Product 9e

Dear Business Communication Student:

The Ninth Edition of Business Communication: Process & Product prepares you for a career in a complex mobile, social, and global workplace. To help you successfully navigate this vast networked environment, we have substantially revised our award- winning book. You will learn how social media networks and mobile technology function in the workplace and how you can strengthen your professional communication and critical thinking skills.

All of the features that have made this award-winning textbook so successful for nearly three decades have been updated in this edition. In addition to solid instruction in writing skills, which employers continue to demand, the Ninth Edition brings you numerous learning resources, a few of which are highlighted here:

▪ MindTap. This multimedia learning experience provides chapter quizzes, downloadable documents to revise, flashcards, and unparalleled resources to achieve success in the course.

▪ “How-To” videos. Helping you develop expert writing techniques, chapter how-to videos explain and illustrate many Ninth Edition concepts and model documents including bad-news, claim, adjustment, persuasive, and sales messages. These chapter-based videos build skills and develop confidence for both face-to-face and remote learners.

▪ Integrated digital technologies. The professional use of social media networks and mobile technology requires that you know best practices. This edition provides the latest advice to guide you in using these digital technologies safely and effectively in the workplace. You’ll find best practices for texting, instant messaging, blogging, collaborating with wikis, and networking with social media in business today.

▪ Latest trends in job searching. Chapter 15 presents the most current trends, technologies, and practices affecting the job search, résumés, and cover letters in this digital age. You will learn how to build a personal brand, how to network, and how to write customized résumés plus create an effective LinkedIn profile.

▪ Hottest trends in job interviewing. Chapter 16 provides countless tips on how to interview successfully in today’s highly competitive job market, including one-way and two-way video interviewing.

▪ Etiquette IQ. New communication platforms and casual workplace environments have blurred the lines of appropriateness, leaving workers wondering how to behave on the job. This edition delivers up-to-date guidance on acceptable workplace attire, professional behavior, and business etiquette for today’s mobile and social work- place. Each chapter also provides a “Test Your Etiquette IQ” quiz with authentic questions and answers.

We wish you well in your course! As always, we welcome your comments and suggestions as you use the No. 1 business communication book in this country and abroad.

Cordially,

Mary Ellen Guffey and Dana Loewy

Dr. Mary Ellen Guffey Dr. Dana Loewy Emerita Professor of Business Business Communication Program Los Angeles Pierce College California State University, Fullerton m.e.guffey@cox.net dloewy@fullerton.edu

Dana Loewy and Mary Ellen Guffey

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This book and this course may well be the most important in your entire college curriculum!

Why? This book and your course equip you with the skills you will most need in today’s fast-paced information- and data-driven workplace.

MEETING EMPLOYER EXPECTATIONS

Survey after survey reveals that employers are seeking new hires with these key skills:

• Written and oral communication skills • Critical thinking and analytical reasoning • Ethical decision making • Teamwork skills • Professionalism

Chapter 2 Professionalism: Team, Meeting, Listening, Nonverbal, and Etiquette Skills 71

• Be selective in sharing personal information. Avoid talking about health concerns, personal relationships, or finances in the office.

• Don’t put people down. If you have a reputation for criticizing people, your coworkers will begin to wonder what you are saying behind their backs.

• Respect coworkers’ space. Turn down the ringer on your business phone, minimize the use of speakerphones, and turn your personal cell phone down or off during business hours. Avoid wearing heavy perfumes or bringing strong-smelling food.

• Rise above others’ rudeness. Don’t use profanity or participate in questionable joke-telling.

• Be considerate when sharing space and equipment with others. Clean up after yourself.

• Choose the high road in conflict. Avoid letting discussions degenerate into shouting matches. Keep a calm voice tone and focus on the work rather than on personality differences.

• Disagree agreeably. You may not agree with everyone, but you should respect their opinions.

Figure 2.13 The Six Dimensions of Professional Behavior

Dining etiquette

Good hygiene and grooming

Attractive business attire

Ability to compromise

Fair treatment of others

Self-control

TruthfulnessDependability

Helpfulness

Sincerity

Apologizing for errors

Giving and accepting criticism graciously

Promptness

Showing up prepared

Delivering high- quality work

Honoring commitments and keeping promises

Consistent performance

Respecting others

Fair competition

Empathy

Appearance Appeal

Tolerance Tact

Honesty Ethics

Reliability Diligence

Collegiality Sharing

Courtesy Respect

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BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: PROCESS & PRODUCT, 9E

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No other college course gives you training in all of these skills at once!

Business Communication: Process and Product, 9e, covers the following topics you will find indispensable in the digital-age workplace:

• Expert writing techniques geared to developing your writing skills plus interactive Documents for Analysis, authentic model documents, and engaging activities in which you apply your skills

• Presentation skills featuring contemporary examples including coverage of smartphone best practices to prepare you for the realities of workplace communication and technology

• Critical thinking questions and activities in every chapter to stimulate and develop skills

• Ethics Checks in addition to guidance and tools provided through discussion questions and ethical dilemma scenarios

• Teamwork skills with a heavy emphasis on professionalism and etiquette in the workplace so that you will know how to meet employer expectations

• Two employment chapters that present the latest trends in job searching, interviewing, and résumé writing, along with current, effective résumé models, tips for mobile devices and apps, and LinkedIn advice and illustrations

• Test Your Etiquette IQ, a recurring feature in each chapter, designed to shine a light on often blurry ideas about appropriateness and professionalism in the workplace.

PREMIUM ONLINE RESOURCES

• MindTap, Your Personalized, Fully Online Digital Learning Platform. This comprehensive learning platform guides you through readings, multimedia tools, and chapter-specific activities that increase learner involvement and produce significant learning outcomes. By being interactive, MindTap makes learning enjoyable and playful. You can deepen your understanding of business communication concepts at your own pace.

• Aplia Homework. Aplia helps you comprehend and remember chapter concepts in an engaging interactive format. You know immediately how well you are doing with immediate feedback on each problem set. You may even be able to repeat exercises to improve your score.

• Grammar Review. Grammar review exercises provide you with engaging online practice, covering key grammar concepts with interactive exercises that you can finish in your own time. Your unique needs are addressed through diagnostic assessments, pinpointing your areas of strength and potential remediation needs. A large and randomized pool of questions provides multiple opportunities to master each concept.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: PROCESS & PRODUCT, 9E

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• How-To Videos. Appealing to visual learners, this edition provides about 32 short vid- eos that explain and illustrate many Ninth Edition concepts and model documents in- cluding positive, bad-news, claim adjustment, persuasive, and sales messages. These videos are especially helpful to distance learners who are not able to benefit from in-class lectures.

• Study Tools ◆ PowerPoint Lectures. Our totally new PowerPoint slides for the Ninth Edition re-

view chapter concepts and highlight important points with contemporary, colorful images, and just enough animation.

◆ Interactive chapter quizzes at the Student Companion Website enable you to test your knowledge of concepts with immediate feedback.

◆ Flashcards. You can study with existing flashcards and make your own.

SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS AND MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

Trusted authors Mary Ellen Guffey and Dana Loewy understand social and mobile! The authors address workplace use of social media and communication technology in a chapter solely dedicated to best practices on the job. Because these skills are fundamental in the contemporary world of work, social media and communication technology are integrated in each chapter.

Every chapter reflects the pervasive influence of communication technology on business writing. This state-of-the-art coverage makes it clear that writing is more important than ever in the digital world. Careers are made or thwarted based on one’s online digital persona.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: PROCESS & PRODUCT, 9E

Chapter 1 Business Communication in the Digital Age 19

Even in more traditional offices, employees work in open-plan spaces with flexible workstations, shared conference rooms, and boomerang-shaped desks that save space and discourage territorial behavior while encouraging casual interactions as well as spontaneous collaborations.

Information Flow and Media Choices in Today’s Workplace You may want to connect with friends and family for a specific reason or just for fun. However, businesspeople almost always communicate strategically—that is, purposefully, hoping to achieve a particular outcome. Business communication functions can be summa- rized in three simple categories: (a) to inform, (b) to persuade, and/or (c) to promote goodwill. Most business messages have one of these functions as their purpose. Informing or sharing information is perhaps the most common communication function in all organizations today. On the job you will have a dizzying array of media to help you share information and stay connected both internally and externally. You will need to know which medium is most suitable to accomplish your goal and be able to distinguish between formal and informal channels.

The Networked Workplace in a Hyperconnected World Social media and other information technology coupled with flatter hierarchies have greatly changed the way people communicate internally and externally at work. One major shift is away from one-sided, slow forms of communication such as hard-copy memos and letters to inter- active, instant, less paper-based communication. Speeding up the flow of communication in organizations are e-mail, instant messaging (IM), texting, blogging, and interacting with social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Figure 1.8 shows a side-by-side comparison between the traditional one-directional business communication model and today’s hypercon- nected, many-to-many social media communication model.

LEARNING OUTCOME 4 Examine critically the internal and external flow of communication in organizations through formal and informal channels, explain the importance of effective media choices, and understand how to overcome typical barriers to organizational communication.

Figure 1.8 Traditional vs. Social Media Communication Between Businesses and Customers

TV, phone, mail, etc. Traditional Channels

Traditional communication is �eeting and opaque, one-directional from company to customer and customer to company, one-to-many or many-to-one

Social media communication is persistent and transparent, bidirectional, many-to-manym

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• New digital model documents throughout illustrate how social media networks are shaping today’s communication and will help you understand professional social media applications.

• New activities, identified with the Social Media and Communication Technology icon, reflect the preeminence of writing in the digital workplace and prompt you to develop your professional social networking skills.

Chapter 1 Business Communication in the Digital Age 37

Source: National Business Ethics Survey, Social Media Week.105

SOCIAL NETWORKS VS. OTHER U.S. WORKERS: COMPARING ATTITUDES TOWARDS QUESTIONABLE BEHAVIOR

Do you feel it is acceptable to…? Active Social Networkers

Other U.S. Workers

“Friend” a client/customer on a social network

Blog or tweet negatively about your company or colleagues

Buy personal items with your company credit card as long as you pay it back

Do a little less work to compensate for cuts in benefits or pay

Keep a copy of confidential work documents in case you need them in your next job

Use social networking to find out what my company’s competitors are doing

Take a copy of work software home and use it on your personal computer

59%

42%

50%

46%

51%

54%

50%

28%

10%

15%

30%

17% Upload vacation pictures to the company network or server so you can share them with co-workers

1.11 Ethical Dilemmas: Applying Tools for Doing the Right Thing (L.O. 5)

Ethics Team

As a business communicator, you may face various ethical dilemmas in your career. Many factors can determine your choice of an action to take.

YOUR TASK Study the seven dilemmas appearing on page 28. Select four of them and apply the tools for doing the right thing in Figure 1.15 on page 31 choosing an appro- priate action. In a memo to your instructor or in a team discussion, explain the action you would take for each dilemma. Analyze your response to each question (Is the action you are considering legal? How would you see the problem if you were on the opposite side? and so forth).

New communication platforms and casual workplace environments have blurred the lines of appropriateness, leaving workers wondering how to navigate uncharted waters. Indicate whether the following statements are true or false. Then see if you agree with the responses on p. R-1.

1. You’re enjoying your weekend when you receive an e-mail from your boss asking for information. It’s not urgent, so the best plan is to respond early on Monday.

True False

Test Your Etiquette IQ

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BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: PROCESS & PRODUCT, 9E

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Chapter 1 Business Communication in the Digital Age 3

Nordstrom: A Fabulous Shopping Experience Goes Social Nordstrom’s customer service is legendary. Like no other, the upscale fashion retailer empowers its employees to make their own decisions to best serve customers. Consider the Anchorage location once accepting returned tires that the retailer doesn’t even sell. Another true story relates that an employee raced to deliver a scatterbrained customer’s forgotten baggage to the airport prior to her departure. Both anecdotes exemplify the century-old company’s motto: to provide a fabulous customer experience by empowering customers and the employees who serve them.

But Nordstrom’s fabled devotion to customer service extends strategically into the virtual world to meet customers where they are. The retailer has invested heavily in technology; for example, to inte- grate its inventory management system with its website and the Nordstrom app—always with the clear purpose to enhance the customer experience. As a result, the company’s online and offline worlds are seamlessly linked, and customers can find what they want in one place. Salespeople can track customer requests and needs online. This persistent effort to integrate digital capabilities has paid off. Nordstrom’s revenue has grown by more than 50 percent in the last five years.1 Its shares have jumped 120 percent.2

A strong social media engagement is key to Nordstrom’s strategy to provide superb service and to drive traffic to its e-commerce site. As one of America’s most connected companies,3 it relies on crowd- sourcing to learn which items to stock, and it responds rapidly to queries, in Spanish when needed. At currently 3.2 million likes, Nordstrom is a strong presence on Facebook. Pinterest, the popular online bulletin board, is a particular success story for early-adopter Nordstrom, which currently has some 4.4 million followers.4

With such public engagement, it’s not surprising that Nordstrom has clearly defined social media use guidelines. Approved employees may connect with customers during working hours and even after hours, if allowed. They are admonished to use good judgment and abide by all corporate policies. They are told to be respectful, responsible, and ethical. Furthermore, Nordstrom’s social media policy forbids the sharing of confidential corporate information as well as employees’ and customers’ private and per- sonal information. Conflicts of interest are to be avoided, and compensated endorsements must be dis- closed. The policy ends with this cheerful invitation: “Above all, remember to have fun and be yourself!”5

Nordstrom’s digital strategy is making the company highly competitive. You will learn more about Nordstrom and be asked to complete a relevant task at the end of this chapter.

Critical Thinking • After reading this

case study, can you put into perspective the suggestion “have fun and be yourself”? What exactly does this invitation mean?

• Why does Nordstrom allow only certain employees to connect online with customers and other members of the public?

• Why do social media guidelines emphasize ethical behavior and ethical communication?

Communicating in the Digital World What kind of workplace will you enter when you graduate, and which skills will you need to be successful in it? Expect a fast-paced, competitive, and highly connected digital environment. Communication technology provides unmatched mobility and connects individuals anytime and anywhere in the world. Today’s communicators interact using multiple electronic devices and access information stored in remote locations, in the cloud.

This mobility and instant access explain why increasing numbers of workers must be avail- able practically around the clock and respond quickly. Nordstrom and other technology-savvy businesses have recognized the power of social media networks and seek to engage their customers and other stakeholders where they meet online. Communication no longer flows one way; rather, electronic media have empowered the public to participate and be heard.

In this increasingly complex, networked, and mobile environment, communication skills matter more than ever.6 Such skills are particularly significant when competition is keen. Job candidates with exceptional communication skills immediately stand out. In this chapter you will learn about communication skills in the digital era and about the contemporary world of work. Later you will study tools to help you negotiate ethical minefields and do the right thing. Each section covers the latest information about communicating in business while also providing tips to help you function effectively and ethically in today’s fast-paced, informa- tion-driven workplace.

LEARNING OUTCOME 1 Explain how communication skills fuel career success, and understand why writing skills are vital in a digital, mobile, and social-media- driven workplace.

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Critical Thinking 8 – Joe

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