Bus 300gw Exam Business Communication for Success

1.    Business Communication for Success defines communication as the process of understanding and sharing meaning. Explain the definition. Write at least one paragraph.

Communication is the relationship that involves interface between two or more participants. There are three key factors to contribute to the communication definition. The first key factor for interpretation is the process. A process is a dynamic activity that is hard to describe due to changing channel, context, participant, and environment. The second key factor is understanding. The definition of understanding is perceiving, interpreting, and relating our perception and interpretation to what we already know. People can through nonverbal or verbal feedback to understand the meaning. Understand the meanings, concepts, or objects is an essential part of the communication process. The third key factor is sharing, which mean doing something together with one or more people. In communication, sharing occurs when you convey thoughts, feelings, ideas, or insights to others.

2.    Consider the name of the Transactional Model of Communication. Why is the word “transactional” included? Explain. Write at least one paragraph.

Transactional model is the process of continuous change and transformation where every component is changing such as the people, their environments and the medium used. Due to this, it assumes the communicators to be independent and act any way they want. There is three reason for calling transactional. First, people exchange ideas, thoughts, and emotions, which happens simultaneously. Second, the transactional model of communication can involve more than one person. The transactional model of communication can be one to many, many to many, or many to one, which contains the complex process of decoding and encoding. Third, Negotiation of the messages for buying and selling a prospect. When people are doing business communication, they negotiate conditions and money, which is also known as transactional.

3.    An effective communicator needs to be strategic. What does it mean to be strategic? Be specific, provide examples, and explain. Make sure you explain every aspect of being strategic.

Creating clear goals and understanding “how a certain set of audience attitudes, behaviors, or perceptions will support those objectives” is what makes communication strategic. There are three aspects of being strategic, which contain the questions why and what, how, and who.

First, being strategic in the transactional model need to have a purpose or combination of purposes. People begin an effective communication need to realize what and why the desired outcome and plan are. If people fail to plan, they plan to fail, which perfectly fit in the active communication. For example, in the ted talks, the speakers always to strengthen or change the attitudes or behaviors of others. Majority of ted talks’ desired outcomes is to influence people how to have a better life.  

Second, persuasive is part of the strategy in the transactional model. One of the ways to be persuasive is being logical, which use facts and data to prove the point. For example, Mark needs to convince his company's executive board that it would be worth acquiring a small distribution company, instead of outsourcing that function to an external organization. Mark has done a lot of research, and he relies heavily on the presentation of facts and data to make his case. He shows the board exactly how long it will take to pay off the investment, and he uses a computer-based model to demonstrate that faster distribution will help increase profits over the long term. There is a persuasive strategy of transactional communication model between Mark and executive boards.

Third, Audience oriented is another part of the strategy in the transactional model. Knowing who is your targeted audiences in a transactional communication model is essential. The ultimate goal for strategic communication is not just to create technically sound messages, but also to motivate audiences to act. For example, if you are presenting teaching cuisine, it’s necessary to find out if the audience is interested in healthy eating, budget cooking, learning about new cuisines or making convenient meals. By knowing what the audience want, will make your cuisine lecture more effective.

4.    Choose one of the barriers to communication. Define it and explain why it is essential to consider this barrier when communicating with others. Explain, provide examples, and be specific.

There are lots of barriers to communication, in my view, the most critical barrier is emotional barriers. People are not a machine. Everyone has their personal experience, which can generate different kinds of emotions. Not everybody learns more about how their feelings work and how to manage their emotion. Anger, pride, and anxiety are the major emotions to break down healthy communication. For example, angry people have difficulty processing logical statements, limiting their ability to accept explanations and solutions offered by others. When I forgot to buy my girlfriend a birthday present, she was so angry. She thought I didn't care about her anymore. When I gave her my explanation of why I forget this important thing. She couldn’t listen to a single word and still believe what she thought is right. This is an example of the emotional barrier.

5.    During our analysis (the ACE method) of the cover letter and the job interview, we consider who/what would be the audience.  Why do we consider the job description/posting as the audience? Explain. Write at least two paragraphs.

A cover letter offers not only more information than a resume, but it also paints a more transparent image of who we are, what we are looking for and what we have to offer a company. During the ACE method of the cover letter and the job interview, we figure out the purpose of these are getting a job offer.  The desired outcome of cover letters is getting a job interview. However, when we sit down and write a cover letter, it’s essential for us to remember the audience for the cover letter. We mention a lot of possible candidates such as recruiter, hiring manager, director, co-worker, boss, secretary, assistant, or anyone in the company. In the case, cover letter’s audiences are always changing and hard to predict. Therefore, sticking to the job description/ posting is the correct way to target cover letter and job interview’s audience.