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Business Communication

Business communication is an important topic across industries and academic disciplines. Business and professional communication is related to popular topics such as understanding the role of communication in successfully handling situations such as job interviewing, public presentations, customer service, employee relations, training and development, leadership, working in teams, and more. This entry provides an overview of business communication as a skill and how research methods are used to explore key issues and questions in business communication. As with studying any context, there are a wide variety of different research methods one could use to examine phenomena within business communication. The study of business communication explores challenges faced in the modern workplace as well as communication strategies for overcoming those challenges.

Overview

Business and professional communication is informed by research across traditional disciplines such as business, communication studies, management, psychology, and sociology. Research related to business and professional communication emerged in other areas such as medicine, law, nursing, leadership, human resources, and education. Business and professional communication research explores the greatest challenges seen in the modern workplace by providing communication strategies for overcoming those challenges. Topics such as performing well under the pressure of increasingly competitive customer service demands, managing conflict with customers, overcoming stress and burnout, and managing difficult people are just a few of the topics covered. Researchers who have written about business and professional communication research have addressed it in different ways, depending on their perspectives and points of view. Business and professional communication researchers focus on particular contexts and skills such as verbal and nonverbal communication and listening, the job-seeking process, workplace culture and diversity, interpersonal communication, team communication, communication and technology, written communication, leadership, workplace presentations, and work-life balance.

Business Communication as a Skill

Business and professional communication explores the importance of verbal and nonverbal communication as the foundation of beginning principles needed to perform well across business contexts (sometimes referred to as “soft skills” or “people skills”). Verbal communication is both our words and our verbal fillers (e.g., um, like). Verbal messages are created through language. Effective communication involves accurate interpretations of others’ verbal messages as meaning is cocreated. Furthermore, nonverbal communication (sometimes referred to as body language) includes all the ways we communicate without words. Both verbal and nonverbal communication skills are explored in the study of business and professional communication. A few other business communication skills are described in the following subsections.

Listening Skills

Effective listening is central to fostering interpersonal relationships with coworkers, leaders, and clients. Listening is a beginning communication skill or basic principle important to the study of business communication.

Business and Professional Writing Skills

Written communication can challenge professionals in a variety of business contexts. How do you select the correct format to get the message out? Is it appropriate to send a document via e-mail? What is the appropriate message tone or style? These are only a few of the questions about writing skills related to business communication.

Business and Professional Speaking Skills

Business communication also includes public speaking, interviewing, team presentations, meeting facilitation, and providing employee feedback.

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