Writing for Business Success/Introduction to Business Communication/Communicator's responsibilities

“	Communication - the human connection - is the key to personal and career success.	”
—Paul J. Meyer

In business communication, we have certain responsibilities, including being prepared and being ethical. Preparation includes things like being organized, clear, concise, and being punctual. Ethically, it is important to be respectful and trustworthy. There is also the Golden Rule: Treat any audience as you would like to be treated.

Readings

Read Business Communication for Success: Section 1.4 Your responsibilities as a communicator" (pp. 27-33).
This reading identifies being prepared and being ethical as the two main responsibilities of a business communicator. Importantly, the text notes that expectations may differ across cultures; while some of these elements may translate well across cultures, others may not. The text also suggests effective ways to establish trust, important in all communication, and vital in business. Researching your topic, and citing your sources, are important parts of building trust. Plagiarism – failing to credit people whose ideas you use – is a serious ethical breach of trust that can lead to legal consequences. This is discussed further in the 'Principles of written communication' topic.

Media

Watch this video from ClarkMorgan Insights: It’s Your Job to Make Others Understand. [3:08 min.]
McDonald states that it is your job to make it easy for others to understand your message. He identifies three key elements to ensure clear communication, illustrated by an email example. After viewing this video, think about a time when someone misunderstood your message, and analyze the situation by describing the communication purpose, details, and actions. If you could revisit the situation, which aspects of your message would you change to make clearer?

It’s Your Job to Make Others Understand

Reflection

In your learning journal blog:

• Make notes on what you have learned about communicator's responsibilities.
• Do the three chapter exercises in the Business Communication for Success text (pp. 32-33). These exercises ask you to reflect on personal experiences of respect and trust breakdown, and your views on the mutual responsibilities of communicators and audiences. What contributed to these breakdowns? How could communication have been more effective?
• Remember to tag or label your post using the course code: ccom101 (This is needed to harvest a link to your blog post in the course feed.)
• Look in the course feed to see what others have written.