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ANNUAL REPORT FORMATS WEEK 4 ASSIGNMENT

Author:
April 23rd, 2022
ANNUAL REPORT FORMATS

Week 4 – Assignment       

[WLO: 3] [CLOs: 1, 3, 5]

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read Chapter 10, Chapter 11, and Chapter 13 from your textbook; review the website AnnualReports.com (Links to an external site.); and review the Week 4 Weekly Lecture.

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Go to AnnualReports.com (Links to an external site.) and review the annual reports recently released by two corporations in the same industry. Review each report and discuss the issues listed below.

It is strongly encouraged that you receive feedback on your paper using the Ashford Writing Center Paper Review at least two days before it is due. Then implement the feedback into your paper before submitting it to Waypoint. For instructions on how to use this feature, please review the Ashford Writing Center Paper Review (Links to an external site.). Make sure you appropriately cite your sources from AnnualReports.com and include a minimum of two scholarly and/or credible sources from the library in addition to the course text.

In your paper,

ANNUAL REPORT FORMATS
  • Describe organizational differences that you see in how each corporation discusses its annual performance.
  • Explain how clearly the data is or is not presented for enabling shareholders to draw conclusions about how well the company performed.
  • Explain what goals, challenges, and plans top managers emphasize in their discussion of results.
  • Describe ways the format and organization of each report enhances or detracts from the information being presented.

The Annual Report Formats paper

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  • Must two to three double-spaced in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) 
  • Must include a separate title with the following: 
    • Title of paper
    • Student’s name
    • Course name and number
    • Instructor’s name
    • Date submitted

For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.)  (Links to an external site.)for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.

Vice President, Business Publishing: Donna Battista Director of Portfolio Management: Stephanie Wall Portfolio Manager: Dan Tylman Editorial Assistant: Linda Siebert Albelli Vice President, Product Marketing: Roxanne McCarley Director of Strategic Marketing: Brad Parkins Strategic Marketing Manager: Deborah Strickland Product Marketer: Becky Brown Field Marketing Manager: Lenny Ann Kucenski Product Marketing Assistant: Jessica Quazza Vice President, Production and Digital Studio, Arts and Business: Etain O’Dea Director of Production, Business: Jeff Holcomb Managing Producer, Business: Ashley Santora Operations Specialist: Carol Melville Creative Director: Blair Brown Manager, Learning Tools: Brian Surette Content Developer, Learning Tools: Lindsey Sloan Managing Producer, Digital Studio, Arts and Business: Diane Lombardo Digital Studio Producer: Monique Lawrence Digital Studio Producer: Darren Cormier Digital Studio Producer: Alana Coles Full-Service Project Management and Composition: SPi Global Interior Design: SPi Global Cover Design: Laurie Entringer Cover Art: Jesus Sanz/Shutterstock Printer/Binder: R.R. Donnelly Cover Printer: R.R. Donnelly

ANNUAL REPORT FORMATS

Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers make no representations about the suitability of the information contained in the documents and related graphics published as part of the services for any purpose. All such documents and related graphics are provided “as is” without warranty of any kind. Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers hereby disclaim all warranties and conditions with regard to this information, including all warranties and conditions of merchantability, whether express, implied or statutory, fitness for a particular purpose, title and non-infringement. In no event shall Microsoft and/or its respective suppliers be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of information available from the services.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on File 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 13: 978-1-323-60762-6

3 Communication Challenges in a Diverse, Global Marketplace LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#P7001012451000000000000000001B75) Discuss the opportunities and challenges of intercultural communication.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#P7001012451000000000000000001BBA) Define culture, explain how culture is learned, and define ethnocentrism and stereotyping.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#P7001012451000000000000000001BFF) Explain the importance of recognizing cultural variations, and list eight categories of cultural differences.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#P7001012451000000000000000001CA0) List four general guidelines for adapting to any business culture.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CCA) Identify seven steps you can take to improve your intercultural communication skills.

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COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Kaiser Permanente

kp.org (http://kp.org)

Delivering quality health care is difficult enough, given the complexities of technology, government regulations, evolving scientific and medical understanding, and the variability of human performance. It gets even more daunting when you add the challenges of communication among medical staff and between patients and their caregivers, which often takes place under stressful circumstances. Those communication efforts are challenging enough in an environment where everyone speaks the same language and feels at home in a single cultural context—but they’re infinitely more complex in the United States, whose residents identify with dozens of different cultures and speak several hundred languages.

The Oakland-based health-care system Kaiser Permanente has been embracing the challenges and opportunities of diversity since its founding in 1945. It made a strong statement with its very first hospital when it refused to follow the then-common practice of segregating patients by race. Now, as the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States, Kaiser’s client base includes more than 10 million members from over 100 distinct cultures.

At the core of Kaiser’s approach is culturally competent care, which it defines as “health care that acknowledges cultural diversity in the clinical setting, respects members’ beliefs and practices, and ensures that cultural needs are considered and respected at every point of contact.” These priorities are woven into Kaiser’s organizational culture, structure, and business practices.

Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard J. Tyson believes a culturally competent workforce is essential to the health provider’s aim of serving the diverse U.S. population.

REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

Delivering this standard of care requires a mix of skills and knowledge that range from an awareness of medical issues of concern to specific cultures to language fluency (and translation skills in more than 100 languages) to the awareness needed to handle cultural traditions and values in a sensitive manner. Kaiser’s Centers of Excellence in Culturally Competent Care at facilities around the country are a good example of the extent the company takes to serve its diverse clientele. Each center focuses on one or more cultures prominent in a given locale, with a particular emphasis on improving care outcomes for population segments that have historically been underserved.

Kaiser believes that effectively serving a diverse client base requires an equally diverse staff. As the chairman and CEO Bernard J. Tyson explains, “The rich diversity of our organization reflects the diversity of the people we serve each and every day.” Nearly half the executive team are women, for example, and people of color make up nearly 60 percent of the company’s workforce.

In addition to helping Kaiser communicate more effectively with its customers, the strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion is good for businesses. Its target market segments also happen to be among the country’s fastest-growing demographic groups, and Kaiser’s ability to connect with these audiences gives it an

important competitive advantage.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001ED2)

3.1 Understanding the Opportunities and Challenges of Communication in a Diverse World

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Discuss the opportunities and challenges of intercultural communication.

Diversity includes all the characteristics that define people as individuals.

Kaiser Permanente (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) illustrates the opportunities and the challenges for business professionals who know how to communicate with diverse audiences. Although the concept is often framed in terms of ethnic background, a broader and more useful definition of diversity (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E25) includes

“all the characteristics and experiences that define each of us as individuals.”2

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001ED4) As one example, the pharmaceutical company Merck identifies 19 separate dimensions of diversity, including race, age, military experience, parenting status, marital status, and

thinking style.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001ED6) As you’ll learn in this chapter, these characteristics and experiences can have a profound effect on the way businesspeople communicate.

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Culture Compass offers insights into more than 100 countries around the world.

Intercultural communication (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E35) is the process of sending and receiving messages between people whose cultural backgrounds could lead them to interpret verbal and nonverbal signs differently. Every attempt to send and receive messages is influenced by culture, so to communicate successfully, you need a basic understanding of the cultural differences you may encounter and how you should handle them. Your efforts to recognize and bridge cultural differences will open up business opportunities throughout the world and maximize the contributions of all the employees in a diverse workforce.

OPPORTUNITIES IN A GLOBAL MARKETPLACE

You will communicate with people from many other cultures throughout your career.

Chances are good that you’ll be working across international borders sometime in your career. Thanks to communication and transportation technologies, natural boundaries and national borders are no longer the impassable barriers they once were. Local markets are opening to worldwide competition as businesses of all sizes look for new growth opportunities outside their own countries. Thousands of U.S. businesses depend on exports for significant portions of their revenues. Every year, these companies export hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of materials and merchandise, along with billions more in personal and professional services. If you work in one of these companies, you may well be called on to visit or at least communicate with a wide variety of people who speak languages other than English and who live in cultures quite different from what you’re used to. Among the United States’s top 10 global trading partners, only

Canada and Great Britain have English as an official language; Canada also has French as an official language.4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001ED8)

Not surprisingly, effective communication is important to cross-cultural and global business. In a recent survey, nearly 90 percent of executives said their companies’ profits, revenue, and market share would all improve with better international communication skills. In addition, half of these executives said

communication or collaboration breakdowns had affected major international business efforts in their companies.5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EDA) The good news here is that improving your cultural communication skills could make you a more valuable job candidate at every stage of your career.

ADVANTAGES OF A DIVERSE WORKFORCE

The diversity of today’s workforce brings distinct advantages to businesses:

• A broader range of views and ideas • A better understanding of diverse, fragmented markets • A broader pool of talent from which to recruit

Even if you never visit another country or transact business on a global scale, you will interact with colleagues from a variety of cultures and with a wide range of characteristics and life experiences. Many innovative companies are changing the way they approach diversity, from seeing it as a legal requirement (providing

equal opportunities for all) to seeing it as a strategic opportunity to connect with customers and take advantage of the broadest possible pool of talent.6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EDC) Smart business leaders recognize the competitive advantages of a diverse workforce that offers a broader spectrum of viewpoints and ideas, helps businesses understand and identify with diverse markets, and enables companies to benefit from a wider range of employee talents. “It just makes good business sense,” says Gord Nixon, the

CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada.7

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EDE)

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY VISITING THIS WEBSITE

Looking for jobs at diversity-minded companies?

DiversityWorking.com (http://DiversityWorking.com) connects job searchers with companies that recognize the value of diverse workforces. Go to www.real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://www.real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Diversity is simply a fact of life for all companies. The United States has been a nation of immigrants from the beginning, and that trend continues today. The western and northern Europeans who made up the bulk of immigrants during the nation’s early years now share space with people from across Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and other parts of the world. Across the United States, the term minority as it is traditionally applied to nonwhite residents makes less and less sense every year. Non-Hispanic white Americans now account for about 60 percent of the overall U.S. population, but that figure will drop below 50 percent in

two or three decades. Caucasian Americans already make up less than half the population in hundreds of cities and counties.8

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However, you and your colleagues don’t need to be recent immigrants to constitute a diverse workforce. Differences in everything from age and gender identification to religion and ethnic heritage to geography and military experience enrich the workplace. Immigration and workforce diversity create advantages—and challenges—for business communicators throughout the world.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY EXPLORING THIS INTERACTIVE WEBSITE

Take a closer look at how the United States is changing

The U.S. population is aging and becoming more diverse; dive into the details with this interactive presentation. Go to www.real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://www.real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

THE CHALLENGES OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Today’s increasingly diverse workforce encompasses a wide range of skills, traditions, backgrounds, experiences, outlooks, and attitudes toward work—all of which can affect communication in the workplace. Supervisors face the challenge of connecting with these diverse employees, motivating them, and fostering cooperation and harmony among them. Teams face the challenge of working together closely, and companies are challenged to coexist peacefully with business partners and with the community as a whole.

A company’s cultural diversity affects how its business messages are conceived, composed, delivered, received, and interpreted.

The interaction of culture and communication is so pervasive that separating the two is virtually impossible. The way you communicate is deeply influenced by the culture in which you were raised. The meaning of words, the significance of gestures, the importance of time and space, the rules of human relationships—these and many other aspects of communication are defined by culture. To a large degree, your culture influences the way you think, which

naturally affects the way you communicate as both a sender and a receiver.9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EE2) Intercultural communication is much more complicated than simply matching language between sender and receiver; it goes beyond mere words to beliefs, values, and emotions.

Culture influences everything about communication, including

• Language • Nonverbal signals • Word meaning • Time and space issues • Rules of human relationships

Elements of human diversity can affect every stage of the communication process, from the ideas a person deems important enough to share to the habits and expectations of giving feedback. In particular, your instinct is to encode your message using the assumptions of your culture. Members of your audience, however,

decode your message according to the assumptions of their culture. The greater the difference between cultures, the greater the chance for misunderstanding.10

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EE4)

Throughout this chapter, you’ll see examples of how communication styles and habits vary from one culture to another. These examples are intended to illustrate the major themes of intercultural communication, not to give an exhaustive list of the styles and habits of any particular culture. With an understanding of these major themes, you’ll be prepared to explore the specifics of any culture.

3.2 Developing Cultural Competency

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Define culture, explain how culture is learned, and define ethnocentrism and stereotyping.

Cultural competency requires a combination of attitude, knowledge, and skills.

Cultural competency (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E15) includes an appreciation for cultural differences that affect communication and the ability to adjust one’s communication style to ensure that efforts to send and receive

messages across cultural boundaries are successful. In other words, it requires a combination of attitude, knowledge, and skills.11

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EE6) Kaiser Permanente, profiled at the beginning of the chapter, is a good example of a contemporary organization that values cultural competency so highly that it makes it a high-level strategic imperative.

Achieving cultural competency can take time and effort, but the good news is you’re already an expert in culture—at least the culture in which you grew up. You understand how your society works, how people are expected to communicate, what common gestures and facial expressions mean, and so on. The bad news is that because you’re such an expert in your own culture, your communication is largely automatic; that is, you rarely stop to think about the communication rules you’re following. An important step toward successful intercultural communication is becoming more aware of these rules and the way they influence your communication.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS INFOGRAPHIC

How not to behave in 15 countries

These brief and occasionally humorous pointers will help keep you out of trouble. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and behavioral norms.

Culture (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E21) is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behavior. Your cultural background influences the way you prioritize what is important

in life, helps define your attitude toward what is appropriate in a given situation, and establishes rules of behavior.12

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EE8)

You belong to several cultures, each of which affects the way you communicate.

Actually, you belong to several cultures. In addition to the culture you share with all the people who live in your own country, you belong to other cultural groups, including an ethnic group, possibly a religious group, and perhaps a profession that has its own special language and customs. With its large population and long history of immigration, the United States is home to a vast array of cultures (see Figure 3.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#P7001012451000000000000000001BCE) ).13

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EEA) In contrast, Japan is

much more homogeneous, having only a few distinct cultural groups.14

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Members of a given culture tend to have similar assumptions about how people should think, behave, and communicate, and they all tend to act on those assumptions in much the same way. Cultures can vary in their rate of change, degree of complexity, and tolerance toward outsiders. These differences affect the level of trust and openness you can achieve when communicating with people of other cultures.

You learn culture both directly (by being instructed) and indirectly (by observing others).

People learn culture directly and indirectly from other members of their group. As you grow up in a culture, you are taught by the group’s members who you are and how best to function in that culture. Sometimes you are explicitly told which behaviors are acceptable. At other times you learn by observing which values

work best in a particular group. In these ways, culture is passed on from person to person and from generation to generation.15

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Cultures tend to offer views of life that are both coherent (internally logical) and complete (able to answer all of life’s big questions).

In addition to being automatic, culture tends to be coherent; that is, a culture seems to be fairly logical and consistent when viewed from the inside. Certain norms within a culture may not make sense to someone outside the culture, but they probably make sense to those inside. Such coherence generally helps a culture function more smoothly internally, but it can create disharmony between cultures that don’t view the world in the same way.

Finally, cultures tend to be complete; that is, they provide their members with most of the answers to life’s big questions. This idea of completeness dulls or even

suppresses curiosity about life in other cultures. Not surprisingly, such completeness can complicate communication with other cultures.16

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Figure 3.1 Language Diversity in the United States

Language is one of the distinguishing factors of population diversity. This chart shows the trend in the relative ranking of a number of languages other than English spoken in the United States since 1980.

Source: “Top Languages Other than English Spoken in 1980 and Changes in Relative Rank, 1990-2010,” U.S. Census Bureau, 14 February 2013, www.census.gov (http://www.census.gov) .

OVERCOMING ETHNOCENTRISM AND STEREOTYPING

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge all other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one’s own group.

Ethnocentrism (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E29) is the tendency to judge other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one’s own group. Given the automatic influence of one’s own culture,

when people compare their culture with others, they often conclude that their own is superior.17

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EF2) An even more extreme reaction is xenophobia (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E41) , a fear of strangers and foreigners. Clearly, businesspeople who take these views are not likely to communicate successfully across cultures.

Stereotyping is assigning generalized attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular group.

Distorted views of other cultures or groups also result from stereotyping (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E3D) , assigning a wide

range of generalized attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular culture or social group. For instance, assuming that an older colleague will be out of touch with the youth market or that a younger colleague can’t be an inspiring leader would be stereotyping age groups.

Cultural pluralism is the acceptance of multiple cultures on their own terms.

Those who want to show respect for others and to communicate effectively in business need to adopt a more positive viewpoint in the form of cultural pluralism (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E1D) —the practice of accepting multiple cultures on their own terms. When crossing cultural boundaries, you’ll be more effective if you move beyond simple acceptance and adapt

your communication style to that of the new cultures you encounter—even integrating aspects of those cultures into your own.18

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EF4) A few simple habits can help:

You can avoid ethnocentrism and stereotyping by avoiding assumptions, withholding judgment, and accepting differences.

• Avoid assumptions. Don’t assume that others will act the same way you do, use language and symbols the same way you do, or even operate from the same values and beliefs. For instance, in a comparison of the 10 most important values in three cultures, people from the United States had no values in

common with people from Japanese or Arab cultures.19

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• Withhold judgment. When people act differently, don’t conclude that they are in error or that their way is invalid or inferior. • Acknowledge distinctions. Don’t ignore the differences between another person’s culture and your own.

Unfortunately, overcoming ethnocentrism and stereotyping is not a simple task, even for people who are highly motivated to do so. Moreover, research suggests

that people often have beliefs and biases that they’re not even aware of—and that may even conflict with the beliefs they think they have.20

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3.3 Recognizing Variations in a Diverse World

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

3 Explain the importance of recognizing cultural variations, and list eight categories of cultural differences. You can begin to learn how people in other cultures want to be treated by recognizing and accommodating eight main types of cultural differences: contextual, legal and ethical, social, nonverbal, age, gender, religious, and ability.

CONTEXTUAL DIFFERENCES

Cultural context is the pattern of physical cues, environmental stimuli, and implicit understanding that conveys meaning between members of the same culture.

Every attempt at communication occurs within a cultural context (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E19) , which is the pattern of physical cues, environmental stimuli, and implicit understanding that convey meaning between two members of the same culture. However, cultures around the world vary widely in the role that context plays in communication.

High-context cultures rely heavily on nonverbal actions and environmental setting to convey meaning; low-context cultures rely more on explicit verbal communication.

In a high-context culture (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E2D) , people rely less on verbal communication and more on the context of nonverbal signals and environmental setting to convey meaning. For instance, a Chinese speaker often expects

the receiver to discover the essence of a message and uses indirectness and metaphor to provide a web of meaning.21

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EFA) The indirect style can be a source of confusion during discussions with people from low-context cultures, who are more accustomed to receiving direct answers. Also, in high- context cultures the rules of everyday life are rarely explicit; instead, as individuals grow up, they learn how to recognize situational cues (such as gestures and

tone of voice) and how to respond as expected.22

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001EFC) The primary role of

communication in high-context cultures is building relationships, not exchanging information.23

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In a low-context culture (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E39) such as the United States, people rely more on verbal communication and less on circumstances and cues to convey meaning. In such cultures rules and expectations are usually

spelled out through explicit statements such as “Please wait until I’m finished” or “You’re welcome to browse.”24

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F00) The primary task of

communication in low-context cultures is exchanging information.25

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Contextual differences are apparent in the way businesspeople approach situations such as decision making, problem solving, negotiating, interacting among

levels in the organizational hierarchy, and socializing outside the workplace.26

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F04) For instance, businesspeople in low-context cultures tend to focus on the results of the decisions they face, a reflection of the cultural emphasis on logic and progress (for example, “Will this be good for our company? For my career?”). In comparison, higher-context cultures emphasize the means or the method by which a decision

will be made. Building or protecting relationships can be as important as the facts and information used in making the decisions.27

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F06) Consequently, negotiators working on business deals in such cultures may spend most of their time together building relationships rather than hammering out contractual details.

The distinctions between high and low context are generalizations, of course, but they are important to keep in mind as guidelines. Communication tactics that work well in a high-context culture may backfire in a low-context culture and vice versa.

LEGAL AND ETHICAL DIFFERENCES

Cultural context influences legal and ethical behavior, which in turn can affect communication. For example, the meaning of business contracts can vary from culture to culture. Whereas a manager from a U.S. company would tend to view a signed contract as the end of the negotiating process, with all the details resolved, his or her counterpart in many Asian cultures might view the signed contract as an agreement to do business—and only then begin to negotiate the

details of the deal.28 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F08)

As you conduct business around the world, you’ll find that both legal systems and ethical standards differ from culture to culture. Making ethical choices across

cultures can seem complicated, but you can keep your messages ethical by applying four basic principles:29

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Honesty and respect are cornerstones of ethical communication, regardless of culture.

• Actively seek mutual ground. To allow the clearest possible exchange of information, both parties must be flexible and avoid insisting that an interaction take place strictly in terms of one culture or another.

• Send and receive messages without judgment. To allow information to flow freely, both parties must recognize that values vary from culture to culture, and they must trust each other.

• Send messages that are honest. To ensure that information is true, both parties must see things as they are—not as they would like them to be. Both parties must be fully aware of their personal and cultural biases.

• Show respect for cultural differences. To protect the basic human rights of both parties, each must understand and acknowledge the other’s needs and preserve the other’s dignity by communicating without deception.

SOCIAL DIFFERENCES

Formal rules of etiquette are explicit and well defined, but informal rules are learned through observation and imitation.

The nature of social behavior varies among cultures, sometimes dramatically. Some behavioral rules are formal and specifically articulated (table manners are a good example), whereas others are informal and learned over time (such as the comfortable distance to stand from a colleague during a discussion). The combination of formal and informal rules influences the overall behavior of most people in a society most of the time. In addition to the factors already discussed, social norms can vary from culture to culture in the following areas:

Respect and rank are reflected differently from culture to culture in the way people are addressed and in their working environment.

• Attitudes toward work and success. In the United States, for instance, a widespread view is that people who attain success through individual effort and initiative are to be admired.

• Roles and status. Culture influences the roles people play, including who communicates with whom, what they communicate, and in what way. Culture also dictates how people show respect and signify rank. For example, it would sound odd to address your boss in the United States as “Manager Jones,”

but including a professional title is common in China.30

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The rules of polite behavior vary from country to country.

• Use of manners. What is polite in one culture may be considered rude in another. For instance, asking a colleague “How was your weekend?” is a common way of making small talk in the United States, but the question sounds intrusive to people in cultures in which business and private lives are seen as separate spheres.

Attitudes toward time, such as strict adherence to meeting schedules, can vary throughout the world.

• Concepts of time. People in low-context cultures see time as a way to plan the business day efficiently, often focusing on only one task during each scheduled period and viewing time as a limited resource. However, executives from high-context cultures often see time as more flexible. Meeting a

deadline is less important than building a business relationship.31

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• Future orientation. Successful companies tend to have a strong future orientation, planning for and investing in the future, but national cultures around the world vary widely in this viewpoint. Some societies encourage a long-term outlook that emphasizes planning and investing—making sacrifices in the short term for the promise of better outcomes in the future. Others are oriented more toward the present, even to the point of viewing the future as

hopelessly remote and not worth planning for.32

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• Openness and inclusiveness. At the national level as well as within smaller groups, cultures vary on how open they are to accepting people from other cultures and people who don’t necessarily fit the prevailing norms within the culture. An unwillingness to accommodate others can range from outright exclusion to subtle pressure to conform to majority expectations.

Cultures around the world exhibit varying degrees of openness toward both outsiders and people whose personal identities don’t align with prevailing social norms.

• Use of communication technologies. Don’t assume that colleagues and customers around the world use the same communication tools you do. For example, although mobile phone usage is high in most countries around the world, the percentage of users with smartphones and the broadband service

required for communication services such as video varies widely.33

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NONVERBAL DIFFERENCES

The meaning of nonverbal signals can vary widely from culture to culture, so you can’t rely on assumptions.

As discussed in Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) , nonverbal communication can be a helpful guide to determining the meaning of a message—but this situation holds true only if the sender and receiver assign the same meaning to nonverbal signals. For instance, the simplest hand gestures have different meanings in different cultures. A gesture that communicates good luck in

Brazil is the equivalent of giving someone “the finger” in Colombia.34

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F14) Don’t assume that the gestures you grew up with will translate to another culture; doing so could lead to embarrassing mistakes.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS INFOGRAPHIC

Seven common hand gestures that will stir up trouble in other cultures

Find out what gestures that have positive meanings in the United States can have intensively negative meanings in other cultures. Go to real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

When you have the opportunity to interact with people in another culture, the best advice is to study the culture in advance and then observe the way people behave in the following areas:

• Greetings. Do people shake hands, bow, or kiss lightly (on one side of the face or both)? Do people shake hands only when first introduced or every time they say hello or goodbye?

• Personal space. When people are conversing, do they stand closer together or farther apart than you are accustomed to? • Touching. Do people touch each other on the arm to emphasize a point or slap each other on the back to show congratulations? Or do they refrain from

touching altogether? • Facial expressions. Do people shake their heads to indicate “no” and nod them to indicate “yes”? This is what people are accustomed to in the United

States, but it is not universal. • Eye contact. Do people make frequent eye contact or avoid it? Frequent eye contact is often taken as a sign of honesty and openness in the United States,

but in other cultures it can be a sign of aggressiveness or disrespect. • Posture. Do people slouch and relax in the office and in public, or do they sit up and stand up straight? • Formality. In general, does the culture seem more or less formal than yours?

Following the lead of people who grew up in the culture is not only a great way to learn but a good way to show respect as well.

AGE DIFFERENCES

A culture’s views on youth and aging affect how people communicate with one another.

In U.S. culture youth is often associated with strength, energy, possibilities, and freedom, and age is sometimes associated with declining powers and the inability to keep pace. Older workers can, however, offer broader experience, the benefits of important business relationships nurtured over many years, and high degrees

of “practical intelligence”—the ability to solve complex, poorly defined problems.35

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In contrast, in cultures that value age and seniority, longevity earns respect and increasing power and freedom. For instance, in many Asian societies the oldest employees hold the most powerful jobs, the most impressive titles, and the greatest degrees of freedom and decision-making authority. If a younger employee disagrees with one of these senior executives, the discussion is never conducted in public. The notion of “saving face”—avoiding public embarrassment—is too strong. Instead, if a senior person seems to be in error about something, other employees will find a quiet, private way to communicate whatever information

they feel is necessary.36

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The multiple generations within a culture present another dimension of diversity. Today’s workplaces can have three, four, or even five generations working side

by side.37 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F1B) Each has been shaped by dramatically different world events, social trends, and technological advances, so it is not surprising that they often have different values, expectations, and communication habits. For instance, Generation Y workers (see “Us Versus Them: Generational Conflict in the Workplace (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#P7001012451000000000000000001C64) ”) have a strong

preference for communicating via short digital messages, but Baby Boomers and Generation Xers sometimes find these brief messages to be abrupt and

impersonal.38 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F1D)

GENDER DIFFERENCES

Gender influences workplace communication in several important ways. First, the perception of gender roles in business varies from culture to culture, and gender bias can range from overt discrimination to subtle and even unconscious beliefs.

COMMUNICATING ACROSS CULTURES

Us Versus Them: Generational Conflict in the Workplace

The way adults view the world is profoundly shaped by the social and technological trends they experienced while growing up, so it’s no surprise that each generation entering the workforce has a different perspective than the generations already at work. Throw in the human tendencies to resist change and to assume that whatever way one is doing something must be the best way to do it, and you have a recipe for conflict. Moreover, generations in a workplace sometimes feel they are competing for jobs, resources, influence, and control. The result can be tension, mistrust, and communication breakdowns.

Lumping people into generations is an imprecise science at best, but it helps to know the labels commonly applied to various age groups and to have some idea of their broad characteristics. These labels are not official, and there is no general agreement on when some generations start and end, but you will see and hear references to the following groups (approximate years of birth are shown in parentheses):

• The Radio Generation (1925–1945). People in this group are beyond what was once considered the traditional retirement age of 65, but some want or need to continue working.

• Baby Boomers (1946–1964). This large segment of the workforce, which now occupies many mid- and upper-level managerial positions, got its name from the population boom in the years following World War II. The older members of this generation have now reached retirement age, but many will continue to work beyond age 65—meaning that younger workers waiting for some of these management spots to open up might have to wait a while longer.

• Generation X (1965–1980). This relatively smaller “MTV generation” is responsible for many of the innovations that have shaped communication habits today but sometimes feels caught between the large mass of baby boomers ahead of them and the younger Generation Y employees entering the workforce. As Generation X begins to take over the management ranks, it is managing in a vastly different business landscape—one in which virtual organizations and networks of independent contractors replace much of the hierarchy inherited from the Baby Boomers.

• Generation Y (1981–1995). Also known as millennials, this youngest generation currently in the workforce is noted for its entrepreneurial instincts and technological savvy. This generation’s comfort level with social media and other communication technologies is helping to change business communication practices but is also a source of concern for managers worried about information leaks and employee productivity.

• Generation Z (after 1996). If you’re a member of Generation Y, those footsteps you hear behind you are coming from Generation Z, also known as Generation I (for Internet) or the Net Generation. Those in the first full generation to be born after the World Wide Web was invented are now entering the workforce.

These brief summaries can hardly do justice to entire generations of workers, but they give you some idea of the different generational perspectives and the potential for communication problems. As with all cultural conflicts, successful communication starts with recognizing and understanding both differences and similarities. Beneath the superficial differences in technology usage and other factors, various generations are a lot more alike than they are different.

CAREER APPLICATIONS

1. How would you resolve a conflict between a Baby Boomer manager who worries about the privacy and productivity aspects of social networking and a Generation Y employee who wants to use these tools on the job?

2. Consider the range of labels from the Radio Generation to the Net Generation. What does this tell you about the possible influence of technology on business communication habits?

Sources: Rebecca Knight, “Managing People from 5 Generations,” Harvard Business Review, 25 September 2014, hbr.org (http://hbr.org) ; Anne Fisher, “When Gen X Runs the Show,” Time, 14 May 2009, www.time.com (http://www.time.com) ; Deloitte, “Generation Y: Powerhouse of the Global Economy,” research report, 2009, www.deloitte.com (http://www.deloitte.com) ; “Generation Y,” Nightly Business Report website, 30 June 2010, www.pbs.org (http://www.pbs.org) ; Sherry Posnick-Goodwin, “Meet Generation Z,” California Educator, February 2010, www.cta.org (http://www.cta.org) ; Ernie Stark, “Lost in a Time Warp,” People & Strategy 32, no. 4 (2009): 58–64.

Second, although the ratios of men and women in entry-level professional positions is roughly equal, the share of management roles held by men increases steadily the further one looks up the corporate ladder. This imbalance can significantly affect communication in such areas as mentoring, which is a vital development opportunity for lower and middle managers who want to move into senior positions. In one survey, for example, some men in executive positions expressed reluctance to mentor women, partly because they find it easier to bond with other men and partly out of concerns over developing relationships that

might seem inappropriate.39

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Broadly speaking, men tend to emphasize content in their messages, whereas women tend to emphasize relationship maintenance.

Third, evidence suggests that men and women tend to have somewhat different communication styles. Broadly speaking, men emphasize content and outcomes

in their communication efforts, whereas women place a higher premium on relationship maintenance.40

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F21) As one example, men are more likely than women to try to negotiate a pay raise. Moreover, according to research by Linda Babcock of Carnegie Mellon University, both men and women tend to accept this disparity, viewing assertiveness as a positive quality in men but a negative one in women. Changing these perceptions could go a long

way toward improving communication and equity in the workplace.41

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Fourth, outdated concepts of gender and sexual orientation continue to be a source of confusion, controversy, and discrimination. Many people do not fit or wish to be fit into a simplistic heterosexual, male/female categorization scheme, but discriminatory company policies and the behaviors and attitudes of supervisors and coworkers can deprive these individuals of a fair and satisfying work experience. In response, many companies have taken steps to ensure equal opportunities and fair treatment for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) job applicants and employees. Companies can also take steps to make sure

their nondiscrimination policies protect employees’ right to gender expression based on personal gender identity.42

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F25) Communication plays a critical role in all these efforts, from listening to the needs of diverse employee groups to providing clear policies and educating employees on important issues.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY VISITING THIS WEBSITE

Explore the Corporate Equality Index

The Human Rights Campaign assesses corporate policies and practices regarding equal rights and opportunities for LGBT employees. Go to real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES

U.S. law requires employers to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs to a reasonable degree.

As one of the most personal and influential aspects of life, religion brings potential for controversy and conflict in the workplace setting—as evidenced by a

significant rise in the number of religious discrimination lawsuits in recent years.43

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F27) Many employees believe they should be able to follow and express the tenets of their faith in the workplace. However, companies may need to accommodate employee behaviors that can conflict with each other and with the demands of operating the business. The situation is complicated, with no simple answers that apply to every situation. As more companies work to establish inclusive workplaces, you can expect to see this issue being discussed more often in the coming years.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Legal aspects of religion in the workplace

Get an overview of the laws that govern religious expression in the workplace. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

ABILITY DIFFERENCES

Colleagues and customers with disabilities that affect communication represent an important aspect of the diversity picture. People whose hearing, vision, cognitive ability, or physical ability to operate electronic devices is impaired can be at a significant disadvantage in today’s workplace. As with other elements of diversity, success starts with respect for individuals and sensitivity to differences.

Assistive technologies help employers create more inclusive workplaces and benefit from the contributions of people with physical or cognitive impairments.

Employers can also invest in a variety of assistive technologies that help people with disabilities perform activities that might otherwise be difficult or impossible. These technologies include devices and systems that help workers communicate orally and visually, interact with computers and other equipment, and enjoy greater mobility in the workplace. For example, designers can emphasize web accessibility, taking steps to make websites more accessible to people whose vision is limited. Assistive technologies create a vital link for thousands of employees with disabilities, giving them opportunities to pursue a greater range of career

paths and giving employers access to a broader base of talent.44

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3.4 Adapting to Other Business Cultures

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

4 List four general guidelines for adapting to any business culture. Whether you’re trying to work productively with members of another generation in your own office or with a business partner on the other side of the world, adapting your approach is essential to successful communication. This section offers general advice on adapting to any business culture and specific advice for professionals from other cultures on adapting to U.S. business culture.

GUIDELINES FOR ADAPTING TO ANY BUSINESS CULTURE

You’ll find a variety of specific tips in “Improving Intercultural Communication Skills (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC6) ” on page 80 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#page_80) , but here are four general guidelines that can help all business communicators improve their cultural competency:

An important step in understanding and adapting to other cultures is to recognize the influences that your own culture has on your communication habits.

• Become aware of your own biases. Successful intercultural communication requires more than just an understanding of the other party’s culture; you

need to understand your own culture and the way it shapes your communication habits.45

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F2B) For instance, knowing that you value independence and individual accomplishment will help you communicate more successfully in a culture that values consensus and group harmony.

• Be careful about applying the “Golden Rule.” You probably heard this growing up: “Treat people the way you want to be treated.” The problem with the Golden Rule is that other people don’t always want to be treated the same way you want to be treated, particularly across cultural boundaries. The best approach: Treat people the way they want to be treated.

• Exercise tolerance, flexibility, and respect. As IBM’s Ron Glover puts it, “To the greatest extent possible, we try to manage our people and our

practices in ways that are respectful of the core principles of any given country or organization or culture.”46

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• Practice patience and maintain a sense of humor. Even the most committed and attuned business professionals can make mistakes in intercultural communication, so it is vital for all parties to be patient with one another. As business becomes ever more global, even people in the most tradition-

bound cultures are learning to deal more patiently with outsiders and to overlook occasional cultural blunders.47

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F2F) A sense of humor is a helpful asset as well, allowing people to move past awkward and embarrassing moments. When you make a mistake, simply apologize and, if appropriate, ask the other person to explain the accepted way; then move on.

GUIDELINES FOR ADAPTING TO U.S. BUSINESS CULTURE

If you are a recent immigrant to the United States or grew up in a culture outside the U.S. mainstream, you can apply all the concepts and skills in this chapter to

help adapt to U.S. business culture. Here are some key points to remember as you become accustomed to business communication in this country:48

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The values espoused by American culture include individualism, equality, and privacy.

• Individualism. In contrast to cultures that value group harmony and group success, U.S. culture generally expects individuals to succeed by their own efforts, and it rewards individual success. Even though teamwork is emphasized in many companies, competition between individuals is often expected and even encouraged.

• Equality. Although the country’s historical record on equality has not always been positive and some inequalities still exist, equality is considered a core American value. This principle applies to race, gender, social background, and even age. To a greater degree than people in many other cultures, Americans believe that every person should be given the opportunity to pursue whatever dreams and goals he or she has in life.

• Privacy and personal space. Although this seems to be changing somewhat with the popularity of social networking and other personal media, people in the United States are accustomed to a fair amount of privacy. That also applies to their “personal space” at work. For example, they expect you to knock before entering a closed office and to avoid asking questions about personal beliefs or activities until they get to know you well.

• Time and schedules. U.S. businesses value punctuality and the efficient use of time. For instance, meetings are expected to start and end at designated times.

• Religion. The United States does not have an official state religion. Many religions are practiced throughout the country, and people are expected to respect each other’s beliefs.

• Communication style. Communication tends to be direct and focus more on content and transactions than on relationships or group harmony.

As with all observations about culture, these are generalizations, of course. Any nation of more than 300 million people will exhibit a wide variety of behaviors. However, following these guidelines will help you succeed in most business communication situations.

3.5 Improving Intercultural Communication Skills

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

5 Identify seven steps you can take to improve your intercultural communication skills. Communicating successfully between cultures requires a variety of skills (see Figure 3.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CCE) ). You can improve your intercultural skills throughout your career by studying other cultures and languages, respecting preferences for communication styles, learning to write and speak clearly, listening carefully, knowing when to use interpreters and translators, and helping others adapt to your culture.

Figure 3.2 Components of Successful Intercultural Communication

Communicating in a diverse business environment is not always an easy task, but you can continue to improve your sensitivity and build your skills as you progress in your career.

STUDYING OTHER CULTURES

Effectively adapting your communication efforts to another culture requires not only knowledge about the culture but also the ability and motivation to change

your personal habits as needed.49

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F33) Fortunately, you don’t need to learn about the whole world all at once. Many companies appoint specialists for countries or regions, giving employees a chance to focus on just one culture at a time. And if your employer conducts business internationally, it may offer training and support for employees who need to learn more about specific cultures.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY EXPLORING THIS INTERACTIVE WEBSITE

How are your global travel skills?

Take this quiz to see if you have the knowledge to travel like a pro. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Even a small amount of research and practice will help you get through many business situations. In addition, most people respond positively to honest effort and good intentions, and many business associates will help you along if you show an interest in learning more about their cultures. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. People will respect your concern and curiosity. You will gradually accumulate considerable knowledge, which will help you feel comfortable and be effective in a wide range of business situations.

Numerous websites and books offer advice on traveling to and working in specific cultures. Also try to sample newspapers, magazines, and even the music and movies of another country. For instance, a movie can demonstrate nonverbal customs even if you don’t grasp the language. (However, be careful not to rely solely on entertainment products. If people in other countries based their opinions of U.S. culture only on the silly teen flicks and violent action movies that the United States exports around the globe, what sort of impression do you imagine they’d get?) For some of the key issues to research before doing business in another country, refer to Table 3.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CE2) on the next page.

STUDYING OTHER LANGUAGES

Successful intercultural communication can require the modification of personal communication habits.

As commerce continues to become more globalized and many countries become more linguistically diverse, the demand for multilingual communicators continues to grow as well. The ability to communicate in more than one language can make you a more competitive job candidate and open up a wider variety of career opportunities.

Making an effort to learn about another person’s culture is a sign of respect.

Even if your colleagues or customers in another country speak your language, it’s worth the time and energy to learn common phrases in theirs. Doing so not only helps you get through everyday business and social situations but also demonstrates your commitment to the business relationship. After all, the other person probably spent years learning your language.

MOBILE APP

iTranslate translates more than 80 languages and features voice input and output.

Mobile devices can be a huge help in learning another language and in communicating with someone in another language. A wide variety of apps and websites are available that help with essentials words and phrases, grammar, pronunciation, text translation, and even real-time audio translation (see Figure 3.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001D52) on page 83 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#page_83) ).

English is the most prevalent language in international business, but don’t assume that everyone understands it or speaks it the same way.

Finally, don’t assume that people from two countries who speak the same language speak it the same way. The French spoken in Québec and other parts of Canada is often noticeably different from the French spoken in France. Similarly, it’s often said that the United States and the United Kingdom are two countries divided by a common language. For instance, period (punctuation), elevator, and gasoline in the United States are full stop, lift, and petrol in the United Kingdom.

RESPECTING PREFERENCES FOR COMMUNICATION STYLE

Communication style—including the level of directness, the degree of formality, media preferences, and other factors—varies widely from culture to culture (see Figures 3.4a (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001D6D) –d (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001D85) on pages 84 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#page_84) –87 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#page_87) ). Knowing what your communication partners expect can help you adapt to their particular style. Once again, watching and learning are the best ways to improve your skills. However, you can infer some generalities by learning more about the culture. For instance, U.S. workers typically prefer an open and direct communication style; they find other styles frustrating or suspect. Directness is also valued in Sweden as a sign of efficiency, but heated debates and confrontations are unusual. Italian, German, and French executives usually don’t put colleagues at ease with praise before they criticize; doing so seems manipulative to them. Meanwhile, professionals from high-context

cultures, such as Japan or China, tend to be less direct.50

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F35) Finally, in general, business correspondence in other countries is often more formal than the style used by U.S. businesspeople.

TABLE 3.1 Doing Business in Other Cultures

Action Details to Consider

Action Details to Consider

Understand social customs • How do people react to strangers? Are they friendly? Hostile? Reserved? • How do people greet each other? Should you bow? Nod? Shake hands? • How do you express appreciation for an invitation to lunch, dinner, or someone’s home? Should you bring a

gift? Send flowers? Write a thank-you note? • Are any phrases, facial expressions, or hand gestures considered rude? • How do you attract the attention of a waiter? Do you tip the waiter? • When is it rude to refuse an invitation? How do you refuse politely? • What topics may or may not be discussed in a social setting? In a business setting? • How do social customs dictate interaction between men and women? Between younger people and older

people?

Learn about clothing and food preferences

• What occasions require special attire? • What colors are associated with mourning? Love? Joy? • Are some types of clothing considered taboo for one gender or the other? • How many times a day do people eat? • How are hands or utensils used when eating? • Where is the seat of honor at a table?

Assess political patterns • How stable is the political situation? • Does the political situation affect businesses in and out of the country? • Is it appropriate to talk politics in social or business situations?

Understand religious and social beliefs

• To which religious groups do people belong? • Which places, objects, actions, and events are sacred? • Do religious beliefs affect communication between men and women or between any other groups? • Is there a tolerance for minority religions? • How do religious holidays affect business and government activities? • Does religion require or prohibit eating specific foods? At specific times?

Learn about economic and business institutions

• Is the society homogeneous or heterogeneous? • What languages are spoken? • What are the primary resources and principal products? • Are businesses generally large? Family controlled? Government controlled? • What are the generally accepted working hours? • How do people view scheduled appointments? • Are people expected to socialize before conducting business?

Appraise the nature of ethics, values, and laws

• Is money or a gift expected in exchange for arranging business transactions? • Do people value competitiveness or cooperation? • What are the attitudes toward work? Toward money? • Is politeness more important than factual honesty?

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION

Real-Time Translation

If you’ve ever tried to converse in a language other than you native tongue, you know what a challenge this can be. As a listener, you have to convert the incoming sounds to discrete words and assemble these words into coherent phrases and sentences in order to extract the meaning. And unlike reading a written document, you have to do all this processing almost instantaneously, without the luxury of going back over something you didn’t get. As a speaker, you have to find the right words, assemble them into phrases and sentences using the second language’s grammar rules, and then pronounce them all correctly enough so they make sense to the other party. Reaching this level of proficiency can take years of study and practice.

Translating speech in real time is a challenging technical proposition, but a number of companies are making progress. Perhaps most notable so far is Skype Translator, which can translate voice and video calls and instant messages in multiple languages. A variety of smartphone and smartwatch apps offer translation, where speakers take turns talking to the device, then listen as it outputs the translated speech. The technology promises to keep evolving, becoming more versatile and more accurate, but it has already reached the point of being a useful business communication tool.

WHAT’S YOUR PREDICTION?

Research several apps and other solutions that offer real-time translation. Are they being used successfully in business communication? Do you think they will ever make it unnecessary to learn other languages in order to communicate effectively with diverse, global audiences?

Sources: “Skype Translator,” Skype, accessed 14 March 2016, www.skype.com (http://www.skype.com) ; Stu Robarts, “Google Translate App Now Translates Street Signs and Real-Time Conversations,” Gizmag, 14 January 2015, www.gizmag.com (http://www.gizmag.com) ; iTranslate Voice website, accessed 14 March 2016, itranslatevoice.com (http://itranslatevoice.com) .

Figure 3.3 Mobile Language Tools

Translation apps are handy tools for working in multilingual business settings. Even if you don’t speak a word of a particular language, you can get fast translations of essential phrases.

iTranslateapp.com (http://iTranslateapp.com)

WRITING CLEARLY

Writing clearly is always important, of course, but it is essential when you are writing to people whose first language is not English. Follow these recommendations to make sure your message can be understood (see Figure 3.5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001D8E) on page 88

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#page_88) ):51

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F37)

Clarity and simplicity are essential when writing to or speaking with people who don’t share your native language.

• Choose words carefully. Use precise words that don’t have the potential to confuse with multiple meanings. For instance, the word right has several dozen different meanings and usages, so look for a synonym that conveys the specific meaning you intend, such as correct, appropriate, desirable, moral,

authentic, or privilege.52

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• Be brief. Use simple sentences and short paragraphs, breaking information into smaller chunks that are easier for readers to process. • Use plenty of transitions. Help readers follow your train of thought by using transitional words and phrases. For example, tie related points together

with expressions such as in addition and first, second, and third. • Address international correspondence properly. Refer to Appendix A

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000070ad#P70010124510000000000000000070AD) for more information.

• Cite numbers and dates carefully. In the United States, 12-05-18 means December 5, 2018, but in many other countries it means May 12, 2018. Dates in Japan and China are usually expressed with the year first, followed by the month and then the day; therefore, to write December 5, 2018, in Japan, write it as 2018-12-05. Similarly, in the United States and Great Britain, 1.000 means one with three decimal places, but it means one thousand in many European countries.

• Avoid slang, idiomatic phrases, and business jargon. Everyday speech and writing are full of slang and idiomatic phrases (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001E31) —phrases that mean more than the sum of their literal parts. Examples from U.S. English include “Knocked one out of the park” and “More bang for the buck.” Your audience may have no idea what you’re talking about when you use such phrases.

Humor does not “travel well” because it usually relies on intimate knowledge of a particular culture.

• Avoid humor and references to popular culture. Jokes and references to popular entertainment usually rely on culture-specific information that might be completely unknown to your audience.

Although some of these differences may seem trivial, meeting the expectations of an international audience illustrates both knowledge of and respect for the other cultures.

Figures 3.4a Intercultural Business Letter: Ineffective Original Draft

This letter (from a Kentucky company that designs radio-controlled airplanes) exhibits a number of problems that would create difficulties for its intended reader (the manager of a manufacturing company in China). Follow the changes in Figure 3.4b (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001D75) , c (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001D7D) , and d (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001D85) to see how the letter was adapted and then translated for its target audience.

SPEAKING AND LISTENING CAREFULLY

Languages vary considerably in the significance of tone, pitch, speed, and volume, which can create challenges for people trying to interpret the explicit meaning of words themselves as well as the overall nuance of a message. The English word progress can be a noun or a verb, depending on which syllable you emphasize. In Chinese the meaning of the word mà changes depending on the speaker’s tone; it can mean mother, pileup, horse, or scold. And routine Arabic speech can sound

excited or angry to an English-speaking U.S. listener.53

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F3B)

Speaking clearly and getting plenty of feedback are two of the keys to successful intercultural conversations.

To ensure successful conversations between parties who speak different native languages or even regional variations of the same language, speakers and

listeners alike need to make accommodations.54

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F3D) Speakers should adjust the content of their messages and the style of their delivery to accommodate the needs of their listeners and the circumstances of the conversation. For example, if you are speaking in person or over an electronic connection that includes a video component, you can use hand gestures and other nonverbal signals to clarify your spoken message. When you don’t have a visual connection, however, you must take extra care to convey your meaning through words and vocal characteristics alone. Conversely, listeners need to be tolerant of accents, vocabulary choices, gestures, and other factors that might distract them from hearing the meaning of a speaker’s message.

Figure 3.4b Intercultural Business Letter: First Revision

This version eliminates most of the problems with overly informal phrases and potentially offensive language. With these revisions, it would function well as a message between native speakers of English, but it still has some wording and formatting issues that could create difficulties for a Chinese reader. Compare with Figure 3.4c (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001D7D) .

When talking with people whose native language is different from yours, remember that the processing of even everyday conversations can be difficult. For instance, speakers from the United States sometimes string together multiple words into a single, mystifying pseudoword, such as turning “Did you eat yet?” into “Jeetyet?” In spoken French, many word pairs are joined as a matter of rule, and the pronunciation can change depending on which words are next to one another. In these instances, nonnative French speakers can have a hard time telling when one word ends and the next one begins.

Figure 3.4c Intercultural Business Letter: Final Revision

Here is the final English version, revised to ensure more successful translation into Chinese and to conform to standard practices in Chinese business communication (including removing the inside address).

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Study the seven habits of effective intercultural communicators

The willingness to take risks is a key habit; see what the other six are. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

To be more effective in intercultural conversations, speak slowly and clearly, but avoid talking down to the other person by overenunciating words or oversimplifying sentences. Don’t rephrase until it’s obviously necessary, because immediately rephrasing something you’ve just said doubles the translation workload for the listener. As the conversation progresses, look for and ask for feedback to make sure your message is getting through. At the end of the conversation, double-check to make sure you and the listener agree on what has been said and decided.

To listen more effectively in intercultural situations, accept what you hear without judgment and let people finish what they have to say.

As a listener, you’ll need some practice to get a sense of vocal patterns. The key is simply to accept what you hear, without jumping to conclusions about meaning or motivation. Let other people finish what they have to say. If you interrupt, you may miss something important. You’ll also show a lack of respect. If you do not understand a comment, ask the person to repeat it. Any momentary awkwardness you might feel in asking for extra help is less important than the risk of unsuccessful communication.

Figure 3.4d Intercultural Business Letter: Translated Version

Here is the translated version, formatted in accordance with Chinese business communication practice.

USING INTERPRETERS, TRANSLATORS, AND TRANSLATION SOFTWARE

You may encounter business situations that require using an interpreter (for spoken communication) or a translator (can be used for both spoken and written communication). Interpreters and translators can be expensive, but skilled professionals provide invaluable assistance for communicating in other cultural

contexts.55 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001e0f#P7001012451000000000000000001F3F) Keeping up with current language usage in a given country or culture is also critical to avoid embarrassing blunders. In marketing and advertising, where being in tune with contemporary culture is critical, companies sometimes use transcreation, which essentially amounts to re-creating the material for a new cultural context,

rather than simply translating the text.56

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For important business communication, use a professional interpreter (for oral communication) or translator (for oral or written communication).

Figure 3.5 Writing for Multilingual Audiences

In today’s global and diversified work environment, chances are that many of your messages will be read by people whose native language is not English. Notice how specific wording changes and modifications to sentence structure make the “Effective” version easier for nonnative speakers to read.

Some companies use back-translation to ensure accuracy. Once a translator encodes a message into another language, a different translator retranslates the same message into the original language. This back-translation is then compared with the original message to discover any errors or discrepancies.

The time and cost required for professional translation has encouraged the development of computerized translation tools. Dedicated software tools, mobile apps, and online services such as WorldLingo and Google Translate offer various forms of automated translation. Major search engines let you request translated versions of the websites you find. Although none of these tools can translate as well as human translators, they are getting better all the time.

HELPING OTHERS ADAPT TO YOUR CULTURE

Help others adapt to your culture; it will create a more productive workplace and teach you about their cultures as well.

Everyone can contribute to successful intercultural communication. Whether a younger person is unaccustomed to the formalities of a large corporation or a colleague from another country is working on a team with you, look for opportunities to help people fit in and adapt their communication style. For example, if a nonnative English speaker is making mistakes that could hurt his or her credibility, you can offer advice on the appropriate words and phrases to use. Most language learners truly appreciate this sort of assistance, as long as it is offered in a respectful manner. Moreover, chances are that while you’re helping, you’ll learn something about the other person’s culture and language, too.

You can also take steps to simplify the communication process. For instance, oral communication in a second language is usually more difficult than written forms of communication, so instead of asking a foreign colleague to provide information in a conference call, you could ask for a written response instead of or in addition to the live conversation.

For a brief summary of ideas to improve intercultural communication in the workplace, see “Checklist: Improving Intercultural Communication Skills (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001DEB) .” For additional information on communicating in a world of diversity, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Chapter 3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b46#P7001012451000000000000000001B46) .

CHECKLIST Improving Intercultural Communication Skills

• Understand your own culture so that you can recognize its influences on your communication habits. • Study other cultures so that you can appreciate cultural variations. • Study the languages of people with whom you communicate, even if you can learn only a few basic words and phrases. • Help nonnative speakers learn your language. • Respect cultural preferences for communication style. • Write clearly, using brief messages, simple language, generous transitions, and appropriate international conventions. • Avoid slang, humor, and references to popular culture. • Speak clearly and slowly, giving listeners time to translate your words. • Ask for feedback to verify that communication was successful. • Listen carefully and ask speakers to repeat anything you don’t understand. • Use interpreters and translators for important messages.

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente puts a high priority on appreciating diversity and fostering a sense of inclusiveness among employees and patients. Imagine you’re a department manager in a Kaiser medical center, where you’re expected to maintain a climate of inclusion and support for employees of every cultural background. How would you address these challenges?

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: Mihai Ciceu joined your department after relocating from Romania last year. He is a brilliant pricing and underwriting analyst, but he resists working with other employees, even in team settings where collaboration is expected. Given the importance that you place on teamwork, how should you handle the situation? List several alternatives for addressing this dilemma, identify which approach you would choose, and explain why you would do so.

TEAM CHALLENGE: Your employees are breaking into ethnically based cliques. Members of ethnic groups eat together, socialize together, and often chat in their native languages while they work. You appreciate how these groups give their members a sense of community, but you worry that these informal communication channels are alienating employees who are outside these groups and fragmenting the flow of information. How can you encourage a stronger sense of community and teamwork within your department? Brainstorm at least three steps you can take to encourage better cross-cultural communication in your department.

Quick Learning Guide

KEY TERMS

cultural competency An appreciation for cultural differences that affect communication and the ability to adjust one’s communication style to ensure that efforts to send and receive messages across cultural boundaries are successful

cultural context The pattern of physical cues, environmental stimuli, and implicit understanding that convey meaning between two members of the same culture

cultural pluralism The practice of accepting multiple cultures on their own terms

culture A shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behavior

diversity All the characteristics and experiences that define each of us as individuals

ethnocentrism The tendency to judge other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one’s own group

high-context culture Culture in which people rely less on verbal communication and more on the context of nonverbal actions and environmental setting to convey meaning

idiomatic phrases Phrases that mean more than the sum of their literal parts; such phrases can be difficult for nonnative speakers to understand

intercultural communication The process of sending and receiving messages between people whose cultural backgrounds could lead them to interpret verbal and nonverbal signs differently

low-context culture Culture in which people rely more on verbal communication and less on circumstances and nonverbal cues to convey meaning

stereotyping Assigning a wide range of generalized attributes to an individual on the basis of membership in a particular culture or social group

xenophobia Fear of strangers and foreigners

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 Discuss the opportunities and challenges of intercultural communication. The global marketplace spans natural boundaries and national borders, allowing worldwide competition between businesses of all sizes. Therefore, today’s businesspeople are likely to communicate across international borders with people who live in different cultures. Moreover, even domestic workforces are becoming more diverse, with employees having different national, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. In this environment, companies can benefit from a broad range of viewpoints and ideas, get a good understanding of diverse markets, and recruit workers from the broadest possible pool of talent. However, intercultural communication presents challenges as well, including motivating diverse employees to cooperate and to work together in teams as well as understanding enough about how culture affects language to prevent miscommunication.

2 Define culture, explain how culture is learned, and define ethnocentrism and stereotyping. Culture is a shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values, expectations, and norms for behavior. Culture is learned by listening to advice from other members of a society and by observing their behaviors. This double-edged method uses direct and indirect learning to ensure that culture is passed from person to person and from generation to generation.

Ethnocentrism is the tendency to judge other groups according to the standards, behaviors, and customs of one’s own group. Stereotyping is assigning a wide range of generalized attributes to individuals on the basis of their membership in a particular culture or social group, without considering an individual’s unique characteristics. To overcome ethnocentrism and stereotyping, work to avoid assumptions, withhold judgment, and acknowledge distinctions.

3 Explain the importance of recognizing cultural variations and list eight categories of cultural differences. People from different cultures encode and decode messages differently, increasing the chances of misunderstanding. By recognizing and accommodating cultural differences, we avoid automatically assuming that everyone’s thoughts and actions are just like ours. Begin by focusing on eight categories of differences: contextual differences (the degree to which a culture relies on verbal or nonverbal actions to convey meaning), legal and ethical differences (the degree to which laws and ethics are regarded and obeyed), social differences (how members value work and success, recognize status, define manners, and think about time), nonverbal differences (differing attitudes toward greetings, personal space, touching, facial expression, eye contact, posture, and formality), age differences (how members think about youth, seniority, and longevity), gender differences (how men and women communicate and the spectrum of gender identification), religious differences (how beliefs affect workplace relationships), and ability differences (inclusive strategies that enable people with disabilities to communicate more fully with the rest of the workforce).

4 List four general guidelines for adapting to any business culture. You can adapt to any business culture by (1) becoming aware of your own cultural biases so that you can understand how these forces shape your communication habits; (2) ignoring the Golden Rule (treating people the way you want them to treat you) and instead treating them the way they want to be treated; (3) exercising tolerance, flexibility, and respect; and (4) practicing patience and maintaining a sense of humor to get you through the bumpy spots.

5 Identify seven steps you can take to improve your intercultural communication skills. Communicating successfully between cultures requires a variety of skills, all of which you can continue to improve throughout your career. Make your intercultural communication effective by (1) studying other cultures; (2) studying other languages; (3) respecting your audience’s preferences for communication style; (4) writing as clearly as possible; (5) speaking as clearly as you can; (6) listening carefully and using interpreters, translators, and translation software when necessary; and (7) helping others adapt to your own culture.

MyBCommLab®

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) to complete the problems marked with this icon .

Test Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

3-1. What are the potential advantages of a diverse workforce? [LO-1]

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#P7001012451000000000000000001B73)

3-2. What is cultural competence? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#P7001012451000000000000000001BB8)

3-3. What is ethnocentrism, and how can it be overcome in communication? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#P7001012451000000000000000001BB8)

3-4. How do high-context cultures differ from low-context cultures? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#P7001012451000000000000000001BFD)

3-5. In addition to contextual differences, what other categories of cultural differences exist? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#P7001012451000000000000000001BFD)

3-6. How does a sense of humor come in handy during intercultural communication? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#P7001012451000000000000000001C9E)

3-7. How can the Golden Rule cause problems in intercultural communication? [LO-4]

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#P7001012451000000000000000001C9E)

3-8. What steps can you take to help someone from another culture adapt to your culture? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC8)

Apply Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

3-9. Make a list of the top five priorities in your life (for example, fame, wealth, family, spirituality, peace of mind, individuality, artistic expression). Compare your list with the priorities that seem to be valued in the culture in which you are currently living. (You can be as broad or as narrow as you like in defining culture for this exercise, such as overall U.S. culture or the culture in your college or university.) Do your personal priorities align with the culture’s priorities? If not, how might this disparity affect your communication with other members of the culture? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#P7001012451000000000000000001BB8)

3-10. How does making an effort to avoid assumptions contribute to the practice of cultural pluralism? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#P7001012451000000000000000001BB8)

3-11. Why is it important to understand your own culture when attempting to communicate with people from other cultures? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#P7001012451000000000000000001C9E)

3-12. Think about the last three movies or television shows set in the United States that you’ve watched. In what ways would these entertainment products be helpful or unhelpful for people from other countries trying to learn about U.S. culture? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC8)

3-13. How can helping someone adapt to your culture help you gain a better understand of it yourself? [LO-5]

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC8)

Practice Your Skills 3-14. Message for Analysis: Adapting to Cultural Differences [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC8) Your boss wants to send a brief email message welcoming employees recently transferred to your department from the company’s Hong Kong branch. These employees, all of whom are Hong Kong natives, speak English, but your boss asks you to review his message for clarity. What would you suggest your boss change in the following email message? Why? Would you consider this message to be audience centered? Why or why not? (Hint: Do some quick research on Hong Kong to identify the style of English that people there are likely to speak.)

I wanted to welcome you ASAP to our little family here in the States. It’s high time we shook hands in person and not just across the sea. I’m pleased as punch about getting to know you all, and I for one will do my level best to sell you on America.

Exercises

Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective. In some instances, supporting information will be found in another chapter, as indicated.

3-15. Intercultural Communication: Recognizing Cultural Variations [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#P7001012451000000000000000001B73) , [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#P7001012451000000000000000001BFD) , [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#P7001012451000000000000000001C9E) Review the definitions of the generations on page 77 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#page_77) . Based on your year of birth, to which

generation do you belong? Do you feel a part of this generation? Why or why not? If you were born outside the United States, do the generational boundaries seem accurate to you? Now consider the biases that you might have regarding other generations. For example, if you are a member of Generation Y, what do you think about the Baby Boomers and their willingness to embrace new ideas? Identify several of your generational biases that could create friction in the workplace. Summarize your responses to these questions in a post on your class blog or an email message to your instructor.

3-16. Intercultural Communication: Adapting to Cultural Variations [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#P7001012451000000000000000001C9E) You are a new manager at K & J Brick, a masonry products company that is now run by the two sons of the man who founded it 50 years ago. For years, the co- owners have invited the management team to a wilderness lodge for a combination of outdoor sports and annual business planning meetings. You don’t want to miss the event, but you know that the outdoor activities weren’t designed for someone like you, whose physical impairments prevent participation in the sporting events. Draft a short email message to the rest of the management team, suggesting changes to the annual event that will allow all managers to participate.

3-17. Intercultural Communication: Writing for Multiple-Language Audiences [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC8) Reading English-language content written by nonnative English speakers can be a good reminder of the challenges of communicating in another language. The writing can be confusing or even amusing at first glance, but the key to remember here is that your writing might sound just as confusing or amusing to someone else if your roles were reversed.

Identify a company that is based in a non-English-speaking country but that includes English-language text on its website. (The advanced search capabilities of your favorite search engine can help you locate websites from a particular country.) Study the language on this site. Does it sound as though it was written by someone adept at English? If the first site you’ve found does have writing that sounds natural to a native U.S. English speaker, find another company whose website doesn’t. Select a section of text (at least several sentences long) and rewrite it to sound more “American.” Submit the original text and your rewritten version to your instructor. 3-18. Intercultural Communication: Writing for Multiple-Language Audiences; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC8) , Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) With a team assigned by your instructor, review the Facebook pages of five companies and look for words and phrases that might be confusing to a nonnative speaker of English. If you (or someone on the team) are a nonnative speaker, explain to the team why those word choices could be confusing. Choose three sentences, headlines, company slogans, or other pieces of text that contain potentially confusing words and rewrite them to minimize the chances of misinterpretation. As much as possible, try to retain the tone of the original—although you may find that this is impossible in some instances. Use Google Docs to compile the original selections and your revised versions, then email the documents to your instructor.

3-19. Intercultural Communication: Speaking with Multiple-Language Audiences; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC8) , Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) Working with two other students, prepare a list of 10 examples of slang (in your own language) that might be misinterpreted or misunderstood during a business conversation with someone from another culture. Next to each example, suggest other words you might use to convey the same message. Do the alternatives mean exactly the same as the original slang or idiom? Submit your list of original words and suggested replacements, with an explanation of why each replacement is better than the original.

3-20. Intercultural Communication: Writing for Multiple-Language Audiences [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC8) Explore the powers and limitations of free online translation services such as Google Translate. Enter a sentence from this chapter, such as “It gets even more daunting when you add the challenges of communication among medical staff and between patients and their caregivers, which often takes place under stressful circumstances.” First, translate the sentence from English to Spanish. Next, copy the Spanish version and paste it into the translation entry box and back-translate it from Spanish to English. Now repeat this test for another language. Did the sentence survive the round trip? Does it still sound like normal business writing when translated back into English?

(a) What are the implications for the use of automated translation services for international correspondence? (b) Would you feel comfortable using an online tool such as this to translate an important business message? (c) How might you use this website to sharpen your intercultural communication skills? Summarize your findings in a brief report. 3-21. Intercultural Communication: Speaking with Multiple-Language Audiences; Media Skills: Podcasting [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#P7001012451000000000000000001CC8) , Chapter 7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003055#P7001012451000000000000000003055) Your company was one of the first to use podcasting as a business communication tool. Executives frequently record messages (such as monthly sales summaries) and post them on the company’s intranet; employees from the 14 offices in Europe, Asia, and North America then download the files to their music players or other devices and listen to the messages while riding the train to work, eating lunch at their desks, and so on. Your boss asks you to draft the opening statement for a podcast that will announce a revenue drop caused by intensive competitive pressure. She reviews your script and hands it back with a gentle explanation that it needs to be revised for international listeners. Improve the following statement in as many ways as you can:

Howdy, comrades. Shouldn’t surprise anyone that we took a beating this year, given the insane pricing moves our knucklehead competitors have been making. I mean, how those clowns can keep turning a profit is beyond me, what with steel costs still going through the roof and labor costs heating up—even in countries where everybody goes to find cheap labor—and hazardous waste disposal regs adding to operating costs, too.

Expand Your Skills Critique the Professionals

Find an online business document—such as a company webpage, blog post, Facebook Info tab, or LinkedIn profile—that you believe commits an intercultural communication blunder by failing to consider the needs of at least some of its target readers. For example, a website might use slang or idiomatic language that could confuse some readers, or it might use language that offends some readers. In a post on your class blog, share the text you found and explain why you think it does not succeed as effective intercultural communication. Be sure to include a link back to the original material.

Sharpening Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) , is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, article, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on communicating with business contacts in another country or culture. Write a brief email message to your instructor, describing the item you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

3-22. What three habits can help you develop a sense of cultural pluralism? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#P7001012451000000000000000001BB8)

3-23. What four principles apply to ethical intercultural communication? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#P7001012451000000000000000001BFD)

Endnotes

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b46#rP7001012451000000000000000001ED2) . Bernard J. Tyson, “Diversity and Inclusion Are in Kaiser Permanente’s DNA,” Kaiser Permanente website, accessed 11 March 2016, kp.org (http://kp.org) ; Marianne Aiello, “Diversity No Gimmick in Kaiser Permanente Ad Campaign,” HealthLeaders Media, 25 November 2015, www.healthleadersmedia.com (http://www.healthleadersmedia.com) ; “Top Reasons to Join Kaiser Permanente As a Woman in Tech,” Kaiser Permanente website, accessed 11 March 2016, kp.org (http://kp.org) ; “Kaiser Permanente—Achieving Our Mission and Growing the Business Through the National Diversity Agenda,” Catalyst, 25 January 2011, www.catalyst.org (http://www.catalyst.org) ; “DiversityInc Top 50” and “Diversity Leadership: Dr. Ronald Copeland, Kaiser Permanente,” DiversityInc, accessed 11 March 2016, www.diversityinc.com (http://www.diversityinc.com) ; “Census Bureau Reports at Least 350 Languages Spoken in U.S. Homes,” U.S. Census Bureau, 3 November 2015, www.census.gov (http://www.census.gov) . “Local and National Diversity Programs,” Kaiser Permanente website, accessed 12 March 2016, kp.org (http://kp.org) .

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#rP7001012451000000000000000001ED4) . Michael R. Carrell, Everett E. Mann, and Tracey Honeycutt-Sigler, “Defining Workforce Diversity Programs and Practices in Organizations: A Longitudinal Study,” Labor Law Journal 57, no. 1 (Spring 2006): 5–12.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#rP7001012451000000000000000001ED6) . “Dimensions of Diversity—Workforce,” Merck website, accessed 4 January 2011, www.merck.com (http://www.merck.com) .

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#rP7001012451000000000000000001ED8) . “Top Trading Partners – January 2016,” U.S. Census Bureau website, accessed 12 March 2016, www.census.gov (http://www.census.gov) .

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#rP7001012451000000000000000001EDA) . Economist Intelligence Unit, “Competing Across Borders: How Cultural and Communication Barriers Affect Business,” Economist, 2012, 4, www.economistinsights.com (http://www.economistinsights.com) .

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#rP7001012451000000000000000001EDC) . Nancy R. Lockwood, “Workplace Diversity: Leveraging the Power of Difference for Competitive Advantage,” HR Magazine, June 2005, special section, 1–10.

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#rP7001012451000000000000000001EDE) . Alan Kline, “The Business Case for Diversity,” USBanker, May 2010, 10–11.

8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#rP7001012451000000000000000001EE0) . “Quick Facts: United States,” U.S. Census Bureau website, accessed 12 March 2016, www.census.gov (http://www.census.gov) ; Paul Taylor, “The Next America,” Pew Research Center, 10 April 2014, www.pewresearch.org (http://www.pewresearch.org) ; “More Than 300 Counties Now ‘Majority–Minority,’” press release, U.S. Census Bureau website, 9 August 2007, www.census.gov (http://www.census.gov) ; Robert Kreitner, Management, 9th ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004), 84.

9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#rP7001012451000000000000000001EE2) . Tracy Novinger, Intercultural Communication: A Practical Guide (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001), 15.

10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001b6f#rP7001012451000000000000000001EE4) . Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter, “Basic Principles of Intercultural Communication,” in Intercultural Communication: A Reader, 6th ed., edited by Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1991), 12.

11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EE6) . Arthur Chin, “Understanding Cultural Competency,” New Zealand Business, December 2010/January 2011, 34–35; Sanjeeta R. Gupta, “Achieve Cultural Competency,” Training, February 2009, 16–17; Diane Shannon, “Cultural Competency in Health Care Organizations: Why and How,” Physician Executive, September–October 2010, 15–22.

12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EE8) . Linda Beamer and Iris Varner, Intercultural Communication in the Workplace, 2nd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2001), 3.

13 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EEA) . “Summary by Country,” Ethnologue website, accessed 12 March 2016, www.ethnologue.com (http://www.ethnologue.com) .

14 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EEC) . Philip R. Harris and Robert T. Moran, Managing Cultural Differences, 3rd ed. (Houston: Gulf, 1991), 394–397, 429–430.

15 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EEE) . Lillian H. Chaney and Jeanette S. Martin, Intercultural Business Communication, 2nd ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000), 6.

16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EF0) . Beamer and Varner, Intercultural Communication in the Workplace, 4.

17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EF2) . Chaney and Martin, Intercultural Business Communication, 2nd ed., 9.

18 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EF4) . Richard L. Daft, Management, 6th ed. (Cincinnati: Thomson South-Western, 2003), 455.

19 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EF6) . Lillian H. Chaney and Jeanette S. Martin, Intercultural Business Communication, 4th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007), 53.

20 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bb4#rP7001012451000000000000000001EF8) . Project Implicit website, accessed 29 December 2010, implicit.harvard.edu/implicit.

21 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001EFA) . Linda Beamer, “Teaching English Business Writing to Chinese-Speaking Business Students,” Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication 57, no. 1 (1994): 12–18.

22 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001EFC) . Edward T. Hall, “Context and Meaning,” in Intercultural Communication, 6th ed., edited by Larry A. Samovar and Richard E. Porter (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1991), 46–55.

23 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001EFE) . Daft, Management, 459.

24 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F00) . Charley H. Dodd, Dynamics of Intercultural Communication, 3rd ed. (Dubuque, Ia.: Brown, 1991), 69–70.

25 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F02) . Daft, Management, 459.

26 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F04) . Hannah Seligson, “For American Workers in China, a Culture Clash,” New York Times, 23 December 2009, www.nytimes.com (http://www.nytimes.com) .

27 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F06) . Beamer and Varner, Intercultural Communication in the Workplace, 230–233.

28 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F08) . Ed Marcum, “More U.S. Businesses Abandon Outsourcing Overseas,” Seattle Times, 28 August 2010, www.seattletimes.com (http://www.seattletimes.com) .

29 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F0A) . Guo-Ming Chen and William J. Starosta, Foundations of Intercultural Communication (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 1998), 288–289.

30 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F0C) . Joyce Millet, “Chinese Etiquette & Protocol,” Protocol Professionals, accessed 12 March 2016, www.protocolprofessionals.com (http://www.protocolprofessionals.com) .

31 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F0E) . Chaney and Martin, Intercultural Business Communication, 2nd ed., 122–123.

32 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F10) . Mansour Javidan, “Forward-Thinking Cultures,” Harvard Business Review, July–August 2007, 20.

33 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F12) . “The 100 Million Club 2013: The Top 14 Mobile Markets by Number of Mobile Subscriptions and 3G/4G Subscribers,” MobiThinking, 26 November 2013, www.mobithinking.com (http://www.mobithinking.com) .

34 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F14) . Novinger, Intercultural Communication, 54.

35 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F16) . Peter Coy, “Old. Smart. Productive.” BusinessWeek, 27 June 2005, www.businessweek.com (http://www.businessweek.com) ; Beamer and Varner, Intercultural Communication in the Workplace, 107–108.

36 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F19) . Beamer and Varner, Intercultural Communication in the Workplace, 107–108.

37 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F1B) . Rebecca Knight, “Managing People from 5 Generations,” Harvard Business Review, 25 September 2014, hbr.org (http://hbr.org) .

38 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F1D) . Steff Gelston, “Gen Y, Gen X and the Baby Boomers: Workplace Generation Wars,” CIO, 30 January 2008, www.cio.com (http://www.cio.com) .

39 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F1F) . Joanna Barsh and Lareina Yee, “Changing Companies’ Minds About Women,” McKinsey Quarterly, no. 4 (2011): 48–59.

40 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F21) . John Gray, Mars and Venus in the Workplace (New York: HarperCollins, 2002), 10, 25–27, 61–63.

41 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F23) . Jennifer Luden, “Ask for a Raise? Most Women Hesitate,” NPR, 14 February 2011, www.npr.org (http://www.npr.org) .

42 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F25) . “First Step: Gender Identity in the Workplace,” Catalyst, June 2015, www.catalyst.org (http://www.catalyst.org) .

43 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F27) . “Religious Bias a Growing Issue,” Business Insurance, 13 February 2012, 8; Mark D. Downey, “Keeping the Faith,” HR Magazine, January 2008, 85–88.

44 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001bfb#rP7001012451000000000000000001F29) . IBM Accessibility Center, accessed 24 August 2006, www-03.ibm.com/able (http://www-03.ibm.com/able) ; AssistiveTech.net (http://AssistiveTech.net) , accessed 24 August 2006, www.assistivetech.net (http://www.assistivetech.net) ; Business Leadership Network website, accessed 24 August 2006, www.usbln.org (http://www.usbln.org) ; National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research website, accessed 24 August 2006, www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/nidrr (http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/nidrr) ; Rehabilitation Engineering & Assistive Technology Society of North America website, accessed 24 August 2006, www.resna.org (http://www.resna.org) .

45 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#rP7001012451000000000000000001F2B) . Daphne A. Jameson, “Reconceptualizing Cultural Identity and Its Role in Intercultural Business Communication,” International Journal of Business Communication 44, no. 3 (July 2007): 199–235.

46 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#rP7001012451000000000000000001F2D) . Leslie Knudson, “Diversity on a Global Scale,” HR Management, accessed 17 August 2008, www.hrmreport.com (http://www.hrmreport.com) .

47 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#rP7001012451000000000000000001F2F) . Craig S. Smith, “Beware of Green Hats in China and Other Cross-Cultural Faux Pas,” New York Times, 30 April 2002, C11.

48 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001c9b#rP7001012451000000000000000001F31) . Sana Reynolds and Deborah Valentine, Guide for Internationals: Culture, Communication, and ESL (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), 3–11, 14–19, 25.

49 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#rP7001012451000000000000000001F33) . P. Christopher Earley and Elaine Mosakowsi, “Cultural Intelligence,” Harvard Business Review, October 2004, 139–146.

50 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#rP7001012451000000000000000001F35) . Bob Nelson, “Motivating Workers Worldwide,” Global Workforce, November 1998, 25–27.

51 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#rP7001012451000000000000000001F37) . Mona Casady and Lynn Wasson, “Written Communication Skills of International Business Persons,” Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication 57, no. 4 (1994): 36 –40.

52 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#rP7001012451000000000000000001F39) . Lynn Gaertner-Johnston, “Found in Translation,” Business Writing blog, 25 November 2005, www.businesswritingblog.com (http://www.businesswritingblog.com) .

53 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#rP7001012451000000000000000001F3B) . Myron W. Lustig and Jolene Koester, Intercultural Competence, 4th ed. (Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2003), 196.

54 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#rP7001012451000000000000000001F3D) . Pamela Rogerson-Revell, “‘Can You Spell That for Us Nonnative Speakers?’ Accommodation Strategies in International Business Meetings,” International Journal of Business Communication 47, no. 4 (October 2010): 432–454.

55 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#rP7001012451000000000000000001F3F) . James Wilfong and Toni Seger, Taking Your Business Global (Franklin Lakes, N.J.: Career Press, 1997), 232.

56 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001cc6#rP7001012451000000000000000001F41) . “Transcreation Services,” Lionbridge, accessed 14 March 2016, www.lionbridge.com (http://www.lionbridge.com) ; Nataly Kelly, “Six Ways Transcreation Differs from Translation,” Smartling, 21 July 2014, www.smartling.com (http://www.smartling.com) .

10 Writing Routine and Positive Messages LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e28#P7001012451000000000000000003E2C) Outline an effective strategy for writing routine business requests.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E60) Describe three common types of routine requests.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f08#P7001012451000000000000000003F0D) Outline an effective strategy for writing routine replies and positive messages.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7F) Describe six common types of routine replies and positive messages.

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COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Productivity Report

productivityreport.org (http://productivityreport.org)

Every so often, you’ll get the chance to craft a message or document that has the potential to reshape your career or your company, such as a major project proposal or a business plan. However, much of your business communication will take place through routine, everyday messages—asking someone for help or information, responding to such requests from others, sharing information with colleagues or customers, and congratulating or consoling other people.

Just because these messages are routine, though, doesn’t make them unimportant. In fact, the cumulative effect of all these brief messages could have more influence on your career than the occasional major report or proposal. The way you handle communication, day in and day out, is a key factor in establishing your credibility as a professional.

Developing your skills at handling routine messages is only part of the challenge, however. Depending on your field and your position, you’re likely to be inundated with routine messages. It’s not uncommon for professionals to receive a hundred or more messages a day—and be expected to respond to many of them while generating many more messages themselves. So, not only do you need to be skilled at handling routine communication, you have to be hyperefficient at it, too, or else you’ll get hopelessly swamped.

Jill Duffy offers research-based advice on handling the barrage of routine messages that most business communicators deal with on the job.

Image courtesy of Jill Duffy

Fortunately, you have a wise ally in Jill Duffy. Her career as a writer spans multiple industries, from academic journals to major newspapers to the trade journals Game Developer and PCMag.com (http://PCMag.com) . One of her areas of expertise is personal and organizational productivity, and she shares her ideas in the

weekly Get Organized column for PCMag.com (http://PCMag.com) , in her book Get Organized: How to Clean Up Your Messy Digital Life, and via her newest venture, the website Productivity Report, which blends advice from research studies and personal experience. Her deep and diverse experience has given her useful insights into the challenges of digital productivity, and much of that involves how to handle a high volume of routine messages without losing focus on your audience or on your priorities.

For email, for instance, Duffy advises compartmentalizing message flows so that high-priority messages never get lost in the deluge of low-priority messages. Most email programs and apps offer the ability to filter messages based on sender, subject line, and other factors, so you can make sure important messages are always visible. Then develop a comprehensive system of software capabilities and daily habits to keep email in check. For example, if one of your goals is to respond to your boss’s emails before you go home every day, set up an email filter to send those messages to a special folder and set an alarm to deal with them at 4:00 p.m. every day. Another skill she promotes is acting quickly and decisively on incoming email, whether that is deleting a message, filing it, responding immediately (for simple or critical messages), or scheduling time to respond. The key is to avoid looking at a message multiple times before deciding what to do with it.

Duffy doesn’t subscribe to the approach taken by email users who never bother filtering and filing messages but who instead let them pile up in their inbox and use search functions to find specific messages whenever they need them. She points out several problems with this approach. First, if you can’t remember who sent a message or the exact keywords that are in it, you’ll never find it with search methods alone. Second, folders organized by subject serve as a “second memory” that she can browse whenever she wants. Third, that giant, unsorted pile of messages in your inbox will be a constant source of anxiety and distraction as you repeatedly scan though it trying to find a specific item or to make sure you haven’t missed anything important.

Whether it’s email, workgroup messaging, or any other communication platform, setting up and fine-tuning a system and set of habits that work best for you does take some time and effort. However, it will be time well spent because you’ll be more efficient every day, and you’ll be able to focus your attention and energy on

the messages that matter the most.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P700101245100000000000000000420F)

10.1 Strategy for Routine Requests

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Outline an effective strategy for writing routine business requests. Jill Duffy (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e00#P7001012451000000000000000003E15) ) helps business professionals deal with a vital aspect of communication in today’s digital workplace—how to productively handle the many routine messages that need to be sent or responded to day in and day out. Routine messages fall into two groups: routine requests, in which you ask for information from or action by another party, and a variety of routine and positive messages. Chapter 11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004228#P7001012451000000000000000004228) covers messages in which you need to convey negative information, and Chapter 12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004853#P7001012451000000000000000004853) addresses persuasive messages.

Making requests is a routine part of business, and in most cases your audience will be prepared to comply. By applying a clear strategy and tailoring your approach to each situation, you’ll be able to generate effective requests quickly.

For routine requests and positive messages

• State the request or main idea • Give necessary details • Close with a cordial request for specific action

Like all other business messages, a routine request has three parts: an opening, a body, and a close. Using the direct approach, open with your main idea, which is a clear statement of your request. Use the body to give details and justify your request. Finally, close by requesting specific action.

STATING YOUR REQUEST UP FRONT

Take care that your direct approach doesn’t come across as abrupt or tactless.

With routine requests, you can make your request at the beginning of the message. Of course, getting right to the point should not be interpreted as license to be abrupt or tactless:

• Pay attention to tone. Instead of demanding action (“Send me the latest version of the budget spreadsheet”), show respect by using words such as please and I would appreciate.

• Assume that your audience will comply. You can generally assume that your readers will comply with routine requests, so you don’t need to devote a lot of time or energy toward trying to convince them to do so.

• Be specific. State precisely what you want. For example, if you request the latest market data from your research department, be sure to say whether you want a 1-page summary or 100 pages of raw data.

EXPLAINING AND JUSTIFYING YOUR REQUEST

Use the body of your message to explain your request, as needed. Make the explanation a smooth and logical outgrowth of your opening remarks. If complying with the request could benefit the reader, be sure to mention that. If you have multiple requests or questions, ask the most important questions first and deal with only one topic per question. If you have an unusual or complex request, break it down into specific, individual questions so that the reader can address each one separately. This consideration not only shows respect for your audience’s time but also gets you a more accurate answer in less time.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY VISITING THIS WEBSITE

Insight into mobile strategies for routine communication

ClickSoftware’s MobileFever blog discusses a range of topics on mobile business communication. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

REQUESTING SPECIFIC ACTION IN A COURTEOUS CLOSE

Close request messages with

• A request for some specific action • Information about how you can be reached

• An expression of appreciation

Close your message with three important elements: (1) a specific request that includes any relevant deadlines, (2) information about how you can be reached (if it isn’t obvious), and (3) an expression of appreciation or goodwill. When you ask readers to perform a specific action, ask for a response by a specific date or time, if appropriate (for example, “Please send the figures by May 5 so that I can return first-quarter results to you before the May 20 conference.”). Conclude your message with a sincere thanks. To review, see “Checklist: Writing Routine Requests (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E71) .”

10.2 Common Examples of Routine Requests

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Describe three common types of routine requests. The most common types of routine messages are asking for information or action, asking for recommendations, and making claims and requesting adjustments.

ASKING FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION

Most simple requests can be handled with three message points:

• What you want to know or what you want your readers to do • Why you’re making the request (not required in all cases) • Why it may be in your readers’ interests to help you (not applicable in all cases)

Routine requests can be handled with simple, straightforward messages, but more complicated requests may require additional justification and explanation.

For simple requests, using the direct approach gets the job done with a minimum of fuss. In more complex situations you may need to provide more extensive reasons and justification for your request. If applicable, point out any benefits to the reader of complying with your request. Naturally, be sure to adapt your request to your audience and the situation (see Figure 10.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E92) on the next page).

CHECKLIST Writing Routine Requests

A. State your request up front. • Write in a polite, undemanding, personal tone. • Use the direct approach because your audience will probably respond favorably to your request. • Be specific and precise in your request.

B. Explain and justify your request. • Justify the request or explain its importance. • Explain any potential benefits of responding. • Ask the most important questions first. • Break complex requests into individual questions that are limited to only one topic each.

C. Request specific action in a courteous close. • Make it easy to comply by including appropriate contact information. • Express your gratitude. • Clearly state any important deadlines for the request.

Figure 10.1 Routine Message Requesting Action

In this email request to district managers across the country, Helene Clausen asks them to fill out an attached information collection form. Although the request is not unusual and responding to it is part of the managers’ responsibilities, Clausen asks for their help in a courteous manner and points out the benefits of responding.

ASKING FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

Always ask for permission before using someone as a reference.

The need to inquire about people arises often in business. For example, before awarding contracts, jobs, promotions, or scholarships, companies often ask applicants to supply references. Companies ask applicants to list people who can vouch for their ability, skills, integrity, character, and fitness for the job. Before you volunteer someone’s name as a reference, ask permission. Some people don’t want you to use their names, perhaps because they don’t know enough about you to feel comfortable writing a letter or because they or their employers have a policy of not providing recommendations.

Refresh the memory of any potential reference you haven’t been in touch with for a while.

Requests for recommendations and references are routine, so you can organize your inquiry using the direct approach. Open your message by clearly stating why the recommendation is required (if it’s not for a job, be sure to explain its purpose) and that you would like your reader to write the letter. If you haven’t had contact with the person for some time, use the opening to trigger the reader’s memory of the relationship you had, the dates of association, and any special events or accomplishments that might bring a clear and favorable picture of you to mind.

Close your message with an expression of appreciation and the full name and address (email or physical address) of the person to whom the message should be sent. When asking for an immediate recommendation, you should also mention the deadline. For printed letters, always be sure to enclose a stamped, preaddressed envelope as a convenience to the other party. Figure 10.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003EE8) on the next page provides an example of a request that follows these guidelines.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

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LinkedIn’s advice for college students

Follow these tips to get the most from LinkedIn, including the most appropriate and effective ways to ask for recommendations. Go to real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

MAKING CLAIMS AND REQUESTING ADJUSTMENTS

When writing a claim or requesting an adjustment

• Explain the problem and give details • Provide backup information • Request specific action

If you’re dissatisfied with a company’s product or service, you can opt to make a claim (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P700101245100000000000000000408C) (a formal complaint) or request an adjustment (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P7001012451000000000000000004089) (a settlement of a claim). In either case, it’s important to maintain a professional tone in all your communication, no matter how angry or frustrated you are. Keeping your cool will help you get the situation resolved sooner.

Be prepared to document any claims you make with a company. Send copies and keep the original documents.

Open with a clear and calm statement of the problem along with your request. In the body, give a complete, specific explanation of the details. Provide any information the recipient needs to verify your complaint. In your close, politely request specific action or convey a sincere desire to find a solution. And, if appropriate, suggest that the business relationship will continue if the problem is solved satisfactorily. Be prepared to back up your claim with invoices, sales receipts, canceled checks, dated correspondence, and any other relevant documents. Send copies and keep the originals for your files.

If the remedy is obvious, tell your reader exactly what you expect to be done, such as exchanging incorrectly shipped merchandise for the right item or issuing a refund if the item is out of stock. However, if you’re uncertain about the precise nature of the trouble, you could ask the company to assess the situation and then advise you on how the situation could be fixed. Supply your full contact information so that the company can discuss the situation with you, if necessary. Compare the ineffective and effective versions in Figure 10.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003EF1) on page 271 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#page_271) for an example of making a claim. To review the tasks involved in making claims and requesting adjustments, see “Checklist: Making Claims and Requesting Adjustments (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003ED6) .”

CHECKLIST Making Claims and Requesting Adjustments

• Maintain a professional tone, even if you’re extremely frustrated. • Open with a straightforward statement of the problem. • Provide specific details in the body. • Present facts honestly and clearly. • Politely summarize the desired action in the closing. • Clearly state what you expect as a fair settlement or ask the reader to propose a fair adjustment. • Explain the benefits of complying with the request, such as your continued patronage.

Figure 10.2 Effective Request for a Recommendation

This writer uses a direct approach when asking for a recommendation from a former professor. Note how she takes care to refresh the professor’s memory because she took the class a year and a half ago. She also indicates the date by which the letter is needed and points to the enclosure of a stamped, preaddressed envelope.

Figure 10.3 Ineffective and Effective Versions of a Claim

Note the difference in both tone and information content in these two versions. The ineffective version is emotional and unprofessional, whereas the effective version communicates calmly and clearly.

10.3 Strategy for Routine and Positive Messages

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

3 Outline an effective strategy for writing routine replies and positive messages. Just as you’ll make numerous requests for information and action throughout your career, you’ll also respond to similar requests from other people. When you are responding positively to a request, sending routine announcements, or sending a positive or goodwill message, you have several goals: to communicate the information or the good news, answer all questions, provide all required details, and leave your reader with a good impression of you and your firm.

ETHICS DETECTIVE

Solving the Case of the Imaginary Good News

To deal with a growing problem of employee turnover, your company recently hired a research firm to survey employees to find out why more of them have been leaving than in past years. You and a colleague were assigned to work with the consultants and present their findings to upper management. Neither one of you welcomed the assignment because you suspect you’ll have to present information that is critical of the management team.

As you feared, the researchers deliver a mixture of news that is mostly negative:

• Seventy-eight percent of employees believe management cares more about profits than people.

• Fifty-five percent aren’t sure what’s expected of them anymore.

• Forty percent believe wages at the company have not kept up with the industry average.

• Thirty-eight percent think management has done a good job of responding to competitive advances.

• Fifty-two percent expect to finish their careers at the company.

• Eighty percent believe the economy is too slow to support a productive job search.

While you’re poring over the report, trying to figure out how you’ll present the information tomorrow, an instant message from the CEO pops up on your partner’s computer, asking for a quick summary of the results. Your partner types the following and then asks you to review it before she sends it:

As you’d expect in a no-holds-barred investigation like this, the researchers did uncover some areas for improvements. The good news: Only 20 percent of the workforce is even considering other options, and we could reasonably expect that only a fraction of that group will leave anytime soon.

ANALYSIS

You read your partner’s summary twice, but something doesn’t feel quite right. Does it present an accurate summary of the research? Why or why not? What’s likely to happen when you present the complete research results to the CEO after first sending this IM?

Use a direct approach for routine replies and positive messages.

Readers receiving routine replies and positive messages will generally be interested in what you have to say, so use the direct approach. Put your main idea (the positive reply or the good news) in the opening. Use the body to explain all the relevant details, and close cordially, perhaps highlighting a benefit to your reader.

STARTING WITH THE MAIN IDEA

With the direct approach, open with a clear and concise expression of the main idea or good news.

By opening routine and positive messages with the main idea or good news, you’re preparing your audience for the details that follow. Make your opening clear and concise. Although the following introductory statements make the same point, one is cluttered with unnecessary information that buries the purpose, whereas the other is brief and to the point:

Instead of This Write This

I am pleased to inform you that after careful consideration of a diverse and talented pool of applicants, each of whom did a thorough job of analyzing Trask Horton Pharmaceuticals’s training needs, we have selected your bid.

Trask Horton Pharmaceuticals has accepted your bid to provide public speaking and presentation training to the sales staff.

The best way to write a clear opening is to have a clear idea of what you want to say. Ask yourself, “What is the single most important message I have for the audience?”

PROVIDING NECESSARY DETAILS AND EXPLANATION

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If your email service doesn’t allow huge file attachments, Hightail lets you post the file on its servers and send your recipients a link instead.

Use the body to explain your point completely so that your audience won’t be confused about or doubt your meaning. As you provide the details, maintain the supportive tone established in the opening. This tone is easy to continue when your message is entirely positive, as in this example:

Your educational background and internship have impressed us, and we believe you would be a valuable addition to Green Valley Properties. As discussed during your interview, your salary will be $4,300 per month, plus benefits. Please plan to meet with our benefits manager, Paula Sanchez, at 8 A.M. on Monday, March 21. She will assist you with all the paperwork necessary to tailor our benefit package to your family situation. She will also arrange various orientation activities to help you get on board with the Green Valley team.

Try to embed any negative information in a positive context.

However, if your routine message is mixed and must convey mildly disappointing information, put the negative portion of your message into as favorable a context as possible:

Instead of This Write This

No, we no longer carry the HealthTrakk Model V fitness watch.

The new HealthTrakk Optima has replaced the HealthTrakk Model V. The Optima model features a wider range of band colors and new tracking features, including GPS for outdoor fitness activities.

In this example, the more complete description is less negative and emphasizes how the recipient can benefit from the change. Be careful, though: Use negative information in this type of message only if you’re reasonably sure the audience will respond positively. Otherwise, use the indirect approach (discussed in Chapter 11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004228#P7001012451000000000000000004228) ).

If you are communicating with a customer, you might also want to use the body of your message to assure the person of the wisdom of his or her purchase (without being condescending or self-congratulatory). Using such favorable comments, often known as resale, is a good way to build customer relationships. These comments are commonly included in acknowledgments of orders and other routine announcements to customers, and they are most effective when they are short and specific:

The KitchenAid mixer you ordered is our best-selling model. It should meet your cooking needs for many years.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Using Twitter for routine customer communication

These 10 tips can help any company respond to the growing number of routine requests delivered on Twitter. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

ENDING WITH A COURTEOUS CLOSE

In the close, make sure audience members understand what to do next and how that action will benefit them (if applicable).

The close of routine replies and positive messages is usually short and simple because you’re leaving things on a neutral or positive note and not usually asking for the reader to do anything. Often, a simple thank you is all you need. However, if follow-up action is required or expected, use the close to identify who will do what and when that action will take place. For a quick reminder of the steps involved in writing routine replies and positive messages, see “Checklist: Writing Routine Replies and Positive Messages (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f08#P7001012451000000000000000003F5D) .”

CHECKLIST Writing Routine Replies and Positive Messages

A. Start with the main idea. • Be clear and concise. • Identify the single most important message before you start writing.

B. Provide necessary details and explanation. • Explain your point completely to eliminate any confusion or lingering doubts. • Maintain a supportive tone throughout.

• Embed negative statements in positive contexts or balance them with positive alternatives. • Talk favorably about the choices the customer has made.

C. End with a courteous close. • Let your readers know you have their personal well-being in mind. • If further action is required, tell readers how to proceed and encourage them to act promptly.

10.4 Common Examples of Routine and Positive Messages

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

4 Describe six common types of routine replies and positive messages. Most routine and positive messages fall into six main categories: answers to requests for information and action, grants of claims and requests for adjustment, recommendations, routine information, good-news announcements, and goodwill messages.

ANSWERING REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION AND ACTION

Every professional answers requests for information and action from time to time. If the response is a simple yes or some other straightforward information, the direct approach is appropriate. A prompt, gracious, and thorough response will positively influence how people think about you and the organization you represent.

When you’re answering requests and a potential sale is involved, you have three main goals: (1) to respond to the inquiry and answer all questions, (2) to leave your reader with a good impression of you and your firm, and (3) to encourage the future sale.

GRANTING CLAIMS AND REQUESTS FOR ADJUSTMENT

Responding to mistakes in a courteous, reader-focused way helps repair important business relationships.

No company wants to make mistakes, but these events represent turning points in relationships with customers. If you handle the situation well, your customer is likely to be even more loyal than before because you’ve proven that you’re serious about customer satisfaction. However, if a customer believes that you mishandled a complaint, you’ll make the situation even worse. Dissatisfied customers often take their business elsewhere without notice and tell numerous friends, colleagues, and social media followers about the negative experience. A transaction that might be worth only a small amount by itself could cost you many times that in lost business. In other words, every mistake is an opportunity to improve a relationship.

Your specific response to a customer complaint depends on your company’s policies for resolving such issues and your assessment of whether the company, the customer, or some third party is at fault. In general, take the following steps:

• Acknowledge receipt of the customer’s claim or complaint. • Sympathize with the customer’s inconvenience or frustration. • Take (or assign) personal responsibility for setting matters straight. • Explain precisely how you have resolved, or plan to resolve, the situation. • Take steps to repair the relationship. • Follow up to verify that your response was correct.

In addition to taking these positive steps, maintain a professional demeanor. Don’t blame colleagues by name; don’t make exaggerated, insincere apologies; don’t imply that the customer is at fault; and don’t promise more than you can deliver.

To grant a claim when the customer is at fault, try to discourage future mistakes without insulting the customer.

Communication about a claim is a delicate matter when the customer is clearly at fault. If you choose to grant the claim, open with that good news. However, the body needs special attention because you want to discourage similar claims in the future. Close in a courteous manner that expresses your appreciation for the customer’s business (see Figure 10.4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003FA4) ).

See “Checklist: Granting Claims and Adjustment Requests (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003FC0) ” to review the tasks involved in these kinds of business messages.

PROVIDING RECOMMENDATIONS AND REFERENCES

Recommendation letters are vulnerable to legal complications, so consult your company’s legal department before writing one.

People who need endorsements from employers or colleagues (when applying for a job, for example) often request letters of recommendation. These messages used to be a fairly routine matter, but employment recommendations and references have raised some complex legal issues in recent years. Employees have sued employers and individual managers for providing negative information or refusing to provide letters of recommendation, and employers have sued other employers for failing to disclose negative information about job candidates. Before you write a letter of recommendation for a former employee or provide information in response to another employer’s background check, make sure you understand your company’s policies. The company may refuse to provide

anything more than dates of employment and other basic details, for example.2

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P7001012451000000000000000004211)

Figure 10.4 Responding to a Claim When the Buyer Is at Fault

Responding to a claim when the buyer is at fault is a positive gesture, so the content and tone of the message need to reflect that. After all, there’s no point in fostering a positive relationship through actions but then undermining that through negative communication. Notice how the ineffective version sounds like a crabby parent who gives in to a child’s demand but sends a mixed message by being highly critical anyway. The effective version is much more subtle, letting the customer know how to take care of his skates, without blaming or insulting him.

CHECKLIST Granting Claims and Adjustment Requests

A. Responding when your company is at fault • Be aware of your company’s policies in such cases before you respond. • For serious situations, refer to the company’s crisis management plan. • Start by acknowledging receipt of the claim or complaint. • Take or assign personal responsibility for resolving the situation. • Sympathize with the customer’s frustration. • Explain how you have resolved the situation (or plan to). • Take steps to repair the customer relationship. • Verify your response with the customer, and keep the lines of communication open.

B. Responding when the customer is at fault • Weigh the cost of complying with or refusing the request. • If you choose to comply, open with the good news. • Use the body of the message to respectfully educate the customer about steps needed to avoid a similar outcome in the future. • Close with an appreciation for the customer’s business.

C. Responding when a third party is at fault • Evaluate the situation and review your company’s policies before responding. • Avoid placing blame; focus on the solution. • Regardless of who is responsible for resolving the situation, let the customer know what will happen to resolve the problem.

If you decide to write a letter of recommendation or respond to a request for information about a job candidate, your goal is to convince readers that the person being recommended has the characteristics necessary for the job, assignment, or other objective the person is seeking. A successful recommendation letter contains a number of relevant details (see Figure 10.5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003FED) ):

• The candidate’s full name • The position or other objective the candidate is seeking • The nature of your relationship with the candidate • Facts and evidence relevant to the candidate and the opportunity • A comparison of this candidate’s potential with that of peers, if available (for example, “Ms. Jonasson consistently ranked in the top 10 percent of our

national salesforce.”) • Your overall evaluation of the candidate’s suitability for the opportunity

Keep in mind that every time you write a recommendation, you’re putting your own reputation on the line. If the person’s shortcomings are so pronounced that you don’t think he or she is a good fit for the job, the only choice is to not write the letter at all. Unless your relationship with the person warrants an explanation, simply suggest that someone else might be in a better position to provide a recommendation.

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Get expert tips on writing (or requesting) a letter of recommendation

Find helpful advice on employment recommendations, academic recommendations, and character references. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

SHARING ROUTINE INFORMATION

When sharing routine information

• State the purpose at the beginning and briefly mention the nature of the information you are providing • Provide the necessary details • End with a courteous close

Many messages involve sharing routine information, such as project updates and order status notifications. Use the opening of these routine messages to state the purpose and briefly mention the nature of the information you are providing. Give the necessary details in the body, and end your message with a courteous close.

Most routine communications are neutral, so you don’t have to take special steps in anticipation of emotional reactions from readers. However, some routine informative messages may require additional care. For instance, policy statements or procedural changes may be good news for a company, perhaps by saving money. But it may not be obvious to employees that such savings may make additional employee resources available or even lead to pay raises. In instances in which the reader may not initially view the information positively, use the body of the message to highlight the potential benefits from the reader’s perspective. (For situations in which negative news will have a profound effect on the recipients, consider the indirect techniques discussed in Chapter 11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004228#P7001012451000000000000000004228) .)

Figure 10.5 Effective Recommendation Letter

This letter clearly states the nature of the writer’s relationship to the candidate and provides specific examples to support the writer’s endorsements.

ANNOUNCING GOOD NEWS

To develop and maintain good relationships, smart companies recognize that it’s good business to spread the word about positive developments. Such developments can include opening new facilities, hiring a new executive, introducing new products or services, or sponsoring community events. Because good news is always welcome, use the direct approach (see Figure 10.6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000004019) on the next page).

A news release, or press release, is a message (usually routine, but not always) designed to share information with the news media, although many are now written with customers and other stakeholders in mind as well.

External good-news announcements are often communicated in a news release (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P7001012451000000000000000004092) , also known as a press release, a specialized document used to share relevant information with the news media. (News releases are also used to announce negative news, such as plant closings.) In most companies, news releases are usually prepared or at least supervised by specially trained writers in the public relations department. The content follows the customary pattern for a positive message: good news followed by details and a positive close. However, traditional news releases have a critical difference: You’re not writing directly to the ultimate audience (such as the readers of a blog or newspaper); you’re trying to spark the interest of an editor, reporter, blogger, or other intermediary in the hope that person will write a piece that carries your message to a larger audience.

THE FUTURE OF COMMUNICATION

Communication Bots

The bots are back. Automated bots (short for robots) made a small wave a decade or so ago when “chatbots” began appearing on websites to help companies handle online conversations with customers. Ikea’s Anna, perhaps the first chatbot to get widespread attention, was built to answer routine questions from customers looking for advice regarding the chain’s furniture products. Other chatbots followed, smartphones gained virtual “voicebot” assistants, and non- chatty bots continued to do automated work of various kinds on the Internet, but bots didn’t really take off as a mainstream technology.

With advances in artificial intelligence and the growing use of messaging systems for both consumer and business communication, however, a new wave of bots as personal digital assistants has taken off. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella goes so far as to say, “Bots are the new apps,” suggesting they’ll transform technology usage the same way mobile apps have. As bot capability is added to more messaging systems—through which a growing number of employees now conduct increasing amounts of their routine business communication—bots are finally entering the mainstream.

Bots are wildly popular on the Slack messaging system (see page 181 (M10_C07.xhtml#page_181) ), for example, where they can do everything from ordering lunch to monitoring the mood of team conversations. The Howdy bot, for example, can perform such tasks as simultaneously interviewing all the members of a

project team to give the team leader a real-time status update. On Slack, bots are treated just like human team members in many ways—they can send and receive messages, be assigned tasks, and be invited to join specific groups and communication channels. As bots get better at understanding language, they’ll be able to contribute to conversations, such as finding background information that could help solve a problem colleagues are discussing, without anyone asking for their help.

How far this bot revolution will go is anybody’s guess, but the appeal of this new generation of digital genies is undeniable. They are more connected to the systems that people use every day on the job, and they can reduce the need to navigate yet another website or learn yet another app in order to get something done. Instead, you just message your bot and let it figure out how to make things happen.

To see a chatbot in action, check out BusCommBot, created by Courtland L. Bovée, one of the authors of this book. Log onto Facebook and search for Bovee & Thill’s Business Communication Blog, then on that page, select “Message” under the photo at the top of the page.

WHAT’S YOUR PREDICTION?

Research the current state of bot communication to identify one way in which the technology is changing or has the potential to change business communication practices. Do you agree with the predictions the experts make? Why or why not?

Sources: Kelly Evans,” “Chatbots Rise, and the Future May be ‘Re-written,’” CNBC, 10 April 2016, www.cnbc.com (http://www.cnbc.com) ; Casey Newton, “The Search for the Killer Bot,” The Verge, 6 January 2016, www.theverge.com (http://www.theverge.com) ; Clint Boulton, “How Messaging Bots Will Change Workplace Productivity,” CIO, 1 February 2016, www.cio.com (http://www.cio.com) ; Ben Brown, “Your New Digital Coworker,” Howdy blog, 20 October 2015, blog.howdy.ai; “Bot Users,” Slack, accessed 10 April 2016, www.slack.com (http://www.slack.com) ; Molly McHugh, “Slack Is Overrun with Bots. Friendly, Wonderful Bots.” Wired, 21 August 2015, www.wired.com (http://www.wired.com) .

Figure 10.6 Announcing Good News

Encouraging online conversations is an important element of brand socialization. In this Facebook post celebrating its inaugural flight from Boston to Detroit, JetBlue asked residents of Detroit to recommend their favorite places around the city.

Courtesy JetBlue Airways Corporation

Until recently, news releases were crafted in a way to provide information to reporters, who would then write their own articles if the subject matter was interesting to their readers. Thanks to the Internet and social media, however, the nature of the news release is changing. Many companies now view it as a

general-purpose tool for communicating directly with customers and other audiences, creating direct-to-consumer news releases.3

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P7001012451000000000000000004213) Many of these are considered social media releases because they include social networking links, “tweetables” (Twitter-ready statements that can be shared on Twitter at the click of a button), and other sharable content.

The social media release includes ready-to-share content that is easy to reuse in blog posts, tweets, and other social media formats.

FOSTERING GOODWILL

Goodwill is the positive feeling that encourages people to maintain a business relationship.

All business messages should be written with an eye toward fostering positive relationships with audiences, but some messages are written specifically to build goodwill. You can use these messages to enhance your relationships with customers, colleagues, and other businesspeople by sending friendly, even unexpected, notes with no direct business purpose (see Figure 10.7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P700101245100000000000000000403A) ). Whether you’re thanking an employee for a job well done or congratulating a colleague for a personal or professional achievement, the small effort to send a goodwill message can have a positive and lasting effect on the people around you.

In addition to creating messages for a specific goodwill reason, you can craft almost any routine message in a way to build goodwill. Two ways to do so are by providing information that your readers might find helpful and by maintaining a positive tone throughout your message.

Many routine messages can be adapted to foster goodwill, either by sharing helpful information or providing an element of entertainment.

Sending Congratulations

Taking note of significant events in someone’s personal life helps foster your business relationship.

One prime opportunity for sending goodwill messages is to congratulate individuals or companies for significant business achievements. Other reasons for sending congratulations include highlights in people’s personal lives, such as weddings, births, graduations, and success in nonbusiness competitions. You may congratulate business acquaintances on their own achievements or on the accomplishments of a family member. You may also take note of personal events, even if you don’t know the reader well. If you’re already friendly with the reader, a more personal tone is appropriate.

MOBILE APP

Looking for the special touch of a printed letter but have only your phone? Lettrs converts your digital message to print and puts it in the mail for you.

Figure 10.7 Goodwill Messages

Goodwill messages serve a variety of business functions. Fans who follow Steinway on Facebook love great pianos and great piano music. In this post the company offers its fan community something of value—a playlist of relaxing piano music as a Monday mood booster. The post doesn’t attempt to sell anything (the “Buy” link shown in the video capture is for the album itself and isn’t part of Steinway’s message). It’s just a way of fostering goodwill among fellow music lovers.

Courtesy of Steinway & Sons

Sending Messages of Appreciation

An effective message of appreciation documents a person’s contributions.

An important leadership quality is the ability to recognize the contributions of employees, colleagues, suppliers, and other associates. Your praise does more than just make the person feel good; it encourages further excellence. Moreover, a message of appreciation may become an important part of someone’s personnel file. So when you write a message of appreciation, try to specifically mention the person or people you want to praise. The brief message that follows expresses gratitude and reveals the happy result:

Thank you and everyone on your team for the heroic efforts you took to bring our servers back up after last Friday’s flood. We were able to restore business right on schedule first thing Monday morning. You went far beyond the level of contractual service in restoring our data center within 16 hours. I would especially like to highlight the contribution of networking specialist Julienne Marks, who worked for 12 straight hours to reconnect our Internet service. If I can serve as a reference in your future sales activities, please do not hesitate to ask.

Hearing a sincere thank you can do wonders for morale.4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P7001012451000000000000000004215) Moreover, in

today’s digital media environment, a handwritten thank-you note can be a particularly welcome acknowledgment.5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P7001012451000000000000000004217)

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Simple rules for writing effective thank-you notes

These tips are easy to adapt to any business or social occasions in which you need to express appreciation. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Offering Condolences

The primary purpose of condolence messages is to let the audience know that you and the organization you represent care about the person’s loss.

Condolence letters (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P700101245100000000000000000408F) are brief personal messages written to comfort someone after the death of a loved one. You may have occasion to offer condolences to employees or other business associates (when the person has lost a family member) or to the family of an employee or business associate (when that person has died).

These messages can feel intimidating to write, but they don’t need to be. Follow these three principles: short, simple, and sincere. You don’t need to produce a work of literary art; the fact that you are writing sends a message that is as meaningful as anything you can say.

Timing and media choice are important considerations with condolence letters. The sooner your message is received, the more comforting it will be, so don’t delay. And unless circumstances absolutely leave you no choice, avoid using email or another digital medium. A brief, handwritten note on quality stationery is the way to go.

Open a condolence message with a simple expression of sympathy, such as “I am deeply sorry to hear of your loss” or “I am sorry for your loss.” How you continue from there depends on the circumstances and your relationships with the deceased and the person to whom you are writing. For example, if you are writing to the husband of a colleague who recently died and you have never met him, you might continue with “Having worked with Janice for more than a decade, I know what a kind and caring person she was.” Such a statement accomplishes two goals: explaining why you in particular are writing and letting the recipient know that his loved one was appreciated in the workplace.

Conversely, if you are writing to a colleague who recently lost a loved one, you might continue with “After meeting Warren at last year’s company picnic and hearing your stories about his involvement with your son’s soccer league and the many other ways he contributed to his community, I know what a special person he was.” Sharing brief and positive memories like this adds meaning and depth to your expression of sympathy.

You can conclude with a simple statement such as “My thoughts are with you during this difficult time.” If appropriate for the situation and your relationship, you might also include an offer of assistance. “Please call if there is anything I do for you.”

Keep your condolence message focused on the recipient, not your own emotions, and don’t offer “life advice” or trite sayings.

As you decide what to include in the message, keep two points in mind. First, make it a personal expression of sympathy, but don’t make the whole message about you and your sense of loss. You might be grieving as well, but unless you, the deceased, and the reader were all personally close, don’t say things like “I was so devastated to hear the news about Kalinda.”

Second, don’t offer “life advice,” and don’t include trite sayings that you may have heard or read. At this point, soon after the loss, the recipient doesn’t want your advice, only your sympathy. Also, don’t bring religion into the discussion unless you have a close personal relationship with the recipient and religion is already a part of it. Otherwise, you risk offending with unwelcome or inappropriate sentiments.

Condolence letters are the most personal business messages you may ever have to write, so they require the utmost in care and respect for your reader. By keeping the messages simple, short, and sincere, you will be able to achieve the right tone.

To review the tasks involved in writing goodwill messages, see “Checklist: Sending Goodwill Messages (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P700101245100000000000000000406B) .” For the latest information on writing routine and positive messages, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) .

CHECKLIST Sending Goodwill Messages

• Be sincere and honest. • Don’t exaggerate or use vague, grandiose language; support positive statements with specific evidence. • Use congratulatory messages to build goodwill with clients and colleagues. • Send messages of appreciation to emphasize how much you value the work of others. • When sending condolence messages, open with a brief statement of sympathy, then adapt your message based on the circumstances and your

relationship with the recipient.

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT Productivity Report

You’ve joined Productivity Report as a freelance researcher and writer, helping Jill Duffy educate technology users on productivity and effective workplace communication. Use what you’ve learned in this and previous chapters to address these challenges.

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: You’ve probably seen the acronym tl;dr in online discussions, which means “too long; didn’t read.” Web surfers, particularly those who are accessing content on mobile devices, crave concise articles they can absorb in a minute or two (maybe three). Find one of the articles in the Productivity category on Productivity Report and summarize it in 250 to 300 words—roughly what the average adult can read in one minute.

TEAM CHALLENGE: Duffy wrote a series of articles for Productivity Report titled “What’s Wrong with Email” from which she would like to extract a series of “tweetable” teasers. Find these articles on the website and divide them among the members of your team. Evaluate each article and find three to five key points that you can convey as 140-character tweets. Assemble your collection of tweetables in a brief report, including one introductory tweet for the whole series.

Quick Learning Guide

KEY TERMS

adjustment Settlement of a claim

claim A formal complaint made in response to dissatisfaction over a product or service

condolence letters Brief personal messages written to comfort someone after the death of a loved one

news release A specialized document, also known as a press release, traditionally used to share relevant information with the local or national news media; today, many companies issue news releases directly to the public as well

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 Outline an effective strategy for writing routine business requests. When writing a routine request, open by stating your specific request. Use the body to justify your request and explain its importance. Close routine requests by asking for specific action (including a deadline, if appropriate) and expressing goodwill. A courteous close contains three important elements: (1) a specific request, (2) information about how you can be reached (if it isn’t obvious), and (3) an expression of appreciation or goodwill.

2 Describe three common types of routine requests. The most common types of routine messages are asking for information or action, asking for recommendations, and making claims and requesting adjustments. Requests for information or action should explain what you want to know or what you want readers to do, why you’re making the request, and why it may be in your reader’s interest to help you (if applicable). Requests for recommendations should open by stating what it is you are requesting and asking the recipient to write the message in question. The body should list all the information the recipient would need to write the recommendation (refer to an attached résumé, if applicable). The close should contain an expression of appreciation and a deadline, if applicable. To make a claim (a formal complaint about a product or service) or request an adjustment (a settlement of a claim), open with a straightforward statement of the problem, use the body to give a complete explanation of the situation, and close with a polite request to resolve the situation.

3 Outline an effective strategy for writing routine replies and positive messages. The direct approach works well for routine replies and positive messages because recipients will generally be interested in what you have to say. Place your main idea (the positive reply or the good news) in the opening. Use the body to explain all the relevant details, and close cordially, perhaps highlighting a benefit to your reader.

4 Describe six common types of routine replies and positive messages. Most routine and positive messages fall into six categories: answers to requests for information and action, grants of claims and requests for adjustment, recommendations, informative messages, good-news announcements, and goodwill messages. Providing answers to requests for information or action is a simple task, often assisted with form responses that can be customized as needed. Granting claims and requests for adjustments is more complicated, and the right response depends on whether the company, the customer, or a third party was at fault. Recommendations also require a careful approach to avoid legal complications; some companies prohibit managers from writing recommendation letters or providing anything beyond basic employment history. Informative messages are often simple and straightforward, but some require extra care if the information affects recipients in a significant way. Good-news announcements are often handled by news releases, which used to be sent exclusively to members of the news media but are now usually made available to the public as well. Finally, goodwill messages, meant to foster positive business relationships, include congratulations, thank-you messages, and messages of condolence. To make goodwill messages effective, make them honest, sincere, and factual.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) to complete the problems marked with this icon .

Test Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

10-1. What information should be included in a routine request? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e28#P7001012451000000000000000003E2A)

10-2. Where in a routine message should you state your actual request? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e28#P7001012451000000000000000003E2A)

10-3. What information should you include in a request for a recommendation? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E)

10-4. How does a claim differ from an adjustment? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E)

10-5. What is resale information? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f08#P7001012451000000000000000003F0B)

10-6. What is the appropriate strategy for responding to a request for a recommendation about a job candidate whose performance was poor? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D)

10-7. How can you avoid sounding insincere when writing a goodwill message? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D)

10-8. What are three principles to follow for writing condolence messages? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D)

Apply Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

10-9. You have a complaint against one of your suppliers, but you have no documentation to back it up. Should you request an adjustment anyway? Why or why not? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E)

10-10. The latest issue of a local business newspaper names 10 area executives who have exhibited excellent leadership skills in the past year. You are currently searching for a job, and a friend suggests that you write each executive a congratulatory letter and mention in passing that you are looking for new career opportunities and would appreciate the opportunity for an interview. Is this a smart strategy? Why or why not? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D)

10-11. You’ve been asked to write a letter of recommendation for an employee who worked for you some years ago. You recall that the employee did an admirable job, but you can’t remember any specific information at this point. Should you write the letter anyway? Explain. [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D)

10-12. Your company’s error cost an important business customer a new client; you know it, and your customer knows it. Do you apologize, or do you refer to the incident in a positive light without admitting any responsibility? Briefly explain. [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D)

Practice Your Skills Messages for Analysis

Read the following messages, then (1) analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each sentence and (2) revise each document so that it follows this chapter’s guidelines.

10-13. Message 10.A: Message Strategies: Routine Requests [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E)

I’m fed up with the mistakes that our current accounting firm makes. I run a small construction company, and I don’t have time to double-check every bookkeeping entry and call the accountants a dozen times when they won’t return my messages. Please explain how your firm would do a better job than my current accountants. You have a good reputation among homebuilders, but before I consider hiring you to take over my accounting, I need to know that you care about quality work and good customer service.

10-14. Message 10.B: Message Strategies: Responding to Claims and Requests for Adjustments [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D)

We read your letter, requesting your deposit refund. We couldn’t figure out why you hadn’t received it, so we talked to our maintenance engineer, as you suggested. He said you had left one of the doors off the hinges in your apartment in order to get a large sofa through the door. He also confirmed that you had paid him $5.00 to replace the door since you had to turn in the U-Haul trailer and were in a big hurry. This entire situation really was caused by a lack of communication between our housekeeping inspector and the maintenance engineer. All we knew was that the door was off the hinges when it was inspected by Sally Tarnley. You know that our policy states that if anything is wrong with the apartment, we keep the deposit. We had no way of knowing that George just hadn’t gotten around to replacing the door. But we have good news. We approved the deposit refund, which will be mailed to you from our home office in Teaneck, New Jersey. I’m not sure how long that will take, however. If you don’t receive the check by the end of next month, give me a call. Next time, it’s really a good idea to stay with your apartment until it’s inspected, as stipulated in your lease agreement. That way, you’ll be sure to receive your refund when you expect it. Hope you have a good summer.

10-15. Message 10.C: Message Strategies: Providing Recommendations [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) (Note: Assume that your company allows you to write recommendations.)

Your letter to Kunitake Ando, president of Sony, was forwarded to me because I am the human resources director. In my job as head of HR, I have access to performance reviews for all of the Sony employees in the United States. This means, of course, that I would be the person best qualified to answer your request for information on Nick Oshinski. In your letter of the 15th, you asked about Nick Oshinski’s employment record with us because he has applied to work for your company. Mr. Oshinski was employed with us from January 5, 2008, until March 1, 2016. During that time, Mr. Oshinski received ratings ranging from 2.5 up to 9.6, with 10 being the top score. As you can see, he must have done better reporting to some managers than to others. In addition, he took all vacation days, which is a bit unusual. Although I did not know Mr. Oshinski personally, I know that our best workers seldom use all the vacation time they earn. I do not know if that applies in this case. In summary, Nick Oshinski performed his tasks well depending on who managed him.

Exercises

Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective. In some instances, supporting information will be found in another chapter, as indicated.

Message Strategies: Routine Requests; Revising for Conciseness [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e28#P7001012451000000000000000003E2A) , Chapter 6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000002ade#P7001012451000000000000000002ADE) Critique the following closing paragraphs. How would you rewrite each to be concise, courteous, and specific?

10-16. I need your response sometime soon so I can order the parts in time for your service appointment. Otherwise, your air-conditioning system may not be in tip-top condition for the start of the summer season. 10-17. Thank you in advance for sending me as much information as you can about your products. I look forward to receiving your package in the very near future. 10-18. To schedule an appointment with one of our knowledgeable mortgage specialists in your area, you can always call our hotline at 1-800-555- 8765. This is also the number to call if you have more questions about mortgage rates, closing procedures, or any other aspect of the mortgage process. Remember, we’re here to make the home-buying experience as painless as possible.

Message Strategies: Routine Responses; Media Skills: Email [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f08#P7001012451000000000000000003F0B) , Chapter 7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003055#P7001012451000000000000000003055) Revise the following short email messages so they are more direct and concise; develop a subject line for each revised message.

10-19. I’m contacting you about your recent email request for technical support on your cable Internet service. Part of the problem we have in tech support is trying to figure out exactly what each customer’s specific problem is so that we can troubleshoot quickly and get you back in business as quickly as possible. You may have noticed that in the online support request form, there are a number of fields to enter your type of computer, operating system, memory, and so on. While you did tell us you were experiencing slow download speeds during certain times of the day, you didn’t tell us which times specifically, nor did you complete all the fields telling us about your computer. Please return to our support website and resubmit your request, being sure to provide all the necessary information; then we’ll be able to help you. 10-20. Thank you for contacting us about the difficulty you had collecting your luggage at Denver International Airport. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you. As you know, traveling can create problems of this sort regardless of how careful the airline personnel might be. To receive compensation, please send us a detailed list of the items that you lost and complete the following questionnaire. You can email it back to us. 10-21. Sorry it took us so long to get back to you. We were flooded with résumés. Anyway, your résumé made the final 10, and after meeting three hours yesterday, we’ve decided we’d like to meet with you. What is your schedule like for next week? Can you come in for an interview on June 15 at 3:00 p.m.? Please get back to us by the end of this workweek and let us know if you will be able to attend. As you can imagine, this is our busy season. 10-22. We’re letting you know that because we use over a ton of paper a year and because so much of that paper goes into the wastebasket to become so much more environmental waste, starting Monday, we’re placing white plastic bins outside the elevators on every floor to recycle that paper and in the process, minimize pollution.

Message Strategies: Routine and Positive Messages; Revising for Conciseness [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f08#P7001012451000000000000000003F0B) , Chapter 6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000002ade#P7001012451000000000000000002ADE) Rewrite the following sentences so that they are direct and concise. If necessary, break your answer into two sentences.

10-23. We wanted to invite you to our special 40% off by-invitation-only sale; the sale is taking place on November 9. 10-24. We wanted to let you know that we are giving a tote bag and a voucher for five iTunes downloads with every $50 donation you make to our radio station. 10-25. The director planned to go to the meeting that will be held on Monday at a little before 11 am. 10-26. In today’s meeting, we were happy to have the opportunity to welcome Paul Eccelson, who reviewed the shopping cart function on our website and offered some great advice; if you have any questions about these new forms, feel free to call him at his office. 10-27. Message Strategies: Responding to Claims and Requests for Adjustments [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) Your company markets a line of automotive accessories for people who like to “tune” their cars for maximum performance. A customer has just written a furious email, claiming that a supercharger he purchased from your website didn’t deliver the extra engine power he had expected. Your company has a standard refund process to handle situations such as this, and you have the information you need in order to inform the customer about that. You also have information that could help the customer find a more compatible supercharger from one of your competitors, but the customer’s email message is so abusive that you don’t feel obligated to help. Is this an appropriate response? Why or why not? 10-28. Message Strategies: Writing Positive Messages; Media Skills: Microblogging [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) , Chapter 8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#P7001012451000000000000000003454)

Locate an online announcement for a new product you find interesting or useful. Read enough about the product to be able to describe it to someone else in your own words, then writer four Twitter tweets: one to introduce the product to your followers and three follow-up tweets that describe three particularly compelling features or benefits of the product. 10-29. Message Strategies: Writing Goodwill Messages [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D)

Identify someone in your life who has recently accomplished a significant achievement, such as graduating from high school or college, completing a major project, or winning an important professional award. Write a brief congratulatory message using the guidelines presented in the chapter.

Expand Your Skills Critique the Professionals

Locate an online example of a news release in which a company announces good news, such as a new product, a notable executive hire, an expansion, strong financial results, or an industry award. Analyze the release using the guidance provided in the chapter. In what ways did the writer excel? What aspects of the release could be improved? Does the release provide social media–friendly content and features? Using whatever medium your instructor requests, write a brief analysis of the piece (no more than one page), citing specific elements from the piece and support from the chapter.

Sharpening Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) , is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web

Search function to find a website, video, article, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on writing goodwill messages such as thank-you notes or congratulatory letters. Write a brief email message to your instructor, describing the item that you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

Cases

For all cases, feel free to use your creativity to make up any details you need in order to craft effective messages.

Routine Requests BLOGGING SKILLS

10-30. Message Strategies: Requesting Information [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) You are writing a book about the advantages and potential pitfalls of using online collaboration systems for virtual team projects. You would like to include several dozen real-life examples from people in a variety of industries. Fortunately, you publish a highly respected blog on the subject, with several thousand regular readers.

Your task: Write a post for your blog that asks readers to submit brief descriptions of their experiences using collaboration tools for team projects. Ask them to email stories of how well a specific system or approach worked for them. Explain that they will receive an autographed copy of the book as thanks and that they will need to sign a release form if their stories are used. In addition, emphasize that you would like to use real names—of people, companies, and software—but you can keep the anecdotes anonymous if readers require. To stay on schedule, you need to have these stories by May 20.

MESSAGING SKILLS

10-31. Message Strategies: Routine Requests [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) One of the reasons you accepted the job offer from your current employer was the happy, relaxed vibe of the open-plan office. When you interviewed, it seemed as far away from a boring, conventional “cubicle farm” as you could get, which appealed to your nonconformist instincts. After a year in the job, however, you’ve experienced some of the disadvantages of the company’s relaxed attitudes to just about every aspect of workplace behavior. People routinely bring pets to work, even though several people have explained they have allergies to dogs or cats. Some of the pets are less than ideally behaved, too, and a couple of dogs who are frequent visitors get into snarling matches when they see each other. One person even brings a pet bird, which has been known to fly loose around the office. Employees bring children of all ages to work, too, from infants still in diapers to teenagers who play video games on mobile devices—sometimes using headphones but sometimes not. Music lovers get into volume wars at least once a week, trying to drown each other out on their portable speaker systems.

You wonder how anybody can get any work done, until you privately interview several colleagues and realize that, like you, they aren’t getting any work done. The office has become such a festival of distractions that people routinely bring work home on nights and weekends because home is the only place they can concentrate.

Your task: Write a brief request that could be sent out via the company’s internal messaging system, asking people to consider the needs of their colleagues before bringing pets, children, and other potential distractions into the workplace.

EMAIL SKILLS

10-32. Message Strategies: Routine Requests [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) In the weeks after your company rolled out a new online collaboration system, you thought your eyesight was beginning to fail. You have to squint to read posted messages, and the file archive is almost impossible to navigate because you couldn’t read the file names. Then you noticed people in the department you manage having the same problem, particularly people who work on laptops and tablets.

You began to wonder how the programmers in the information technology (IT) department who configured the system didn’t notice the problem, until you walked through their department and realized they all had multiple, giant computer monitors. Everything you could see on their screens was displayed in large, easily readable type.

Your task: Write a brief email message to the head of IT, asking her group to meet with users in your department to discuss the question of on-screen readability with the new system.

EMAIL SKILLS

10-33. Message Strategies: Requesting a Recommendation [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) One of your colleagues, Katina Vander, was recently promoted to department manager and now serves on the company’s strategic planning committee. At its monthly meeting next week, the committee will choose an employee to lead an important market research project that will help define the company’s product portfolio for the next five years.

You worked side by side with Vander for five years, so she knows your abilities well and has complimented your business insights on many occasions. You know that because she has only recently been promoted to manager, she needs to build credibility among her peers and will therefore be cautious about making such an important recommendation. On the other hand, making a stellar recommendation for such an important project would show that she has a good eye for talent—an essential leadership trait.

Your task: Write an email message to Vander, telling her that you are definitely interested in leading the project and asking her to put in a good word for you with the committee. Mention four attributes that you believe would serve you well in the role: a dozen years of experience in the industry, an engineering degree that helps you understand the technologies involved in product design, a consistent record of excellent or exceptional ratings in

annual employee evaluations, and the three years you spent working in the company’s customer support group, which gave you a firsthand look at customer satisfaction and quality issues.

EMAIL SKILLS

10-34. Message Strategies: Requesting a Recommendation [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) After five years of work in the human resources department at Cell Genesys (a company that is developing cancer treatment drugs), you were laid off in a round of cost-cutting moves that rippled through the biotech industry in recent years. The good news is that you found stable employment in the grocery distribution industry. The bad news is that in the three years since you left Cell Genesys, you have truly missed working in the exciting biotechnology field and having the opportunity to be a part of something as important as helping people recover from life-threatening diseases. You know careers in biotech are uncertain, but you have a few dollars in the bank now, and you’re willing to ride that rollercoaster again.

Your task: Draft an email to Calvin Morris, your old boss at Cell Genesys, reminding him of the time you worked together and asking him to write a

letter of recommendation for you.6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P7001012451000000000000000004219)

MESSAGING SKILLS

10-35. Message Strategies: Requesting Information [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) Many companies now provide presales and postsales customer support through some form of instant messaging or online chat function. As a consumer looking for information, you’ll get better service if you can frame your requests clearly and succinctly.

Your task: Imagine that you need to replace your old laptop computer, but you’re not sure whether to go with another laptop or switch to a tablet or perhaps one of the new tablet/laptop hybrids. Think through the various ways you will use this new device, from researching and note-taking during class to watching movies and interacting with friends on social media. Now imagine you’re in a chat session with a sales representative from a computer company, and this person has asked how he or she can help you. Draft a message (no more than 100 words) that summarizes your computing and media requirements and asks the representative to recommend the right type of device for you.

TEXT MESSAGING SKILLS

10-36. Message Strategies: Requesting Information [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) The vast Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the premier promotional event in the industry. More than 150,000 industry insiders from all over the world come to see the exciting new products on display from nearly 1,500 companies—everything from video game gadgets to Internet-enabled refrigerators

with built-in computer screens.7

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P700101245100000000000000000421B) You’ve just stumbled on a video game controller that has a built-in webcam to allow networked gamers to see and hear each other while they play. Your company also makes game controllers, and you’re worried that your customers will flock to this new controller-cam. You need to know how much buzz around this new product is circulating through the show: Have people seen it? What are they saying about it? Are they excited about it?

Your task: Compose a text message to your colleagues at the show, alerting them to the new controller-cam and asking them to listen for any buzz it might be generating among the attendees at the Las Vegas Convention Center and the several surrounding hotels where the show takes place. Here’s the catch: Your text-messaging service limits messages to 160 characters, including spaces and punctuation, so your message can’t be any longer than this.

EMAIL SKILLS

10-37. Message Strategies: Requesting an Adjustment [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) Love at first listen is the only way to describe the way you felt when you discovered the music-streaming service SongThrong. You enjoy dozens of styles of music, from Afrobeat and Tropicalia to mainstream pop and the occasional blast of industrial metal, and SongThrong has them all for only $9.99 a month. You can explore every genre imaginable, listening to as many tracks as you like for a fixed monthly fee. The service sounded too good to be true—and sadly, it was. The service was so unreliable that you began keeping note of when it was unavailable. Last month, it was down for all or part of 12 days—well over a third of the month. As much as you like it, you’ve had enough.

Your task: Write an email to support@songthrong. com, requesting a full refund. To get the $9.99 monthly rate, you prepaid for an entire year ($119.88), and you’ve been a subscriber for two months now. You know the service has been out for at least part of the time on 12 separate days last month, and while you didn’t track outages during the first month, you believe it was about the same number of days.

LETTER-WRITING SKILLS

10-38. Message Strategies: Requesting an Adjustment [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) As a consumer, you’ve probably bought something that didn’t work right or paid for a service that did not turn out the way you expected. Maybe it was a pair of jeans with a rip in a seam that you didn’t find until you got home or a watch that broke a week after you bought it. Or maybe your family hired a lawn service to do some yard work and no one from the company showed up on the day promised, and when the gardeners finally appeared, they did not do what they’d been hired for but instead did other things that wound up damaging valuable plants.

Your task: Choose an incident from your own experience and write a claim letter, asking for a refund, repair, replacement, or other adjustment. You’ll need to include all the details of the transaction, plus your contact address and phone number. If you can’t think of such an experience, make up details for an imaginary situation. If your experience is real, you might want to mail the letter. The reply you receive will provide a good test of your claim- writing skills.

EMAIL SKILLS

10-39. Message Strategies: Requesting Action [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e5c#P7001012451000000000000000003E5E) You head up the corporate marketing department for a nationwide chain of clothing stores. The company has decided to launch a new store-within-a- store concept, in which a small section of each store will showcase “business casual” clothing. To ensure a successful launch of this new strategy, you want to get input from the best retailing minds in the company. You also know it’s important to get regional insights from around the country, because a merchandising strategy that works in one area might not succeed in another.

Your task: Write an email message to all 87 store managers, asking them to each nominate one person to serve on an advisory team (managers can nominate themselves if they are local market experts). Explain that you want to find people with at least five years of retailing experience, a good understanding of the local business climate, and thorough knowledge of the local retail competition. In addition, the best candidates will be good team players who are comfortable collaborating long distance using virtual meeting technologies. Also, explain that while you are asking each of the 87 stores to nominate someone, the team will be limited to no more than eight people. You’ve met many of the store managers, but not all of them, so be sure to introduce yourself at the beginning of the message.

Routine Messages EMAIL SKILLS

10-40. Message Strategies: Granting Claims [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) Your company sells flower arrangements and gift baskets. Holidays are always a rush, and the overworked staff makes the occasional mistake. Last week, somebody made a big one. As a furious email message from a customer named Anders Ellison explains, he ordered a Valentine’s Day bouquet for his wife, but the company sent a bereavement arrangement instead.

Your task: Respond to Ellison’s email message, apologizing for the error, promising to refund all costs that Ellison incurred, informing him that the correct arrangement will arrive tomorrow (and he won’t be charged anything for it), and offering Ellison his choice of any floral arrangement or gift basket free on his wife’s birthday.

EMAIL SKILLS

10-41. Message Strategies: Granting Claims [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) Like many of the staff at Razer, you are an avid game player. You can therefore sympathize with Louis Hapsberg, a customer who got so excited during a hotly contested game that he slammed his Razer Anansi keyboard against his chair in celebration. Razer products are built for serious action, but no keyboard can withstand a blow like that. However, in the interest of building goodwill among the online gaming community, your manager has approved a free replacement. This sort of damage is rare enough that the company isn’t worried about unleashing a flood of similar requests.

Your task: Respond to Hapsberg’s email request for a replacement, in which he admitted to inflicting some abuse on this keyboard. Explain, tongue in cheek, that the company is “rewarding” him with a free keyboard in honor of his massive gaming win, but gently remind him that even the most robust electronic equipment needs to be used with care.

PODCASTING SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

10-42. Message Strategies: Providing Routine Information; Media Skills: Podcasting [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) As a training specialist in Winnebago Industry’s human resources department, you’re always on the lookout for new ways to help employees learn vital job skills. While watching a production worker page through a training manual while learning how to assemble a new recreational vehicle, you get what seems to be a great idea: Record the assembly instructions as audio files that workers can listen to while performing the necessary steps. With audio instructions, they wouldn’t need to keep shifting their eyes between the product and the manual—and constantly losing their place. They could focus on the product and listen for each instruction. Plus, the new system wouldn’t cost much at all; any computer can record the audio files, and you’d simply make them available on an intranet site for download into smartphones, tablets, and digital music players.

Your task: You immediately run your new idea past your boss, who has heard about podcasting but doesn’t think it has any place in business. He asks you to prove the viability of the idea by recording a demonstration. Choose a process you engage in yourself—anything from replacing the strings on a guitar to sewing a quilt to changing the oil in a car—and write a brief (one page or less) description of the process that could be recorded as an audio file. Think carefully about the limitations of the audio format as a replacement for printed text. (For instance, do you need to tell people to pause the audio while they perform a time-consuming task?) If directed by your instructor, record your instructions as a podcast.

BLOGGING SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

10-43. Message Strategies: Providing Routine Information [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) You are normally an easygoing manager who gives your employees a lot of leeway in using their own personal communication styles. However, the weekly staff meeting this morning pushed you over the edge. People were interrupting one another, asking questions that had already been answered, sending text messages during presentations, and exhibiting just about every other poor listening habit imaginable.

Your task: Review the advice in Chapter 2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000015f4#P70010124510000000000000000015F4) on good listening skills, then write a post for the internal company blog. Emphasize the importance of effective listening, and list at least five steps your employees can take to become better listeners.

Routine Replies EMAIL SKILLS

10-44. Message Strategies: Routine Responses [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) As the administrative assistant to Walmart’s director of marketing, you have just received a request from the company’s webmaster to analyze Walmart’s website from a consumer’s point of view.

Your task: Visit www.walmart.com (http://www.walmart.com) and browse through the site, considering the language, layout, graphics, and overall ease of use. In particular, look for aspects of the site that might be confusing or frustrating—annoyances that could prompt shoppers to abandon their quests and head to a competitor such as Target or Amazon. Summarize your findings and recommendations in an email message that could be sent to the webmaster.

MICROBLOGGING SKILLS

10-45. Message Strategies: Routine Announcements [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) As a way to give back to the communities in which it does business, your company supports the efforts of the United Way, a global organization that

works to improve lives through education, income stability, and healthy living choices.8

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P700101245100000000000000000421D) Each year, your company runs a fundraising campaign in which employees are encouraged to donate money to their local United Way agencies, and it also grants employees up to three paid days off to volunteer their time for the United Way. This year, you are in charge of the company’s campaign.

Your task: Compose a four-message sequence to be posted on the company’s internal microblogging system (essentially a private version of Twitter). The messages are limited to 200 characters, including spaces and punctuation. The first message will announce the company’s annual United Way volunteering and fundraising campaign (make up any details you need), and the other three messages will explain the United Way’s efforts in the areas of education, income stability, and healthy living. Visit the United Way website to learn more about these three areas.

LETTER-WRITING SKILLS/TEAM SKILLS

10-46. Message Strategies: Providing Recommendations [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) As a project manager at Expedia, one of the largest online travel services in the world, you’ve seen plenty of college interns in action. However, few have impressed you as much as Maxine “Max” Chenault. For one thing, she learned how to navigate the company’s content management system virtually overnight and always used it properly, whereas other interns sometimes left things in a hopeless mess. She asked lots of intelligent questions about the business. You’ve been teaching her blogging and website design principles, and she’s picked them up rapidly. Moreover, she is always on time, professional, and eager to assist. Also, she didn’t mind doing mundane tasks.

On the downside, Chenault is a popular student. Early on, you often found her busy on the phone planning her many social activities when you needed her help. However, after you had a brief talk with her, this problem vanished.

You’ll be sorry to see Chenault leave when she returns to school in the fall, but you’re pleased to respond when she asks you for a letter of recommendation. She’s not sure where she’ll apply for work after graduation or what career path she’ll choose, so she asks you to keep the letter fairly general.

Your task: Working with a team of your classmates, discuss what should and should not be in the letter. Prepare an outline based on your discussion and then draft the letter.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SKILLS

10-47. Message Strategies: Writing Routine Informative Messages; Composition Modes: Summarizing [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) As energy costs trend ever upward and more people become attuned to the environmental and geopolitical complexities of petroleum-based energy, interest in solar, wind, and other alternative energy sources continues to grow. In locations with high insolation (a measure of cumulative sunlight), solar panels can be cost-effective solutions over the long term. However, the upfront costs of buying panels outright are still daunting for most homeowners. To help lower the entry barrier, the Foster City, California–based firm SolarCity now offers two options that require no entry costs: leasing solar panels or signing up for a Power Purchase Agreement, in which customers simply pay for the power generated by panels that SolarCity installs and maintains on

their homes.9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P700101245100000000000000000421F)

Your task: Visit the Solar City website at www.solarcity.com (http://www.solarcity.com) , select Residential, and then select the “What It Costs” tab. Read about the solar options the company currently offers. Next, study SolarCity’s presence on Facebook at www.facebook.com/solarcity (http://www.facebook.com/solarcity) to get a feel for how the company presents itself in a social networking environment. Now assume that you have been assigned the task of writing a brief Facebook post that provides an overview of the solar options the company offers homeowners. In your own language and in 200 words or less, write the post and email it to your instructor.

Positive Messages WEB-WRITING SKILLS

10-48. Message Strategies: Good-News Messages [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) Amateur and professional golfers in search of lower scores want to find clubs that are optimized for their individual swings. This process of club fitting

has gone decidedly high tech in recent years, with fitters using Doppler radar, motion-capture video, and other tools to evaluate golfers’ swing and ball

flight characteristics. Hot Stix Golf is a leader in this industry, having fitted more than 200 professionals and thousands of amateurs.10

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P7001012451000000000000000004221)

Your task: Imagine that you are the communications director at the Indian Wells Golf Resort in Indian Wells, California. Your operation has just signed a deal with Hot Stix to open a fitting center on site. Write a three-paragraph article that could be posted on the resort website. The first paragraph should announce the news that the Hot Stix center will open in six months, the second should summarize the benefits of club fitting, and the third should offer a brief overview of the services that will be available at the Indian Wells Hot Stix Center. Information on club fitting can be found on the Hot Stix website at www.hotstixgolf.com (http://www.hotstixgolf.com) .

BLOGGING SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

10-49. Message Strategies: Good-News Messages [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) Most people have heard of the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony Awards for television, music, movies, and theater performances, but fewer know what the Webby Award is all about. Sponsored by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, the Webbys shine a spotlight on the best in website

design, interactive media, and online film and video.11

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#P7001012451000000000000000004223)

Your task: Visit the Webby Awards website at www.webbyawards.com (http://www.webbyawards.com) , select Winners, and choose one of the companies listed as a winner in the Websites or Advertising & Media categories. Now imagine you are the chief online strategist for this company, and you’ve just been informed your company has won a Webby. Winning this award is a nice validation of the work your team has put in during the past year, and you want to share their success with the entire company. Write a brief post for the internal company blog, describing what the Webby Awards are, explaining why they are a significant measure of accomplishment in the online industry, and congratulating the employees in your department who contributed to the successful web effort.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SKILLS

10-50. Message Strategies: Goodwill Messages [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) As the largest employer in Loganville, your construction company provides jobs, purchasing activity, and tax receipts that make up a vital part of the city’s economy. In your role as CEO, however, you realize that the relationship between your company and the community is mutually beneficial, and the company could not survive without the efforts of its employees, the business opportunities offered by a growing marketplace, and the physical and legal infrastructure that the government provides.

The company’s dependence on the community was demonstrated in a moving and immediate way last weekend, when a powerful storm pushed the Logan River past flood stage and threatened to inundate your company’s office and warehouse facilities. More than 200 volunteers worked alongside your employees through the night to fill and stack sandbags to protect your buildings, and the city council authorized the deployment of heavy equipment and additional staff to help in the emergency effort. As you watched the water rise nearly 10 feet behind the makeshift dike, you realized that the community came together to save your company.

Your task: Write a 100- to 200-word post for your company’s Facebook page, thanking the citizens and government officials of Loganville for their help in protecting the company’s facilities during the storm.

SOCIAL NETWORKING SKILLS

10-51. Message Strategies: Goodwill Messages [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) Every April, your company stages a competition for the sales department called Spring Surge, which awards sales representatives who bring in the most new revenue during the month. The awards are significant, including a first prize of a trip to Hawai’i for the winning sales rep’s entire family, and most people in the department take the competition seriously.

Here are the results of this years’ competition:

1st place (trip for family to Hawai’i): Juanita Hermosa

2nd place (luxury box seats at an NFL playoff game): Jackson Peabody

3rd place ($500 prepaid credit card): Duane Redd

Total new revenue booked during April: $4.7 million

Your task: Write a brief post (150 to 200 words) for your company’s internal social networking platform, incorporating these results and thanking everyone in the sales department for their efforts during the Spring Surge.

LETTER-WRITING SKILLS

10-52. Message Strategies: Goodwill Messages [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) Shari Willison worked as a geologist in your civil engineering firm for 20 years before succumbing to leukemia last week. With only a few dozen employees, the company has always been a tight-knit group, and you feel like you’ve lost a good friend in addition to a valued employee.

Your task: Write a letter of condolence to Willison’s husband, Arthur, and the couple’s teenaged children, Jordan and Amy. You have known all three socially through a variety of company holiday parties and events over the years.

LETTER-WRITING SKILLS

10-53. Message Strategies: Goodwill Messages [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D) The office was somber this morning when you arrived to work, as employees learned that the partner of the chief operating officer, Leo West, had been killed in a car accident over the weekend. You never met Michael, and West is two levels above you in the corporate hierarchy (you’re a first-level supervisor), so you don’t have a close working relationship. However, you have been on comfortable terms with West during the ten years you’ve been at this company, and although you’ve never socialized with him outside of work, you’ve both occasionally shared personal and social news during casual conversations in the cafeteria.

Your task: Write a letter of condolence to West.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

10-54. Should you use the direct or indirect approach for most routine messages? Why? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e28#P7001012451000000000000000003E2A)

10-55. How can you prevent good-news announcements from being all about you and your company? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#P7001012451000000000000000003F7D)

Endnotes

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003e00#rP700101245100000000000000000420F) . Jill Duffy author bio, PC, accessed 11 April 2016, www.pcmag.com (http://www.pcmag.com) ; Jill Duffy, “What’s Wrong With Email Part 3: We Check, But We Don’t Process,” Productivity Report, 1 February 2016, productivityreport.org (http://productivityreport.org) ; “About,” jilleduffy blog, accessed 11 April 2016, www.jilleduffy.com (http://www.jilleduffy.com) ; Jill E. Duffy, Get Organized: How to Clean Up Your Messy Digital Life (New York: PC Magazine, 2013).

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#rP7001012451000000000000000004211) . “How to Write Reference Letters,” National Association of Colleges and Employers website, accessed 5 July 2010, www.naceweb.org (http://www.naceweb.org) ; “Five (or More) Ways You Can Be Sued for Writing (or Not Writing) Reference Letters,” Fair Employment Practices Guidelines, July 2006, 1, 3.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#rP7001012451000000000000000004213) . David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2007), 62.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#rP7001012451000000000000000004215) . Pat Cataldo, “Op-Ed: Saying ‘Thank You’ Can Open More Doors Than You Think,” Penn State University Smeal College of Business website, accessed 19 February 2008, www.smeal.psu.edu (http://www.smeal.psu.edu) .

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003f7a#rP7001012451000000000000000004217) . Jackie Huba, “Five Must-Haves for Thank-You Notes,” Church of the Customer blog, 16 November 2007, www.churchofthecustomer.com (http://www.churchofthecustomer.com) .

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#rP7001012451000000000000000004219) . Tom Abate, “Need to Preserve Cash Generates Wave of Layoffs in Biotech Industry,” San Francisco Chronicle, 10 February 2003, www.sfgate.com (http://www.sfgate.com) .

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#rP700101245100000000000000000421B) . CES website, accessed 11 April 2016, www.cesweb.org (http://www.cesweb.org) ; Darren Murph, “CES 2012 Sets All-Time Records for Attendance, Exhibitors and Claimed Floor Space,” Engadget, 13 January 2012, www.engadget.com (http://www.engadget.com) .

8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#rP700101245100000000000000000421D) . United Way website, accessed 11 April 2016, www.unitedway.org (http://www.unitedway.org) .

9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#rP700101245100000000000000000421F) . SolarCity website, accessed 11 April 2016, www.solarcity.com (http://www.solarcity.com) .

10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#rP7001012451000000000000000004221) . Hot Stix Golf website, accessed 11 April 2016, www.hotstixgolf.com (http://www.hotstixgolf.com) .

11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004083#rP7001012451000000000000000004223) . The Webby Awards website, accessed 11 April 2016, www.webbyawards.com (http://www.webbyawards.com)

11 Writing Negative Messages LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004257#P700101245100000000000000000425B) Apply the three-step writing process to negative messages.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#P7001012451000000000000000004301) Explain how to effectively use the direct approach when conveying negative news.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004343#P7001012451000000000000000004347) Explain how to effectively use the indirect approach when conveying negative news.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#P7001012451000000000000000004410) Explain the importance of maintaining high standards of ethics and etiquette when delivering negative messages.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004467) Describe successful strategies for sending negative messages on routine business matters.

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004504) List the important points to consider when conveying negative organizational news.

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P7001012451000000000000000004593) Describe successful strategies for sending negative employment-related messages.

MyBCommLab®

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More than 10 million students improved their results using Pearson MyLabs. Visit mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for simulations, tutorials, and end-of-chapter problems.

COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Hailo

www.hailoapp.com (http://www.hailoapp.com)

No one likes to hear about price increases, whether it’s college tuition, your favorite Thai food, or a ride in a taxi. Unfortunately, price increases are a fact of life in business as costs increase or business conditions change.

At the same time, consumers don’t like to be kept waiting when they want something. And when that something is a taxi ride to an important meeting or a favorite restaurant, consumers really don’t like to wait.

This was the dilemma facing Hailo, a cab-hailing service based in London and now operating in many cities around the world. Hailo’s business model is based on simplifying the process of getting a taxi. The company connects taxi drivers and passengers through a GPS-enabled smartphone app that lets passengers hail a cab simply by tapping their screens, similar to the apps used by Uber and other ride-sharing services. A driver in the vicinity can choose to make the pickup, and the passenger can then follow the taxi’s progress on screen as it approaches.

In an attempt to balance the needs of passengers and taxi drivers during peak periods, the cab-hailing service Hailo announced a higher minimum fare via an email message to registered users.

Paul Thompson Images/Alamy Stock Photo

For the thousands of taxi drivers who have registered with the service, Hailo offers the opportunity to gain more business without waiting by the curb at busy locations or cruising streets waiting for a people to flag them down. For passengers, Hailo simplifies the process of finding a cab, because drivers come directly to them; no more standing in the street hoping an available taxi will pass by or waiting in line at long taxi ranks.

Hailo’s growth suggests that drivers and passengers alike find value in the service. In fact, Hailo was recently tagged as the fastest-growing technology startup in the United Kingdom. As popular as it is, though, there are times when the service doesn’t operate to everyone’s complete satisfaction. For example, a driver can respond to a Hailo request and on the way to the pickup pass by several people in the street trying to flag him or her down, only to discover that the Hailo customer just wants to be hauled a few hundred yards down the street to the next club or shop. The result is a double loss for the driver—unpaid time driving to the pickup location and the missed opportunity of potentially higher fares from those would-be customers passed along the way.

If drivers suspect that a potential passenger will want only a short ride, they are more likely not to respond to the request, because the short ride won’t compensate for the time they have to invest. This phenomenon can be troublesome for the system as a whole during peak hours, when more passengers are trying to use it. To keep its app users happy, Hailo wants as many drivers as possible to participate during peak times. To encourage drivers to pick up more Hailo customers, it guarantees drivers a minimum amount of revenue for every Hailo rider they pick up.

To boost driver participation, Hailo recently decided to increase the minimum fare passengers must pay during certain hours. Such news would be welcomed by drivers, of course, but not by those passengers accustomed to using the service for short hops around town.

Hailo announced the change in an email message to its customers, but it didn’t just blurt out the news. Instead, it took the indirect approach, which you’ll learn to use in this chapter. The email message started with a reader benefit, explaining that to increase the availability of cabs, the company was modifying its minimum fares. The message then provided a reminder of how Hailo works—and how it works best if it works well for both drivers and passengers. With that reasoning in place, the message moved on to deliver the unwelcome news about increases in the minimum fare during peak hours. The message ended on a positive note, pointing out that the increase wouldn’t affect the majority of customers because most London cab rides already cost more than that amount. The message was a

classic example of how to prepare readers, logically and emotionally, before delivering bad news.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004815)

11.1 Using the Three-Step Writing Process for Negative Messages

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Apply the three-step writing process to negative messages. You may never have to share unwelcome pricing news with customers, as Hailo (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) did, but you will have to share unwelcome news at many points in your career. Communicating negative information is a fact of life for all business professionals, whether it’s saying no to a request, sharing unpleasant or unwelcome information, or issuing a public apology. With the techniques you’ll learn in this chapter, however, you can successfully communicate unwelcome news while minimizing unnecessary stress for everyone involved.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

A better way to say no

Executive Beth Brady’s advice starts with “Say no with a comma, not a period.” Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

Depending on the situation, you can have as many as five distinct goals when communicating negative information: (1) to convey the bad news, (2) to gain acceptance of the bad news, (3) to maintain as much of your audience’s goodwill as possible, (4) to maintain a good image for your organization, and, if appropriate, (5) to reduce or eliminate the need for future correspondence on the matter. Five goals are clearly a lot to accomplish in one message, so careful planning and execution are particularly critical with negative messages.

Negative messages can have as many as five goals:

• Give the bad news • Ensure acceptance of the bad news • Maintain the reader’s goodwill • Maintain the organization’s good image • Minimize or eliminate future correspondence on the matter, as appropriate

STEP 1: PLANNING A NEGATIVE MESSAGE

When you need to convey negative news, you can’t avoid the fact that your audience does not want to hear what you have to say. To minimize the damage to business relationships and to encourage the acceptance of your message, analyze the situation carefully so you can better understand the context in which the recipient will process your message.

Understanding your readers’ concerns helps you be sensitive their needs while delivering an effective message.

Be sure to consider your purpose thoroughly—whether it’s straightforward (such as rejecting a job applicant) or more complicated (such as drafting a negative performance review, in which you not only give the employee feedback on past performance but also help the person develop a plan to improve future performance). With a clear purpose and your audience’s needs in mind, identify and gather the information your audience requires in order to understand and accept your message. Negative messages can be intensely personal to the recipient, and recipients often have a right to expect a thorough explanation of your answer.

When preparing negative messages, choose the medium and channel with care.

Selecting the right medium and channel is also important. For instance, bad news for employees should be delivered in person whenever possible. This helps guard their privacy, demonstrates respect, and gives them an opportunity to ask questions. Doing so isn’t always possible or feasible, though, so there will be times when you need to share important negative information through written or digital media.

Defining your main idea in a negative message is often more complicated than simply saying no. For instance, if you need to respond to a hardworking employee who requested a raise, your message might go beyond saying no to explaining how she can improve her performance by working smarter, not just harder.

Appropriate organization helps readers accept your negative news.

Finally, the organization of a negative message requires particular care. One of the most critical planning decisions is choosing whether to use the direct or indirect approach (see Figure 11.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004257#P7001012451000000000000000004280) ). A negative

message using the direct approach opens with the bad news, proceeds to the reasons for the situation or the decision, and ends with a positive statement aimed at maintaining a good relationship with the audience. In contrast, the indirect approach opens with the reasons behind the bad news before presenting the bad news itself.

To help decide which approach to take in a particular situation, ask yourself the following questions:

Figure 11.1 Comparing the Direct and Indirect Approaches for Negative Messages

The direct and indirect approaches differ in two important ways: the position of the bad news within the sequence of message points and the use of a buffer in the indirect approach. (“Using the Indirect Approach for Negative Messages (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004343#P7001012451000000000000000004343) ” on page 299 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#page_299) explains the use of a buffer.) Both these messages deal with changes made in response to negative financial developments, but the second example represents a much higher emotional impact for readers, so the indirect approach is called for in that case. Figure 11.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004257#P70010124510000000000000000042B3) on the next page explains how to choose the right approach for each situation.

You need to consider a variety of factors when choosing between direct and indirect approaches for negative messages.

• Do you need to get the reader’s attention immediately? If the situation is an emergency, or if someone has ignored repeated messages, the direct approach can help you get attention quickly.

• Does the recipient prefer a direct style of communication? Some recipients prefer the direct approach no matter what, so if you know this, go with direct.

• How important is this news to the reader? For minor or routine scenarios, the direct approach is nearly always best. However, if the reader has an emotional investment in the situation or the consequences to the reader are considerable, the indirect approach is often better, particularly if the bad news is unexpected.

• Will the bad news come as a shock? The direct approach is fine for many business situations in which people understand the possibility of receiving bad news. However, if the bad news might come as a shock to readers, use the indirect approach to help them prepare for it.

Figure 11.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004257#P70010124510000000000000000042B3) offers a convenient decision tree to help you decide which approach to use.

STEP 2: WRITING A NEGATIVE MESSAGE

By writing clearly and sensitively, you can take some of the sting out of bad news and help your reader accept the decision and move on. If your credibility hasn’t already been established with an audience, clarify your qualifications so recipients won’t question your authority or ability.

Writing clearly and sensitively helps take some of the sting out of bad news.

When you use language that conveys respect and avoids an accusing tone, you protect your audience’s pride. This kind of communication etiquette is always important, but it demands special care with negative messages. Moreover, you can ease the sense of disappointment by using positive words rather than negative, counterproductive ones (see Table 11.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004257#P70010124510000000000000000042D9) ).

Protect your audience’s pride by using language that conveys respect.

STEP 3: COMPLETING A NEGATIVE MESSAGE

Figure 11.2 Choosing the Direct or Indirect Approach

Following this decision tree will help you decide whether the direct or indirect approach is better in a given situation. Of course, use your best judgment as well. Your relationship with the audience, for example, could affect your choice of approaches.

The need for careful attention to detail continues as you complete your message. Revise your content to make sure everything is clear, complete, and concise. Even small flaws are likely to be magnified in readers’ minds as they react to the negative news, because they can create the impression that you are careless or incompetent. Produce clean, professional documents and proofread carefully to eliminate mistakes. Finally, be sure to deliver messages promptly; withholding or delaying bad news can be unethical, even illegal. See Figure 11.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#P7001012451000000000000000004314) on the next page for a message that conveys negative information clearly and concisely.

TABLE 11.1 Choosing Positive Words

Examples of Negative Phrasings Positive Alternatives

Your request doesn’t make any sense. Please clarify your request.

The damage won’t be fixed for a week. The item will be repaired next week.

Although it wasn’t our fault, there will be an unavoidable delay in your order.

We will process your order as soon as we receive an aluminum shipment from our supplier, which we expect within 10 days.

You are clearly dissatisfied. I recognize that the product did not live up to your expectations.

I was shocked to learn that you’re unhappy. Thank you for sharing your concerns about your shopping experience.

The enclosed statement is wrong. Please verify the enclosed statement and provide a correct copy.

11.2 Using the Direct Approach for Negative Messages

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Explain how to effectively use the direct approach when conveying negative news.

Use the direct approach when your negative answer or information will have minimal personal impact.

A negative message using the direct approach opens with the bad news, proceeds to the reasons for the situation or the decision, and ends with a positive statement aimed at maintaining a good relationship with the audience. Depending on the circumstances, the message may also offer alternatives or a plan of action to fix the situation under discussion. Stating the bad news at the beginning can have two advantages: It makes a shorter message possible, and it allows the audience to reach the main idea of the message in less time.

OPENING WITH A CLEAR STATEMENT OF THE BAD NEWS

No matter what the news is, come right out and say it, but maintain a calm, professional tone that keeps the focus on the news and not on individual failures or other personal factors. Also, if necessary, explain or remind the reader why you’re writing.

PROVIDING REASONS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

In most cases, follow the direct opening with an explanation of why the news is negative. The extent of your explanation depends on the nature of the news and your relationship with the reader. For example, if you want to preserve a long-standing relationship with an important customer, a detailed explanation could well be worth the extra effort such a message would require.

The amount of detail you should provide depends on your relationship with the audience.

However, you will encounter some situations in which explaining negative news is neither appropriate nor helpful, such as when the reasons are confidential, excessively complicated, or irrelevant to the reader. To maintain a cordial working relationship with the reader, you might want to explain why you can’t provide the information.

Should you apologize when delivering bad news or responding to negative situations? The answer isn’t quite as simple as one might think, partly because the notion of apology is hard to pin down. To some people, it simply means an expression of sympathy that something negative has happened to another person. At the other extreme, it means admitting fault and taking responsibility for specific compensations or corrections to atone for the mistake.

Apologies can have legal ramifications, but refusing to apologize out of fear of admitting guilt can damage a company’s relationships with its stakeholders.

Some experts have advised that a company should never apologize, even when it knows it has made a mistake, because the apology might be taken as a confession of guilt that could be used against the company in a lawsuit. However, several states have laws that specifically prevent expressions of sympathy from being used as evidence of legal liability. In fact, judges, juries, and plaintiffs tend to be more forgiving of companies that express sympathy for wronged parties. Moreover, a

sincere, effective apology can help repair—and even improve—a company’s reputation.2

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004817)

Figure 11.3 Effective Letter Declining a Routine Request

In declining a college’s request to use her company’s facilities, May Yee Kwan took note of the fact that her company has a long-standing relationship with the college and wants to maintain that positive relationship. Because the news is unexpected based on past experience, she chose an indirect approach to build up to her announcement.

Creating an effective apology involves four key decisions.3

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004819) First, the apology should be delivered by someone whose position in the organization corresponds with the gravity of the situation. The CEO doesn’t need to apologize for a late package delivery, but he or she does need to be the public face of the company when a major problem occurs. Second, the apology needs to be real. Don’t say “I’m

sorry if anyone was offended.” The conditional if implies that you’re not sorry at all and that it’s the other party’s fault for being offended.4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P700101245100000000000000000481B) Third, apologies need to be delivered quickly, particularly in the social media age. A fast response makes the message more meaningful to the affected parties, and it helps the company maintain some control over the story, rather than reacting to social media outrage. Fourth, media and channel choices are crucial. The right choice can range from a private conversation to a written message posted or distributed online to a public press conference, depending on the situation.

Note that you can also express sympathy with someone’s plight without suggesting that you are to blame. For example, if a customer damaged a product through misuse and suffered a financial loss as a result of not being able to use the product, you can say something along the lines of “I’m sorry to hear of your difficulties.” This approach demonstrates sensitivity without accepting blame.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

In-depth advice on issuing an apology

Balance the needs of all affected stakeholders with these timely tips. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

CLOSING ON A RESPECTFUL NOTE

After you’ve explained the negative news, close the message in a manner that respects the impact the news is likely to have on the recipient. If appropriate, consider offering your readers an alternative solution if you can and if doing so is a good use of your time. Look for opportunities to include positive statements, but avoid creating false hopes or writing in a way that seems to suggest to the recipient that something negative didn’t happen. Ending on a false positive can

leave readers feeling “disrespected, disregarded, or deceived.”5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P700101245100000000000000000481D)

In situations where you’re responding after a mistake was made, an important aspect of a respectful close is describing the actions being taken to avoid similar mistakes in the future. Offering such explanations can underline the sincerity of an apology because doing so signals that the person or organization is serious about not repeating the error.

11.3 Using the Indirect Approach for Negative Messages

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

3 Explain how to effectively use the indirect approach when conveying negative news. The indirect approach helps prepare readers for the bad news by presenting the reasons for it first. However, the indirect approach is not meant to obscure bad news, delay it, or limit your responsibility. Rather, the purpose of this approach is to ease the blow and help readers accept the situation. When done poorly, the indirect approach can be disrespectful and even unethical. But when done well, it is a good example of audience-oriented communication crafted with attention to ethics and etiquette. Showing consideration for the feelings of others is never dishonest.

Use the indirect approach when some preparation will help your audience accept your bad news.

OPENING WITH A BUFFER

A well-written buffer establishes common ground with the reader.

Messages using the indirect approach open with a buffer (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004651) : a neutral statement that establishes common ground with the reader without revealing the main idea (refer to Figure 11.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004257#P7001012451000000000000000004280) ). A good buffer can express your appreciation for being considered (if you’re responding to a request), assure the reader of your attention to the request, or indicate your understanding of the reader’s needs. A good buffer also needs to be relevant and sincere.

In contrast, a poorly written buffer might trivialize the reader’s concerns, divert attention from the problem with insincere flattery or irrelevant material, or mislead the reader into thinking your message actually contains good news.

Poorly written buffers mislead or insult the reader.

Consider these possible responses to a manager of the order-fulfillment department who requested some temporary staffing help from your department (a request you won’t be able to fulfill):

Only the first of these buffers can be considered effective; the other three are likely to damage your relationship with the other manager—and lower his or her opinion of you. Table 11.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004343#P700101245100000000000000000435C) shows several types of effective buffers you could use to tactfully open a negative message.

PROVIDING REASONS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

An effective buffer serves as a transition to the next part of your message, in which you build up the explanations and information that will culminate in your negative news. An ideal explanation section leads readers to your conclusion before you come right out and say it. In other words, the reader has followed your line of reasoning and is ready for the answer. By giving your reasons effectively, as Hailo did in its email message (see page 294 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004228#page_294) ), you help maintain focus on the issues at hand and defuse the emotions that always accompany significantly bad news.

Phrase your reasons to signal the negative news ahead.

Don’t hide behind “company policy” when you deliver bad news; present logical answers instead.

TABLE 11.2 Types of Buffers

Buffer Strategy Example

Agreement Find a point on which you and the reader share similar views. We both know how hard it is to make a profit in this industry.

Appreciation Express sincere thanks for receiving something. Your check for $127.17 arrived yesterday. Thank you.

Cooperation Convey your willingness to help in any way you realistically can.

Employee Services is here to assist all associates with their health insurance, retirement planning, and continuing education needs.

Fairness Assure the reader that you’ve closely examined and carefully considered the problem, or mention an appropriate action that has already been taken.

For the past week, we have had our bandwidth monitoring tools running around the clock to track your upload and download speeds.

Good news Start with the part of your message that is favorable. We have credited your account in the amount of $14.95 to cover the cost of return shipping.

Praise Find an attribute or an achievement to compliment. The Stratford Group has an impressive record of accomplishment in helping clients resolve financial reporting problems.

Resale Favorably discuss the product or company related to the subject of the letter.

With their heavy-duty, full-suspension hardware and fine veneers, the desks and file cabinets in our Montclair line have long been popular with value-conscious professionals.

Understanding Demonstrate that you understand the reader’s goals and needs.

So that you can more easily find the printer with the features you need, I have attached a brochure that describes the full line of Epson printers.

As much as possible, avoid hiding behind company policy to cushion your bad news. If you say, “Company policy forbids our hiring anyone who does not have two years’ supervisory experience,” you imply that you won’t consider anyone on his or her individual merits. By sharing the reasons behind the policy (if appropriate in the circumstances), you can give readers a more satisfying answer. Consider this response to an applicant:

This paragraph does a good job of stating reasons for the refusal:

• It provides enough detail to logically support the refusal. • It implies that the applicant is better off avoiding a program in which he or she might fail. • It shows that the company’s policy is based on experience and careful analysis. • It doesn’t offer an apology for the decision because no one is at fault. • It avoids negative personal expressions (such as “You do not meet our requirements”).

Even valid, well-thought-out reasons won’t convince every reader in every situation. However, if you’ve done a good job of laying out your reasoning, you’ve done everything you can to prepare the reader for the main idea, which is the negative news itself.

Well-written reasons are

• Detailed • Tactful • Individualized • Unapologetic if no one is at fault • Positive

CONTINUING WITH A CLEAR STATEMENT OF THE BAD NEWS

After you’ve thoughtfully and logically established your reasons and readers are prepared to receive the bad news, you can use three techniques to convey the negative information as clearly and as kindly as possible. First, deemphasize the bad news:

• Minimize the space or time devoted to the bad news—without trivializing it or withholding any important information. • Subordinate bad news in a complex or compound sentence (“My department is already shorthanded, so I’ll need all my staff for at least the next two

months”). This construction presents the bad news in the middle of the sentence, the point of least emphasis. • Place bad news in the middle of a paragraph or use parenthetical expressions (“Our profits, which are down, are only part of the picture”).

To handle bad news carefully

• Deemphasize the bad news visually and grammatically • Use a conditional statement, if appropriate • Tell what you did do, not what you didn’t do

Keep in mind, however, that it’s possible to abuse deemphasis. For instance, if the primary point of your message is that profits are down, it would be inappropriate to marginalize that news by burying it in the middle of a sentence. State the negative news clearly, and then make a smooth transition to any positive news that might balance the story.

Don’t disguise bad news when you emphasize the positive.

Second, if appropriate, use a conditional (if or when) statement to imply that the audience could have received, or might someday receive, a favorable answer (“When you have more managerial experience, you are welcome to reapply”). Such a statement could motivate applicants to improve their qualifications. However, avoid any suggestion that you might reverse the decision you’ve just made, and refrain from any phrasing that could give readers false hope.

Third, emphasize what you can do or have done rather than what you cannot do. Say “We sell exclusively through retailers, and the one nearest you that carries our merchandise is . . .” rather than “We are unable to serve you, so please call your nearest dealer.” Also, by implying the bad news, you may not need to actually state it, thereby making the bad news less personal (“Our development budget for next year is fully committed to our existing slate of projects”). By focusing on the facts and implying the bad news, you make the impact less personal.

MOBILE APP

Pocket Letter Pro for iOS includes templates for a variety of letter types to simplify writing business letters on your mobile device.

When implying bad news, however, be sure your audience will be able to grasp the entire message—including the bad news. Withholding negative information or overemphasizing positive information is unethical and unfair to your reader. If an implied message might lead to uncertainty, state your decision in direct terms. Just be sure to avoid overly blunt statements that are likely to cause pain and anger:

Instead of This Write This

I must refuse your request. I will be out of town on the day you need me. We must deny your application. The position has been filled. I am unable to grant your request. Contact us again when you have established . . . We cannot afford to continue the program. The program will conclude on May 1. Much as I would like to attend . . . Our budget meeting ends too late for me to attend. We must turn down your extension request. Please send in your payment by June 14.

CLOSING ON A RESPECTFUL NOTE

As with the direct approach, the close in the indirect approach offers an opportunity to emphasize your respect for your audience, even though you’ve just delivered unpleasant news. Express best wishes without ending on a falsely upbeat note. If you can find a positive angle that’s meaningful to your audience, by all means consider adding it to your conclusion. However, don’t try to pretend that the negative news didn’t happen or that it won’t affect the reader. Suggest alternative solutions if such information is available and doing so is a good use of your time. If you’ve asked readers to decide between alternatives or to take some action, make sure that they know what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Whatever type of conclusion you use, follow these guidelines:

A positive close

• Builds goodwill • Offers a suggestion for action • Provides a look toward the future

• Avoid an uncertain conclusion. If the situation or decision is final, avoid statements such as “I trust our decision is satisfactory,” which imply that the matter is open to discussion or negotiation.

• Manage future correspondence. Encourage additional communication only if you’re willing to discuss the situation further. (If you’re not, avoid statements such as “If you have further questions, please write.”)

• Express optimism, if appropriate. If the situation might improve in the future, share that with your readers if it’s relevant. However, don’t suggest the possibility of a positive change if you don’t have insight that it might happen.

• Be sincere. Steer clear of clichés that are insincere in view of the bad news. (If you can’t help, don’t say, “If we can be of any help, please contact us.”)

Keep in mind that the close is the last thing audience members have to remember you by. Even though they’re disappointed, leave them with the impression that they were treated with respect.

11.4 Maintaining High Standards of Ethics and Etiquette

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

4 Explain the importance of maintaining high standards of ethics and etiquette when delivering negative messages. All business messages demand attention to ethics and etiquette, of course, but these considerations take on special importance when you are delivering bad news—for several reasons. First, a variety of laws and regulations dictate the content and delivery of many business messages with potentially negative content, such as the release of financial information by a public company. Second, negative messages can have a significant negative impact on the lives of those receiving them. Even if the news is conveyed legally and conscientiously, good ethical practice demands that these situations be approached with care and sensitivity. Third, emotions often run high when negative messages are involved, for both the sender and the receiver. Senders need to manage their own emotions and consider the emotional state of their audiences.

For example, in a message announcing or discussing workforce cutbacks, you have the emotional needs of several stakeholder groups to consider. The employees who are losing their jobs are likely to experience fear about their futures and possibly a sense of betrayal. The employees who are keeping their jobs are likely to feel anxiety about the long-term security of their jobs, the ability of company management to turn things around, and the level of care and respect the company has for its employees. These “survivors” may also feel guilty about keeping their jobs while some colleagues lost theirs. Outside the company, investors, suppliers, and segments of the community affected by the layoffs (such as retailers and homebuilders) will have varying degrees of financial interest in the outcome of the decision. Writing such messages requires careful attention to all these needs, while balancing respect for the departing employees with a positive outlook on the future.

The challenge of sending—and receiving—negative messages can tempt one to delay, downplay, or distort the bad news (see “Ethics Detective: Solving the Case of the Deceptive Soft Sell

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#P700101245100000000000000000441F) ”).6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P700101245100000000000000000481F) However, doing so may be unethical and even illegal. In recent years, numerous companies have been sued by shareholders, consumers, employees, and government regulators for allegedly withholding or delaying negative information in such areas as company finances, environmental hazards, and product safety. In many of these cases the problem was slow, incomplete, or inaccurate communication between the company and external stakeholders. In others, problems stemmed from a reluctance to send or receive negative news within the organization.

Sharing bad news effectively requires commitment from everyone in the organization.

Effectively sharing bad news within an organization requires commitment from everyone involved. Employees must commit to sending negative messages when necessary and doing so in a timely fashion, even when that is unpleasant or difficult. Conversely, managers must commit to maintaining open communication channels, truly listening when employees have negative information to share and not punishing employees who deliver bad news.

Whistle-blowing is a difficult decision for most employees to make, but it provides a vital element of feedback for managers.

Employees who observe unethical or illegal behavior within their companies and are unable to resolve the problems through normal channels may have no choice but to resort to whistle-blowing (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P700101245100000000000000000465A) , expressing their concerns internally through company ethics hotlines—or externally through social media or the news media if they perceive no other options. The decision to “blow the whistle” on one’s own employer is rarely easy or without consequences; more than 80 percent of whistle-blowers in one survey said they were

punished in some way for coming forward with their concerns.7

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004821)

Although whistle-blowing is sometimes characterized as “ratting on” colleagues or managers, it has an essential function. According to the international business expert Alex MacBeath, “Whistle-blowing can be an invaluable way to alert management to poor business practice within the workplace. Often whistle-blowing can be the only way that information about issues such as rule breaking, criminal activity, cover-ups, and fraud can be brought to management’s attention before

serious damage is suffered.”8

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004823)

ETHICS DETECTIVE

Solving the Case of the Deceptive Soft Sell

You and your colleagues are nervous. Sales have been declining for months, and you see evidence of budget tightening all over the place—the fruit and pastries have disappeared from the coffee stations, accountants are going over expense reports with magnifying glasses, and managers are slow to replace people who leave the company. Instant messages fly around the office; everyone wants to know whether anyone has heard anything about layoffs.

The job market in your area is weak, and you know you might have to sell your house—in one of the weakest housing markets in memory—and move your family out of state to find another position in your field. If your job is eliminated, you’re ready to cope with the loss, but you need as much time as possible. You breathe a sigh of relief when the following item from the CEO appears on the company’s internal blog:

With news of workforce adjustments elsewhere in our industry, we realize many of you are concerned about the possibility here. I’d like to reassure all of you that we remain confident in the company’s fundamental business strategy, and the executive team is examining all facets of company operations to ensure our continued financial strength.

The message calms your fears. Should it?

A month later, the CEO announces a layoff of 20 percent of the company’s workforce—nearly 700 people.

ANALYSIS

You’re shocked by the news because you felt reassured by the blog posting from last month. In light of what happened, you retrieve a copy of the newsletter and reread the CEO’s message. Does it seem ethical now? Why or why not? If you had been in charge of writing this newsletter item and your hands were tied because you couldn’t come out and announce the layoffs yet, how would you have rewritten the message?

CHECKLIST Creating Negative Messages

A. Choose the better approach. • Consider using the direct approach when the audience is aware of the possibility of negative news, when the reader is not emotionally

involved in the message, when you know that the reader would prefer the bad news first, when you know that firmness is necessary, and when you want to discourage a response.

• Consider using the indirect approach when the news is likely to come as a shock or surprise, when your audience has a high emotional investment in the outcome, and when you want to maintain a good relationship with the audience.

B. For the indirect approach, open with an effective buffer. • Establish common ground with the audience. • Validate the request, if you are responding to one. • Don’t trivialize the reader’s concerns. • Don’t mislead the reader into thinking the coming news might be positive.

C. Provide reasons and additional information. • Explain why the news is negative. • Adjust the amount of detail to fit the situation and the audience. • Avoid explanations when the reasons are confidential, excessively complicated, or irrelevant to the reader. • If appropriate, state how you plan to correct or respond to the negative news. • Seek the advice of company lawyers if you’re unsure what to say.

D. Clearly state the bad news. • State the bad news as positively as possible, using tactful wording. • To help protect readers’ feelings, deemphasize the bad news by minimizing the space devoted to it, subordinating it, or embedding it. • If your response might change in the future if circumstances change, explain the conditions to the reader. • Emphasize what you can do or have done rather than what you can’t or won’t do.

E. Close on a respectful note. • Express best wishes without being falsely positive. • Suggest actions readers might take, if appropriate, and provide them with necessary information. • Encourage further communication only if you’re willing to discuss the situation further.

Recognizing the value of this feedback, many companies have formal reporting mechanisms that give employees a way to voice ethical and legal concerns to management. Various government bodies have also instituted protections for whistle-blowers, partly in recognition of the role that workers play in food safety

and other vital areas.9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004825)

For a summary of the points to consider when crafting negative messages, see “Checklist: Creating Negative Messages (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#P7001012451000000000000000004429) .”

11.5 Sending Negative Messages on Routine Business Matters

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

5 Describe successful strategies for sending negative messages on routine business matters. Professionals and companies receive a wide variety of requests and cannot respond positively to every single one. In addition, mistakes and unforeseen circumstances can lead to delays and other minor problems that occur in the course of business. Occasionally, companies must send negative messages to suppliers and other parties. Whatever the purpose, crafting routine negative responses and messages quickly and graciously is an important skill for every businessperson.

MAKING NEGATIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS ON ROUTINE BUSINESS MATTERS

On occasion managers need to make unexpected negative announcements. For example, a company might decide to consolidate its materials purchasing with fewer suppliers and thereby need to tell several firms it will no longer be buying from them. Internally, management may need to announce the elimination of an employee benefit or other changes that employees will view negatively.

Negative announcements on routine business matters usually should be handled with the indirect approach because the news is unexpected.

Except in the case of minor changes, the indirect approach is usually the better choice. Follow the steps outlined for indirect messages: Open with a buffer that establishes some mutual ground between you and the reader, advance your reasoning, announce the change, and close with as much positive information and sentiment as appropriate under the circumstances.

REJECTING SUGGESTIONS AND PROPOSALS

Managers receive a variety of suggestions and proposals, both solicited and unsolicited, from internal and external sources. For an unsolicited proposal from an external source, you may not even need to respond if you don’t already have a working relationship with the sender. However, if you need to reject a proposal you solicited, you owe the sender an explanation, and because the news may be unexpected, the indirect approach is better. In general, the closer your working relationship, the more thoughtful and complete you need to be in your response. For example, if you are rejecting a proposal from an employee, explain your reasons fully and carefully so that the employee can understand why the proposal was not accepted and so that you don’t damage an important working relationship.

REFUSING ROUTINE REQUESTS

When you are unable to meet a request, your primary communication challenge is to give a clear negative response without generating negative feelings or damaging anyone’s credibility. As simple as such messages may seem to be, they can test your skills as a communicator because you often need to deliver negative information while maintaining a positive relationship with the other party.

When turning down an invitation or a request for a favor, consider your relationship with the reader.

The direct approach works best for most routine negative responses. It helps your audience get your answer quickly and move on to other possibilities, and it saves time for you because messages with the direct approach are often easier to write than those with the indirect approach.

The indirect approach is a better choice when the stakes are high for you or for the receiver, when you or your company has an established relationship with the person making the request, or when you’re forced to decline a request that you might have accepted in the past (as was the case in Figure 11.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#P7001012451000000000000000004314) ).

Consider the following points as you develop your routine negative messages:

• Manage your time carefully; focus on the most important relationships and requests. • If the matter is closed, don’t imply that it’s still open by using phrases such as “Let me think about it and get back to you” as a way to delay saying no. • Offer alternative ideas if you can, particularly if the relationship is important. • Don’t imply that other assistance or information might be available if it isn’t.

If you aren’t in a position to offer additional information or assistance, don’t imply that you are.

HANDLING BAD NEWS ABOUT TRANSACTIONS

Bad news about transactions is always unwelcome. When you send such messages, you have three goals: (1) to modify the customer’s expectations, (2) to explain how you plan to resolve the situation, and (3) to repair whatever damage might have been done to the business relationship.

Some negative messages regarding transactions carry significant financial and legal ramifications.

The specific content and tone of each message can vary widely, depending on the nature of the transaction and your relationship with the customer. Telling an individual consumer that his new sweater will be arriving a week later than you promised is much simpler than telling Toyota that 30,000 transmission parts will be a week late when you know the company will be forced to idle a multimillion-dollar production facility as a result.

If you haven’t done anything specific to set the customer’s expectations—such as promising delivery within 24 hours—the message simply needs to inform the customer of the situation, with little or no emphasis on apologies (see Figure 11.4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P700101245100000000000000000448F) on the next page).

Your approach to bad news about business transactions depends on what you’ve done previously to set the customer’s expectations.

If you did set the customer’s expectations and now find that you can’t meet them, your task is more complicated. In addition to resetting those expectations and explaining how you’ll resolve the problem, you should include an apology as part of your message. The scope of the apology depends on the magnitude of the mistake. For the customer who ordered the sweater, a simple apology followed by a clear statement of when the sweater will arrive would probably be sufficient. For larger business-to-business transactions, the customer may want an explanation of what went wrong to determine whether you’ll be able to perform as you promise in the future.

If you’ve failed to meet expectations that you set for the customer, you should include an element of apology.

To help repair the damage to the relationship and encourage repeat business, many companies offer discounts on future purchases, free merchandise, or other considerations. However, you don’t always have a choice. Business-to-business purchasing contracts sometimes include performance clauses that legally entitle the customer to discounts or other restitution. To review the concepts covered in this section, see “Checklist: Handling Bad News About Transactions (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P70010124510000000000000000044A3) .”

Figure 11.4 Effective Negative Message Regarding a Transaction

This message, which is a combination of good and bad news, uses the indirect approach—with the good news serving as a buffer for the bad news. In this case the customer wasn’t promised delivery by a certain date, so the writer simply informs the customer when to expect the rest of the order. The writer also takes steps to repair the relationship and encourage future business with her firm.

REFUSING CLAIMS AND REQUESTS FOR ADJUSTMENT

Use the indirect approach in most cases of refusing a claim.

Customers who make a claim or request an adjustment tend to be emotionally involved, so the indirect approach is usually the better choice when you are denying such a request. Your delicate task is to avoid accepting responsibility for the unfortunate situation and yet avoid blaming or accusing the customer. To steer clear of these pitfalls, pay special attention to the tone of your letter. Demonstrate that you understand and have considered the complaint carefully, and then calmly explain why you are refusing the request.

CHECKLIST Handling Bad News About Transactions

• Reset the customer’s expectations regarding the transaction. • Explain what happened and why, if appropriate. • Explain how you will resolve the situation. • Repair any damage done to the business relationship, perhaps offering future discounts, free merchandise, or other considerations. • Offer a professional, businesslike expression of apology if your organization made a mistake.

Close on a respectful and action-oriented note (see Figure 11.5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P70010124510000000000000000044B3) ). And be sure to respond quickly. With so many instantaneous media choices at their disposal, some angry consumers will take their complaints public if they don’t hear back

from you within a few days or even a few hours.10

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004827)

When refusing a claim

• Demonstrate your understanding of the complaint • Explain your refusal • Suggest alternative action

If you deal with enough customers over a long enough period, chances are you’ll get a request that is outrageous, insulting, and perhaps even clearly dishonest. In such a scenario it’s particularly important to control your emotions to avoid saying or writing anything that the recipient might interpret as defamation (see page 29 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000001390#page_29) in Chapter 1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000105b#P700101245100000000000000000105B) ). To avoid being accused of defamation, follow these guidelines:

• Avoid any kind of abusive language or terms that could be considered defamatory. • Provide accurate information and stick to the facts.

You can help avoid committing defamation by not responding emotionally or abusively.

Figure 11.5 Message to Refuse a Claim

Vera Shoemaker diplomatically refuses this customer’s request for a new saw blade; he inadvertently damaged his current blade after cutting into some steel fasteners. Without blaming the customer (even though the customer clearly made a mistake), she points out that the saw blade is not intended to cut steel, so the warranty doesn’t cover a replacement in this instance.

CHECKLIST Refusing Claims

• Use the indirect approach because the reader is expecting or hoping for a positive response. • Indicate your full understanding of the nature of the complaint. • Explain why you are refusing the request, without hiding behind company policy. • Provide an accurate, factual account of the transaction. • Emphasize ways things should have been handled rather than dwell on the reader’s negligence. • Avoid any appearance of defamation. • Avoid expressing personal opinions. • End with a positive, friendly, helpful close. • Make any suggested action easy for readers to comply with.

• Never let anger or malice motivate your messages. • Consult your company’s legal advisers whenever you think a message might have legal consequences. • Communicate honestly and make sure you believe what you’re saying is true. • Emphasize a desire for a good relationship in the future.

Keep in mind that nothing positive can come out of antagonizing a customer, even one who has verbally abused you or your colleagues. Reject the claim or request for adjustment in a professional manner and move on to the next challenge. For a brief review of the tasks involved when refusing claims, see “Checklist: Refusing Claims (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P70010124510000000000000000044DF) .”

11.6 Sending Negative Organizational News

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

6 List the important points to consider when conveying negative organizational news. The messages described in the previous section deal with internal matters or individual interactions with external parties. From time to time, managers must also share negative information with the public at large, and sometimes respond to negative information as well. Most of these scenarios have unique challenges that must be addressed on a case-by-case basis, but the general advice offered here applies to all of them. One key difference among all these messages is whether you have time to plan the announcement. The following section addresses negative messages you do have time to plan for, and “Communicating in a Crisis (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004562) ” later in the chapter offers advice on communication during emergencies.

COMMUNICATING UNDER NORMAL CIRCUMSTANCES

Businesses may need to send a range of negative messages regarding their ongoing operations. As you plan such messages, take extra care to consider all your audiences and their unique needs. Keep in mind that a significant negative event such as a plant closing can affect hundreds or thousands of people in multiple stakeholder groups: Employees need to find new jobs, get training in new skills, or perhaps get emergency financial help. If many of your employees plan to move in search of new jobs, school districts may have to adjust budgets and staffing levels. Your customers need to find new suppliers. Your suppliers may need to find other customers of their own. Government agencies may need to react to everything from a decrease in tax revenues to an influx of people seeking unemployment benefits.

Negative organizational messages to external audiences can require extensive planning.

When making negative announcements, follow these guidelines:

• Match your approach to the situation. A modest price increase won’t shock most customers, so the direct approach is fine. However, canceling a product that lots of people count on is another matter, so building up to the news via the indirect approach might be better.

• Consider the unique needs of each group. As the plant closing example illustrates, various people have different information needs.

Give people as much time as possible to react to negative organizational news.

• Give each audience enough time to react as needed. Negative news often requires readers to make decisions or take action in response, so don’t increase their stress by not providing any warning.

• Give yourself enough time to plan and manage a response. Chances are you’re going to be hit with complaints, questions, or product returns after you make your announcement, so make sure you’re ready with answers and additional follow-up information.

• Look for positive angles, but don’t exude false optimism. If eliminating a seldom-used employee benefit means the company can invest more in advertising, by all means promote that positive angle. On the other hand, laying off 10,000 people does not give them “an opportunity to explore new horizons.” It’s a traumatic event that can affect employees, their families, and their communities for years. The best you may be able to do is to thank people for their past support and wish them well in the future.

• Seek expert advice if you’re not sure. Many significant negative announcements have important technical, financial, or legal elements that require the expertise of lawyers, accountants, or other specialists.

Ask for legal help and other assistance if you’re not sure how to handle a significant negative announcement.

Negative situations will challenge you as a communicator and leader. Inspirational leaders try to seize such opportunities as a chance to reshape or reinvigorate the organization, and they offer encouragement to those around them (see Figure 11.6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004521) on the next page).

RESPONDING TO NEGATIVE INFORMATION IN A SOCIAL MEDIA ENVIRONMENT

For all the benefits they bring to business, social media and other communication technologies have created a major new challenge: responding to online rumors, false information, and attacks on a company’s reputation. Customers who believe they have been treated unfairly can turn to Twitter, Facebook, and other tools to use public exposure as leverage.

MOBILE APP

The Yelp mobile app is an easy way to keep the consumer review site at your fingertips—and to monitor what’s being said about your business.

However, false rumors and both fair and unfair criticisms can spread around the world in a matter of minutes. Responding to rumors and countering negative

information requires an ongoing effort and case-by-case decisions about which messages require a response. Follow these four steps:11

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Responding effectively to rumors and negative information in social media requires continual engagement with stakeholders and careful decisions about which messages should get a response.

• Engage early, engage often. The most important step in responding to negative information has to be done before the negative information appears, and that is to engage with communities of stakeholders as a long-term strategy. Companies that have active, mutually beneficial relationships with customers and other interested parties are less likely to be attacked unfairly online and more likely to survive such attacks if they do occur. In contrast, companies that ignore constituents or jump into “spin doctor” mode when a negative situation occurs don’t have the same credibility as companies that have done the long, hard work of fostering relationships within their physical and online communities.

• Monitor the conversation. If people are interested in what your company does, chances are they are blogging, tweeting, podcasting, posting videos, writing on Facebook, and otherwise sharing their opinions. Use the available technologies to listen to what people are saying.

• Evaluate negative messages. When you encounter negative messages, resist the urge to fire back immediately. Instead, evaluate the source, the tone, and the content of the message—and then choose a response that fits the situation. For example, the Public Affairs Agency of the U.S. Air Force groups senders of negative messages into four categories: “trolls” (those whose only intent is to stir up conflict), “ragers” (those who are just ranting or telling jokes), “the misguided” (those who are spreading incorrect information), and “unhappy customers” (those who have had a negative experience with the Air Force).

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY VISITING THIS WEBSITE

Is there any truth to that rumor?

The Emergent website at Columbia University tracks and evaluates rumors spreading online. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

• Respond appropriately. After you have assessed a negative message, make the appropriate response based on an overall public relations plan. The Air Force, for instance, doesn’t respond to trolls or ragers, responds to misguided messages with correct information, and responds to unhappy customers with efforts to rectify the situation and reach a reasonable solution. In addition to replying promptly, make sure your response won’t make the situation worse. For example, taking legal action against critics, even if technically justified, can rally people to their defense and create a public relations nightmare. In some instances the best response is to contact a critic privately (through direct messaging on Twitter, for example) to attempt a resolution away from the public forum.

Figure 11.6 Internal Message Providing Bad News About Company Operations

The cancelation of a major development project before completion can be a traumatic event for a company’s employees. People who worked on the project are likely to feel that all their time and energy were wasted and worry that their jobs are in jeopardy. Employees who didn’t work on the project might worry about the company’s financial health and the stability of their own jobs. Such messages are therefore prime candidates for the indirect approach. Note how much more effectively the revised (effective) version manages the reader’s emotions from beginning to end.

TABLE 11.3 How to Communicate in a Crisis

When a Crisis Hits:

Do Don’t

Prepare for trouble ahead of time by identifying potential problems, appointing and training a response team, and preparing and testing a crisis management plan Get top management involved immediately Set up a news center for company representatives and the media that is equipped with phones, computers, and other digital tools for preparing news releases and online updates. At the news center, take the following steps:

• Issue frequent news updates and have trained personnel available to respond to questions around the clock

• Provide complete information packets to the media as soon as possible

• Prevent conflicting statements and provide continuity by appointing a single person trained in advance to speak for the company

• Tell receptionists and other employees to direct all phone calls to the designated spokesperson in the news center

• Provide updates when new information is available via blog postings, Twitter updates, text messaging, Facebook, and other appropriate media

Tell the whole story—openly, completely, and honestly; if you are at fault, apologize Demonstrate the company’s concern by your statements and your actions

Blame anyone for anything Speculate in public Refuse to answer questions Release information that will violate anyone’s right to privacy Use the crisis to pitch products or services Play favorites with media representatives

Whatever you do, keep in mind that positive reputations are an important asset and need to be diligently guarded and defended. Everybody has a voice now, and some of those voices don’t care to play by the rules of ethical communication.

COMMUNICATING IN A CRISIS

Some of the most critical instances of business communication occur during crises, which can include industrial accidents, crimes or scandals involving company employees, on-site hostage situations, terrorist attacks, information theft, product tampering incidents, and financial calamities. During a crisis, customers, employees, local communities, and others will demand information. In addition, rumors can spread unpredictably and uncontrollably. You can also expect the news media to descend quickly, asking questions of anyone they can find.

Anticipation and planning are key to successful communication in a crisis.

The key to successful communication efforts during a crisis is having a crisis management plan (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004654) . In addition to defining operational procedures to deal with a crisis, this plan outlines communication tasks and responsibilities, which can include everything from media contacts to news release templates (see Table 11.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004569) ). The plan should clearly specify which people are authorized to speak for the company, provide contact information for all key executives, and include a list of the news outlets and social media tools that will be used to disseminate information.

Although you can’t predict catastrophes, you can prepare for them. Analysis of corporate crises over the past several decades reveals that companies that respond

quickly with the information people need tend to fare much better in the long run than those that go into hiding or release inconsistent or incorrect information.12

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11.7 Sending Negative Employment Messages

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

7 Describe successful strategies for sending negative employment-related messages. As a manager, you will find yourself in a variety of situations in which you have to convey bad news to individual employees or potential employees. Recipients often have an emotional stake in your message, so taking the indirect approach is usually advised. In addition, use great care in choosing media for these messages. For instance, email and other written forms let you control the message and avoid personal confrontation, but one-on-one conversations are often viewed as more sensitive and give both sides the opportunity to ask and answer questions.

REFUSING REQUESTS FOR EMPLOYEE REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDATION LETTERS

Managers may get requests for recommendation letters from other employers and from past employees. When sending refusals to prospective employers who have requested information about past employees, your message can be brief and direct:

This message doesn’t need to say, “We cannot comply with your request.” It simply gives the reader all the information that is allowable.

Refusing an applicant’s direct request for a recommendation letter is another matter. Any refusal to cooperate may seem to be a personal slight and a threat to the applicant’s future. Diplomacy and preparation help readers accept your refusal:

This message tactfully avoids hurting the reader’s feelings because it makes positive comments about the reader’s recent activities, implies the refusal, suggests an alternative, and uses a polite close.

REFUSING SOCIAL NETWORKING RECOMMENDATION REQUESTS

Making recommendations in a social networking environment is more complicated than with a traditional recommendation letter because the endorsements you give become part of your online profile. On a network such as LinkedIn, others can see whom you’ve recommended and what you’ve written about these people.

Much more so than with traditional letters, then, the recommendations you make in a social network become part of your personal brand.13

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P700101245100000000000000000482D) Moreover, networks make it easy to find people and request recommendations, so you are likely to get more requests than you would have otherwise—and sometimes from people you don’t know well.

Social networks have created new challenges in recommendation requests, but they also offer more flexibility in responding to these requests.

Fortunately, social networks give you a bit more flexibility when responding to these requests. You can simply ignore or delete the request—some people make it personal policy to ignore requests from networkers they don’t know. Of course, if you do know someone, ignoring a request could create an uncomfortable situation, so you need to decide each case based on your relationship with the person. Another option is to refrain from making recommendations at all and just

let people know this policy when they ask. Whatever you decide, remember that it is your choice.14

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REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

These templates make it easier to turn down recommendation requests

The career expert Alison Doyle offers advice and message templates to help you handle these uncomfortable messages. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

If you choose to make recommendations and want to respond to a request, you can write as much or as little information about the person as you are comfortable sharing. Unlike the situation with an offline recommendation, you don’t need to write a complete letter. You can write a briefer statement, even just a single

sentence that focuses on one positive aspect.15

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004831) This flexibility allows you to respond positively in those situations in which you have mixed feelings about a person’s overall abilities.

REJECTING JOB APPLICATIONS

Poorly written rejection letters can tarnish your company’s reputation and can even invite legal troubles.

Application rejections are routine communications, but saying no is never easy, and recipients are emotionally invested in the decision. Moreover, companies

must be aware of the possibility of employment discrimination lawsuits.16

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004833) Of course, having fair and nondiscriminatory hiring practices is essential, but rejections must also be written in a way that doesn’t inadvertently suggest any hint of discrimination. Expert opinions differ on the level of information to include in a rejection message, but the safest strategy is to avoid sharing any explanations for the company’s decision and to avoid making or implying any promises of future consideration (see Figure 11.7

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P70010124510000000000000000045B6) ):17

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• Personalize the email message or letter by using the recipient’s name. For example, mail merge makes it easy to insert each recipient’s name into a form letter.

• Open with a courteous expression of appreciation for having applied. In a sense, this is like the buffer in an indirect message because it gives you an opportunity to begin the conversation without immediately and bluntly telling the reader that his or her application has been rejected.

• Convey the negative news politely and concisely. The passive voice is helpful in this situation because it shifts focus away from the people involved and thereby depersonalizes the response. For example, “Your application was not among those selected for an interview” is less blunt than the active phrase “We have rejected your application.”

Figure 11.7 Effective Message Rejecting a Job Applicant

This message rejecting a job applicant takes care to avoid making or implying any promises about future opportunities, beyond inviting the person to apply for positions that may appear in the future. Note that this would not be appropriate if the company did not believe the applicant was a good fit for the company in general.

• Avoid explaining why an applicant was rejected or why other applicants were chosen instead. Although it was once more common to offer such explanations, and some experts still advocate this approach, the simplest strategy from a legal standpoint is to avoid offering reasons for the decision. Avoiding explanations lowers the possibility that an applicant will perceive discrimination in the hiring decision or be tempted to challenge the reasons given.

• Don’t state or imply that the application will be reviewed at a later date. Saying that “we will keep your résumé on file for future consideration” can create false hopes for the recipient and leave the company vulnerable to legal complaints if a future hiring decision is made without actually reviewing this candidate’s application again. If the candidate might be a good fit for another position in the company in the future, you can suggest he or she reapply if a new job opening is posted.

• Close with positive wishes for the applicant’s career success. A brief statement such as “We wish you success in your career” is sufficient.

Naturally, you should adjust your tactics to the circumstances. A simple and direct message is fine when someone has only submitted a job application, but rejecting a candidate who has made it at least partway through the interview process requires greater care. Personal contact has already been established through the interview process, so a phone call may be more appropriate.

GIVING NEGATIVE PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

Performance reviews (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004657) are designed to clarify job requirements, give employees feedback on their performance relative to those requirements, and establish a personal plan of action to ensure

continued performance in the future. Performance reviews also help companies set organizational standards and communicate organizational values.18

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004838) In addition, they document evidence of performance in the event that disciplinary action is needed or an employee later disputes management decisions regarding pay or

promotions.19 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P700101245100000000000000000483A)

An important goal of any performance evaluation is to give the employee a plan of action for improving his or her performance.

The worst possible outcome in an annual review is a negative surprise, such as when an employee has been working toward different goals than the manager

expects or has been unknowingly underperforming throughout the year but didn’t receive any feedback or improvement coaching along the way.20

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By giving employees clear goals and regular feedback, you can help avoid unpleasant surprises in a performance review.

To avoid negative surprises, managers should provide regular feedback and coaching as needed throughout the year if employee performance falls below expectations. In fact, some companies have gone so far as to abandon the traditional performance review altogether. The online retailer Zappos, for example, has replaced annual performance reviews with frequent status reports that give employees feedback on routine job tasks and an annual assessment of how well each

employee embodies the company’s core values.21

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Regardless of the specific approach a company takes, writing an effective performance review requires careful, objective assessment and a clear statement of how

well an employee has done relative to agreed-on goals. If you need to write a review that includes negative information, keep the following points in mind:22

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Negative evaluations should provide careful documentation of performance concerns.

• Document performance problems. You will need this information in order to write an effective appraisal and to support any decisions that need to be made about pay, promotions, or termination.

• Evaluate all employees consistently. Consistency is not only fair but also helps protect the company from claims of discriminatory practices. • Write in a calm, objective voice. The employee is not likely to welcome your negative assessment, but you can manage the emotions of the situation by

maintaining professional reserve in your writing. • Focus on opportunities for improvement. This information can serve as the foundation for an improvement plan for the coming year. • Keep job descriptions up to date. If a job evolves over time in response to changes in the business, the employees’ current activities may no longer

match an outdated job description.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

IBM crowdsources a replacement for its annual performance reviews

CEO Ginni Rometty explains why the company turned to its employees to create a better alternative to the traditional approach. Go to real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

TERMINATING EMPLOYMENT

If an employee’s performance cannot be brought up to company standards or if factors such as declining sales warrant a reduction in the workforce, a company often has no choice but to terminate employment. As with other negative employment messages, termination is fraught with emotions and legal ramifications, so careful planning, complete documentation, and sensitive writing are essential.

Termination messages should always be written with input from the company’s legal staff, but here are general writing guidelines to bear in mind:23

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Carefully word a termination message to avoid creating undue ill will and grounds for legal action.

• Clearly present the reasons for this difficult action, whether it is the employee’s performance or a business decision unrelated to performance. • Make sure the reasons are presented in a way that cannot be construed as unfair or discriminatory. • Follow company policy, contractual requirements, and applicable laws to the letter. • Avoid personal attacks or insults of any kind. • Ask another manager to review the letter before issuing it. An objective reviewer who isn’t directly involved might spot troublesome wording or faulty

reasoning. • Deliver the termination letter in person if at all possible. Arrange a meeting that will ensure privacy and freedom from interruptions.

Any unplanned termination is clearly a negative outcome for both employer and employee, but careful attention to content and tone in the termination message can help the employee move on gracefully and minimize the misunderstandings and anger that can lead to expensive lawsuits. To review the tasks involved in this type of message, see “Checklist: Writing Negative Employment Messages (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P7001012451000000000000000004600) .”

For the latest information on writing negative messages, visit real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Chapter 11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004228#P7001012451000000000000000004228) .

CHECKLIST Writing Negative Employment Messages

A. Refusing requests for employee references and recommendations • Don’t feel obligated to write a recommendation letter if you don’t feel comfortable doing so. • Take a diplomatic approach to minimize hurt feelings. • Compliment the reader’s accomplishments. • Suggest alternatives, if available. • Use the options available to you on social networks, such as ignoring a request from someone you don’t know or writing a recommendation

on a single positive attribute. B. Rejecting job applicants

• If possible, respond to all applications, even if you use only a form message to acknowledge receipt. • If you use the direct approach, take care to avoid being blunt or cold. • If you use the indirect approach, don’t mislead the reader in your buffer or delay the bad news for more than a sentence or two. • Avoid explaining why the applicant was rejected. • Suggest alternatives, if possible.

C. Giving negative performance reviews • Document performance problems throughout the year. • Evaluate all employees consistently. • Keep job descriptions up to date as employee responsibilities change. • Maintain an objective and unbiased tone. • Use nonjudgmental language. • Focus on problem resolution. • Make sure negative feedback is documented and shared with the employee. • Don’t avoid confrontations by withholding negative feedback. • Ask the employee for a commitment to improve.

D. Terminating employment • State your reasons accurately and make sure they are objectively verifiable. • Avoid statements that might expose your company to a wrongful termination lawsuit. • Consult company lawyers to clarify all terms of the separation. • Deliver the letter in person if at all possible. • End the relationship on terms as positive as possible.

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT Hailo

As Hailo expands around the world, it faces the challenges every growing business faces. You recently joined the company as an app development manager in the New York office. Use what you’ve learned in this chapter to address the following challenges.

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: Another manager stopped by this morning with a request to borrow two of your best programmers for a three-week emergency. Under normal conditions, you wouldn’t hesitate to help, but your team has its own scheduling challenges to deal with. Plus, this isn’t the first time this manager has run into trouble, and you suspect that poor project management is the reason. In one or two sentences, diplomatically state your refusal to help while suggesting that your colleague’s management skills need to be improved.

TEAM CHALLENGE: You’ve found it easy to say yes to recommendation letter requests from former employees who were top performers, and you’ve learned to say no to those people who didn’t perform so well. The requests you struggle with are from employees in the middle—people who didn’t really excel but didn’t really cause any trouble either. You’ve just received a request from a computer systems specialist who falls smack in the middle of the middle. Unfortunately, he’s applying for a job at a firm that you know places high demands on its employees and generally hires the best of the best. He’s a great person, and you’d love to help, but in your heart you know that if by some chance he does get the job, he probably won’t last. Plus, you don’t want to get a reputation in the industry for recommending weak candidates. With your team, brainstorm a sensitive but effective buffer that will help you set the stage for the negative news.

Quick Learning Guide

KEY TERMS

buffer A neutral opening statement in an indirect negative message that establishes common ground with the reader without revealing the main idea

crisis management plan Plan that defines operational procedures to deal with a crisis, including communication tasks and responsibilities

performance review Employee evaluation procedure giving feedback on performance and guidance for future efforts

whistle-blowing Efforts by employees to report concerns about unethical or illegal behavior

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 Apply the three-step writing process to negative messages. Because the way you convey negative information can be as damaging as the fact that you’re conveying it, planning negative messages carefully is crucial. Make sure your purpose is specific, necessary, and appropriate for the medium you’ve chosen. Find out how your audience prefers to receive bad news. Collect all the facts necessary to support your negative decision, and adapt your tone to the situation as well as to your audience. Negative messages may be organized according to the direct or the indirect approach, and your choice depends on audience preference as well as on the situation. In addition, carefully choose positive words to construct diplomatic sentences. Finally, revision, design, and proofreading are necessary to ensure that you are saying exactly what you want to say in the best possible way and that careless errors don’t aggravate an already emotional situation.

2 Explain how to effectively use the direct approach effectively when conveying negative news. The direct approach to negative messages puts the bad news up front, follows with the reasons (and perhaps offers an alternative), and closes with a respectful statement that is as positive as possible under the circumstances. Use the direct approach when you know your audience prefers receiving bad news up front or if the bad news will cause readers relatively little pain or disappointment. Otherwise, use the indirect approach. Even though it is direct, however, don’t use the direct approach as a license to be rude or overly blunt.

3 Explain how to effectively use the indirect approach effectively when conveying negative news. The indirect approach for negative messages begins with a buffer (a neutral or positive statement to establish common ground with the reader), explains the reasons leading up to the decision or news, clearly states the negative news without unduly emphasizing it, and closes with a respectful statement. When using the indirect approach, you need to be careful to avoid obscuring the bad news or misleading your audience into thinking you’re actually delivering good news. The key to avoiding both problems is remembering that the purpose of the indirect approach is to cushion the blow, not to avoid delivering it. When using a buffer, you must be sure it is neither deceptive nor insincere. To write an effective buffer, look for opportunities to express your appreciation for being considered, to assure your reader of your attention to the request, or to indicate your understanding of the reader’s needs.

4 Explain the importance of maintaining high standards of ethics and etiquette when delivering negative messages. Ethics and etiquette are important in every message, of course, but they take on particular significance with negative messages for three reasons. First, the communicator often needs to adhere to a variety of laws and regulations when delivering negative messages. Second, good ethical practice demands care and sensitivity in the content and delivery of negative messages, as these messages can have a profoundly negative effect on the people who receive them. Third, communicators need to manage their own emotions when crafting and distributing negative messages while at the same time considering the emotional needs of their audiences.

5 Describe successful strategies for sending negative messages on routine business matters. When making negative announcements on routine business matters, the indirect approach is usually preferred, although the direct approach can work for minor issues. When rejecting suggestions and proposals, tailor the approach to the situation. An unsolicited proposal from an external source doesn’t need as much of your attention as a solicited proposal from an internal source, for example. For refusing routine requests, the direct approach is usually sufficient, except when the matter at hand is significant, you or your company have an established relationship with the person making the request, or you’re forced to decline a request that you might have said yes to in the past.

When conveying bad news about transactions, you need to modify the customer’s expectations, explain how you plan to resolve the situation, and repair whatever damage might have been done to the business relationship. Whether you should apologize depends in part on the magnitude of the situation and whether you previously established specific expectations about the transaction.

When refusing a claim or a request for adjustment, the indirect approach is usually preferred because the other party is emotionally involved and expects you to respond positively. Demonstrate that you understand and have carefully considered the complaint, then rationally and calmly explain why you are refusing the request.

6 List the important points to consider when conveying negative organizational news. Public communications about various organization matters fall into two categories: those you can plan for (and therefore have more time to prepare messages) and crises that hit without warning. The first category includes a variety of announcements, from relatively minor matters such as price increases to major matters such as layoffs and bankruptcy proceedings. For these messages, be sure to match your approach to the situation, consider the unique needs of each audience group, give each audience enough time to react as needed, give yourself enough time to plan and manage a response, look for positive angles but don’t exude false optimism, and seek expert advice on legal, financial, or technical matters if you’re not sure how to proceed.

To respond successfully to rumors and negative information in a social media environment, first be sure you are engaged with important stakeholders before negative situations occur. Second, monitor the conversations taking place about your company and its products. Third, when you see negative messages, evaluate them before responding. Fourth, after evaluating negative messages, take the appropriate response based on an overall public relations plan. Some messages are better ignored, whereas others should be addressed immediately with corrective information.

The second category of negative organizational news involves communication during times of crisis. Preparation is key for successful crisis management. Although you can’t anticipate the nature and circumstances of every possible crisis, you can prepare by deciding such issues as who is in charge of communications, where the press and the public can get information, and what will be said in likely emergency scenarios. A good crisis

communication plan includes such items as email and phone lists for important media contacts, website templates for various emergency scenarios, and after-hours contact information for key personnel in the company.

7 Describe successful strategies for sending negative employment-related messages. The indirect approach is usually the better choice for negative employment messages because the recipient is always emotionally involved and the decisions are usually significant. When refusing requests from other employers for performance-related information about past employees, your message can be brief and direct. Simply provide whatever information your company allows to be shared in these situations. Refusing a recommendation request directly from a former employee feels much more personal for the recipient, however, so the indirect approach is better. Responding to requests on social networks is somewhat easier because you have the option of recommending just one particular aspect of a person’s overall skill set, even if you can’t make an unqualified, overall endorsement.

Messages rejecting job applicants raise a number of emotional and legal issues and therefore must be approached with great care. Experts vary in their advice about how much information to include in these messages. However, the safest strategy is a brief message that opens with an expression of appreciation for being considered (which functions like a buffer in an indirect message), continues with a statement to the effect that the applicant was not chosen for the position applied for, and closes courteously without providing reasons for the rejection or making promises about future consideration.

Negative performance reviews should take care to document the performance problems, be sure that all employees are being evaluated consistently, be written in a calm and objective voice, and focus on opportunities for improvement. Moreover, they must be written with reference to accurate, current job descriptions that provide the basis for measuring employee performance.

Termination messages are the most challenging employment messages of all. They should clearly present the reasons for the decision, present the reasons in a way that cannot be construed as unfair or discriminatory, follow company policy and any relevant legal guidelines, and avoid personal attacks or insults of any kind. Asking a manager not directly involved in the situation to review your message can help you avoid troublesome wording or faulty reasoning. Finally, try to deliver the written message in person if possible.

MyBCommLab®

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) to complete the problems marked with this icon .

Test Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

11-1. Why is it particularly important to select your medium and channel carefully and adapt your tone to your audience’s needs and preferences when writing a negative message? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004257#P7001012451000000000000000004259)

11-2. Under what circumstances should you avoid offering explanations in negative indirect messages? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#P70010124510000000000000000042FF)

11-3. What is the sequence of presentation in a negative message that is organized using the indirect approach? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004343#P7001012451000000000000000004345)

11-4. What is a buffer, and what steps must you take to ensure that buffers you write are ethical? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004343#P7001012451000000000000000004345)

11-5. What is whistle-blowing? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#P700101245100000000000000000440E)

11-6. What steps can you take to minimize chances of being accused of defamation when refusing a claim or request for adjustment? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465)

11-7. Why is it important to be engaged with stakeholders before trying to use social media during a crisis or other negative scenario? [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502)

11-8. What is a crisis management plan? [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502)

11-9. What are the five guidelines for giving negative performance reviews? [LO-7] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P7001012451000000000000000004591)

Apply Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

11-10. Would you choose the direct or indirect approach to announce that a popular employee benefit is being eliminated for cost reasons? Why? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004257#P7001012451000000000000000004259)

11-11. Can you express sympathy with someone’s negative situation without apologizing for the circumstances? Explain your answer. [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#P70010124510000000000000000042FF)

11-12. Is intentionally deemphasizing bad news the same as distorting graphs and charts to deemphasize unfavorable data? Why or why not? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004343#P7001012451000000000000000004345)

11-13. Why is it important to be engaged with stakeholders before trying to use social media during a crisis or other negative scenario? [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502)

11-14. If your social media monitoring efforts pick up a tweet that accuses your customer service staff of lying and claims to have evidence to back it up, how would you respond? [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502)

11-15. How would you respond to a LinkedIn network connection who asks for a recommendation when you barely remember working with this person and don’t remember whether she was good at her job? [LO-7] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P7001012451000000000000000004591)

Practice Your Skills Messages for Analysis

Read the following messages, then (1) analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each sentence and (2) revise each message so that it follows this chapter’s guidelines.

11-16. Message 11.A: Sending Negative Organizational News [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502)

From: M. Juhasz, Travel & Meeting Services

To: [mailing list]

Subject: Travel

Dear Traveling Executives:

We need you to start using some of the budget suggestions we are going to issue as a separate memorandum. These include using videoconference equipment and web conferencing instead of traveling to meetings, staying in cheaper hotels, arranging flights for cheaper times, and flying from less- convenient but also less-expensive suburban airports.

The company needs to cut travel expenses by fifty percent, just as we’ve cut costs in all departments of Black & Decker. This means you’ll no longer be able to stay in fancy hotels and make last-minute, costly changes to your travel plans.

You’ll also be expected to avoid hotel surcharges for phone calls and Internet access. If the hotel you want to stay in doesn’t offer free wireless, go somewhere else. And never, NEVER return a rental car with an empty tank! That causes the rental agency to charge us a premium price for the gas they sell when they fill it up upon your return.

You’ll be expected to make these changes in your travel habits immediately.

Sincerely,

M. Juhasz

Travel & Meeting Services

11-17. Message 11.B: Refusing Requests for Claims and Adjustments [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465)

I am responding to your letter of about six weeks ago asking for an adjustment on your wireless hub, model WM39Z. We test all our products before they leave the factory; therefore, it could not have been our fault that your hub didn’t work.

If you or someone in your office dropped the unit, it might have caused the damage. Or the damage could have been caused by the shipper if he dropped it. If so, you should file a claim with the shipper. At any rate, it wasn’t our fault. The parts are already covered by warranty. However, we will provide labor for the repairs for $50, which is less than our cost, since you are a valued customer.

We will have a booth at the upcoming trade show there and hope to see you or someone from your office. We have many new models of hubs, routers, and other computer gear that we’re sure you’ll want to see. I’ve enclosed our latest catalog. Hope to see you there.

11-18. Message 11.C: Rejecting Job Applications [LO-7] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P7001012451000000000000000004591)

I regret to inform you that you were not selected for our summer intern program at Equifax. We had over a thousand résumés and cover letters to go through and simply could not get to them all. We have been asked to notify everyone that we have already selected students for the 25 positions based on those who applied early and were qualified.

We’re sure you will be able to find a suitable position for summer work in your field and wish you the best of luck. We deeply regret any inconvenience associated with our reply.

Exercises

Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

Planning: Choosing the Direct or Indirect Approach [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004257#P7001012451000000000000000004259) Select which approach you would use (direct or indirect) for the following negative messages.

11-19. An email message to your boss, informing her that one of your key clients is taking its business to a different accounting firm 11-20. An email message to a customer, informing her that one of the books she ordered over the Internet is temporarily out of stock

11-21. An instant message to a customer, explaining that the DVD recorder he ordered for his new computer is on backorder and that, as a consequence, the shipping of the entire order will be delayed 11-22. A blog post to all employees, notifying them that the company parking lot will be repaved during the first week of June and that the company will provide a shuttle service from a remote parking lot during that period 11-23. A letter from a travel agent to a customer, stating that the airline will not refund her money for the flight she missed but that her tickets are valid for one year 11-24. A form letter from a U.S. airline to a customer, explaining that the company cannot extend the expiration date of the customer’s frequent flyer miles even though the customer was living overseas for the past three years and unable to use the miles during that time 11-25. A letter from an insurance company to a policyholder, denying a claim for reimbursement for a special medical procedure that is not covered under the terms of the customer’s policy 11-26. A letter from an electronics store, stating that the customer will not be reimbursed for a malfunctioning mobile phone that is still under warranty (because the terms of the warranty do not cover damages to phones that were accidentally dropped from a moving car) 11-27. An announcement to the repairs department, listing parts that are on backorder and will be three weeks late 11-28. Message Strategies: Refusing Routine Requests [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#P700101245100000000000000000440E) As a customer service supervisor for a mobile phone company, you’re in charge of responding to customers’ requests for refunds. You’ve just received an email from a customer who unwittingly ran up a $550 bill for data charges after forgetting to disable his smartphone’s Wi-Fi hotspot feature. The customer says it wasn’t his fault because he didn’t know his roommates were using his phone to get free Internet access. However, you’ve dealt with this situation before and provided a notice to all customers to be careful about excess data charges resulting from the use of the hotspot capability. Draft a short buffer (one or two sentences) for your email reply, sympathizing with the customer’s plight but preparing him for the bad news (that company policy specifically prohibits refunds in such cases).

Etiquette: Communicating with Sensitivity and Tact; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#P700101245100000000000000000440E) Working alone, revise the following statements to deemphasize the bad news. Then team up with a classmate and read each other’s revisions. Did you both use the same approach in every case? Which approach seems to be most effective for each of the revised statements?

11-29. The airline can’t refund your money. The “Conditions” section on the back of your ticket states that there are no refunds for missed flights. Sometimes the airline makes exceptions, but only when life and death are involved. Of course, your ticket is still valid and can be used on a flight to the same destination. 11-30. I’m sorry to tell you, we can’t supply the custom decorations you requested. We called every supplier, and none of them can do what you want on such short notice. You can, however, get a standard decorative package on the same theme in time. I found a supplier that stocks these. Of course, it won’t have quite the flair you originally requested. 11-31. We can’t refund your money for the malfunctioning MP3 player. You shouldn’t have immersed the unit in water while swimming; the users’ manual clearly states that the unit is not designed to be used in adverse environments. 11-32. Communication Ethics [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#P700101245100000000000000000440E) The insurance company where you work is planning to raise all premiums for health-care coverage. Your boss has asked you to read a draft of her letter to customers announcing the new, higher rates. The first two paragraphs discuss some exciting medical advances and the expanded coverage offered by your company. Only in the final paragraph do customers learn that they will have to pay more for coverage starting next year. What are the ethical implications of this draft? What changes would you suggest? 11-33. Sending Negative Organizational News [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502)

Public companies occasionally need to issue news releases to announce or explain downturns in sales, profits, demand, or other business factors. Search the web to locate a company that has issued a press release that recently reported lower earnings or other bad news and access the news release on the firm’s website. You can also search for press releases at www.prnewswire.com (http://www.prnewswire.com) or www.businesswire.com (http://www.businesswire.com) . How does the headline relate to the main message of the release? Is the release organized according to the direct or the indirect approach? What does the company do to present the bad news in a favorable light—and does this effort seem sincere and ethical to you?

Expand Your Skills Critique the Professionals

Locate an example online of a negative-news message from any company. Possible examples include announcements of product recalls, poor financial results, layoffs, and fines or other legal troubles. Analyze the approach the company took; was it the most effective strategy possible? Did the company apologize, if doing so would have been appropriate under the circumstances, and does the apology seem sincere? Does the tone of the message match the seriousness of the situation? Does the message end on a positive note, if appropriate? Using whatever medium your instructor requests, write a brief analysis of the message (no more than one page), citing specific elements from the piece and support from the chapter.

Sharpening Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) , is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, article, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on writing messages that convey negative information. Write a brief email message to your instructor, describing the item you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

Cases

For all cases, feel free to use your creativity to make up any details you need in order to craft effective messages.

Negative Messages on Routine Business Matters EMAIL SKILLS

11-34. Message Strategies: Rejecting Suggestions and Proposals; Communication Ethics: Making Ethical Choices [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) Knowing how much online product reviews can shape consumer behavior, the other cofounder of your company has just circulated an internal email message with the not-so-subtle hint that everyone in your small start-up should pose as happy customers and post glowing reviews of your new product on Amazon and other shopping sites. You’re horrified at the idea—not only is this highly unethical, but if (or more likely when) the scheme is exposed, the company’s reputation will be severely damaged.

Your task: You would prefer to address this in a private conversation, but because your partner has already pitched the idea to everyone via email, you have no choice but to respond via email as well. You need to act quickly before anyone acts on the suggestion. Write a response explaining why this is a bad idea and telling employees not to do it. Keep in mind that you are chastising your business partner in front of all your employees. Make up any names or other details you need.

MICROBLOGGING SKILLS

11-35. Message Strategies: Making Routine Negative Announcements [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) Professional musicians do everything they can to keep the show going, particularly for tours that are scheduled months in advance. However, illness and other unforeseeable circumstances can force an act to cancel shows, even after all the tickets have been sold.

Your task: Choose one of your favorite musical acts and assume that you are the tour manager who needs to tell 25,000 fans that an upcoming concert must be canceled because of illness. Ticket holders can apply for a refund at the artist’s website or keep their tickets for a future concert date, which will be identified and announced as soon as possible. Write two tweets, one announcing the cancelation and one outlining the options for ticket holders. Make up any information you need, and send your tweets to your instructor via email (don’t actually tweet them!).

EMAIL SKILLS

11-36. Message Strategies: Rejecting Suggestions and Proposals [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) Imagine that you are the president of a student club or some other campus group that is unaffiliated with any larger national or international organization. (It can be any type of organization—recreational, charitable, academic, cultural, professional, or social—but try to use a real organization, even if you aren’t a member.) You’ve just received a message from someone who is the president of a similar club in another college or university, proposing to form a national organizational structure. Her proposal has some appealing aspects, including unified branding and recruiting, the opportunity to share best practices, and the chance to socialize with and learn from like-minded students across the country. However, after talking it over with some of your members, you decide it’s not right for you. You believe that the time, trouble, and costs of being part of a national organization would outweigh the benefits it could offer.

Your task: Draft an email response politely declining the offer.

EMAIL SKILLS

11-37. Message Strategies: Rejecting Suggestions and Proposals [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) Walter Joss is one of the best employees in your department, a smart and hard worker with a keen mind for business. His upbeat attitude has helped the entire department get through some recent rough times, and on a personal level, his wise counsel helped you grow into a leadership role when you were promoted to marketing manager several years ago.

You generally welcome Joss’s input on the department’s operations, and you have implemented several of his ideas to improve the company’s marketing efforts. However, the proposal he emailed you yesterday was not his best work, to put it mildly. He proposed that the company dump the advertising agency it has used for a decade and replace it with some new agency you’ve never heard of. The only reasons he offered were that the agency “had become unresponsive” and that a “smaller agency could meet our needs better.” He failed to address any of the other criteria that are used to select advertising agencies, such as costs, creative skills, technical abilities, geographic reach, research capabilities, and media experience.

This is the first you’ve heard any criticism of the agency, and in fact, their work has helped your company increase sales every year.

Your task: Draft an email message to Joss, rejecting his proposal. (Note that in a real-life setting, you would want to discuss this with Joss in person, rather than through email, but use email for the purposes of this exercise.)

EMAIL SKILLS

11-38. Message Strategies: Making Routine Negative Announcements [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) You’ve been proud of many things your gardening tool company has accomplished as it grew from just you working in your basement shop to a nationally known company that employs more than 200 people. However, nothing made you prouder than the company’s Helping Our Hometown Grow program, in which employees volunteer on company time to help residents in your city start their own vegetable gardens, using tools donated by the company. Nearly 50 employees participated directly, helping some 500 families supplement their grocery budgets with home-grown produce. Virtually everyone in the company contributed, though, because employees who didn’t volunteer to help in the gardens pitched in to cover the work responsibilities of the volunteers.

Sadly, 10 years after you launched the program, you have reached the inescapable conclusion that the company can no longer afford to keep the program going. With consumers around the country still struggling with the aftereffects of a deep recession, sales have been dropping for the past three

years—even as lower-cost competitors step up their presence in the market. To save the program, you would have to lay off several employees, but your employees come first.

Your task: Write an email to the entire company, announcing the cancellation of the program.

TELEPHONE SKILLS

11-39. Message Strategies: Making Routine Negative Announcements [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) Vail Products of Toledo, Ohio, manufactured a line of beds for use in hospitals and other institutions that have a need to protect patients who might otherwise fall out of bed and injure themselves (including patients with cognitive impairments or patterns of spasms or seizures). These “enclosed bed systems” use a netted canopy to keep patients in bed rather than the traditional method of using physical restraints such as straps or tranquilizing drugs. The intent is humane, but the design is flawed: At least 30 patients have become trapped in the various parts of the mattress and canopy structure, and 8 of them have suffocated.

Working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Vail issued a recall on the beds, as manufacturers often do in the case of unsafe products. However, the recall is not really a recall. Vail will not be replacing or modifying the beds, nor will it accept returns. Instead, the company is urging institutions to move patients to other beds, if possible. Vail has also sent out revised manuals and warning labels to be placed on the beds. The company also announced that it is ceasing production of enclosed beds.

Your task: A flurry of phone calls from concerned patients, family members, and institutional staff is overwhelming the support staff. As a writer in Vail’s corporate communications office, you’ve been asked to draft a short script to be recorded on the company’s phone system. When people call the main number, they’ll hear “Press 1 for information regarding the recall of Model 500, Model 1000, and Model 2000 enclosed beds.” After they press 1, they’ll hear the message you’re about to write, explaining that although the action is classified as a recall, Vail will not be accepting returned beds, nor will it replace any of the affected beds. The message should also assure customers that Vail has already sent revised operating manuals and warning labels to every registered owner of the beds in question. The phone system has limited memory, and you’ve been directed to keep the message to 75 words or

less.24 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004844)

MICROBLOGGING SKILLS

11-40. Message Strategies: Making Routine Negative Announcements [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) JetBlue was one of the first companies to incorporate the Twitter microblogging service into its customer communications, and thousands of fliers and fans now follow the airline’s tweeting staff members. Messages include announcements about fare sales, celebrations of company milestones, schedule

updates, and even personalized responses to people who tweet with questions or complaints about the company.25

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004846)

Your task: Write a tweet alerting JetBlue customers to the possibility that Hurricane Isaac might disrupt flight schedules from August 13 through August 15. Tell them that decisions about delays and cancellations will be made on a city-by-city basis and will be announced on Twitter and the company’s website.

BLOGGING SKILLS

11-41. Message Strategies: Making Routine Negative Announcements [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) Marketing specialists usually celebrate when target audiences forward their messages to friends and family—essentially acting as unpaid advertising and sales representatives. In fact, the practice of viral marketing is based on this hope. For one Starbucks regional office, however, viral marketing started to make the company just a bit sick. The office sent employees in the Southeast an email coupon for a free iced drink and invited them to share the coupon with family and friends. To the surprise of virtually no one who understands the nature of online life, the email coupon multiplied rapidly, to the point that Starbucks stores all around the country were quickly overwhelmed with requests for free drinks. The company decided to immediately terminate the

free offer, a month ahead of the expiration date on the coupon.26

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P7001012451000000000000000004848)

Your task: Write a one-paragraph message that can be posted on the Starbucks website and at individual stores, apologizing for the mix-up and explaining that the offer is no longer valid.

EMAIL SKILLS

11-42. Message Strategies: Refusing Claims and Requests for Adjustment [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) Your company markets a line of rugged smartphone cases designed to protect the sensitive devices from drops, spills, and other common accidents. Your guarantee states that you will reimburse customers for the cost of a new phone if the case fails to protect it from any of the following: (a) a drop of no more than 6 feet onto any surface; (b) spills of any beverage or common household chemical; (c) being crushed by any object weighing up to 100 pounds; or (d) being chewed on by dogs, cats, or other common household pets.

Jack Simmons, a rancher from Wyoming, emailed your customer support staff, requesting a reimbursement after he dropped his iPhone in his hog barn and a 900-pound boar crushed it in a single bite.

Your task: Write an email response to the customer, denying his request for a new phone.

PODCASTING SKILLS

11-43. Message Strategies: Negative Announcements on Routine Matters [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) An employee concierge seemed like a great idea when you added it as an employee benefit last year. The concierge handles a wide variety of personal chores for employees, everything from dropping off dry cleaning to ordering event tickets to sending flowers. Employees love the service, and you know that the time they save can be devoted to work or family activities. Unfortunately, profits are way down and concierge usage is up—up so far that you’ll need to add a second concierge to keep up with the demand. As painful as it will be for everyone, you decide that the company needs to stop offering the service.

Your task: Script a brief podcast announcing the decision and explaining why it is necessary. Make up any details you need. If your instructor asks you to do so, record your podcast and submit the file.

EMAIL SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

11-44. Message Strategies: Negative Announcements on Routine Matters [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) You can certainly sympathize with employees when they complain about having their email and instant messages monitored, but you’re implementing a company policy that all employees agree to abide by when they join the company. Your firm, Webcor Builders of San Francisco, California, is one of the estimated 60 percent of U.S. companies with such monitoring systems in place. More and more companies use these systems (which typically operate by scanning messages for keywords that suggest confidential, illegal, or otherwise inappropriate content) in an attempt to avoid instances of sexual harassment and other problems.

As the chief information officer, the manager in charge of computer systems in the company, you’re often the target when employees complain about being monitored. Consequently, you know you’re really going to hear it when employees learn that the monitoring program will be expanded to personal blogs as well.

Your task: Write an email message to be distributed to the entire workforce, explaining that the automated monitoring program is about to be expanded to include employees’ personal blogs. Explain that, while you sympathize with employee concerns regarding privacy and freedom of speech, it is the management team’s responsibility to protect the company’s intellectual property and the value of the company name. Therefore employees’ personal blogs will be added to the monitoring system to ensure that employees don’t intentionally or accidentally expose company secrets or criticize

management in a way that could harm the company.27

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P700101245100000000000000000484A)

SOCIAL NETWORKING SKILLS

11-45. Message Strategies: Rejecting Suggestions and Proposals [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) All companies love product enthusiasts, those customers who are such fans that their activities help the company market its products and support its customers. Enthusiasts of a particular company or product often join owners groups or user groups to network, share ideas, and support one another. These groups can be sponsored by the company or entirely independent. Social media are a natural forum for product enthusiasts as they meet online to share tips, tricks, rumors about upcoming products, and the pros and cons of various products, as well as provide feedback to the companies that make the products they use and enjoy.

Imagine you’re on the social media team for Android, the operating system made by Google that is used in more than a billion mobile devices. With nearly 2 billion likes, the Android Facebook page is a popular online destination for Android smartphone and tablet users. After posting an item about some new software features, you get a comment from Shauna Roberts, who has commented on hundreds of posts over the past few years. She is definitely an Android enthusiast and has helped many other users with technical support issues—and helped the Android team with a number of great product suggestions.

Today she has a proposal for you: She wants Google to start paying the top commenters on the Android Facebook page, in return for the work they do to help both customers and the company. Her argument is that Google benefits from the enthusiasts’ time and expertise, so it would be fair to offer some modest compensation in return.

Your task: Draft a response that you could post on the company’s Facebook page in response to this proposal. The idea has come up before, and the company’s response has always been that paying enthusiasts for social media activity, even if it helps the company through word-of-mouth marketing and lower support costs, would be too difficult to manage. First, judging the relative value of thousands of comments would be next to impossible. Second, quantity doesn’t necessarily mean quality when it comes to sharing technical information. And third, the administrative and contractual overhead needed

to make these work-for-hire relationships legal and legitimate would be overwhelming.28

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#P700101245100000000000000000484C)

LETTER-WRITING SKILLS

11-46.  Message Strategies: Negative Announcements on Routine Matters [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) Your company, PolicyPlan Insurance Services, is a 120-employee insurance claims processor based in Milwaukee. PolicyPlan has engaged Midwest Sparkleen for interior and exterior cleaning for the past five years. Midwest Sparkleen did exemplary work for the first four years, but after a change of ownership last year, the level of service has plummeted. Offices are no longer cleaned thoroughly, you’ve had to call the company at least six times to remind them to take care of spills and other messes they’re supposed to address routinely, and they’ve left toxic cleaning chemicals in a public hallway on several occasions. You have spoken with the owner about your concerns twice in the past three months, but his assurances that service would improve have not resulted in any noticeable improvements. When the evening cleaning crew forgot to lock the lobby door last Thursday—leaving your entire facility vulnerable to theft from midnight until 8:00 Friday morning—you decided it was time for a change.

Your task: Write a letter to Jason Allred, owner of Midwest Sparkleen, 4000 South Howell Avenue, Milwaukee, WI, 53207, telling him that PolicyPlan will not be renewing its annual cleaning contract with Midwest Sparkleen when the current contract expires at the end of this month. Cite the examples identified above, and keep the tone of your letter professional.

LETTER-WRITING SKILLS

11-47. Message Strategies: Negative Announcements on Routine Matters [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) You enjoy helping other people learn, and your part-time work as a tutor for high school students has brought in some much-needed income during the past two years. You pride yourself on giving everything you can to help every one of your clients, but you’ve reached the end of the line with Drew Whitechapel. You know he has the ability, but he refuses to take tutoring seriously and continues to get failing grades in his American History class. You know he isn’t getting much value from your tutoring, and you would rather devote your time and energy to a more serious student.

Your task: Write a letter to Drew’s parents, explaining that you will no longer be able to tutor him after this month. (They’ve already paid you for this month’s sessions.)

Negative Organizational News MICROBLOGGING SKILLS

11-48. Message Strategies: Responding to Rumors [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502) Sheila Elliot, a well-known actress, appeared on a national talk show last night and claimed that your company’s Smoothstone cookware was responsible for her toddler’s learning disability. Elliot claimed that the nonstick surfaces of Smoothstone pots and pans contain a dangerous chemical that affected her child’s cognitive development. There’s just one problem with her story—well, three problems, actually: (a) your company’s cookware line is called Moonstone, not Smoothstone; (b) Moonstone does not contain and never has contained the chemical Elliot mentioned; and (c) the product she is really thinking of was called Smoothfire, which was made by another company and was pulled off the market five years ago.

Thousands of worried parents aren’t waiting for the fact checkers, however. They took to the blogosphere and Twittersphere with a vengeance overnight, warning people to throw away anything made by your company (Tatum Housewares). Several television stations have already picked up the Twitter chatter and repeated the rumor. Retailers are already calling your sales staff to cancel orders.

Your task: Write a three-message sequence to be posted on your company’s Twitter account, correcting the rumor and conveying the three points outlined above.

BLOGGING SKILLS

11-49. Message Strategies: Negative Organizational Announcements [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502) XtremityPlus is known for its outlandish extreme-sports products, and the Looney Launch is no exception. Fulfilling the dream of every childhood daredevil, the Looney Launch is an aluminum and fiberglass contraption that quickly unfolds to create the ultimate bicycle jump. The product has been selling as fast as you can make it, even though it comes plastered with warning labels proclaiming that its use is inherently dangerous.

As XtremityPlus’s CEO, you were nervous about introducing this product, and your fears were just confirmed: You’ve been notified of the first lawsuit by a parent whose child broke several bones after crash-landing off a Looney Launch.

Your task: Write a post for your internal blog, explaining that the Looney Launch is being removed from the market immediately. Tell your employees to expect some negative reactions from enthusiastic customers and retailers, but explain that (a) the company can’t afford the risk of additional lawsuits, and (b) even for XtremityPlus, the Looney Launch pushes the envelope a bit too far. The product is simply too dangerous to sell in good conscience.

BLOGGING SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

11-50. Message Strategies: Communicating in a Crisis [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502) One of your company’s worst nightmares has just come true. EQ Industrial Services (EQIS), based in Wayne, Michigan, operates a number of facilities around the country that dispose of, recycle, and transport hazardous chemical wastes. Last night, explosions and fires broke out at the company’s Apex, North Carolina, facility, forcing the evacuation of 17,000 local residents.

Your task: It’s now Friday, the day after the fire. Write a brief post for the company’s blog, covering the following points:

• A fire broke out at the Apex facility at approximately 10 P.M. Thursday. • No one was in the facility at the time. • Because of the diverse nature of the materials stored at the plant, the cause of the fire is not yet known. • Rumors that the facility stores extremely dangerous chlorine gas and that the fire was spreading to other nearby businesses are not true. • Special industrial firefighters hired by EQIS have already brought the fire under control. • Residents in the immediate area were evacuated as a precaution, and they should be able to return to their homes tomorrow, pending

permission from local authorities. • Several dozen residents were admitted to local hospitals with complaints of breathing problems, but most have been released already; about a

dozen emergency responders were treated as well. • At this point (Friday afternoon), tests conducted by the North Carolina State Department of Environment and Natural Resources “had not

detected anything out of the ordinary in the air.”

Conclude by thanking the local police and fire departments for their assistance and directing readers to EQIS’s toll-free hot line for more information.29

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BLOGGING SKILLS

11-51. Message Strategies: Responding to Rumors and Public Criticism [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502) Spreading FUD—fear, uncertainty, and doubt—about other companies is one of the less-honorable ways of dealing with competition in the business world. For example, someone can start a “whisper campaign” in the marketplace, raising fears that a particular company is struggling financially. Customers who don’t want to risk future instability in their supply chains might then shift their purchasing away from the company, based on nothing more than the false rumor.

Your task: Find the website of any company that seems interesting. Imagine you are the CEO and the company is the subject of an online rumor about impending bankruptcy. Explore the website to get a basic feel for what the company does. Making up any information you need, write a post for the company’s blog, explaining that the bankruptcy rumors are false and that the company is on solid financial ground and plans to keep serving the industry for many years to come. (Be sure to review page 309 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#page_309) for tips.)

SOCIAL NETWORKING SKILLS

11-52. Message Strategies: Responding to Rumors and Public Criticism [LO-6] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#P7001012451000000000000000004502) The consumer reviews on Yelp can be a promotional boon to any local business—provided the reviews are positive, of course. Negative reviews, fair or not, can affect a company’s reputation and drive away potential customers. Fortunately for business owners, sites like Yelp give them the means to respond to reviews, whether they want to apologize for poor service, offer some form of compensation, or correct misinformation in a review.

Your task: Search Yelp for a negative review (one or two stars) on any business in any city. Find a review that has some substance to it, not just a simple, angry rant. Now imagine you are the owner of that business, and write a reply that could be posted via the “Add Owner Comment” feature. Use information you find on Yelp about the company and fill in any details by using your imagination. Remember that your comment will be visible to everyone who visits Yelp. (Be sure to review page 309 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#page_309) for tips.)

Negative Employment Messages SOCIAL NETWORKING SKILLS/EMAIL SKILLS

11-53. Message Strategies: Refusing Requests for Recommendations [LO-7] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P7001012451000000000000000004591) You’re delighted to get a message from an old friend and colleague, Heather Lang. You’re delighted right up to the moment you read her request that you write a recommendation about her web design and programming skills for your LinkedIn profile. You would do just about anything for Lang—anything except recommend her web design skills. She is a master programmer whose technical wizardry saved more client projects than you can count, but when it comes to artistic design, Lang simply doesn’t have “it.” From gaudy color schemes to unreadable type treatment to confusing layouts, her design sense is as weak as her technical acumen is strong.

Your task: First, write a brief email to Lang, explaining that you would be most comfortable highlighting her technical skills because that is where you believe her true strengths lie. Second, write a two-sentence recommendation that you could include in your LinkedIn profile, recommending Lang’s technical skills. Make up or research any details you need.

TELEPHONE SKILLS

11-54. Message Strategies: Terminating Employment [LO-7] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P7001012451000000000000000004591) As the human resources manager at Alion Science and Technology, a military research firm in McLean, Virginia, you were thrilled when one of the nation’s top computer visualization specialists accepted your job offer. Claus Gunnstein’s skills would have made a major contribution to Alion’s work in designing flight simulators and other systems. Unfortunately, the day after he accepted the offer, Alion received news that a major Pentagon contract had been canceled. In addition to letting several dozen current employees know that the company will be forced to lay them off, you need to tell Gunnstein that Alion has no choice but to rescind the job offer.

Your task: Outline the points you’ll need to make in a telephone call to Gunnstein. Pay special attention to your opening and closing statements. (You’ll review your plans for the phone call with Alion’s legal staff to make sure everything you say follows employment law guidelines; for now, just focus on

the way you’ll present the negative news to Gunnstein. Feel free to make up any details you need.)30

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EMAIL SKILLS

11-55. Message Strategies: Refusing Requests for Recommendations [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#P7001012451000000000000000004465) Well, this is awkward. Daniel Sturgis, who quit last year just as you were planning to fire him for consistently failing to meet agreed-on performance targets, has just emailed you from his new job, asking for a recommendation. He says his new job is awful and he regrets leaving your company. He knows you don’t have any openings, but he would be grateful for a recommendation.

Your task: Write an email message to Sturgis, explaining that you will not be able to write him a recommendation. Make up any details you need.

MESSAGING SKILLS/MOBILE SKILLS

11-56. Message Strategies: Refusing Requests for Recommendations [LO-7] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P7001012451000000000000000004591) Your classmates could end up being important business contacts as you all progress through your careers. Of course, this also means you might be asked

for favors that you’re not comfortable giving, such as providing recommendations for someone whose skills or other attributes you don’t admire. Choose a person who was in a course you recently took and imagine that a few years after graduation he or she texts you with a request for a job recommendation letter. You’ve kept in touch socially, at least online, and would like to continue to do so, but your memory of this person’s professional potential is more negative than positive. (Make up any combination of negative traits, such as failing to contribute to team projects, giving up quickly in the face of adversity, struggling to understand basic concepts, or other limitations.)

Your task: You’ve decided to decline the request, so now you must figure out how to phrase your response. Draft a response that you could send in this scenario, making up any information you need. Don’t use the person’s real name and don’t include any information that your instructor or anyone else could use to identify the person, but imagine that you are in fact writing to this individual. You’re on a compatible mobile service that doesn’t limit the length of text messages, but remember that your message will be read on a small mobile screen. Email your response to your instructor.

MEMO-WRITING SKILLS/PORTFOLIO BUILDER

11-57. Message Strategies: Negative Performance Reviews [LO-7] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#P7001012451000000000000000004591)

Elaine Bridgewater, the former professional golfer you hired to oversee your golf equipment company’s relationship with retailers, knows the business inside and out. As a former touring pro, she has unmatched credibility. She also has seemingly boundless energy, solid technical knowledge, and an engaging personal style. Unfortunately, she hasn’t been quite as attentive as she needs to be when it comes to communicating with retailers. You’ve been getting complaints about voicemail messages gone unanswered for days, confusing emails that require two or three rounds of clarification, and reports that are haphazardly thrown together. As valuable as Bridgewater’s other skills are, she’s going to cost the company sales if this goes on much longer. The retail channel is vital to your company’s survival, and she’s the employee most involved in this channel.

Your task: Draft a brief (one page maximum) informal performance appraisal and improvement plan for Bridgewater. Be sure to compliment her on the areas in which she excels but don’t shy away from highlighting the areas in which she needs to improve, too: punctual response to customer messages; clear writing; and careful revision, production, and proofreading. Use what you’ve learned in this course so far to supply any additional advice about the importance of these skills.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

11-58. What are three techniques for deemphasizing negative news? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004343#P7001012451000000000000000004345)

11-59. Why should a company view employee whistle-blowing as a positive information resource, even if it subjects the company to potential legal trouble? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#P700101245100000000000000000440E)

Endnotes

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004228#rP7001012451000000000000000004815) . Hailo website, accessed 13 April 2016, www.hailoapp.com (http://www.hailoapp.com) ; email from Hailo dated 29 October 2013; Natasha Lomas, “Hailo Ups Its Minimum Fare in London to £10, Triggers Licensing Complaints,” 31 October 2013, TechCrunch, techcrunch.com (http://techcrunch.com) .

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#rP7001012451000000000000000004817) . Maurice E. Schweitzer, Alison Wood Brooks, and Adam D. Galinsky, “The Organizational Apology,” Harvard Business Review, September 2015, hbr.org (http://hbr.org) ; Adrienne Carter and Amy Borrus, “What if Companies Fessed Up?” BusinessWeek, 24 January 2005, 59–60; Patrick J. Kiger, “The Art of the Apology,” Workforce Management, October 2004, 57–62.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#rP7001012451000000000000000004819) . Schweitzer, Brooks, and Galinsky, “The Organizational Apology.”

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#rP700101245100000000000000000481B) . John Guiniven, “Sorry! An Apology as a Strategic PR Tool,” Public Relations Tactics, December 2007, 6.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000042fd#rP700101245100000000000000000481D) . Quinn Warnick, “A Close Textual Analysis of Corporate Layoff Memos,” Business Communication Quarterly, September 2010, 322–326.

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#rP700101245100000000000000000481F) . “Advice from the Pros on the Best Way to Deliver Bad News,” report on Customer Relationship Management, 1 February 2003, www.elibrary.com (http://www.elibrary.com) .

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#rP7001012451000000000000000004821) . Ben Levisohn, “Getting More Workers to Whistle,” BusinessWeek, 28 January 2008, 18.

8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#rP7001012451000000000000000004823) . “Less Than Half of Privately Held Businesses Support Whistleblowing,” Grant Thornton website, accessed 13 October 2008, www.internationalbusinessreport.com (http://www.internationalbusinessreport.com) .

9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000440c#rP7001012451000000000000000004825) . Steve Karnowski, “New Food Safety Law Protects Whistleblowers,” Bloomberg Businessweek, 11 February 2011, www.businessweek.com (http://www.businessweek.com) .

10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004463#rP7001012451000000000000000004827) . Christopher Elliott, “7 Ways Smart Companies Tell Customers ‘No,’” CBS Money Watch, 7 June 2011, www.cbsnews.com (http://www.cbsnews.com) .

11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#rP7001012451000000000000000004829) . Micah Solomon, “Mean Tweets: Managing Customer Complaints,” CNBC, 22 February 2012, www.cnbc.com (http://www.cnbc.com) ; “When Fans Attack: How to Defend a Brand’s Reputation Online,” Crenshaw Communications blog, 20 May 2010, crenshawcomm.com (http://crenshawcomm.com) ; Leslie Gaines-Ross, “Reputation Warfare,” Harvard Business Review, December 2010, 70–76; David Meerman Scott, “The US Air Force: Armed with Social Media,” WebInkNow blog, 15 December 2008, www.webinknow.com (http://www.webinknow.com) ; Matt Rhodes, “How to React If Somebody Writes About Your Brand Online,” FreshNetworks blog, 9 January 2009, www.freshnetworks.com (http://www.freshnetworks.com) ; Matt Rhodes, “Social Media as a Crisis Management Tool,” Social Media Today blog, 21 December 2009, www.socialmediatoday.com (http://www.socialmediatoday.com) .

12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004500#rP700101245100000000000000000482B) . Courtland L. Bovée, John V. Thill, George P. Dovel, and Marian Burk Wood, Advertising Excellence (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995), 508–509; John Holusha, “Exxon’s Public- Relations Problem,” New York Times, 12 April 1989, D1.

13 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP700101245100000000000000000482D) . Omowale Casselle, “Really, You Want ME to Write YOU a LinkedIn Recommendation,” RecruitingBlogs, 22 April 2010, www.recruitingblogs.com (http://www.recruitingblogs.com) .

14 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP700101245100000000000000000482F) . “LinkedIn Profiles to Career Introductions: When You Can’t Recommend Your Friend,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer Personal Finance blog, 16 November 2010, blog.seattlepi.com (http://blog.seattlepi.com) .

15 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP7001012451000000000000000004831) . Neal Schaffer, “How Should I Deal with a LinkedIn Recommendation Request I Don’t Want to Give?” Social Web School, 20 January 2010, humancapitalleague.com (http://humancapitalleague.com) .

16 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP7001012451000000000000000004833) . Dawn Wolf, “Job Applicant Rejection Letter Dos and Donts—Writing an Appropriate ‘Dear John’ Letter to an Unsuccessful Applicant,” 31 May 2009, Employment Blawg.com (http://Blawg.com) , www.employmentblawg.com (http://www.employmentblawg.com) .

17 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP7001012451000000000000000004836) . Wolf, “Job Applicant Rejection Letter Dos and Donts”; “Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices,” U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accessed 14 July 2010, www.eeoc.gov (http://www.eeoc.gov) ; Susan M. Heathfield, “Candidate Rejection Letter,” About.com (http://About.com) , accessed 14 July 2010, humanresources.about.com (http://humanresources.about.com) ; “Rejection Letters Under Scrutiny: 7 Do’s & Don’ts,” Business Management Daily, 1 April 2009, www.businessmanagementdaily.com (http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com) .

18 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP7001012451000000000000000004838) . Judi Brownell, “The Performance Appraisal Interviews: A Multipurpose Communication Assignment,” Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication 57, no. 2 (1994): 11 –21.

19 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP700101245100000000000000000483A) . Susan Friedfel, “Protecting Yourself in the Performance Review Process,” Workforce Management, April 2009, www.workforce.com (http://www.workforce.com) .

20 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP700101245100000000000000000483C) . Kelly Spors, “Why Performance Reviews Don’t Work—And What You Can Do About It,” Independent Street blog, Wall Street Journal, 21 October 2008, blogs.wsj.com (http://blogs.wsj.com) .

21 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP700101245100000000000000000483E) . Rita Pyrillis, “Is Your Performance Review Underperforming?” Workforce Management, May 2011, 20–22, 24–25.

22 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP7001012451000000000000000004840) . Friedfel, “Protecting Yourself in the Performance Review Process.”

23 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000458f#rP7001012451000000000000000004842) . E. Michelle Bohreer and Todd J. Zucker, “Five Mistakes Managers Make When Terminating Employees,” Texas Lawyer, 2 May 2006, www.law.com (http://www.law.com) ; Deborah Muller, “The Right Things to Do to Avoid Wrongful Termination Claims,” Workforce Management, October 2008, www.workforce.com (http://www.workforce.com) ; Maria Greco Danaher, “Termination: Telling an Employee,” Workforce Management, accessed 14 July 2010, www.workforce.com (http://www.workforce.com) .

24 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#rP7001012451000000000000000004844) . “FDA Notifies Public That Vail Products, Inc., Issues Nationwide Recall of Enclosed Bed Systems,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration press release, 30 June 2005, www.fda.gov (http://www.fda.gov) .

25 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#rP7001012451000000000000000004846) . Twitter/JetBlue website, accessed 29 October 2008, twitter.com/JetBlue (http://twitter.com/JetBlue) .

26 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#rP7001012451000000000000000004848) . “Viral Effect of Email Promotion,” Alka Dwivedi blog, accessed 19 October 2006, www.alkadwivedi.net (http://www.alkadwivedi.net) ; Teresa Valdez Klein, “Starbucks Makes a Viral Marketing Misstep,” Blog Business Summit website, accessed 19 October 2006, www.blogbusinesssummit.com (http://www.blogbusinesssummit.com) .

27 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#rP700101245100000000000000000484A) . Pui-Wing Tam, Erin White, Nick Wingfield, and Kris Maher, “Snooping Email by Software Is Now a Workplace Norm,” Wall Street Journal, 9 March 2005, B1+.

28 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#rP700101245100000000000000000484C) . This scenario, and all the information presented in this case, is fictitious.

29 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#rP700101245100000000000000000484E) . Environmental Quality Company press releases, accessed 27 October 2006, www.eqonline.com (http://www.eqonline.com) ; “N.C. Residents to Return After Fire,” Science Daily, 6 October 2006, www.sciencedaily.com (http://www.sciencedaily.com) ; “Hazardous Waste Plant Fire in N.C. Forces 17,000 to Evacuate,” FOX News, 6 October 2006, www.foxnews.com (http://www.foxnews.com) .

30 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000464b#rP7001012451000000000000000004850) . Alion website, accessed 19 August 2005, www.alionscience.com (http://www.alionscience.com) .

13 Finding, Evaluating, and Processing Information LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D57) Describe an effective process for conducting business research.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAF) Define secondary research, and explain how to evaluate, locate, and document information sources.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1) Define primary research, and outline the steps involved in conducting surveys and interviews.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F11) Describe the major tasks involved in processing research results.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F60) Explain how to summarize research results and present conclusions and recommendations.

MyBCommLab®

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COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Strategyzer

strategyzer.com (http://strategyzer.com)

Whenever you’re gathering information for a major business writing project, you’re likely to encounter the question of how much is enough? Collecting and processing information takes time and often costs money, and it’s not always clear how much information you need in order to craft an effective report or proposal, or how much time and money you should invest to get it. Invest too little and you risk writing a flawed report. Invest too much and you’ll waste time and money that would be better put to other uses.

Business plans are a great example of this dilemma, and they have a special twist that makes information collection even more challenging. As you’ll read on page 396 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000052bb#page_396) in Chapter 14 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005122#P7001012451000000000000000005122) , conventional business plan covers a lot of territory, from a high-level look at strategy to details on financing, operations, marketing, and other functional areas. These reports can run to 20, 30, 40 pages or more, and you can spend weeks gathering the necessary information and distilling it down to useful formats.

Author and entrepreneur Alex Osterwalder’s approach to evaluating new business ideas offers a simpler, faster alternative than the traditional business plan.

Courtesy of Alex Osterwalder

Spending that much time on research before writing the business plan and launching the company can seem like a good idea to entrepreneurs who want to reduce start-up risks as much as possible or who want to produce high-quality reports to impress lenders or investors. In many start-up situations, however, this is precious time that entrepreneurs should be spending getting a product in front of customers to test the viability of the business concept, rather than crafting an impressive-looking plan about an idea that is still unproven. Moreover, in fast-moving markets, it is possible to spend so much time researching and writing the business plan that the target market changes by the time the plan is ready.

The special twist with business plans involves the uncertainty surrounding some of the most important information they typically contain. For example, estimating demand for a new product or service is one of the most vital aspects of planning a business—and one of the most difficult. You might spend weeks or months gathering data on comparable products and refining spreadsheets with elegant forecasting models to predict how many products you can sell and how much profit you’ll make. This projection will then be the basis of almost everything else in the business plan, from the amount of money you can attract from investors to the number of employees you should hire.

Here’s the catch: You could spend all this time writing a plan and launching a business based on this number only to find out it’s wildly off the mark. In the worst case scenario, you might’ve wasted months launching a weak business idea or a product with little or no market appeal. Even the most sophisticated estimates of market demand are still only predictions, and the only way to really know if a product is going to sell is to get it in front of customers and ask them to buy it.

In response to these uncertainties with conventional business plans, some experts now recommend a simplified, accelerated approach that gets a new business to the “point of proof” faster. One of the key thinkers behind this new approach is the Swiss author and entrepreneur Alex Osterwalder. Rather than launching businesses with elaborate planning and a conventional business plan, he proposes that companies use the Business Model Canvas. This single-sheet visual brainstorming tool helps entrepreneurs answer a handful of key questions to determine whether they have a financially viable business concept—and what to adjust if they don’t. The canvas approach helps flag some of the common stumbling points of new businesses, including financial plans that are based on shaky assumptions (or outright fantasy) and untested hypotheses about market behavior.

The Business Model Canvas and its variants don’t necessarily replace conventional business reports in all cases, and they don’t cover all the details needed to operate a business after launch, but they help entrepreneurs decide whether it makes sense to move forward. By developing and testing business concepts quickly, entrepreneurs can find out whether they have a realistic idea before investing weeks of time in detailed planning and report-writing efforts. The canvas idea has definitely captured the imagination of entrepreneurs: More than a million people bought the book that first outlined the canvas idea, and more than 5

million have downloaded the Business Model Canvas.1

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13.1 Planning Your Research

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Describe an effective process for conducting business research.

Audiences expect you to support your business messages with solid research.

Whether you’re brainstorming a new business idea using something like Strategyzer’s Business Model Canvas (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) or planning a conventional business report or proposal, you need to make sure your reporting, analysis, and recommendations are supported with solid research. Figure 13.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D5B) outlines a five-step research process that will help you gather and use information efficiently; you’ll learn more about these steps in the following sections.

With so much information now online, it’s tempting just to punch some keywords into a search engine and grab the first few results that show up. However, effective and efficient research requires a more thoughtful approach. Your favorite search engine might not be able to reach the webpages that have the information you need, the information might not be online at all, it might be online but not under the search terms you’ve used, or it might not even exist in any form.

Figure 13.1 The Research Process

By following a methodical research process, you can save time and money while uncovering better information.

Researching without a plan can waste time and produce flawed results.

To maximize your chances of finding useful information and to minimize the time you spend looking for it, follow these planning steps: Familiarize yourself with the subject so that you can frame insightful questions, identify the most critical gaps in your information, and then prioritize your research needs. However, before launching any research project, be sure to take a moment or two to consider the ethics and etiquette of your approach.

MAINTAINING ETHICS AND ETIQUETTE IN YOUR RESEARCH

Your research tactics affect the people you gather data and information from and the people who read and apply your results. To avoid ethical lapses, keep the following points in mind:

Take precautions to avoid ethical lapses in your research.

• Don’t force a specific outcome by skewing your research. Approach your research with an open mind and a willingness to accept whatever you find, even if it’s not what you expect or want to see.

Privacy is a contentious issue in the research field today.

• Respect the privacy of your research participants. Privacy is a contentious issue today. Businesses believe they have a right to protect their confidential information from competitors, and consumers believe they have a right to protect their personal information from businesses.

• Document sources and give appropriate credit. Whether you are using published documents, personal interviews, or company records, citing your sources not only is fair to the people who created and provided the information but also helps your audience members confirm your information or explore it in more detail, if they so choose.

Don’t automatically assume that you can use all the ideas and information you find online.

• Respect the intellectual property and digital rights of your sources. For example, your research might turn up a great new way to sell services online, but that doesn’t mean you’re free to implement that process. It might be protected by one of the many patents that have been granted in recent years for business process models.

• Don’t extract more from your sources than they actually provide. In other words, don’t succumb to the temptation to put words in a source’s mouth. For instance, if an industry expert says that a sales increase is possible, don’t quote him or her as saying that a sales increase is probable.

• Don’t misrepresent who you are or what you intend to do with the research results. One classic example of ethical lapses in this area is known as sugging, short for selling under the guise of research. For example, a firm might seem to be conducting a survey when it is, in fact, using the questions to identify hot sales leads. Another unethical variation on sugging is following up a real survey with sales calls, using information that respondents shared

in the belief that they were only participating in a survey.2

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Research etiquette deserves careful attention, too. For example, respect the time of anyone who agrees to be interviewed or to be a research participant, and maintain courtesy throughout the interview or research process. For more information on research ethics and etiquette, review the Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research published by the Council of America Survey Research Organizations (www.casro.org (http://www.casro.org) ).

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Get clear answers to murky copyright questions

Find out what is covered by copyright, what isn’t, and how to secure a copyright for your own work. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

FAMILIARIZING YOURSELF WITH THE SUBJECT

Avoid false starts and blind alleys by familiarizing yourself with new subject areas before you start your research.

Give yourself some unstructured time at the beginning of the project to explore the general subject area, perhaps by reading industry publications and blogs, searching for trending topics on Twitter, visiting competitors’ websites, and interviewing experts within your organization. Scanning the tables of contents and indexes of books on the subject can give you a sense of how a broad subject area is divided into component topics.

The problem statement defines the purpose of your research and guides your investigation.

When you have a basic grasp of the subject area, develop a problem statement (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FD1) that defines the problem or purpose of your research—the decision you need to make or the conclusion you need to reach at the end of the process. You may find it easier to phrase the problem as a question, such as “How can we improve customer satisfaction?” or “Does Apple’s new TV system pose a competitive threat to us?”

IDENTIFYING INFORMATION GAPS

Focus your research by identifying the most important gaps in your information.

Your problem statement frames the purpose of your research, but it doesn’t usually tell you what specific information you need to find. Your next task is to dig deeper to discover the information gaps that need to be filled through research. You or someone in your company may already have some of the information you need, and you don’t want to waste time or money gathering information you already have.

For instance, the question “How can we improve customer satisfaction?” is too vague because many separate factors contribute to customer satisfaction. To get useful information, you would break this topic down into specific issues, such as product reliability and customer service skills. Digging further, you may discover that you don’t need to research product reliability because the company already tracks data on product repairs. However, if no one has ever measured the employees’ customer service skills, you would identify that as a definite information gap.

PRIORITIZING RESEARCH NEEDS

You usually won’t have enough time or money to answer every question that comes to mind, so setting priorities is a must.

Prioritizing your research needs is important because you won’t have the time or money to answer every question you might have. Moreover, if you’ll be using interviews or surveys, you’ll need to limit the number of questions you ask so that you don’t consume more time than people are willing to give. One simple way to prioritize is to divide your questions into “need to know” and “nice to know” and then toss out all the “nice to know” questions. If you start with a technique such as information gap analysis, you will get a clear idea of the information you truly need to collect.

13.2 Conducting Secondary Research

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Define secondary research, and explain how to evaluate, locate, and document information sources.

Secondary research efforts gather and analyze information that has been previously collected for other purposes.

With a clear plan and careful prioritization, you’re ready to conduct research, and the first step is to see whether anyone else has already done some or all of the research you need. Consulting research that was done previously for another purpose is considered secondary research (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FDA) . The sources for such information include print and online periodicals, online databases, books, and other research reports. (Some companies specialize in reports on particular industries, companies, technologies, market regions, and other subjects.)

Start your research by conducting secondary research first.

Don’t let the name secondary mislead you, though. You want to start with secondary research because it can save you considerable time and money, although you may have to pay to see someone else’s results. In contrast, primary research (see page 372 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#page_372) ) is new research done specifically for the current project.

EVALUATING SOURCES

Evaluate your sources carefully to avoid embarrassing and potentially damaging mistakes.

No matter where you’re searching, it is your responsibility to separate quality information from unreliable or misleading junk to avoid corrupting your results. Social media have complicated this challenge by making many new sources of information available. On the positive side, independent sources communicating through blogs, wikis, Twitter, user-generated content sites, and podcasting channels can provide valuable and unique insights, often from experts whose voices might never be heard otherwise. On the negative side, these nontraditional information sources often lack the editorial boards and fact-checkers commonly used in traditional publishing. You cannot assume that the information you find is accurate, objective, and current. Answer the following questions about each piece of material:

• Does the source have a reputation for honesty and reliability? Naturally, you’ll feel more comfortable using information from an established source that has a reputation for accuracy. But don’t let your guard down completely; even the finest reporters and editors can make mistakes. For sources that are new or relatively unknown, your safest bet is to corroborate anything you learn with information from several other sources.

• Is the source potentially biased? The individual or organization providing the information might have a particular bias or point of view regarding the information and its context. Such bias is neither inherently bad nor unethical (unless it is being intentionally hidden), but you need to be aware of it to interpret the information you find.

• What is the purpose of the material? Was the material designed to inform others of new research, advance a position, or stimulate discussion? Was it designed to promote or sell a product? Be sure to distinguish among advertising, advocating, and informing.

• Is the author credible? Find out whether the person or the publisher is known and respected in the field. Is the author someone with hands-on experience in the subject area or merely an observer with an opinion?

• Where did the source get its information? Many sources of secondary information get their material from other secondary sources, removing you even further from the original data.

MOBILE APP

The Instapaper mobile app lets you instantly save webpages and articles to read later, a convenient capability when you’re exploring a topic and want to collect potential sources for review.

Let your readers know if you were unable to verify critical pieces of information obtained in your research.

• Can you verify the material independently? Verification can uncover biases or mistakes—which is particularly important when the information goes beyond simple facts to include projections, interpretations, and estimates. If you can’t verify critical information, let your audience know that.

• Is the material current? Make sure you are using the most current information available by checking the publication or posting date. • Is the material complete? Have you accessed the entire document or only a selection from it? If it’s a selection, which parts were excluded? Do you

need more detail? • Are all claims supported with evidence? Are opinions presented as facts? Does the writer make broad claims, such as “most people believe . . .,”

without citing any surveys to prove his or her point?

• Do the source’s claims stand up to logical scrutiny? Finally, step back and ask whether the information makes sense. If that little voice in your head says that something sounds suspicious, listen!

You probably won’t have time to conduct a thorough background check on all your sources, so focus your efforts on the most important or most suspicious pieces of information.

LOCATING SOURCES

Even if you intend to eventually conduct primary research, start with a review of any available secondary research. Inside your company, you might be able to find a variety of documents prepared for other projects that offer helpful information. Be sure to ask whether your company has a knowledge management system or some other repository for research results. (See “Managing Information (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F8A) ” on page 379 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#page_379) for more on this topic.) Outside the company, you can choose from a wide range of print and online resources, some of which are included in Table 13.1

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DD9) on the next page.3

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000510B) (The list in this table represents a tiny fraction of the secondary resources available; ask a reference librarian for advice on researching specific business topics.) For instance, if you want to know more about a specific company, one of the first things you’ll need to find out is whether the company is public (sells shares of stock to the general public) or private. Public corporations, which are required to submit extensive financial reports to government agencies, usually have more information available than private companies.

Finding Information at the Library

Public, corporate, and university libraries offer an enormous array of business books, databases, newspapers, periodicals, directories, almanacs, and government publications. Some of these printed sources provide information that is not available online, and some of the online sources provide information that is available by subscription. Don’t assume that you can find everything you need through your own online research.

TABLE 13.1 Important Resources for Business Research* (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004E07)

COMPANY, INDUSTRY, AND PRODUCT RESOURCES

AnnualReports.com (http://AnnualReports.com) . Free access to annual reports from thousands of public companies.

Brands and Their Companies/Companies and Their Brands. Contains data on several hundred thousand consumer products, manufacturers, importers, marketers, and distributors. Available as an online database; ask at your library.

D&B Directories. Dun & Bradstreet publishes a variety of business databases and directories covering thousands of companies worldwide.

Hoover’s Online. Database of millions of companies, including in-depth coverage of thousands of leading companies around the world. Basic information is available free; in-depth information requires a subscription.

Manufacturing & Distribution USA. Data on thousands of companies in the manufacturing, wholesaling, and retailing sectors.

NAICS Codes. North American Industry Classification System.

Reference USA. Concise information on millions of U.S. companies; subscription database.

SEC filings. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including 10Ks, 10Qs, annual reports, and prospectuses, for U.S. public firms.

Standard & Poor’s Net Advantage. Comprehensive range of directories and databases focusing on publicly traded companies and their industries and markets.

ThomasNet. Information on thousands of U.S. manufacturers, indexed by company name and product.

RESEARCH DIRECTORIES AND INDEXES

Books in Print. Database indexes millions of books, audiobooks, and video titles from around the world. Available in print and professional online versions.

Directories in Print. Information on thousands of business and industrial directories.

Encyclopedia of Associations. Index of thousands of associations, listed by broad subject category, specific subject, association, and location. Available as an online database as well.

Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. Database of articles in general-interest magazines.

TRADEMARKS AND PATENTS

Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Weekly publications (one for trademarks and one for patents) providing official record of newly assigned trademarks and patents, product descriptions, and product names.

United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark and patent information records.

STATISTICS AND OTHER BUSINESS DATA

COMPANY, INDUSTRY, AND PRODUCT RESOURCES

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Large collection of economic and government data.

Europa—The European Union Online. A portal that provides up-to-date coverage of current affairs, legislation, policies, and EU statistics.

FedStats. Access to a full range of statistics and information from more than 70 U.S. government agencies.

Key Business Ratios (Dun & Bradstreet). Industry, financial, and performance ratios.

Information Please Almanac. Compilation of broad-range statistical data, with a strong focus on the labor force.

Annual Statement Studies. Industry, financial, and performance ratios published by the Risk Management Association.

Statistical Abstract of the United States. Annual compendium of U.S. economic, social, political, and industrial statistics.

The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Facts on economic, social, educational, and political events for major countries.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Extensive national and regional information on labor and business, including employment, industry growth, productivity, the Consumer Price Index, and the overall U.S. economy.

U.S. Census Bureau. Demographic data and analysis on consumers and businesses based on census results.

COMMERCIAL DATABASES

A wide variety of commercial databases provide access to articles from trade and academic journals; ask your reference librarian to help you select the best databases for specific research projects.

* (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#rP7001012451000000000000000004E07) Note: Some of these resources are free, and some are available via subscription only; check with your librarian.

Libraries offer information and resources you can’t find anywhere else—including reference librarians who can show you how to plan and conduct effective searches.

Libraries are also where you’ll find one of your most important resources: librarians. Reference librarians are skilled in research strategies and can often help you locate obscure information you can’t find on your own. They can also direct you to many sources of business information. Also, many library websites now have a business portal, with links to helpful resources and advice on finding information.

Whether you’re looking for information in printed materials or in databases, each type of resource serves a special function:

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Wondering how to get started with business research?

Baruch College’s Beginner’s Guide to Business Research will point you in the right direction. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

• Newspapers and periodicals. Libraries offer access to a wide variety of popular magazines, general business magazines, trade journals (which provide information about specific professions and industries), and academic journals (which provide research-oriented articles from researchers and educators). Check the library’s website or ask a librarian to find out which periodicals are available in print or digital formats.

• Business books. Although generally less timely than newspapers, periodicals, and online sources, business books provide in-depth coverage of a variety of business topics. Many libraries now offer online access to their card catalogs so you can see whether they have specific titles in their collections.

• Directories. Thousands of directories are published in print and digital formats in the United States, and many include membership information for all kinds of professions, industries, and special-interest groups.

• Almanacs and statistical resources. Almanacs are handy guides to factual and statistical information about countries, politics, the labor force, and so on. One of the most extensive, the Statistical Abstract of the United States, published annually by the U.S. Department of Commerce, contains statistics about occupations, government, population, health, business, crime, and the environment (also available online at www.census.gov (http://www.census.gov) ).

Local, state, and federal government agencies publish a huge variety of information that is helpful to business researchers.

• Government publications. Information on laws, court decisions, tax questions, regulatory issues, and other governmental concerns is often available in collections of government documents. A librarian can direct you to the information you want.

• Databases. Databases offer vast collections of searchable information, often in specific areas, such as business, law, science, technology, and education. Some of these are available only by institutional subscription, so the library may be your only way to gain access to them. Some libraries offer remote online access to some or all databases; for others, you need to visit in person.

Finding Information Online

Online research tools can be used to search for existing information and to monitor for new information.

The Internet can be a tremendous source of business information, provided that you know how to approach a search, where to look, and how to use the tools available. Roughly speaking, the tools fall into two categories: those you can use to actively search for existing information and those you can use to monitor selected sources for new information. (Some tools can perform both functions.)

Online Search Tools

To be a successful online researcher, you need to expand your toolkit beyond the popular search engines.

The most familiar search tools are general-purpose search engines (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FD7) , such as Google and Bing, which scan millions of websites to identify individual webpages that contain a specific word or phrase and then attempt to rank the results from most useful to least useful. Search engines have the advantage of scanning millions or billions of individual webpages, and the best engines use powerful ranking algorithms to present the pages that are probably the most relevant to your search request.

Today’s search engines are powerful tools, but they still have important limitations.

For all their ease and power, conventional search engines have three primary shortcomings: (1) no human editors are involved to evaluate the quality or ranking of the search results; (2) various engines use different search techniques, so they often find different material or present similar results in different order; and (3) search engines can’t reach all the content on some websites (this part of the Internet is sometimes called the hidden Internet or the deep web).

Web directories benefit from having human editors evaluate and select websites.

A variety of tools are available to overcome the three main weaknesses of general-purpose search engines, and you should consider using one or more of them in your business research. First, web directories (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FE0) such as DMOZ (dmoz.org (http://dmoz.org) ) use human editors to categorize and evaluate websites. Some directories focus on specific media types, such as blogs or podcasts.

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Use this powerful tool for easier online searches

Bovée and Thill Web Search is a custom metasearch engine that automatically formats more than 300 types for searches for optimum results. Go to real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Web Search in the navigation bar.

Metasearch engines can save you time by using multiple search engines at once.

Second, metasearch engines (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FC2) help overcome the differences among search engines by formatting your search request for multiple search engines, making it easy to find a broader range of results. With a few clicks, you can compare results from multiple search engines to make sure you are getting a broad view of the material.

Online databases can give you access to important resources that search engines often can’t reach.

Third, online databases (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FC8) help address the challenge of the hidden Internet by offering access to newspapers, magazines, journals, digital copies of books, and other resources often not available with standard search engines. Some of these databases offer free access to the public, but others require a subscription (check with your library). Also, a variety of specialized search engines now exist to reach various parts of the hidden Internet.

Online Monitoring Tools

To stay up to date on a research topic, subscribe to RSS feeds, search engine alerts, or Twitter updates from knowledgeable individuals.

One of the most powerful aspects of online research is the ability to automatically monitor selected sources for new information so that you can get new information without repeating manual searches. The possibilities include subscribing to newsfeeds from blogs and websites; following people on Twitter and other microblogs; setting up alerts on search engines and online databases; and using specialized monitors such as TweetDeck and HootSuite to track tweets that mention specific companies or other terms.

Exercise care when setting up monitoring tools, however, because it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the flood of information. Remember that you can always go back and search your sources if you need to gather additional information.

Search Tips

Make sure you know how each search tool works; you can get unpredictable results if you don’t know how a particular tool operates.

Search engines, metasearch engines, and databases offer a variety of ways to find information. Unfortunately, no two of them work in exactly the same way, and you have to learn how to use each one most effectively. This learning may take a few extra minutes at the beginning of your research, but it could save you hours of lost time later—and save you from embarrassing oversights. You can usually find a Help or Support page that explains both basic and advanced functions, with advice on how to use a particular tool most effectively.

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Use Google more effectively

Google’s Inside Search offers tips and techniques to help you get the best research results in the least amount of time. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

To make the best use of any search engine or database, keep the following points in mind:

Search engine results can create the illusion that the Internet is a complete, well-organized warehouse of reliable information. However, it is neither complete nor organized, and not all the information is reliable.

• Think before you search. The neatly organized results you get from a search engine can create the illusion that the Internet is an orderly warehouse of all the information in the universe, but the reality is far different. The Internet is an incomplete, unorganized hodgepodge of millions of independent websites with information that ranges in value from priceless to worse-than-worthless. After you have identified what you need to know, spend a few moments thinking about where that information might be found, how it might be structured, and what terms various websites might use to describe it.

• Pay attention to the details. Details can make all the difference in a search. On Google, for example, you can filter results according to when items were published online. This setting could drastically change your results, so make sure you haven’t inadvertently limited your search by selecting a narrower time frame than you really want.

• Don’t limit yourself to a regular web search engine. Google, Bing, and other search engines are remarkably powerful, but they can’t access all online content. Moreover, the content you need might not even be online.

• Review the search and display options carefully. When using advanced search or while searching in databases, pay close attention to whether you are searching in the title, author, subject, or document field and whether the search is limited to particular types of documents (such as full-text documents only). Each choice will return different results. And when the results are displayed, verify the presentation order; results might be sorted by date or by relevance.

• Try variations of terms. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, try abbreviations (CEO, CPA), synonyms (man, male), related terms (child, adolescent, youth), different spellings (dialog, dialogue), singular and plural forms (woman, women), nouns and adjectives (manager, management, managerial), and open and compound forms (online, on line, on-line). Some search engines automatically search for such synonyms.

• Adjust the scope of your search, if needed. If a search yields little or no information, broaden your search by specifying fewer terms. Conversely, if you’re inundated with too many hits, use more terms to narrow your search.

Be sure to look beyond the first few pages of search results; there is no guarantee that the best information for your project will appear early in the listings.

• Look beyond the first few pages of results. Don’t assume that the highest-ranking results are the best sources for you. For example, materials that haven’t been optimized for search engines won’t rank as highly (meaning they won’t show up in the first few pages of results), but they may be far better for your purposes.

MOBILE APP

Access and add to your Zotero research files with a variety of Zotero-compatible mobile apps.

Other powerful search tools include enterprise search engines that search all the computers on a company’s network and research and content managers such as LiveBinders and the Zotero browser extension. And don’t overlook the search functions in workplace messaging systems, groupware, and other closed systems.

For research innovations from a mobile perspective, see “Research on the Go with Mobile Devices (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004E72) .”

DIGITAL + SOCIAL + MOBILE: TODAY’S COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT

Research on the Go with Mobile Devices

Smartphones and tablets have opened up new possibilities for collecting information for business reports and other communication purposes. Using built-in capabilities such as audio and video recording, as well as apps made specifically for research, business researchers can collect qualitative and quantitative information in a variety of ways:

• Mobile surveys. Tablets with interactive software can replace the clipboards long used by researchers for “mall intercept” surveys and other efforts to collect data from shoppers.

• Collecting and sharing. Collaborative apps such as Pearltrees make it easy to collect online information and organize it across multiple devices, then connect with relevant information collected by other users.

• Note taking. Evernote, OneNote, and other note-taking apps simplify the process of compiling notes, webpages, photos, and other pieces of research. • Sketching. Sometimes a simple picture is more powerful than words or photos. With touchscreen apps on phones and tablets, researchers can

quickly sketch maps, process diagrams, and other visuals on the spot. • Audio, photo, and video recording. Whether it’s snapping images of street scenes for a report on potential store locations or recording test subjects

using a new product prototype, the audiovisual capabilities of today’s mobile devices give researchers a host of new tools. • Document scanning. Scanning apps let researchers record and organize images of documents that can’t be removed from their storage locations. • Real-time thoughts and impressions. Asking survey subjects to record information on their mobile devices while they are observing store displays

or making purchase decisions, for example, promises to enhance some classic research methods. With the old methods, shoppers would answer survey questions about the choices they made well after the fact, leaving the accuracy of their answers up to the quality of their memories. With their mobile phones in hand, shoppers who’ve agreed to participate in research can describe their impressions and decisions on the spot and even take photos of displays that caught their eye.

As more consumers adopt mobile devices and software developers continue to create new research apps, mobile research promises to revolutionize research the same way it has changed business communication in general.

CAREER APPLICATIONS

1. Assume you’re about to visit another college where you’re applying for the master’s program, and you want to learn as much as you can about the school in the limited time you have available. How could you use your mobile phone to improve your information collection?

2. Mobile research raises some important ethical and legal questions involving privacy. Identify three possible privacy violations that researchers need to guard against.

Sources: Shelly Terrell, “Research on the Go! Effective Research with Mobile Devices,” presentation, 7 November 2013, www.slideshare.net (http://www.slideshare.net) ; Derek Matisz, “Mobile-Enabled Ethnography: 4 Tips for Using Mobile Devices in Your Research,” Vision Critical blog, 24 July 2013, www.visioncritical.com (http://www.visioncritical.com) ; “Let’s Go Shopping: Using Mobile Qualitative Research for Shop-Alongs,” 2020Research, accessed 9 May 2014, www.2020research.com (http://www.2020research.com) .

DOCUMENTING YOUR SOURCES

Proper documentation of the sources you use is an ethical responsibility—and an important resource for your readers.

Documenting the sources you use in your writing serves three important functions: It properly and ethically credits the person who created the original material, it shows your audience that you have sufficient support for your message, and it helps your readers explore your topic in more detail, if desired. Your results might be used by people long after you conduct the research, and these people won’t always have the opportunity to query you in person for more information.

Be sure to take advantage of source documentation tools whenever you can to help ensure that you accurately track all your sources. Most word-processing programs can automatically track and number endnotes for you, and you can use the “table of authorities” feature to create a bibliography of all the sources you’ve used. A wide variety of citation management or reference management tools are available with popular web browsers.

You may document your sources through footnotes, endnotes, or some similar system (see Appendix B (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000747b#P700101245100000000000000000747B) , “Documentation of Report Sources”). Whatever method you choose, documentation is necessary for books, articles, tables, charts, diagrams, song lyrics, scripted dialogue, letters, speeches, and anything else you take from someone else, including ideas and information that you’ve re-expressed through paraphrasing or summarizing.

Copyright protections may prevent you from using some materials without obtaining permission from the copyright holder.

However, you do not have to cite a source for general knowledge or for specialized knowledge that’s generally known among your readers. For example, almost everyone knows that Nike is a large sporting goods company and that computers are pervasive in business today. You can say so on your own authority, even if you’ve read an article in which the author says the same thing.

Chapter 1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000105b#P700101245100000000000000000105B) notes that copyright law covers the expression of creative ideas, and copyrights can apply to a wide range of materials, including reports and other documents, web content, movies, musical compositions, lectures, computer programs, and even choreographed dance routines. Copyright protection is initiated the moment the expression is put into fixed form. Copyright law does not protect such elements as titles, names, short phrases, slogans, familiar symbols, or lists of ingredients or contents. It also doesn’t protect ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, although it does cover their

description, explanation, or illustration.4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000510D) (Note that many of the entities that aren’t covered under copyright law are covered under other legal protections, such as trademarks for slogans and patents for devices and processes.)

Merely crediting the source is not always enough. According to the fair use doctrine, you can use other people’s work only as long as you don’t unfairly prevent them from benefiting as a result. For example, if you reproduce someone else’s copyrighted material in a report you’re writing, even if you properly identify the source, you may be preventing the author from selling that material to your readers.

If you want to use copyrighted information in a report, contact the copyright holder (usually the author or publisher) for permission to reprint it. You’ll often be asked to pay a fee. For more information on copyrights, visit www.copyright.gov (http://www.copyright.gov) or www.creativecommons.org (http://www.creativecommons.org) .

13.3 Conducting Primary Research

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

3 Define primary research, and outline the steps involved in conducting surveys and interviews.

Primary research efforts collect data and information for the first time, rather than analyzing and reusing what other researchers have found.

If secondary research can’t provide the information and insights you need, your next choice is to gather the information yourself. This is the task of primary research (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FCE) , which is collecting data and information for the first time, rather than analyzing and reusing what other researchers have found. The two most common primary research methods for business writing are surveys and interviews, the focus of this section. Other primary techniques include observation and experiments, such as test- marketing a new product.

GATHERING INFORMATION WITH SURVEYS

Surveys can provide invaluable insights on a wide variety of business topics, but they are useful only when they’re reliable and valid. A survey is reliable if it produces identical results when repeated. A survey is valid if it measures what it’s intended to measure. To conduct a survey that generates reliable and valid results, you need to choose research participants carefully and develop an effective set of questions. (A good research handbook can guide you through the process of selecting a sufficient number of representative participants. For important surveys on strategically important topics with much at stake, you’re usually better off hiring a research specialist who knows how to avoid errors during planning, execution, and analysis.)

For a survey to produce valid results, it must be based on a representative sample of the population of interest.

When selecting people to participate in a survey, the most critical task is getting a representative sample of the population in question. For instance, if you want to know how U.S. consumers feel about something, you can’t just survey a few hundred people in a shopping mall. Different types of consumers shop at different times of the day and on different days of the week, and many consumers rarely, if ever, shop at malls. A survey that doesn’t represent the overall population will suffer from sampling bias.

Online surveys are relatively quick and inexpensive, but they require the same care in planning and analysis as offline surveys.

Online surveys offer a number of advantages, including speed, cost, and the ability to adapt the question set along the way based on a respondent’s answers. However, they are also vulnerable to sampling bias because they capture only the opinions of people who visit particular websites and who want to participate, and these people might not be a representative sample of the population of interest.

To develop an effective survey questionnaire, start with the information gaps you identified earlier and then break these points into specific questions, choosing an appropriate type of question for each point. (Figure 13.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EB1) on the next page

shows various types of survey questions.) The following guidelines will help you produce results that are both valid and reliable:5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000510F)

Provide clear instructions in questionnaires to prevent incorrect or ambiguous answers.

• Provide clear instructions to make sure people can answer every question correctly. • Don’t ask for information that people can’t be expected to remember, such as how many times they went grocery shopping in the past year. • Keep the questionnaire short and easy to answer; don’t expect people to give you more than 10 or 15 minutes of their time. • Whenever possible, formulate questions that provide answers that are easy to analyze. Numbers and facts are easier to summarize than opinions, for

instance. • Avoid leading questions that could bias your survey. If you ask, “Do you prefer that we stay open in the evenings for customer convenience?” you’ll no

doubt get a “yes.” Instead, ask, “What time of day do you normally do your shopping?” • Avoid ambiguous descriptors such as often or frequently. Such terms mean different things to different people. • Avoid compound questions such as “Do you read books and magazines?” People who read one but not the other won’t know whether to answer yes or

no. • Make the survey adaptive. With an online survey, you can program the survey to branch automatically based on audience inputs. Not only does this sort

of real-time adaptation deliver better answers, it reduces frustration for survey respondents as well.6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005111)

Be sure to test your survey before using it.

Before you conduct a survey, test it on a sample group first to identify questions that might be confusing or ambiguous.

GATHERING INFORMATION WITH INTERVIEWS

Interviews are easy to conduct but require careful planning to produce useful results.

Getting in-depth information straight from an expert or an individual concerned about an issue can be a great method for collecting primary information. Interviews can dig deeper than the “hands-off” approach of surveys, and skilled interviewers can also watch for nonverbal signals that provide additional insights. Interviews can take a variety of formats, from email exchanges to group discussions.

Be aware that the answers you receive in an interview are influenced by the types of questions you ask, by the way you ask them, and by each subject’s cultural

and language background. Potentially significant factors include the person’s race, gender, age, educational level, and social status.7

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005113)

Choose question types that will generate the specific kinds of information you need.

Ask open-ended questions (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FCB) (such as “Why do you believe that South America represents a better opportunity than Europe for this product line?”) to solicit opinions, insights, and information. Ask closed questions (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FAD) to elicit a specific answer, such as yes or no. However, don’t use too many closed questions in an interview, or the experience will feel more like a simple survey and won’t take full advantage of the interactive interview setting.

Figure 13.2 Types of Survey Questions

For each item in your survey, choose the type of question that will elicit the most useful answers.

Think carefully about the sequence of your questions and the subject’s potential answers so you can arrange questions in an order that helps uncover layers of information. Also, consider providing the person with a list of questions at least a day or two before the interview, especially if you’d like to quote your subject in writing or if your questions might require your subject to conduct research or think extensively about the answers. If you want to record the interview, ask the person ahead of time and respect his or her wishes. During the interview, be alert to new topics you might not have considered while planning the interview, and pursue them if they will shed light on your research questions.

CHECKLIST Conducting Effective Information Interviews

• Learn about the person you will be interviewing. • Formulate your main idea to ensure effective focus. • Choose the duration, style, and organization of the interview. • Select question types to elicit the specific information you want. • Design each question carefully to collect useful answers. • Limit the number of questions you ask. • During the interview, be alert to new topics that you might want to probe. • Consider recording the interview if the subject permits. • Review your notes as soon as the interview ends.

As soon as possible after the interview, take a few moments to write down your thoughts, go over your notes, and organize your material. Look for important themes, helpful facts or statistics, and direct quotes. If you recorded the interview, transcribe it (take down word for word what the person said) or take notes from the recording just as you would while listening to someone in person.

Face-to-face interviews give you the opportunity to gauge nonverbal responses.

Face-to-face interviews give you the opportunity to gauge reactions to your questions and observe the nonverbal signals that accompany the answers, but interviews don’t necessarily have to take place in person. For example, email interviews give subjects a chance to think through their responses thoroughly rather

than rush to fit the time constraints of a face-to-face interview.8

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005115) Also, email interviews might be the only way you will be able to access some experts.

In addition to individual interviews, business researchers can also use a form of group interview known as the focus group (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FB6) . In this format a moderator guides a group through a series of discussion questions while the rest of the research team members observe through a one-way mirror. The key advantage of focus groups is the opportunity to learn from group dynamics as the various participants bounce ideas and questions off each other. Allowing a

group to discuss topics and problems in this manner can uncover much richer information than can a series of individual interviews.9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005117)

As a reminder of the tasks involved in interviews, see “Checklist: Conducting Effective Information Interviews (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EF5) .”

13.4 Processing Data and Information

After you have collected your research results, the next step is to convert them into usable information.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

4 Describe the major tasks involved in processing research results. After you’ve collected all the necessary secondary and primary information, the next step is to transform it into the specific content you need. For simple projects, you may be able to insert your material directly into your report, presentation, or other application. However, when you have gathered a significant amount of information or raw data, you need to process the material before you can use it. This step can involve quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing textual material; analyzing numeric data; drawing conclusions; and making recommendations.

QUOTING, PARAPHRASING, AND SUMMARIZING

Quoting a source means reproducing the content exactly and indicating who originally created the information.

You can use textual information from secondary sources in three ways. Quoting a source means you reproduce the material exactly as you found it (giving full credit to the source, of course). Use direct quotations when the original language will enhance your argument or when rewording the passage would reduce its impact. However, be careful with direct quotes: Using too many creates a choppy patchwork of varying styles and gives the impression that all you’ve done is piece together the work of other people. When quoting sources, set off shorter passages with quotation marks and set off longer passages (generally, five lines or more) as separate, indented paragraphs.

REAL-TIME UPDATES

LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Launch that new business idea with solid research

Get a helpful overview of research techniques for entrepreneurs. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

You can often maximize the impact of secondary material in your own writing by paraphrasing it—restating it in your own words and with your own sentence

structures.10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005119) Paraphrasing helps you maintain consistent tone, present information using vocabulary more familiar to your audience, and avoid the choppy feel of too many quotations. Of course, you still need to credit the originator of the information through a footnote, endnote, or in-text citation.

Paraphrasing is expressing someone else’s ideas in your own words.

To paraphrase effectively, follow these tips:11

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000511B)

• Read and reread the original passage until you fully understand its meaning. • Restate the central ideas of the original passage using your own words. • Check your version against the source to verify that you have not altered the meaning. • Use quotation marks to identify any unique terms or phrases you have borrowed exactly from the source. • Record the source accurately so that you can give proper credit if you use this material in your report.

Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but distills the content into fewer words.

Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An effective summary identifies the main ideas and major support points from your source material but leaves out minor details, examples, and other information that is less critical to your audience. Like quotations and paraphrases, summaries also require complete documentation of sources.

Of course, all three approaches require careful attention to ethics. When quoting directly, take care not to distort the original intent of the material by quoting selectively or out of context. If an interview subject said, “This market could grow dramatically next year if we invest heavily in new products,” using only “this market could grow dramatically next year” in a report would be unethical.

When paraphrasing and summarizing, preserve the intended message of the original while expressing the ideas in your own words and sentences. Remember that the goal is to help your audience relate to material that supports your message. Double-check your writing to make sure you didn’t subconsciously skew the other writer’s message to fit your own needs.

ANALYZING NUMERIC DATA

Research often produces numeric data—everything from sales figures to population statistics to survey answers. By themselves, these numbers might not provide the insights you or your audience require, so you’ll need to process the data to extract useful insights.

Gaining Insights

Mean, median, and mode provide insight into sets of data.

TABLE 13.2 Three Types of Data Measures: Mean, Median, and Mode

Even without advanced statistical techniques, you can use simple arithmetic to extract powerful insights from sets of research data. Three common and useful measures are shown in Table 13.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F40) . The mean (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FBC) (which is what most people refer to when they use the term average) is the sum of all the items in a group divided by the number of items in that group. The median (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FBF) is the “middle of the road,” or the midpoint of a series (with an equal number of items above and below). The mode (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FC5) is the number that occurs more often than any other in a sample. It’s the best answer to a question such as “What is the usual amount?” Each of these three measures can give you different insights into a set of data.

Trends identify patterns that tend to repeat over time.

Next, look at the data to spot trends (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FDD) —definite patterns taking place over time, including growth, decline, and cyclical trends that vary between growth and decline. By examining data over a period of time, you can detect patterns and relationships that help you answer important questions.

Causation shows cause-and-effect relationships; correlation indicates simultaneous changes in two variables that may not necessarily be causally related.

Statistical measures and trends identify what is happening. To help you understand why those things are happening, look at causation (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FAA) (the cause-and- effect linkage between two factors, in which one causes the other to happen) and correlation (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FB3) (the simultaneous change in two variables you’re measuring, such as customer satisfaction dropping when product reliability drops).

Bear in mind that causation can be easy to assume but difficult to prove. The drop in customer satisfaction might have been caused by a new accounting system that fouled up customer invoices. To prove causation, you need to be able to isolate the suspected cause as the only potential source of the change in the measured effect. However, eliminating all but one possible cause isn’t always feasible, so you often have to apply careful judgment to correlations. Researchers frequently explore the relationships between subsets of data using a technique called cross-tabulation. For instance, if you’re trying to figure out why total sales rose or fell, you might look separately at sales data by customer age and gender, by purchase location, and by product type.

Guarding Against Mistakes and Misinterpretations

Watch out for errors that might have crept in during the collection and processing of data.

Numbers are easy to manipulate with spreadsheets and other computer tools, so be sure to guard against computational errors and misinterpretation of results. Double-check all calculations and document the operation of any spreadsheets you plan to share with colleagues. Common spreadsheet mistakes to watch for include errors in math formulas, references to unintended cells in the spreadsheet (resulting in the inclusion of data you don’t want or the exclusion of data you do want), and failures to verify the specific operation of the spreadsheet’s built-in math functions.

In addition to watching for computational errors, step back and look at your entire set of data before proceeding with any analysis. Do the numbers make sense, based on what you know about the subject? Are any data points suspicious? If the production numbers you’ve been measuring have never varied more than 10 percent month to month and then suddenly jumped 50 percent last month, is that new number real or an erroneous measurement?

Even when your data points are accurate and your analysis is technically correct, it’s still possible to misinterpret or misrepresent the results. Many analysis errors require statistical expertise to identify and fix, but even without advanced skills, you can take these precautions:

• Avoid faulty comparisons. Make sure you compare “apples to apples” and not “apples to oranges,” as the saying goes. • Don’t push research results beyond their limits. The temptation to extract insights and assurances that aren’t really there can be quite strong,

particularly in situations of great uncertainty. For instance, if you’re about to recommend that your company invest millions of dollars in developing a new product based on your consumer research, you’re likely to “see” every possible justification in the data. Have a trusted colleague review your data to see whether he or she extracts the same conclusions.

• Steer clear of misleading presentations. Even valid data can be presented in invalid ways (such as with distorted graphs), and it’s your responsibility to make sure the visual presentation of your data is accurate.

13.5 Applying Your Findings

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

5 Explain how to summarize research results and present conclusions and recommendations. After all your planning, research, and processing, you’re finally ready to apply your findings. This step can involve summarizing your results, drawing conclusions based on those results, and making recommendations.

SUMMARIZING YOUR RESEARCH

A summary is an unbiased presentation of information regarding a particular topic, without attempts to draw conclusions or make recommendations.

A research summary is an unbiased condensation of the information uncovered in your research. (Summary in this context means a summary of your entire research project, not just a summary of secondary source material.) Summaries should not include opinions, conclusions, or recommendations. Summarizing is not always a simple task, and your readers will judge your ability to separate significant issues from less significant details. Identify the main idea and the key support points; separate them from details, examples, and other supporting evidence (see Figure 13.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F6A) ). Focus your efforts on your audience, highlighting the information that is most important to the person who assigned the project or to those who will be reading the report.

However, focusing on the audience doesn’t mean conveying only the information your audience wants to hear. A good summary might contain nothing but bad news, if that’s what your research uncovered. Even if the summary isn’t pleasant, effective managers always appreciate and respect honest, complete, and perceptive information from their employees.

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

A conclusion is a logical interpretation of research results.

A conclusion (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FB0) is a logical interpretation of the facts and other information in a report. Reaching valid conclusions based on the evidence at hand is one of the most important skills you can develop in your business career. For a conclusion to be sound, it must meet two criteria. First, it must be based strictly on the information in your report. You shouldn’t introduce any new information in your conclusion. (If something is that important, it belongs in the body of the report.) Also, you can’t ignore any of the information you’ve presented, even if it doesn’t support your conclusion. Second, the conclusion must be logical, meaning it must follow accepted patterns of inductive or deductive reasoning. Conclusions that are based on unproven premises, appeal to emotion, make hasty generalizations, or contain any other logical fallacies are not valid.

Figure 13.3 Summarizing Effectively

To summarize a section of text, first analyze it to find the main idea, the major support points, and the less important details. Then assemble the appropriate pieces with additional words and phrases as needed to ensure a smooth flow.

Remember that your personal values or the organization’s values may also influence your conclusions; just be sure that you’re aware of how these biases can affect your judgment. If a bias affects your conclusion, you should explain it to your audience. Also, don’t expect all team members to examine the evidence and arrive at the same conclusion. One of the reasons for bringing additional people into a decision is to gain their unique perspectives and experiences.

Even though conclusions need to be logical, they may not automatically or obviously flow from the evidence. Many business decisions require assumptions, judgment calls, and creative thinking—in fact, the ability to see patterns and possibilities that others can’t see is one of the hallmarks of innovative business leaders.

MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS

A recommendation is a suggested course of action.

Whereas a conclusion interprets information, a recommendation (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FD4) suggests what to do about the information. The following example illustrates the difference between a conclusion and a recommendation:

Conclusion Recommendation

On the basis of its track record and current price, I believe that this company is an attractive buy.

I recommend that we offer to buy the company at a 10 percent premium over the current market value of its stock.

To be credible, recommendations must be based on logical analysis and sound conclusions. They must also be practical and acceptable to your readers—the people who have to make your recommendations work. Finally, when making a recommendation, be certain you have adequately described the steps that come next. Don’t leave your readers wondering what they need to do to act on your recommendation.

MANAGING INFORMATION

Knowledge management systems, often supplemented now by social media tools, help organizations share research results and other valuable information and insights.

Conducting your research well does more than provide strong support for your own writing projects. Your individual research projects are also an important contribution to your organization’s collective knowledge base. To organize information and make it readily available to everyone in the company, many firms use some form of knowledge management (KM) (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FB9) , a set of technologies, policies, and procedures that let colleagues capture and share information throughout an organization. Social media tools have recently been enhancing the flexibility and capability of KM systems, making it easier for more people to contribute to and benefit from shared knowledge and transforming

knowledge into more of a living entity that is part of an ongoing conversation.12

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000511D)

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT Strategyzer

You’re a business development manager at Strategyzer with responsibility for expanding sales of the company’s Business Model Canvas training courses and apps. Use what you’ve learned in this chapter to address these information gathering and processing challenges. You may find it helpful to familiarize yourself with the Business Model Canvas by watching the two-minute video at businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/bmc (http://businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/bmc) .

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: You’ve heard from a number of product managers and other mid-level business planners in big companies that they would like to use the Business Model Canvas but they can’t convince company executives (their superiors, in other words) to give up the familiar approach of detailed business plans. You hit on the idea of a mini-course for corporate executives to help them understand the value of the canvas approach for early stage business planning. Before you can convince Strategyzer’s content development team to create the course, you need to provide some evidence that Fortune 500 executives would be interested in devoting half a day to such a course. You decide to conduct some research to gauge executive interest in the mini-course and to identify the most important topics it should cover. What would be an effective problem statement for guiding your research?

TEAM CHALLENGE: Collect the problem statements you and your teammates generated for the individual challenge and choose the statement that the team finds most effective. Using that statement as a guide, discuss the following four approaches and decide which would be the best research approach to gathering the information you need to address the problem statement. Summarize your reasoning in an email message to your instructor.

a. Conduct a telephone survey of Fortune 500 executives responsible for overseeing product development. Ask a series of questions designed to uncover the executives’ awareness of the canvas approach and their attitudes toward it.

b. Conduct an email or in-app survey of current users of the Business Model Canvas app, asking them to report on the resistance they are receiving from executives in their companies.

c. Post a brief survey on Strategyzer’s website, asking top-level corporate executives to explain their reasons for sticking with the traditional approach of detailed business plans, rather than trying a new method such as the Business Model Canvas.

d. Post an interactive survey on Strategyzer’s website, asking site visitors to report on the attitudes toward Business Model Canvas and similar approaches in their organizations. Set up branching in the survey so that people who are interested in the canvas method but who have encountered resistance from upper management are asked a series of questions about the nature of the resistance they are encountering and what forms of proof could help convince these executives to give the new method a try.

Quick Learning Guide

KEY TERMS

causation Cause-and-effect linkage between two factors, where one of them causes the other to occur or change

closed questions Questions with a fixed range of possible answers

conclusion A logical interpretation of the facts and other information in a report

correlation The simultaneous change in two variables; changes in one variable may or may not cause changes in the other

focus group A form of group research interview in which a moderator guides a group through a series of discussion questions while the rest of the research team members observes

knowledge management (KM) Set of technologies, policies, and procedures that let colleagues capture and share information throughout an organization

mean Value equal to the sum of all the items in the group divided by the number of items in that group; what people refer to when they use the term average

median Midpoint of a series, with an equal number of items above and below

metasearch engines Search tools that format search requests for multiple search engines simultaneously

mode The number that occurs more often than any other in a sample

online databases Online compilations of newspapers, magazines, journals, and other information sources

open-ended questions Questions without simple, predetermined answers; used to solicit opinions, insights, and information

primary research New research done specifically for the current project

problem statement Statement that defines the problem or purpose of your research

recommendation A suggested course of action

search engines Online search tools that identify individual webpages that contain specific words or phrases you’ve asked for

secondary research Research done previously for another purpose

trends Repeatable patterns taking place over time

web directories Online lists of websites selected by human editors

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 Describe an effective process for conducting business research. Begin the research process with careful planning to make sure you familiarize yourself with the subject area, identify the most important information gaps you face, and prioritize the questions you need to ask to fill those gaps. Then locate the required data and information, using primary and secondary research as needed. Process the results of your research, analyzing both textual and numeric information to extract averages, trends, and other insights. Apply your findings by summarizing information for someone else’s benefit, drawing conclusions based on what you’ve learned or developing recommendations. Finally, manage information effectively so that you and others can retrieve it later and reuse it in other projects.

2 Define secondary research and explain how to evaluate, locate, and document information sources. Secondary research involves collecting information that was originally gathered for another research project or another effort. Secondary research is generally done before primary research, to save time and money in the event someone else has already gathered the information needed.

Information should come from a credible source that has a reputation for being honest and reliable; the source should also be unbiased. The purpose of the material should be known, and the author should be credible. The information should include references to sources (if obtained elsewhere), and it should be independently verifiable. The material should be current, complete, and supported with evidence. Finally, the information should seem logical.

The tasks involved in locating secondary sources of data and information can vary widely depending on the project, but much of your efforts will involve finding information in a corporate, public, or university library or finding information online. Libraries offer an array of business books, databases, newspapers, periodicals, directories, almanacs, and government publications. Some of these printed sources provide information that is not available online, and some of the online sources provide information that is available by subscription. Librarians can be a huge help when you need advice on structuring an investigation or finding specific sources.

Finding information online is often more complicated than simply plugging a few terms into a search engine. General-purpose search engines are sophisticated tools, but even when they are used wisely, they are not able to find everything on the Internet. Moreover, with no human reviewers to evaluate the quality or ranking of the search results, you can’t always be sure of the quality of what you find. Web directories, metasearch engines, and online databases all complement the capabilities of general-purpose search engines. Use online monitoring tools to be alerted to new materials on topics of interest.

To make the best use of any search engine or database, think about your information needs carefully before you start searching, read and understand the instructions for using each online research tool, pay attention to the details because even minor aspects of searching can dramatically influence results, review search and display options carefully to optimize results, try variations on your search terms if you can’t find what you’re looking for, and try narrower or broader searches to adjust the scope of what you’re looking for.

3 Define primary research and outline the steps involved in conducting surveys and interviews. Primary research is research that is being conducted for the first time, and the two most common methods are surveys and interviews. Conducting a survey involves selecting a representative set of respondents from the population you are studying, developing a questionnaire using carefully written and sequenced questions, and

administering the actual survey to collect information. Conducting an interview starts with learning about the person(s) you plan to interview and then formulating your main idea to make sure your interview will stay focused. Choose the length, style, and organization of the interview, and then select question types to elicit the sort of information you want, with each question designed to collect useful answers. Limit your questions to the most important queries. Record the interview if the person allows, and review your notes as soon as the interview ends.

4 Describe the major tasks involved in processing research results. In most cases you need to process your research results in some fashion before applying them in reports and presentations. The three basic ways to process verbal information are quoting (using someone else’s words directly, with appropriate attribution), paraphrasing (restating someone else’s words in your own language), and summarizing (creating a shorter version of an original piece of writing). Processing numeric data can involve a variety of statistical analysis techniques. Three basic computations are the mean (what people are referring to when they say “average”), the median (the midpoint in a series, indicating an equal number of lesser and greater values), and the mode (the most frequently occurring value in a series). Processing results can also involve looking for trends and distinguishing causal relationships from correlations and mere coincidences.

5 Explain how to summarize research results and present conclusions and recommendations. Research results can be applied in several ways, depending on the purpose of the report or presentation. A summary is an unbiased condensation of the information uncovered in your research. It filters out details and presents only the most important ideas. A conclusion is your analysis of what the findings mean (an interpretation of the facts). A recommendation is your opinion (based on reason and logic) about the course of action that should be taken.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) to complete the problems marked with this icon .

Test Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

13-1. What are the five steps in the research process? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55)

13-2. What is the purpose of identifying information gaps before starting research? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55)

13-3. Should you conduct secondary research first or primary research? Why? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

13-4. What is the hidden Internet? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

13-5. What does it mean to make a survey adaptive? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1)

13-6. What is paraphrasing and what is its purpose? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

13-7. What are the differences between the mean, median, and mode? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

13-8. What are the characteristics of a sound conclusion? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F5E)

13-9. How does a conclusion differ from a recommendation? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F5E)

Apply Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

13-10. Companies occasionally make mistakes that expose confidential information, such as when employees lose laptop computers containing sensitive data files or webmasters forget to protect confidential webpages from search engine indexes. If you conducted a search that turned up competitive information on webpages that were clearly intended to be private, what would you do? Explain your answer. [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55)

13-11. Why must you be careful when citing information from online sources? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

13-12. One of your employees submitted a report comparing the market opportunities for two product ideas your company might develop. The report concludes that because the first idea yielded 340,000 hits in a Google search, whereas the second idea yielded only 128,000 hits, the first idea clearly has more sales potential. Is this a valid conclusion? Why or why not? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

13-13. While analyzing last year’s sales data, you notice that sales were 10 to 15 percent higher than average during August, September, and November. The marketing department invested heavily in a search engine advertising campaign from August through December. Can you conclude that the advertising campaign caused the increase in sales? Why or why not? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F5E)

Practice Your Skills

13-14. Message for Analysis: Primary Research: Conducting Interviews [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

Imagine you are going to interview a mid-level manager in a large corporation about the company’s meeting practices. Read the questions and then (1) critique them, as a whole, indicating what is effective or ineffective about this series of questions, and (2) select five questions and revise them to make them more effective.

a. What is your position in the company? b. To whom do you report? c. Do you attend or run many meetings? d. Do your meetings start on time? Run late? e. Do you distribute or receive a meeting agenda several days in advance of the meeting? f. Do you like your job? g. Do you travel a lot for your job? h. Has your company cut back on travel expenditures? If so, how and why? i. Does your company use videoconferencing or online meetings as an alternative to travel? j. Does your company own its own videoconferencing equipment? k. Are virtual meetings more or less effective than face-to-face meetings? l. How long have you worked at this company?

m. Who are your most important customers? n. How often does your management team meet with the managers of other companies? o. Does your company produce a wide range of products or only a few specialty items? p. How do you keep your meetings on track? q. Does someone prepare written minutes of meetings? Are the minutes distributed to meeting members?

Exercises

Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective. In some instances, supporting information will be found in another chapter, as indicated.

Planning Your Research; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55) In a team assigned by your instructor, decide how you would structure a research project to answer the following questions. Identify any shortcomings in the approaches you have chosen.

13-15. Has the litter problem on campus been reduced since the cafeteria began offering fewer take-out choices this year than in past years? 13-16. Has the school attracted more transfer students since it waived the formal application process and allowed students at other colleges simply to send their transcripts and a one-page letter of application? 13-17. Have the number of traffic accidents at the school’s main entrance been reduced since a traffic light was installed? 13-18. Did student satisfaction with campus libraries decline after budget cuts forced the libraries to reduce opening hours? 13-19. Planning a Research Project [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55) You and your business partners are considering buying several franchises in the fast-food business. You are all experienced managers or entrepreneurs, but none of you has experience in franchising. Visit www.amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) and search for books on this subject. Explore some of the books that you find by reading reviews and using the “search inside” feature.

a. Use the information you find to develop a list of subquestions to help you narrow your focus. b. Write down the names of three books you might purchase to further aid your research. c. Summarize how a search like this can assist you with your research efforts and identify any risks of using this technique.

13-20. Planning a Research Project [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55)

Analyze any recent school or work assignment that required you to conduct research. How did you approach your investigation? Did you rely mostly on sources of primary information or mostly on sources of secondary information? Now that you have studied this chapter, can you identify two ways to improve the research techniques you used during that assignment? Briefly explain.

Conducting Secondary Research (Company and Industry Data) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD) Using online or printed sources, find the following information. Be sure to properly cite your sources, using the formats discussed in Appendix B (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000747b#P700101245100000000000000000747B) .

13-21. Contact information for the American Management Association 13-22. Median weekly earnings of men and women by occupation 13-23. Current market share for Perrier water 13-24. Performance ratios for office supply retailers 13-25. Annual stock performance for Nike 13-26. Number of franchise outlets in the United States 13-27. Composition of the U.S. workforce by profession

Conducting Secondary Research (Finding Sources) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD) Businesspeople have to know where to look for secondary information when they conduct research. Identify five periodicals or online resources in each the following professions:

13-28. Marketing and advertising 13-29. Insurance 13-30. Telecommunications 13-31. Accounting 13-32. Conducting Secondary Research (Documenting Sources) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

Select five business articles from sources such as journals, books, newspapers, or websites. Develop a resource list, using Appendix B (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000747b#P700101245100000000000000000747B) as a guideline. 13-33. Conducting Secondary Research (Evaluating Sources) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD) Find three websites that provide business information such as company or industry news, trends, analysis, facts, or performance data. Using the criteria discussed under “Evaluating Sources (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DB7) ” on page 366 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#page_366) , evaluate the credibility of the information presented at these websites. 13-34. Conducting Secondary Research (Online Monitoring); Media Skills: Microblogging [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD) , Chapter 8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#P7001012451000000000000000003454) Select a business topic that interests you and configure a Twitter monitoring tool such as TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com (http://www.tweetdeck.com) ) to track tweets on this topic. After you’ve found at least a dozen tweets, identify three that provide potentially useful information and describe them in a brief email message to your instructor. 13-35. Conducting Secondary Research (Company Data) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

Select any publicly traded company and find the following information:

• Names of the company’s current officers • List of the company’s products or services (summarized by product lines or divisions, if the company offers many products and services) • Current issues in the company’s industry • Outlook for the company’s industry as a whole

13-36. Conducting Secondary Research (Industry Issues) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

You’d like to know if it’s a good idea to buy banner ads on other websites to drive more traffic to your company’s website. You’re worried about the expense and difficulty of running an experiment to test banner effectiveness, so you decide to look for some secondary data. Identify three secondary sources that might offer helpful data on this question. 13-37. Conducting Primary Research (Surveys) [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1) You work for a movie studio that is producing a young director’s first motion picture, the story of a group of unknown musicians finding work and making a reputation in a competitive industry. Unfortunately, some of your friends leave the first complete screening, saying that the 182-minute movie is simply too long. Others said they couldn’t imagine any sequences to cut out. Your boss wants to test the movie on a regular audience and ask viewers to complete a questionnaire that will help the director decide whether edits are needed and, if so, where. Design a questionnaire you can use to solicit valid answers for a report to the director about how to handle the audience members’ reactions to the movie. 13-38. Conducting Primary Research (Interviews) [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1) Plan an information interview with a professional working in your chosen field of study. Plan the structure of the interview and create a set of interview questions. Conduct the interview. Using the information you gathered, write a memo to another student, describing the tasks, advantages, and disadvantages of jobs in this field of study. (Assume that your reader is a person who also plans to pursue a career in this field of study.) 13-39. Conducting Primary Research (Interviews) [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1)

You’re conducting an information interview with a manager in another division of your company. Partway through the interview, the manager shows clear signs of impatience. How should you respond? What might you do differently to prevent this from happening in the future? Explain your answers. 13-40. Processing Data and Information [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F) Select an article from a business periodical such as Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, or Forbes. Read the article and highlight its key points. Summarize the article in fewer than 100 words, paraphrasing the key points. 13-41. Processing Data and Information [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F) Your boss has asked you to analyze and report on your division’s sales for the first nine months of this year. Using the following data from company invoices, calculate the mean for each quarter and all averages for the year to date. Then identify and discuss the quarterly sales trends.

January $24,600

February $25,900

March $23,000

April $21,200

May $24,600

June $26,800

July $29,900

August $30,500

September $26,600

Expand Your Skills Critique the Professionals

Find a recent example of a significant business blunder, such as a new product that failed in the marketplace. Based on what you can learn about the episode, how might better research have helped the company in question avoid the blunder? Using whatever medium your instructor requests, write a brief conclusion of your analysis.

Sharpening Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) , is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, article, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on using online search tools in business research. Write a brief email message to your instructor, describing the item you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

13-42. How can online monitoring tools help you with research? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

13-43.   What search terms could you use to find estimates of the lifetime financial value of a college education? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

Endnotes

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d27#rP7001012451000000000000000005107) . Kavi Guppta, “How to Convince Leaders to Avoid Business Plans When Validating New Ideas,” Strategyzer blog, 18 April 2016, www.blog.strategyzer.com (http://www.blog.strategyzer.com) ; Strategyzer website, accessed 23 April 2016, www.strategyzer.com (http://www.strategyzer.com) ; Alexander Ostenwalder and Yves Pigneur, Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2009), ebook; Alex Cowan, “The 20 Minute Business Plan: Business Model Canvas Made Easy,” Cowan+, 6 February 2013, www.alexandercowan.com (http://www.alexandercowan.com) .

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#rP7001012451000000000000000005109) . Annie Pettit, “Mugging, Sugging and Now Rugging: I Take a Hard Stance on Privacy,” LoveStats blog, 29 January 2010, www.lovestats.wordpress.com (http://www.lovestats.wordpress.com) .

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#rP700101245100000000000000000510B) . Information for this section originally based in part from “Finding Industry Information,” accessed 3 November 1998, www.pitt.edu/~buslibry/industries.htm (http://www.pitt.edu/~buslibry/industries.htm) ; Thomas P. Bergman, Stephen M. Garrison, and Gregory M. Scott, The Business Student Writer’s Manual and Guide to the Internet (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998), 67–80; Ernest L. Maier, Anthony J. Faria, Peter Kaatrude, and Elizabeth Wood, The Business Library and How to Use It (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1996), 53–76; Sherwyn P. Morreale and Courtland L. Bovée, Excellence in Public Speaking (Fort Worth, Tex.: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998), 166–171.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#rP700101245100000000000000000510D) . “Copyright Office Basics,” U.S. Copyright Office website, accessed 2 November 2006, www.copyright.gov (http://www.copyright.gov) .

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP700101245100000000000000000510F) . Naresh K. Malhotra, Basic Marketing Research (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002), 314–317; “How to Design and Conduct a Study,” Credit Union Magazine, October 1983, 36–46.

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP7001012451000000000000000005111) . “Using Skip Logic in a Survey,” SurveyMonkey.com (http://SurveyMonkey.com) , accessed 19 August 2016, www.surveymonkey.com (http://www.surveymonkey.com) .

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP7001012451000000000000000005113) . Morreale and Bovée, Excellence in Public Speaking, 177.

8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP7001012451000000000000000005115) . Morreale and Bovée, Excellence in Public Speaking, 182.

9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP7001012451000000000000000005117) . A. B. Blankenship and George Edward Breen, State of the Art Marketing Research (Lincolnwood, Ill.: NTC Business Books, 1992), 225.

10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#rP7001012451000000000000000005119) . Lynn Quitman Troyka, Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers, 6th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002), 481.

11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#rP700101245100000000000000000511B) . “How to Paraphrase Effectively: 6 Steps to Follow,” www.Researchpaper.com (http://www.Researchpaper.com) , accessed 26 October 1998, www.researchpaper.com (http://www.researchpaper.com) .

12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#rP700101245100000000000000000511D) . Jonathan Reichental, “Knowledge Management in the Age of Social Media,” O’Reilly Radar, 16 March 2011, radar.oreilly.com (http://radar.oreilly.com) ; Venkatesh Rao, “Social Media vs. Knowledge Management: A Generational War,” Social Computing, 17 November 2008, www.socialcomputingmagazine.com (http://www.socialcomputingmagazine.com) ; Jeff Kelly, “KM vs. Social Media: Beware the Warmongers,” Social Computing, 17 November 2008, www.socialcomputingmagazine.com (http://www.socialcomputingmagazine.com) .

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on File 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 13: 978-1-323-60762-6

13 Finding, Evaluating, and Processing Information LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you will be able to

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D57)

Describe an effective process for conducting business research.

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAF)

Define secondary research, and explain how to evaluate, locate, and document information sources.

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1)

Define primary research, and outline the steps involved in conducting surveys and interviews.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F11) Describe the major tasks involved in processing research results.

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F60) Explain how to summarize research results and present conclusions and recommendations.

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COMMUNICATION CLOSE-UP AT Strategyzer

strategyzer.com (http://strategyzer.com)

Whenever you’re gathering information for a major business writing project, you’re likely to encounter the question of how much is enough? Collecting and processing information takes time and often costs money, and it’s not always clear how much information you need in order to craft an effective report or proposal, or how much time and money you should invest to get it. Invest too little and you risk writing a flawed report. Invest too much and you’ll waste time and money that would be better put to other uses.

Business plans are a great example of this dilemma, and they have a special twist that makes information collection even more challenging. As you’ll read on page 396 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p70010124510000000000000000052bb#page_396) in Chapter 14 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000005122#P7001012451000000000000000005122) , conventional business plan covers a lot of territory, from a high-level look at strategy to details on financing, operations, marketing, and other functional areas. These reports can run to 20, 30, 40 pages or more, and you can spend weeks gathering the necessary information and distilling it down to useful formats.

Author and entrepreneur Alex Osterwalder’s approach to evaluating new business ideas offers a simpler, faster alternative than the traditional business plan.

Courtesy of Alex Osterwalder

Spending that much time on research before writing the business plan and launching the company can seem like a good idea to entrepreneurs who want to reduce start-up risks as much as possible or who want to produce high-quality reports to impress lenders or investors. In many start-up situations, however, this is precious time that entrepreneurs should be spending getting a product in front of customers to test the viability of the business concept, rather than crafting an impressive-looking plan about an idea that is still unproven. Moreover, in fast-moving markets, it is possible to spend so much time researching and writing the business plan that the target market changes by the time the plan is ready.

The special twist with business plans involves the uncertainty surrounding some of the most important information they typically contain. For example, estimating demand for a new product or service is one of the most vital aspects of planning a business—and one of the most difficult. You might spend weeks or months gathering data on comparable products and refining spreadsheets with elegant forecasting models to predict how many products you can sell and how much profit you’ll make. This projection will then be the basis of almost everything else in the business plan, from the amount of money you can attract from investors to the number of employees you should hire.

Here’s the catch: You could spend all this time writing a plan and launching a business based on this number only to find out it’s wildly off the mark. In the worst case scenario, you might’ve wasted months launching a weak business idea or a product with little or no market appeal. Even the most sophisticated estimates of market demand are still only predictions, and the only way to really know if a product is going to sell is to get it in front of customers and ask them to buy it.

In response to these uncertainties with conventional business plans, some experts now recommend a simplified, accelerated approach that gets a new business to the “point of proof” faster. One of the key thinkers behind this new approach is the Swiss author and entrepreneur Alex Osterwalder. Rather than launching businesses with elaborate planning and a conventional business plan, he proposes that companies use the Business Model Canvas. This single- sheet visual brainstorming tool helps entrepreneurs answer a handful of key questions to determine whether they have a financially viable business concept—and what to adjust if they don’t. The canvas approach helps flag some of the common stumbling points of new businesses, including financial plans that are based on shaky assumptions (or outright fantasy) and untested hypotheses about market behavior.

The Business Model Canvas and its variants don’t necessarily replace conventional business reports in all cases, and they don’t cover all the details needed to operate a business after launch, but they help entrepreneurs decide whether it makes sense to move forward. By developing and testing business concepts quickly, entrepreneurs can find out whether they have a realistic idea before investing weeks of time in detailed planning and report-writing efforts. The canvas idea has definitely captured the imagination of entrepreneurs: More than a million people bought the book that first outlined the canvas

idea, and more than 5 million have downloaded the Business Model Canvas.1

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13.1 Planning Your Research

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

1 Describe an effective process for conducting business research.

Audiences expect you to support your business messages with solid research.

Whether you’re brainstorming a new business idea using something like Strategyzer’s Business Model Canvas (profiled in the chapter-opening Communication Close-Up) or planning a conventional business report or proposal, you need to make sure your reporting, analysis, and recommendations are supported with solid research. Figure 13.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D5B) outlines a five-step research process that will help you gather and use information efficiently; you’ll learn more about these steps in the following sections.

With so much information now online, it’s tempting just to punch some keywords into a search engine and grab the first few results that show up. However, effective and efficient research requires a more thoughtful approach. Your favorite search engine might not be able to reach the webpages that have the information you need, the information might not be online at all, it might be online but not under the search terms you’ve used, or it might not even exist in any form.

Figure 13.1 The Research Process

By following a methodical research process, you can save time and money while uncovering better information.

Researching without a plan can waste time and produce flawed results.

To maximize your chances of finding useful information and to minimize the time you spend looking for it, follow these planning steps: Familiarize yourself with the subject so that you can frame insightful questions, identify the most critical gaps in your information, and then prioritize your research needs. However, before launching any research project, be sure to take a moment or two to consider the ethics and etiquette of your approach.

MAINTAINING ETHICS AND ETIQUETTE IN YOUR RESEARCH

Your research tactics affect the people you gather data and information from and the people who read and apply your results. To avoid ethical lapses, keep the following points in mind:

Take precautions to avoid ethical lapses in your research.

• Don’t force a specific outcome by skewing your research. Approach your research with an open mind and a willingness to accept whatever you find, even if it’s not what you expect or want to see.

Privacy is a contentious issue in the research field today.

• Respect the privacy of your research participants. Privacy is a contentious issue today. Businesses believe they have a right to protect their confidential information from competitors, and consumers believe they have a right to protect their personal information from businesses.

• Document sources and give appropriate credit. Whether you are using published documents, personal interviews, or company records, citing your sources not only is fair to the people who created and provided the information but also helps your audience members confirm your information or explore it in more detail, if they so choose.

Don’t automatically assume that you can use all the ideas and information you find online.

• Respect the intellectual property and digital rights of your sources. For example, your research might turn up a great new way to sell services online, but that doesn’t mean you’re free to implement that process. It might be protected by one of the many patents that have been granted in recent years for business process models.

• Don’t extract more from your sources than they actually provide. In other words, don’t succumb to the temptation to put words in a source’s mouth. For instance, if an industry expert says that a sales increase is possible, don’t quote him or her as saying that a sales increase is probable.

• Don’t misrepresent who you are or what you intend to do with the research results. One classic example of ethical lapses in this area is known as sugging, short for selling under the guise of research. For example, a firm might seem to be conducting a survey when it is, in fact, using the questions to identify hot sales leads. Another unethical variation on sugging is following up a real survey with sales calls, using information that

respondents shared in the belief that they were only participating in a survey.2

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005109)

Research etiquette deserves careful attention, too. For example, respect the time of anyone who agrees to be interviewed or to be a research participant, and maintain courtesy throughout the interview or research process. For more information on research ethics and etiquette, review the Code of Standards and Ethics for Survey Research published by the Council of America Survey Research Organizations (www.casro.org (http://www.casro.org) ).

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FAMILIARIZING YOURSELF WITH THE SUBJECT

Avoid false starts and blind alleys by familiarizing yourself with new subject areas before you start your research.

Give yourself some unstructured time at the beginning of the project to explore the general subject area, perhaps by reading industry publications and blogs, searching for trending topics on Twitter, visiting competitors’ websites, and interviewing experts within your organization. Scanning the tables of contents and indexes of books on the subject can give you a sense of how a broad subject area is divided into component topics.

The problem statement defines the purpose of your research and guides your investigation.

When you have a basic grasp of the subject area, develop a problem statement (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FD1) that defines the problem or purpose of your research—the decision you need to make or the conclusion you need to reach at the end of the process. You may find it easier to phrase the problem as a question, such as “How can we improve customer satisfaction?” or “Does Apple’s new TV system pose a competitive threat to us?”

IDENTIFYING INFORMATION GAPS

Focus your research by identifying the most important gaps in your information.

Your problem statement frames the purpose of your research, but it doesn’t usually tell you what specific information you need to find. Your next task is to dig deeper to discover the information gaps that need to be filled through research. You or someone in your company may already have some of the information you need, and you don’t want to waste time or money gathering information you already have.

For instance, the question “How can we improve customer satisfaction?” is too vague because many separate factors contribute to customer satisfaction. To get useful information, you would break this topic down into specific issues, such as product reliability and customer service skills. Digging further, you may discover that you don’t need to research product reliability because the company already tracks data on product repairs. However, if no one has ever measured the employees’ customer service skills, you would identify that as a definite information gap.

PRIORITIZING RESEARCH NEEDS

You usually won’t have enough time or money to answer every question that comes to mind, so setting priorities is a must.

Prioritizing your research needs is important because you won’t have the time or money to answer every question you might have. Moreover, if you’ll be using interviews or surveys, you’ll need to limit the number of questions you ask so that you don’t consume more time than people are willing to give. One simple way to prioritize is to divide your questions into “need to know” and “nice to know” and then toss out all the “nice to know” questions. If you start with a technique such as information gap analysis, you will get a clear idea of the information you truly need to collect.

13.2 Conducting Secondary Research

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

2 Define secondary research, and explain how to evaluate, locate, and document information sources.

Secondary research efforts gather and analyze information that has been previously collected for other purposes.

With a clear plan and careful prioritization, you’re ready to conduct research, and the first step is to see whether anyone else has already done some or all of the research you need. Consulting research that was done previously for another purpose is considered secondary research (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FDA) . The sources for such information include print and online periodicals, online databases, books, and other research reports. (Some companies specialize in reports on particular industries, companies, technologies, market regions, and other subjects.)

Start your research by conducting secondary research first.

Don’t let the name secondary mislead you, though. You want to start with secondary research because it can save you considerable time and money, although you may have to pay to see someone else’s results. In contrast, primary research (see page 372 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#page_372) ) is new research done specifically for the current project.

EVALUATING SOURCES

Evaluate your sources carefully to avoid embarrassing and potentially damaging mistakes.

No matter where you’re searching, it is your responsibility to separate quality information from unreliable or misleading junk to avoid corrupting your results. Social media have complicated this challenge by making many new sources of information available. On the positive side, independent sources communicating through blogs, wikis, Twitter, user-generated content sites, and podcasting channels can provide valuable and unique insights, often from experts whose voices might never be heard otherwise. On the negative side, these nontraditional information sources often lack the editorial boards and fact-checkers commonly used in traditional publishing. You cannot assume that the information you find is accurate, objective, and current. Answer the following questions about each piece of material:

• Does the source have a reputation for honesty and reliability? Naturally, you’ll feel more comfortable using information from an established source that has a reputation for accuracy. But don’t let your guard down completely; even the finest reporters and editors can make mistakes. For sources that are new or relatively unknown, your safest bet is to corroborate anything you learn with information from several other sources.

• Is the source potentially biased? The individual or organization providing the information might have a particular bias or point of view regarding the information and its context. Such bias is neither inherently bad nor unethical (unless it is being intentionally hidden), but you need to be aware of it to interpret the information you find.

• What is the purpose of the material? Was the material designed to inform others of new research, advance a position, or stimulate discussion? Was it designed to promote or sell a product? Be sure to distinguish among advertising, advocating, and informing.

• Is the author credible? Find out whether the person or the publisher is known and respected in the field. Is the author someone with hands-on experience in the subject area or merely an observer with an opinion?

• Where did the source get its information? Many sources of secondary information get their material from other secondary sources, removing you even further from the original data.

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The Instapaper mobile app lets you instantly save webpages and articles to read later, a convenient capability when you’re exploring a topic and want to collect potential sources for review.

Let your readers know if you were unable to verify critical pieces of information obtained in your research.

• Can you verify the material independently? Verification can uncover biases or mistakes—which is particularly important when the information goes beyond simple facts to include projections, interpretations, and estimates. If you can’t verify critical information, let your audience know that.

• Is the material current? Make sure you are using the most current information available by checking the publication or posting date. • Is the material complete? Have you accessed the entire document or only a selection from it? If it’s a selection, which parts were excluded? Do

you need more detail?

• Are all claims supported with evidence? Are opinions presented as facts? Does the writer make broad claims, such as “most people believe . . .,” without citing any surveys to prove his or her point?

• Do the source’s claims stand up to logical scrutiny? Finally, step back and ask whether the information makes sense. If that little voice in your head says that something sounds suspicious, listen!

You probably won’t have time to conduct a thorough background check on all your sources, so focus your efforts on the most important or most suspicious pieces of information.

LOCATING SOURCES

Even if you intend to eventually conduct primary research, start with a review of any available secondary research. Inside your company, you might be able to find a variety of documents prepared for other projects that offer helpful information. Be sure to ask whether your company has a knowledge management system or some other repository for research results. (See “Managing Information (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F8A) ” on page 379 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#page_379) for more on this topic.) Outside the company, you can choose from a wide range of print and online resources, some of which are included in Table 13.1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DD9) on the next

page.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000510B) (The list in this table represents a tiny fraction of the secondary resources available; ask a reference librarian for advice on researching specific business topics.) For instance, if you want to know more about a specific company, one of the first things you’ll need to find out is whether the company is public (sells shares of stock to the general public) or private. Public corporations, which are required to submit extensive financial reports to government agencies, usually have more information available than private companies.

Finding Information at the Library

Public, corporate, and university libraries offer an enormous array of business books, databases, newspapers, periodicals, directories, almanacs, and government publications. Some of these printed sources provide information that is not available online, and some of the online sources provide information that is available by subscription. Don’t assume that you can find everything you need through your own online research.

TABLE 13.1 Important Resources for Business Research* (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004E07)

COMPANY, INDUSTRY, AND PRODUCT RESOURCES

AnnualReports.com (http://AnnualReports.com) . Free access to annual reports from thousands of public companies.

Brands and Their Companies/Companies and Their Brands. Contains data on several hundred thousand consumer products, manufacturers, importers, marketers, and distributors. Available as an online database; ask at your library.

D&B Directories. Dun & Bradstreet publishes a variety of business databases and directories covering thousands of companies worldwide.

Hoover’s Online. Database of millions of companies, including in-depth coverage of thousands of leading companies around the world. Basic information is available free; in-depth information requires a subscription.

Manufacturing & Distribution USA. Data on thousands of companies in the manufacturing, wholesaling, and retailing sectors.

NAICS Codes. North American Industry Classification System.

Reference USA. Concise information on millions of U.S. companies; subscription database.

SEC filings. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including 10Ks, 10Qs, annual reports, and prospectuses, for U.S. public firms.

Standard & Poor’s Net Advantage. Comprehensive range of directories and databases focusing on publicly traded companies and their industries and markets.

ThomasNet. Information on thousands of U.S. manufacturers, indexed by company name and product.

RESEARCH DIRECTORIES AND INDEXES

Books in Print. Database indexes millions of books, audiobooks, and video titles from around the world. Available in print and professional online versions.

Directories in Print. Information on thousands of business and industrial directories.

Encyclopedia of Associations. Index of thousands of associations, listed by broad subject category, specific subject, association, and location. Available as an online database as well.

Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature. Database of articles in general-interest magazines.

TRADEMARKS AND PATENTS

Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Weekly publications (one for trademarks and one for patents) providing official record of newly assigned trademarks and patents, product descriptions, and product names.

United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark and patent information records.

STATISTICS AND OTHER BUSINESS DATA

COMPANY, INDUSTRY, AND PRODUCT RESOURCES

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Large collection of economic and government data.

Europa—The European Union Online. A portal that provides up-to-date coverage of current affairs, legislation, policies, and EU statistics.

FedStats. Access to a full range of statistics and information from more than 70 U.S. government agencies.

Key Business Ratios (Dun & Bradstreet). Industry, financial, and performance ratios.

Information Please Almanac. Compilation of broad-range statistical data, with a strong focus on the labor force.

Annual Statement Studies. Industry, financial, and performance ratios published by the Risk Management Association.

Statistical Abstract of the United States. Annual compendium of U.S. economic, social, political, and industrial statistics.

The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Facts on economic, social, educational, and political events for major countries.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Extensive national and regional information on labor and business, including employment, industry growth, productivity, the Consumer Price Index, and the overall U.S. economy.

U.S. Census Bureau. Demographic data and analysis on consumers and businesses based on census results.

COMMERCIAL DATABASES

A wide variety of commercial databases provide access to articles from trade and academic journals; ask your reference librarian to help you select the best databases for specific research projects.

* (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#rP7001012451000000000000000004E07) Note: Some of these resources are free, and some are available via subscription only; check with your librarian.

Libraries offer information and resources you can’t find anywhere else—including reference librarians who can show you how to plan and conduct effective searches.

Libraries are also where you’ll find one of your most important resources: librarians. Reference librarians are skilled in research strategies and can often help you locate obscure information you can’t find on your own. They can also direct you to many sources of business information. Also, many library websites now have a business portal, with links to helpful resources and advice on finding information.

Whether you’re looking for information in printed materials or in databases, each type of resource serves a special function:

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Baruch College’s Beginner’s Guide to Business Research will point you in the right direction. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real- timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

• Newspapers and periodicals. Libraries offer access to a wide variety of popular magazines, general business magazines, trade journals (which provide information about specific professions and industries), and academic journals (which provide research-oriented articles from researchers and educators). Check the library’s website or ask a librarian to find out which periodicals are available in print or digital formats.

• Business books. Although generally less timely than newspapers, periodicals, and online sources, business books provide in-depth coverage of a variety of business topics. Many libraries now offer online access to their card catalogs so you can see whether they have specific titles in their collections.

• Directories. Thousands of directories are published in print and digital formats in the United States, and many include membership information for all kinds of professions, industries, and special-interest groups.

• Almanacs and statistical resources. Almanacs are handy guides to factual and statistical information about countries, politics, the labor force, and so on. One of the most extensive, the Statistical Abstract of the United States, published annually by the U.S. Department of Commerce, contains statistics about occupations, government, population, health, business, crime, and the environment (also available online at www.census.gov (http://www.census.gov) ).

Local, state, and federal government agencies publish a huge variety of information that is helpful to business researchers.

• Government publications. Information on laws, court decisions, tax questions, regulatory issues, and other governmental concerns is often available in collections of government documents. A librarian can direct you to the information you want.

• Databases. Databases offer vast collections of searchable information, often in specific areas, such as business, law, science, technology, and education. Some of these are available only by institutional subscription, so the library may be your only way to gain access to them. Some libraries offer remote online access to some or all databases; for others, you need to visit in person.

Finding Information Online

Online research tools can be used to search for existing information and to monitor for new information.

The Internet can be a tremendous source of business information, provided that you know how to approach a search, where to look, and how to use the tools available. Roughly speaking, the tools fall into two categories: those you can use to actively search for existing information and those you can use to monitor selected sources for new information. (Some tools can perform both functions.)

Online Search Tools

To be a successful online researcher, you need to expand your toolkit beyond the popular search engines.

The most familiar search tools are general-purpose search engines (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FD7) , such as Google and Bing, which scan millions of websites to identify individual webpages that contain a specific word or phrase and then attempt to rank the results from most useful to least useful. Search engines have the advantage of scanning millions or billions of individual webpages, and the best engines use powerful ranking algorithms to present the pages that are probably the most relevant to your search request.

Today’s search engines are powerful tools, but they still have important limitations.

For all their ease and power, conventional search engines have three primary shortcomings: (1) no human editors are involved to evaluate the quality or ranking of the search results; (2) various engines use different search techniques, so they often find different material or present similar results in different order; and (3) search engines can’t reach all the content on some websites (this part of the Internet is sometimes called the hidden Internet or the deep web).

Web directories benefit from having human editors evaluate and select websites.

A variety of tools are available to overcome the three main weaknesses of general-purpose search engines, and you should consider using one or more of them in your business research. First, web directories (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FE0) such as DMOZ (dmoz.org (http://dmoz.org) ) use human editors to categorize and evaluate websites. Some directories focus on specific media types, such as blogs or podcasts.

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LEARN MORE BY EXPLORING THIS INTERACTIVE WEBSITE

Use this powerful tool for easier online searches

Bovée and Thill Web Search is a custom metasearch engine that automatically formats more than 300 types for searches for optimum results. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Web Search in the navigation bar.

Metasearch engines can save you time by using multiple search engines at once.

Second, metasearch engines (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FC2) help overcome the differences among search engines by formatting your search request for multiple search engines, making it easy to find a broader range of results. With a few clicks, you can compare results from multiple search engines to make sure you are getting a broad view of the material.

Online databases can give you access to important resources that search engines often can’t reach.

Third, online databases (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FC8) help address the challenge of the hidden Internet by offering access to newspapers, magazines, journals, digital copies of books, and other resources often not available

with standard search engines. Some of these databases offer free access to the public, but others require a subscription (check with your library). Also, a variety of specialized search engines now exist to reach various parts of the hidden Internet.

Online Monitoring Tools

To stay up to date on a research topic, subscribe to RSS feeds, search engine alerts, or Twitter updates from knowledgeable individuals.

One of the most powerful aspects of online research is the ability to automatically monitor selected sources for new information so that you can get new information without repeating manual searches. The possibilities include subscribing to newsfeeds from blogs and websites; following people on Twitter and other microblogs; setting up alerts on search engines and online databases; and using specialized monitors such as TweetDeck and HootSuite to track tweets that mention specific companies or other terms.

Exercise care when setting up monitoring tools, however, because it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the flood of information. Remember that you can always go back and search your sources if you need to gather additional information.

Search Tips

Make sure you know how each search tool works; you can get unpredictable results if you don’t know how a particular tool operates.

Search engines, metasearch engines, and databases offer a variety of ways to find information. Unfortunately, no two of them work in exactly the same way, and you have to learn how to use each one most effectively. This learning may take a few extra minutes at the beginning of your research, but it could save you hours of lost time later—and save you from embarrassing oversights. You can usually find a Help or Support page that explains both basic and advanced functions, with advice on how to use a particular tool most effectively.

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LEARN MORE BY VISITING THIS WEBSITE

Use Google more effectively

Google’s Inside Search offers tips and techniques to help you get the best research results in the least amount of time. Go to real- timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

To make the best use of any search engine or database, keep the following points in mind:

Search engine results can create the illusion that the Internet is a complete, well-organized warehouse of reliable information. However, it is neither complete nor organized, and not all the information is reliable.

• Think before you search. The neatly organized results you get from a search engine can create the illusion that the Internet is an orderly warehouse of all the information in the universe, but the reality is far different. The Internet is an incomplete, unorganized hodgepodge of millions of independent websites with information that ranges in value from priceless to worse-than-worthless. After you have identified what you need to know, spend a few moments thinking about where that information might be found, how it might be structured, and what terms various websites might use to describe it.

• Pay attention to the details. Details can make all the difference in a search. On Google, for example, you can filter results according to when items were published online. This setting could drastically change your results, so make sure you haven’t inadvertently limited your search by selecting a narrower time frame than you really want.

• Don’t limit yourself to a regular web search engine. Google, Bing, and other search engines are remarkably powerful, but they can’t access all online content. Moreover, the content you need might not even be online.

• Review the search and display options carefully. When using advanced search or while searching in databases, pay close attention to whether you are searching in the title, author, subject, or document field and whether the search is limited to particular types of documents (such as full- text documents only). Each choice will return different results. And when the results are displayed, verify the presentation order; results might be sorted by date or by relevance.

• Try variations of terms. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, try abbreviations (CEO, CPA), synonyms (man, male), related terms (child, adolescent, youth), different spellings (dialog, dialogue), singular and plural forms (woman, women), nouns and adjectives (manager, management, managerial), and open and compound forms (online, on line, on-line). Some search engines automatically search for such synonyms.

• Adjust the scope of your search, if needed. If a search yields little or no information, broaden your search by specifying fewer terms. Conversely, if you’re inundated with too many hits, use more terms to narrow your search.

Be sure to look beyond the first few pages of search results; there is no guarantee that the best information for your project will appear early in the listings.

• Look beyond the first few pages of results. Don’t assume that the highest-ranking results are the best sources for you. For example, materials that haven’t been optimized for search engines won’t rank as highly (meaning they won’t show up in the first few pages of results), but they may be far better for your purposes.

MOBILE APP

Access and add to your Zotero research files with a variety of Zotero-compatible mobile apps.

Other powerful search tools include enterprise search engines that search all the computers on a company’s network and research and content managers such as LiveBinders and the Zotero browser extension. And don’t overlook the search functions in workplace messaging systems, groupware, and other closed systems.

For research innovations from a mobile perspective, see “Research on the Go with Mobile Devices (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004E72) .”

DIGITAL + SOCIAL + MOBILE: TODAY’S COMMUNICATION ENVIRONMENT

Research on the Go with Mobile Devices

Smartphones and tablets have opened up new possibilities for collecting information for business reports and other communication purposes. Using built-in capabilities such as audio and video recording, as well as apps made specifically for research, business researchers can collect qualitative and quantitative information in a variety of ways:

• Mobile surveys. Tablets with interactive software can replace the clipboards long used by researchers for “mall intercept” surveys and other efforts to collect data from shoppers.

• Collecting and sharing. Collaborative apps such as Pearltrees make it easy to collect online information and organize it across multiple devices, then connect with relevant information collected by other users.

• Note taking. Evernote, OneNote, and other note-taking apps simplify the process of compiling notes, webpages, photos, and other pieces of research.

• Sketching. Sometimes a simple picture is more powerful than words or photos. With touchscreen apps on phones and tablets, researchers can quickly sketch maps, process diagrams, and other visuals on the spot.

• Audio, photo, and video recording. Whether it’s snapping images of street scenes for a report on potential store locations or recording test subjects using a new product prototype, the audiovisual capabilities of today’s mobile devices give researchers a host of new tools.

• Document scanning. Scanning apps let researchers record and organize images of documents that can’t be removed from their storage locations.

• Real-time thoughts and impressions. Asking survey subjects to record information on their mobile devices while they are observing store displays or making purchase decisions, for example, promises to enhance some classic research methods. With the old methods, shoppers would answer survey questions about the choices they made well after the fact, leaving the accuracy of their answers up to the quality of their memories. With their mobile phones in hand, shoppers who’ve agreed to participate in research can describe their impressions and decisions on the spot and even take photos of displays that caught their eye.

As more consumers adopt mobile devices and software developers continue to create new research apps, mobile research promises to revolutionize research the same way it has changed business communication in general.

CAREER APPLICATIONS

1. Assume you’re about to visit another college where you’re applying for the master’s program, and you want to learn as much as you can about the school in the limited time you have available. How could you use your mobile phone to improve your information collection?

2. Mobile research raises some important ethical and legal questions involving privacy. Identify three possible privacy violations that researchers need to guard against.

Sources: Shelly Terrell, “Research on the Go! Effective Research with Mobile Devices,” presentation, 7 November 2013, www.slideshare.net (http://www.slideshare.net) ; Derek Matisz, “Mobile-Enabled Ethnography: 4 Tips for Using Mobile Devices in Your Research,” Vision Critical blog, 24 July 2013, www.visioncritical.com (http://www.visioncritical.com) ; “Let’s Go Shopping: Using Mobile Qualitative Research for Shop-Alongs,” 2020Research, accessed 9 May 2014, www.2020research.com (http://www.2020research.com) .

DOCUMENTING YOUR SOURCES

Proper documentation of the sources you use is an ethical responsibility—and an important resource for your readers.

Documenting the sources you use in your writing serves three important functions: It properly and ethically credits the person who created the original material, it shows your audience that you have sufficient support for your message, and it helps your readers explore your topic in more detail, if desired. Your results might be used by people long after you conduct the research, and these people won’t always have the opportunity to query you in person for more information.

Be sure to take advantage of source documentation tools whenever you can to help ensure that you accurately track all your sources. Most word-processing programs can automatically track and number endnotes for you, and you can use the “table of authorities” feature to create a bibliography of all the sources you’ve used. A wide variety of citation management or reference management tools are available with popular web browsers.

You may document your sources through footnotes, endnotes, or some similar system (see Appendix B (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000747b#P700101245100000000000000000747B) , “Documentation of Report Sources”). Whatever method you choose, documentation is necessary for books, articles, tables, charts, diagrams, song lyrics, scripted dialogue, letters, speeches, and anything else you take from someone else, including ideas and information that you’ve re-expressed through paraphrasing or summarizing.

Copyright protections may prevent you from using some materials without obtaining permission from the copyright holder.

However, you do not have to cite a source for general knowledge or for specialized knowledge that’s generally known among your readers. For example, almost everyone knows that Nike is a large sporting goods company and that computers are pervasive in business today. You can say so on your own authority, even if you’ve read an article in which the author says the same thing.

Chapter 1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000105b#P700101245100000000000000000105B) notes that copyright law covers the expression of creative ideas, and copyrights can apply to a wide range of materials, including reports and other documents, web content, movies, musical compositions, lectures, computer programs, and even choreographed dance routines. Copyright protection is initiated the moment the expression is put into fixed form. Copyright law does not protect such elements as titles, names, short phrases, slogans, familiar symbols, or lists of ingredients or contents. It also doesn’t protect ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or

devices, although it does cover their description, explanation, or illustration.4

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000510D) (Note that many of the entities that aren’t covered under copyright law are covered under other legal protections, such as trademarks for slogans and patents for devices and processes.)

Merely crediting the source is not always enough. According to the fair use doctrine, you can use other people’s work only as long as you don’t unfairly prevent them from benefiting as a result. For example, if you reproduce someone else’s copyrighted material in a report you’re writing, even if you properly identify the source, you may be preventing the author from selling that material to your readers.

If you want to use copyrighted information in a report, contact the copyright holder (usually the author or publisher) for permission to reprint it. You’ll often be asked to pay a fee. For more information on copyrights, visit www.copyright.gov (http://www.copyright.gov) or www.creativecommons.org (http://www.creativecommons.org) .

13.3 Conducting Primary Research

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

3 Define primary research, and outline the steps involved in conducting surveys and interviews.

Primary research efforts collect data and information for the first time, rather than analyzing and reusing what other researchers have found.

If secondary research can’t provide the information and insights you need, your next choice is to gather the information yourself. This is the task of primary research (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FCE) , which is collecting data and information for the first time, rather than analyzing and reusing what other researchers have found. The two most common primary research methods for business writing are surveys and interviews, the focus of this section. Other primary techniques include observation and experiments, such as test-marketing a new product.

GATHERING INFORMATION WITH SURVEYS

Surveys can provide invaluable insights on a wide variety of business topics, but they are useful only when they’re reliable and valid. A survey is reliable if it produces identical results when repeated. A survey is valid if it measures what it’s intended to measure. To conduct a survey that generates reliable and valid results, you need to choose research participants carefully and develop an effective set of questions. (A good research handbook can guide you through the process of selecting a sufficient number of representative participants. For important surveys on strategically important topics with much at stake, you’re usually better off hiring a research specialist who knows how to avoid errors during planning, execution, and analysis.)

For a survey to produce valid results, it must be based on a representative sample of the population of interest.

When selecting people to participate in a survey, the most critical task is getting a representative sample of the population in question. For instance, if you want to know how U.S. consumers feel about something, you can’t just survey a few hundred people in a shopping mall. Different types of consumers shop at different times of the day and on different days of the week, and many consumers rarely, if ever, shop at malls. A survey that doesn’t represent the overall population will suffer from sampling bias.

Online surveys are relatively quick and inexpensive, but they require the same care in planning and analysis as offline surveys.

Online surveys offer a number of advantages, including speed, cost, and the ability to adapt the question set along the way based on a respondent’s answers. However, they are also vulnerable to sampling bias because they capture only the opinions of people who visit particular websites and who want to participate, and these people might not be a representative sample of the population of interest.

To develop an effective survey questionnaire, start with the information gaps you identified earlier and then break these points into specific questions, choosing an appropriate type of question for each point. (Figure 13.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EB1) on the next

page shows various types of survey questions.) The following guidelines will help you produce results that are both valid and reliable:5

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000510F)

Provide clear instructions in questionnaires to prevent incorrect or ambiguous answers.

• Provide clear instructions to make sure people can answer every question correctly. • Don’t ask for information that people can’t be expected to remember, such as how many times they went grocery shopping in the past year. • Keep the questionnaire short and easy to answer; don’t expect people to give you more than 10 or 15 minutes of their time. • Whenever possible, formulate questions that provide answers that are easy to analyze. Numbers and facts are easier to summarize than opinions,

for instance. • Avoid leading questions that could bias your survey. If you ask, “Do you prefer that we stay open in the evenings for customer convenience?” you’ll

no doubt get a “yes.” Instead, ask, “What time of day do you normally do your shopping?” • Avoid ambiguous descriptors such as often or frequently. Such terms mean different things to different people. • Avoid compound questions such as “Do you read books and magazines?” People who read one but not the other won’t know whether to answer yes

or no. • Make the survey adaptive. With an online survey, you can program the survey to branch automatically based on audience inputs. Not only does this

sort of real-time adaptation deliver better answers, it reduces frustration for survey respondents as well.6

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005111)

Be sure to test your survey before using it.

Before you conduct a survey, test it on a sample group first to identify questions that might be confusing or ambiguous.

GATHERING INFORMATION WITH INTERVIEWS

Interviews are easy to conduct but require careful planning to produce useful results.

Getting in-depth information straight from an expert or an individual concerned about an issue can be a great method for collecting primary information. Interviews can dig deeper than the “hands-off” approach of surveys, and skilled interviewers can also watch for nonverbal signals that provide additional insights. Interviews can take a variety of formats, from email exchanges to group discussions.

Be aware that the answers you receive in an interview are influenced by the types of questions you ask, by the way you ask them, and by each subject’s

cultural and language background. Potentially significant factors include the person’s race, gender, age, educational level, and social status.7

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005113)

Choose question types that will generate the specific kinds of information you need.

Ask open-ended questions (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FCB) (such as “Why do you believe that South America represents a better opportunity than Europe for this product line?”) to solicit opinions, insights, and information. Ask closed questions (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FAD) to elicit a specific answer, such as yes or no. However, don’t use too many closed questions in an interview, or the experience will feel more like a simple survey and won’t take full advantage of the interactive interview setting.

Figure 13.2 Types of Survey Questions

For each item in your survey, choose the type of question that will elicit the most useful answers.

Think carefully about the sequence of your questions and the subject’s potential answers so you can arrange questions in an order that helps uncover layers of information. Also, consider providing the person with a list of questions at least a day or two before the interview, especially if you’d like to quote your subject in writing or if your questions might require your subject to conduct research or think extensively about the answers. If you want to record the interview, ask the person ahead of time and respect his or her wishes. During the interview, be alert to new topics you might not have considered while planning the interview, and pursue them if they will shed light on your research questions.

CHECKLIST Conducting Effective Information Interviews

• Learn about the person you will be interviewing. • Formulate your main idea to ensure effective focus. • Choose the duration, style, and organization of the interview. • Select question types to elicit the specific information you want. • Design each question carefully to collect useful answers. • Limit the number of questions you ask. • During the interview, be alert to new topics that you might want to probe. • Consider recording the interview if the subject permits. • Review your notes as soon as the interview ends.

As soon as possible after the interview, take a few moments to write down your thoughts, go over your notes, and organize your material. Look for important themes, helpful facts or statistics, and direct quotes. If you recorded the interview, transcribe it (take down word for word what the person said) or take notes from the recording just as you would while listening to someone in person.

Face-to-face interviews give you the opportunity to gauge nonverbal responses.

Face-to-face interviews give you the opportunity to gauge reactions to your questions and observe the nonverbal signals that accompany the answers, but interviews don’t necessarily have to take place in person. For example, email interviews give subjects a chance to think through their responses thoroughly

rather than rush to fit the time constraints of a face-to-face interview.8

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005115) Also, email interviews might be the only way you will be able to access some experts.

In addition to individual interviews, business researchers can also use a form of group interview known as the focus group (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FB6) . In this format a moderator guides a group through a series of discussion questions while the rest of the research team members observe through a one-way mirror. The key advantage of focus groups is the opportunity to learn from group dynamics as the various participants bounce ideas and questions off each other.

Allowing a group to discuss topics and problems in this manner can uncover much richer information than can a series of individual interviews.9

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005117)

As a reminder of the tasks involved in interviews, see “Checklist: Conducting Effective Information Interviews (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EF5) .”

13.4 Processing Data and Information

After you have collected your research results, the next step is to convert them into usable information.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

4 Describe the major tasks involved in processing research results. After you’ve collected all the necessary secondary and primary information, the next step is to transform it into the specific content you need. For simple projects, you may be able to insert your material directly into your report, presentation, or other application. However, when you have gathered a significant amount of information or raw data, you need to process the material before you can use it. This step can involve quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing textual material; analyzing numeric data; drawing conclusions; and making recommendations.

QUOTING, PARAPHRASING, AND SUMMARIZING

Quoting a source means reproducing the content exactly and indicating who originally created the information.

You can use textual information from secondary sources in three ways. Quoting a source means you reproduce the material exactly as you found it (giving full credit to the source, of course). Use direct quotations when the original language will enhance your argument or when rewording the passage would reduce its impact. However, be careful with direct quotes: Using too many creates a choppy patchwork of varying styles and gives the impression that all you’ve done is piece together the work of other people. When quoting sources, set off shorter passages with quotation marks and set off longer passages (generally, five lines or more) as separate, indented paragraphs.

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LEARN MORE BY READING THIS ARTICLE

Launch that new business idea with solid research

Get a helpful overview of research techniques for entrepreneurs. Go to real-timeupdates.com/bct14 (http://real-timeupdates.com/bct14) and select Learn More in the Students section.

You can often maximize the impact of secondary material in your own writing by paraphrasing it—restating it in your own words and with your own

sentence structures.10

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000005119) Paraphrasing helps you maintain consistent tone, present information using vocabulary more familiar to your audience, and avoid the choppy feel of too many quotations. Of course, you still need to credit the originator of the information through a footnote, endnote, or in-text citation.

Paraphrasing is expressing someone else’s ideas in your own words.

To paraphrase effectively, follow these tips:11

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000511B)

• Read and reread the original passage until you fully understand its meaning. • Restate the central ideas of the original passage using your own words. • Check your version against the source to verify that you have not altered the meaning. • Use quotation marks to identify any unique terms or phrases you have borrowed exactly from the source. • Record the source accurately so that you can give proper credit if you use this material in your report.

Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but distills the content into fewer words.

Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An effective summary identifies the main ideas and major support points from your source material but leaves out minor details, examples, and other information that is less critical to your audience. Like quotations and paraphrases, summaries also require complete documentation of sources.

Of course, all three approaches require careful attention to ethics. When quoting directly, take care not to distort the original intent of the material by quoting selectively or out of context. If an interview subject said, “This market could grow dramatically next year if we invest heavily in new products,” using only “this market could grow dramatically next year” in a report would be unethical.

When paraphrasing and summarizing, preserve the intended message of the original while expressing the ideas in your own words and sentences. Remember that the goal is to help your audience relate to material that supports your message. Double-check your writing to make sure you didn’t subconsciously skew the other writer’s message to fit your own needs.

ANALYZING NUMERIC DATA

Research often produces numeric data—everything from sales figures to population statistics to survey answers. By themselves, these numbers might not provide the insights you or your audience require, so you’ll need to process the data to extract useful insights.

Gaining Insights

Mean, median, and mode provide insight into sets of data.

TABLE 13.2 Three Types of Data Measures: Mean, Median, and Mode

Even without advanced statistical techniques, you can use simple arithmetic to extract powerful insights from sets of research data. Three common and useful measures are shown in Table 13.2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F40) . The mean (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FBC) (which is what most people refer to when they use the term average) is the sum of all the items in a group divided by the number of items in that group. The median (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FBF) is the “middle of the road,” or the midpoint of a series (with an equal number of items above and below). The mode (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FC5) is the number that occurs more often than any other in a sample. It’s the best answer to a question such as “What is the usual amount?” Each of these three measures can give you different insights into a set of data.

Trends identify patterns that tend to repeat over time.

Next, look at the data to spot trends (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FDD) —definite patterns taking place over time, including growth, decline, and cyclical trends that vary between growth and decline. By examining data over a period of time, you can detect patterns and relationships that help you answer important questions.

Causation shows cause-and-effect relationships; correlation indicates simultaneous changes in two variables that may not necessarily be causally related.

Statistical measures and trends identify what is happening. To help you understand why those things are happening, look at causation (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FAA) (the cause- and-effect linkage between two factors, in which one causes the other to happen) and correlation (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FB3) (the simultaneous change in two variables you’re measuring, such as customer satisfaction dropping when product reliability drops).

Bear in mind that causation can be easy to assume but difficult to prove. The drop in customer satisfaction might have been caused by a new accounting system that fouled up customer invoices. To prove causation, you need to be able to isolate the suspected cause as the only potential source of the change in the measured effect. However, eliminating all but one possible cause isn’t always feasible, so you often have to apply careful judgment to correlations.

Researchers frequently explore the relationships between subsets of data using a technique called cross-tabulation. For instance, if you’re trying to figure out why total sales rose or fell, you might look separately at sales data by customer age and gender, by purchase location, and by product type.

Guarding Against Mistakes and Misinterpretations

Watch out for errors that might have crept in during the collection and processing of data.

Numbers are easy to manipulate with spreadsheets and other computer tools, so be sure to guard against computational errors and misinterpretation of results. Double-check all calculations and document the operation of any spreadsheets you plan to share with colleagues. Common spreadsheet mistakes to watch for include errors in math formulas, references to unintended cells in the spreadsheet (resulting in the inclusion of data you don’t want or the exclusion of data you do want), and failures to verify the specific operation of the spreadsheet’s built-in math functions.

In addition to watching for computational errors, step back and look at your entire set of data before proceeding with any analysis. Do the numbers make sense, based on what you know about the subject? Are any data points suspicious? If the production numbers you’ve been measuring have never varied more than 10 percent month to month and then suddenly jumped 50 percent last month, is that new number real or an erroneous measurement?

Even when your data points are accurate and your analysis is technically correct, it’s still possible to misinterpret or misrepresent the results. Many analysis errors require statistical expertise to identify and fix, but even without advanced skills, you can take these precautions:

• Avoid faulty comparisons. Make sure you compare “apples to apples” and not “apples to oranges,” as the saying goes. • Don’t push research results beyond their limits. The temptation to extract insights and assurances that aren’t really there can be quite strong,

particularly in situations of great uncertainty. For instance, if you’re about to recommend that your company invest millions of dollars in developing a new product based on your consumer research, you’re likely to “see” every possible justification in the data. Have a trusted colleague review your data to see whether he or she extracts the same conclusions.

• Steer clear of misleading presentations. Even valid data can be presented in invalid ways (such as with distorted graphs), and it’s your responsibility to make sure the visual presentation of your data is accurate.

13.5 Applying Your Findings

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

5 Explain how to summarize research results and present conclusions and recommendations. After all your planning, research, and processing, you’re finally ready to apply your findings. This step can involve summarizing your results, drawing conclusions based on those results, and making recommendations.

SUMMARIZING YOUR RESEARCH

A summary is an unbiased presentation of information regarding a particular topic, without attempts to draw conclusions or make recommendations.

A research summary is an unbiased condensation of the information uncovered in your research. (Summary in this context means a summary of your entire research project, not just a summary of secondary source material.) Summaries should not include opinions, conclusions, or recommendations. Summarizing is not always a simple task, and your readers will judge your ability to separate significant issues from less significant details. Identify the main idea and the key support points; separate them from details, examples, and other supporting evidence (see Figure 13.3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F6A) ). Focus your efforts on your audience, highlighting the information that is most important to the person who assigned the project or to those who will be reading the report.

However, focusing on the audience doesn’t mean conveying only the information your audience wants to hear. A good summary might contain nothing but bad news, if that’s what your research uncovered. Even if the summary isn’t pleasant, effective managers always appreciate and respect honest, complete, and perceptive information from their employees.

DRAWING CONCLUSIONS

A conclusion is a logical interpretation of research results.

A conclusion (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FB0) is a logical interpretation of the facts and other information in a report. Reaching valid conclusions based on the evidence at hand is one of the most important skills you can develop in your business career. For a conclusion to be sound, it must meet two criteria. First, it must be based strictly on the information in your report. You shouldn’t introduce any new information in your conclusion. (If something is that important, it belongs in the body of the report.) Also, you can’t ignore any of the information you’ve presented, even if it doesn’t support your conclusion. Second, the conclusion must be logical, meaning it must follow accepted patterns of inductive or deductive reasoning. Conclusions that are based on unproven premises, appeal to emotion, make hasty generalizations, or contain any other logical fallacies are not valid.

Figure 13.3 Summarizing Effectively

To summarize a section of text, first analyze it to find the main idea, the major support points, and the less important details. Then assemble the appropriate pieces with additional words and phrases as needed to ensure a smooth flow.

Remember that your personal values or the organization’s values may also influence your conclusions; just be sure that you’re aware of how these biases can affect your judgment. If a bias affects your conclusion, you should explain it to your audience. Also, don’t expect all team members to examine the

evidence and arrive at the same conclusion. One of the reasons for bringing additional people into a decision is to gain their unique perspectives and experiences.

Even though conclusions need to be logical, they may not automatically or obviously flow from the evidence. Many business decisions require assumptions, judgment calls, and creative thinking—in fact, the ability to see patterns and possibilities that others can’t see is one of the hallmarks of innovative business leaders.

MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS

A recommendation is a suggested course of action.

Whereas a conclusion interprets information, a recommendation (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FD4) suggests what to do about the information. The following example illustrates the difference between a conclusion and a recommendation:

Conclusion Recommendation

On the basis of its track record and current price, I believe that this company is an attractive buy.

I recommend that we offer to buy the company at a 10 percent premium over the current market value of its stock.

To be credible, recommendations must be based on logical analysis and sound conclusions. They must also be practical and acceptable to your readers—the people who have to make your recommendations work. Finally, when making a recommendation, be certain you have adequately described the steps that come next. Don’t leave your readers wondering what they need to do to act on your recommendation.

MANAGING INFORMATION

Knowledge management systems, often supplemented now by social media tools, help organizations share research results and other valuable information and insights.

Conducting your research well does more than provide strong support for your own writing projects. Your individual research projects are also an important contribution to your organization’s collective knowledge base. To organize information and make it readily available to everyone in the company, many firms use some form of knowledge management (KM) (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P7001012451000000000000000004FB9) , a set of technologies, policies, and procedures that let colleagues capture and share information throughout an organization. Social media tools have recently been enhancing the flexibility and capability of KM systems, making it easier for more people to contribute to and benefit from shared knowledge and

transforming knowledge into more of a living entity that is part of an ongoing conversation.12

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004fa4#P700101245100000000000000000511D)

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES AT Strategyzer

You’re a business development manager at Strategyzer with responsibility for expanding sales of the company’s Business Model Canvas training courses and apps. Use what you’ve learned in this chapter to address these information gathering and processing challenges. You may find it helpful to familiarize yourself with the Business Model Canvas by watching the two-minute video at businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/bmc (http://businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas/bmc) .

INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: You’ve heard from a number of product managers and other mid-level business planners in big companies that they would like to use the Business Model Canvas but they can’t convince company executives (their superiors, in other words) to give up the familiar approach of detailed business plans. You hit on the idea of a mini-course for corporate executives to help them understand the value of the canvas approach for early stage business planning. Before you can convince Strategyzer’s content development team to create the course, you need to provide some evidence that Fortune 500 executives would be interested in devoting half a day to such a course. You decide to conduct some research to gauge executive interest in the mini- course and to identify the most important topics it should cover. What would be an effective problem statement for guiding your research?

TEAM CHALLENGE: Collect the problem statements you and your teammates generated for the individual challenge and choose the statement that the team finds most effective. Using that statement as a guide, discuss the following four approaches and decide which would be the best research approach to gathering the information you need to address the problem statement. Summarize your reasoning in an email message to your instructor.

a. Conduct a telephone survey of Fortune 500 executives responsible for overseeing product development. Ask a series of questions designed to uncover the executives’ awareness of the canvas approach and their attitudes toward it.

b. Conduct an email or in-app survey of current users of the Business Model Canvas app, asking them to report on the resistance they are receiving from executives in their companies.

c. Post a brief survey on Strategyzer’s website, asking top-level corporate executives to explain their reasons for sticking with the traditional approach of detailed business plans, rather than trying a new method such as the Business Model Canvas.

d. Post an interactive survey on Strategyzer’s website, asking site visitors to report on the attitudes toward Business Model Canvas and similar approaches in their organizations. Set up branching in the survey so that people who are interested in the canvas method but who have encountered resistance from upper management are asked a series of questions about the nature of the resistance they are encountering and what forms of proof could help convince these executives to give the new method a try.

Quick Learning Guide

KEY TERMS

causation Cause-and-effect linkage between two factors, where one of them causes the other to occur or change

closed questions Questions with a fixed range of possible answers

conclusion A logical interpretation of the facts and other information in a report

correlation The simultaneous change in two variables; changes in one variable may or may not cause changes in the other

focus group A form of group research interview in which a moderator guides a group through a series of discussion questions while the rest of the research team members observes

knowledge management (KM) Set of technologies, policies, and procedures that let colleagues capture and share information throughout an organization

mean Value equal to the sum of all the items in the group divided by the number of items in that group; what people refer to when they use the term average

median Midpoint of a series, with an equal number of items above and below

metasearch engines Search tools that format search requests for multiple search engines simultaneously

mode The number that occurs more often than any other in a sample

online databases Online compilations of newspapers, magazines, journals, and other information sources

open-ended questions Questions without simple, predetermined answers; used to solicit opinions, insights, and information

primary research New research done specifically for the current project

problem statement Statement that defines the problem or purpose of your research

recommendation A suggested course of action

search engines Online search tools that identify individual webpages that contain specific words or phrases you’ve asked for

secondary research Research done previously for another purpose

trends Repeatable patterns taking place over time

web directories Online lists of websites selected by human editors

SUMMARY OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1 Describe an effective process for conducting business research. Begin the research process with careful planning to make sure you familiarize yourself with the subject area, identify the most important information gaps you face, and prioritize the questions you need to ask to fill those gaps. Then locate the required data and information, using primary and secondary research as needed. Process the results of your research, analyzing both textual and numeric information to extract averages, trends, and other insights. Apply your findings by summarizing information for someone else’s benefit, drawing conclusions based on what you’ve learned or developing recommendations. Finally, manage information effectively so that you and others can retrieve it later and reuse it in other projects.

2 Define secondary research and explain how to evaluate, locate, and document information sources. Secondary research involves collecting information that was originally gathered for another research project or another effort. Secondary research is generally done before primary research, to save time and money in the event someone else has already gathered the information needed.

Information should come from a credible source that has a reputation for being honest and reliable; the source should also be unbiased. The purpose of the material should be known, and the author should be credible. The information should include references to sources (if obtained elsewhere), and it should be independently verifiable. The material should be current, complete, and supported with evidence. Finally, the information should seem logical.

The tasks involved in locating secondary sources of data and information can vary widely depending on the project, but much of your efforts will involve finding information in a corporate, public, or university library or finding information online. Libraries offer an array of business books, databases, newspapers, periodicals, directories, almanacs, and government publications. Some of these printed sources provide information that is not available online, and some of the online sources provide information that is available by subscription. Librarians can be a huge help when you need advice on structuring an investigation or finding specific sources.

Finding information online is often more complicated than simply plugging a few terms into a search engine. General-purpose search engines are sophisticated tools, but even when they are used wisely, they are not able to find everything on the Internet. Moreover, with no human reviewers to evaluate the quality or ranking of the search results, you can’t always be sure of the quality of what you find. Web directories, metasearch engines, and online databases all complement the capabilities of general-purpose search engines. Use online monitoring tools to be alerted to new materials on topics of interest.

To make the best use of any search engine or database, think about your information needs carefully before you start searching, read and understand the instructions for using each online research tool, pay attention to the details because even minor aspects of searching can

dramatically influence results, review search and display options carefully to optimize results, try variations on your search terms if you can’t find what you’re looking for, and try narrower or broader searches to adjust the scope of what you’re looking for.

3 Define primary research and outline the steps involved in conducting surveys and interviews. Primary research is research that is being conducted for the first time, and the two most common methods are surveys and interviews. Conducting a survey involves selecting a representative set of respondents from the population you are studying, developing a questionnaire using carefully written and sequenced questions, and administering the actual survey to collect information. Conducting an interview starts with learning about the person(s) you plan to interview and then formulating your main idea to make sure your interview will stay focused. Choose the length, style, and organization of the interview, and then select question types to elicit the sort of information you want, with each question designed to collect useful answers. Limit your questions to the most important queries. Record the interview if the person allows, and review your notes as soon as the interview ends.

4 Describe the major tasks involved in processing research results. In most cases you need to process your research results in some fashion before applying them in reports and presentations. The three basic ways to process verbal information are quoting (using someone else’s words directly, with appropriate attribution), paraphrasing (restating someone else’s words in your own language), and summarizing (creating a shorter version of an original piece of writing). Processing numeric data can involve a variety of statistical analysis techniques. Three basic computations are the mean (what people are referring to when they say “average”), the median (the midpoint in a series, indicating an equal number of lesser and greater values), and the mode (the most frequently occurring value in a series). Processing results can also involve looking for trends and distinguishing causal relationships from correlations and mere coincidences.

5 Explain how to summarize research results and present conclusions and recommendations. Research results can be applied in several ways, depending on the purpose of the report or presentation. A summary is an unbiased condensation of the information uncovered in your research. It filters out details and presents only the most important ideas. A conclusion is your analysis of what the findings mean (an interpretation of the facts). A recommendation is your opinion (based on reason and logic) about the course of action that should be taken.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) to complete the problems marked with this icon .

Test Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

13-1. What are the five steps in the research process? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55)

13-2. What is the purpose of identifying information gaps before starting research? [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55)

13-3. Should you conduct secondary research first or primary research? Why? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

13-4. What is the hidden Internet? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

13-5. What does it mean to make a survey adaptive? [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1)

13-6. What is paraphrasing and what is its purpose? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

13-7. What are the differences between the mean, median, and mode? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

13-8. What are the characteristics of a sound conclusion? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F5E)

13-9. How does a conclusion differ from a recommendation? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F5E)

Apply Your Knowledge To review chapter content related to each question, refer to the indicated Learning Objective.

13-10. Companies occasionally make mistakes that expose confidential information, such as when employees lose laptop computers containing sensitive data files or webmasters forget to protect confidential webpages from search engine indexes. If you conducted a search that turned up competitive information on webpages that were clearly intended to be private, what would you do? Explain your answer. [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55)

13-11. Why must you be careful when citing information from online sources? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

13-12. One of your employees submitted a report comparing the market opportunities for two product ideas your company might develop. The report concludes that because the first idea yielded 340,000 hits in a Google search, whereas the second idea yielded only 128,000 hits, the

first idea clearly has more sales potential. Is this a valid conclusion? Why or why not? [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

13-13. While analyzing last year’s sales data, you notice that sales were 10 to 15 percent higher than average during August, September, and November. The marketing department invested heavily in a search engine advertising campaign from August through December. Can you conclude that the advertising campaign caused the increase in sales? Why or why not? [LO-5] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#P7001012451000000000000000004F5E)

Practice Your Skills 13-14. Message for Analysis: Primary Research: Conducting Interviews [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

Imagine you are going to interview a mid-level manager in a large corporation about the company’s meeting practices. Read the questions and then (1) critique them, as a whole, indicating what is effective or ineffective about this series of questions, and (2) select five questions and revise them to make them more effective.

a. What is your position in the company? b. To whom do you report? c. Do you attend or run many meetings? d. Do your meetings start on time? Run late? e. Do you distribute or receive a meeting agenda several days in advance of the meeting? f. Do you like your job? g. Do you travel a lot for your job? h. Has your company cut back on travel expenditures? If so, how and why? i. Does your company use videoconferencing or online meetings as an alternative to travel? j. Does your company own its own videoconferencing equipment? k. Are virtual meetings more or less effective than face-to-face meetings? l. How long have you worked at this company?

m. Who are your most important customers? n. How often does your management team meet with the managers of other companies? o. Does your company produce a wide range of products or only a few specialty items? p. How do you keep your meetings on track? q. Does someone prepare written minutes of meetings? Are the minutes distributed to meeting members?

Exercises

Each activity is labeled according to the primary skill or skills you will need to use. To review relevant chapter content, you can refer to the indicated Learning Objective. In some instances, supporting information will be found in another chapter, as indicated.

Planning Your Research; Collaboration: Team Projects [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55) In a team assigned by your instructor, decide how you would structure a research project to answer the following questions. Identify any shortcomings in the approaches you have chosen.

13-15. Has the litter problem on campus been reduced since the cafeteria began offering fewer take-out choices this year than in past years? 13-16. Has the school attracted more transfer students since it waived the formal application process and allowed students at other colleges simply to send their transcripts and a one-page letter of application? 13-17. Have the number of traffic accidents at the school’s main entrance been reduced since a traffic light was installed? 13-18. Did student satisfaction with campus libraries decline after budget cuts forced the libraries to reduce opening hours? 13-19. Planning a Research Project [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55)

You and your business partners are considering buying several franchises in the fast-food business. You are all experienced managers or entrepreneurs, but none of you has experience in franchising. Visit www.amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) and search for books on this subject. Explore some of the books that you find by reading reviews and using the “search inside” feature.

a. Use the information you find to develop a list of subquestions to help you narrow your focus. b. Write down the names of three books you might purchase to further aid your research. c. Summarize how a search like this can assist you with your research efforts and identify any risks of using this technique.

13-20. Planning a Research Project [LO-1] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#P7001012451000000000000000004D55)

Analyze any recent school or work assignment that required you to conduct research. How did you approach your investigation? Did you rely mostly on sources of primary information or mostly on sources of secondary information? Now that you have studied this chapter, can you identify two ways to improve the research techniques you used during that assignment? Briefly explain.

Conducting Secondary Research (Company and Industry Data) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD) Using online or printed sources, find the following information. Be sure to properly cite your sources, using the formats discussed in Appendix B (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000747b#P700101245100000000000000000747B) .

13-21. Contact information for the American Management Association 13-22. Median weekly earnings of men and women by occupation 13-23. Current market share for Perrier water 13-24. Performance ratios for office supply retailers 13-25. Annual stock performance for Nike 13-26. Number of franchise outlets in the United States 13-27. Composition of the U.S. workforce by profession

Conducting Secondary Research (Finding Sources) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

Businesspeople have to know where to look for secondary information when they conduct research. Identify five periodicals or online resources in each the following professions:

13-28. Marketing and advertising 13-29. Insurance 13-30. Telecommunications 13-31. Accounting 13-32. Conducting Secondary Research (Documenting Sources) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

Select five business articles from sources such as journals, books, newspapers, or websites. Develop a resource list, using Appendix B (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p700101245100000000000000000747b#P700101245100000000000000000747B)

as a guideline. 13-33. Conducting Secondary Research (Evaluating Sources) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

Find three websites that provide business information such as company or industry news, trends, analysis, facts, or performance data. Using the criteria discussed under “Evaluating Sources (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DB7)

” on page 366 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#page_366) , evaluate the credibility of the information presented at these websites. 13-34. Conducting Secondary Research (Online Monitoring); Media Skills: Microblogging [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

, Chapter 8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000003454#P7001012451000000000000000003454)

Select a business topic that interests you and configure a Twitter monitoring tool such as TweetDeck (www.tweetdeck.com (http://www.tweetdeck.com) ) to track tweets on this topic. After you’ve found at least a dozen tweets, identify three that provide potentially useful information and describe them in a brief email message to your instructor. 13-35. Conducting Secondary Research (Company Data) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

Select any publicly traded company and find the following information:

• Names of the company’s current officers • List of the company’s products or services (summarized by product lines or divisions, if the company offers many products and services) • Current issues in the company’s industry • Outlook for the company’s industry as a whole

13-36. Conducting Secondary Research (Industry Issues) [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

You’d like to know if it’s a good idea to buy banner ads on other websites to drive more traffic to your company’s website. You’re worried about the expense and difficulty of running an experiment to test banner effectiveness, so you decide to look for some secondary data. Identify three secondary sources that might offer helpful data on this question. 13-37. Conducting Primary Research (Surveys) [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1)

You work for a movie studio that is producing a young director’s first motion picture, the story of a group of unknown musicians finding work and making a reputation in a competitive industry. Unfortunately, some of your friends leave the first complete screening, saying that the 182- minute movie is simply too long. Others said they couldn’t imagine any sequences to cut out. Your boss wants to test the movie on a regular audience and ask viewers to complete a questionnaire that will help the director decide whether edits are needed and, if so, where. Design a questionnaire you can use to solicit valid answers for a report to the director about how to handle the audience members’ reactions to the movie. 13-38. Conducting Primary Research (Interviews) [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1)

Plan an information interview with a professional working in your chosen field of study. Plan the structure of the interview and create a set of interview questions. Conduct the interview. Using the information you gathered, write a memo to another student, describing the tasks, advantages, and disadvantages of jobs in this field of study. (Assume that your reader is a person who also plans to pursue a career in this field of study.) 13-39. Conducting Primary Research (Interviews) [LO-3] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#P7001012451000000000000000004EA1)

You’re conducting an information interview with a manager in another division of your company. Partway through the interview, the manager shows clear signs of impatience. How should you respond? What might you do differently to prevent this from happening in the future? Explain your answers.

13-40. Processing Data and Information [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

Select an article from a business periodical such as Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, or Forbes. Read the article and highlight its key points. Summarize the article in fewer than 100 words, paraphrasing the key points. 13-41. Processing Data and Information [LO-4] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#P7001012451000000000000000004F0F)

Your boss has asked you to analyze and report on your division’s sales for the first nine months of this year. Using the following data from company invoices, calculate the mean for each quarter and all averages for the year to date. Then identify and discuss the quarterly sales trends.

January $24,600

February $25,900

March $23,000

April $21,200

May $24,600

June $26,800

July $29,900

August $30,500

September $26,600

Expand Your Skills Critique the Professionals

Find a recent example of a significant business blunder, such as a new product that failed in the marketplace. Based on what you can learn about the episode, how might better research have helped the company in question avoid the blunder? Using whatever medium your instructor requests, write a brief conclusion of your analysis.

Sharpening Your Career Skills Online

Bovée and Thill’s Business Communication Web Search, at websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com (http://websearch.businesscommunicationnetwork.com) , is a unique research tool designed specifically for business communication research. Use the Web Search function to find a website, video, article, podcast, or presentation that offers advice on using online search tools in business research. Write a brief email message to your instructor, describing the item you found and summarizing the career skills information you learned from it.

MyBCommLab

Go to mybcommlab.com (http://mybcommlab.com) for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following Assisted-graded writing questions:

13-42. How can online monitoring tools help you with research? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

13-43.   What search terms could you use to find estimates of the lifetime financial value of a college education? [LO-2] (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#P7001012451000000000000000004DAD)

Endnotes

1 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d27#rP7001012451000000000000000005107) . Kavi Guppta, “How to Convince Leaders to Avoid Business Plans When Validating New Ideas,” Strategyzer blog, 18 April 2016, www.blog.strategyzer.com (http://www.blog.strategyzer.com) ; Strategyzer website, accessed 23 April 2016, www.strategyzer.com (http://www.strategyzer.com) ; Alexander Ostenwalder and Yves Pigneur, Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers (Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2009), ebook; Alex Cowan, “The 20 Minute Business Plan: Business Model Canvas Made Easy,” Cowan+, 6 February 2013, www.alexandercowan.com (http://www.alexandercowan.com) .

2 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004d51#rP7001012451000000000000000005109) . Annie Pettit, “Mugging, Sugging and Now Rugging: I Take a Hard Stance on Privacy,” LoveStats blog, 29 January 2010, www.lovestats.wordpress.com (http://www.lovestats.wordpress.com) .

3 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#rP700101245100000000000000000510B) . Information for this section originally based in part from “Finding Industry Information,” accessed 3 November 1998, www.pitt.edu/~buslibry/industries.htm (http://www.pitt.edu/~buslibry/industries.htm) ; Thomas P. Bergman, Stephen M. Garrison, and Gregory M. Scott, The Business Student Writer’s Manual and Guide to the Internet (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998), 67–80; Ernest L. Maier, Anthony J. Faria, Peter Kaatrude, and Elizabeth Wood, The Business Library and How to Use It (Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1996), 53–76; Sherwyn P. Morreale and Courtland L. Bovée, Excellence in Public Speaking (Fort Worth, Tex.: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998), 166–171.

4 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004da9#rP700101245100000000000000000510D) . “Copyright Office Basics,” U.S. Copyright Office website, accessed 2 November 2006, www.copyright.gov (http://www.copyright.gov) .

5 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP700101245100000000000000000510F) . Naresh K. Malhotra, Basic Marketing Research (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002), 314–317; “How to Design and Conduct a Study,” Credit Union Magazine, October 1983, 36–46.

6 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP7001012451000000000000000005111) . “Using Skip Logic in a Survey,” SurveyMonkey.com (http://SurveyMonkey.com) , accessed 19 August 2016, www.surveymonkey.com (http://www.surveymonkey.com) .

7 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP7001012451000000000000000005113) . Morreale and Bovée, Excellence in Public Speaking, 177.

8 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP7001012451000000000000000005115) . Morreale and Bovée, Excellence in Public Speaking, 182.

9 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004e9b#rP7001012451000000000000000005117) . A. B. Blankenship and George Edward Breen, State of the Art Marketing Research (Lincolnwood, Ill.: NTC Business Books, 1992), 225.

10 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#rP7001012451000000000000000005119) . Lynn Quitman Troyka, Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers, 6th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2002), 481.

11 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f0b#rP700101245100000000000000000511B) . “How to Paraphrase Effectively: 6 Steps to Follow,” www.Researchpaper.com (http://www.Researchpaper.com) , accessed 26 October 1998, www.researchpaper.com (http://www.researchpaper.com) .

12 (http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/Bovee.7626.18.1/sections/p7001012451000000000000000004f5c#rP700101245100000000000000000511D) . Jonathan Reichental, “Knowledge Management in the Age of Social Media,” O’Reilly Radar, 16 March 2011, radar.oreilly.com (http://radar.oreilly.com) ; Venkatesh Rao, “Social Media vs. Knowledge Management: A Generational War,” Social Computing, 17 November 2008, www.socialcomputingmagazine.com (http://www.socialcomputingmagazine.com) ; Jeff Kelly, “KM vs. Social Media: Beware the Warmongers,” Social Computing, 17 November 2008, www.socialcomputingmagazine.com (http://www.socialcomputingmagazine.com) .

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