Business Communication Writing Skills: Why Workshops Work

Introduction

"For want of literacy skills, workers are lost; for want of workers, profits and companies are lost; for want of competitive companies, markets are lost; for want of markets, the country's economy is being helped to hell; and all for the want of literacy skills." — Myra J. Linden and Art Whimbey, 1990

Effective communications have been studied for well over 2,500 years and have been recognized as increasingly important during the last 30 years. Meyer, Sterkel, and Tucker suggest that effective business communication is the key strategic advantage for many of today's successful firms. It is virtually impossible to sell any type of good or service without effective business communications. In fact, the earliest writings discovered to date involved business transactions and inventories (Horton, 1995). While it is critically important for a business to ensure that its customers are provided with clear communications, it is equally important to make every effort to provide a company's employees with a comparable standard of communication. No matter how unintentional, poorly written internal communications can result in lowered morale, hurt feelings, a loss of productivity, and increased absenteeism and employee turnover.

It is the purpose of this paper to provide the background and rationale in support of an employer-sponsored effective writing skills workshop to improve the quality of the company's business communications. A summary of the research and a recommendation will be provided in the conclusion.

Background and Overview

Prior to the turn of the 20th century, most businesses in the West were relatively small and their internal operations were controlled and coordinated through informal business communication avenues such as word of mouth, except in those cases where written letters were needed to reach parties at greater distances. By sharp contrast, corporations today are "held together by networks of internal communication that extend up, down and across hierarchies. Employees at all levels read and write countless memoranda, letters and reports and spend untold hours in meetings" (Horton, p. 35).

Popular thought suggests that most people spend more time talking than writing in business settings; however, the results of a study by Nellermoe, Reinstein, and Weirich (1999) conflict with many business communication studies that have reported that individuals spend proportionately more time in their business day listening and speaking rather than writing. These results, they say, serve to further underscore the importance of effective communication skills for employees today. According to Wade (1998), effective writing should be "as honest as bricklaying and as satisfying as painting a landscape that one knows well" (p. 25). Unfortunately, recent events in this company resulting from a poorly worded internal communication highlight the fact that some employees do not enjoy these levels of writing skill, and the impact from this particular internal communication emphasizes the importance of "meaning what you say, and saying what you mean" in business settings. These issues are discussed further below.

Importance of Effective Internal Business Communications

In his book The Bargaining Manager: Enhancing Organizational Results through Effective Negotiation, Ramundo (1994) reports that the prevailing view today is that communication is "a dynamic interpersonal process that affects organizational behavior" (p. 86). Effective internal business communication involves more than a mere linear flow of information, though. As recent events in the company so clearly showed, internal business communications can have an enormous impact on influencing employee behavior in the workplace. According to Ramundo, the internal communication process involves both the vertical and horizontal transmission of information from management to employees and back again within the organization:

"Organizational communications are essentially administrative, with some having special operational significance. In both types of communication there is a need to ensure that the message is clear and accurate, timely, and understood as intended" (emphasis added) (p. 86).

Some effective ways of developing effective internal business communications include helping employees achieve success through practice, encouraging feedback, developing good listening skills, keeping emotions out of communication, and selecting the appropriate communications channel (Ramundo, 1994). It is also in the best interests of any enterprise to have employees with good communication skills. Unfortunately, Linden and Whimbey report that more than half of the adults in the United States are unqualified for today's technical jobs because they lack adequate reading and writing skills. Furthermore, in an increasingly globalized marketplace, good communication skills must take into account not only accuracy in the choice of words but also the avoidance of any inadvertent use of terms that might be offensive to other cultures (Hendon, Hendon, & Herbig, 1996).

Conclusion and Recommendation

The research showed that effective writing skills are critically important for the survival of almost any type of business, but the sad reality is that more than half of American adults do not possess the requisite skills to communicate effectively in writing. Recent events in the company further serve to highlight the need to address this issue as soon as possible. Beyond the need to maintain good relations with customers, vendors, and others who are external to the company, there is a glaring need to improve the ability of the company's employees to communicate with each other, as well as through the company's hierarchy.

Therefore, to overcome this constraint to effective business communications, it is urgently recommended that an employer-sponsored writing skills workshop be conducted at the earliest opportunity. This workshop should be conducted by a writing skills expert during regular business hours, and refreshments should be served to encourage attendance and active participation. This workshop can help the company's employees gain valuable insights into what goes into effective business communications and how to achieve improved results in the future.

References

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