The document provides an introduction to a course on Business Communication and Public Relations, outlining the objectives to define the key concepts and expectations of the coursework, including assignments, topics to be covered such as organizational culture and communication competence, and emphasizing that communication is central to managing relationships within organizations.

1. Welcome to Business
Communication & Public
Relations
Week 1
Introductions and defining the field

2. Objectives
To define the field of Business
Communication & PR.
To communicate expectations regarding
conduct, content, tutorials and
assignments.

3. Agenda
Learn about the course, its themes, and its
plans
Course outline & changes
Define the MCOM area
Discuss the different course assignments
and expectations

4. Course outline: Course objectives
 Students will be able to:
 Identify and define the basic communication
models, messages, practices, images and
symbols;
 Students will be expected to be able to identify
their role, their audience and their focus when
constructing a report;
 Describe and reflect on effective team
communication processes and practices in an
intercultural environment;
 To recognize the key role played by
communication in organizations.

5. Defining the area considering
communication, businesses & self
 Let‟s start by defining what is management
 To manage
To bring about; to succeed in accomplishing
To take charge or care of; to dominate; to influence by
tact, respect or artifice
To handle, direct, govern, or control in action or use
To contrive to get along
 Managing and management contradictions

6. So what‟s communication?
“ability and willingness of an individual to
participate responsibly in a transaction
in such a way as to maximize the
outcomes of shared meanings”
(see your 1st reading)
Communication competence

7. Communication Defined
Communication as transaction
Linear Model
Interactive Model
Transactional Model
Communication as a process
Communication as Shared Meaning

8. Communication Competence Model
Competence Defined
Elements of Communication Competence

9. Communication Competence Defined
 Varying degrees: Depends & changes
 We not me oriented: Relationships & audience
 Effectiveness: Determined by receiver
 Appropriateness: Rules, norms & taboos
Communication = socially constructed and shared
meanings/understandings
Management = shaping and influencing others
Managing = ongoing processes

10. Elements of communication competence
Knowledge
Skills
Sensitivity
Commitment
Ethics
What‟s missing???? (critique)

11. Our Conceptions of this paper
Introduction to Business Communication &
PR
Communication central to good management
“Organizations are first and foremost
communicating entities”
(Clegg, Kornberger & Pitsis 2005, p.301)
Organisations consist of people, relationships
and stories

12. Business Communication & PR is
concerned with …
 Organisations
 Communication
 Individuals and groups
 Society, cultural values and context
Therefore – construction, interpretation and power
issues
All this expressed through various business
communication
processes, practices, activities, language, beliefs
systems, rituals, symbols etc

13. So in essence the course is about …
Managing relationships and looking at the
complex dynamic between
self, others, organisations and society
The construction and interpretation of
identities, diversities and futures
Claims to knowledge = power
What we have been, are and could be
expressed through communication

14. Unit I- Foundations of MCOM Theories:
Identity context and resources
Introduction to MCOM
Constructing and communicating
meanings
Intercultural communication
Organizational Communication at work

15. Unit II Developing and communicating
identity and identification
Organizational culture
Socialization: entering and leaving
organizations
Team work and Team Processes
Resistance and participation in
organizational communication

16. Unit III: Identity events and performing in
organizations
PR & Corporate Communication
Interpersonal communication
Professional Identity
Symbols, Images and discourses

17. Unit IV Developing management
communication skills
Basic qualitative analysis
Writing reports
Making presentations
Writing Literature Reviews
(this section of the course objective is achieved
through the Assignment1)

18. Summing up: So the course could be
defined as …
One definition is:
“Management communication is the process
of making and taking sense in, and
of, organizations and involves the
negotiation of meaning through
actions, behaviour, discourse, metaphors,
myths, signs, and symbols”
(Mckie, personal communication, 2000).

19. Information on course assignment
 More detail in week 2
 Compulsory tutorials start week 2
 Course objectives and assignments
Test 1- Week 6
Mid Term Exam – Week 8
Team report (Group) – completion of specific tasks in
groups & team presentation- Week 9
Test 2- Case Analysis (individual) – Week 13
Final Exam – Week 16

20. Example of Task For Group Assignment
Please remember throughout the course
you will be given group/individual task for
completion and to be documented inside
your “Assignment-1”
You require
Minutes of your group meeting for completion of
the task- documenting all the discussions
Copies of the individual reports of the members
(handwritten notes also acceptable)

21. In the business of identities
In your groups think about the following:
How do businesses shape their
communications?
How do „others‟ communicate to businesses?
Can a business have an identity?
Can you name one/two organizations that you
like and one/two you dislike?