Ch. 5 Summary

Business Communication
Chapter 5 Summary

Chapter Five is called “Creating and Using Meaning”. It is about the meaning of messages and communication and how different people give different meanings to the same message. Everyone looks at lets say a message, and can think of it in their own way. When I send a message to someone, I may think it will be understood the way I wanted it to be. But I can not be sure of that because someone else reading the message may give it different meaning due to the fact that he is looking at the world through his/her own eyes. That person may perceive it as something else. This is called the conveyor belt flaw. Messages have intended meaning and interpreted meaning. Intended meaning is the sender’s meaning while interpreted meaning is the receivers interpretation of the message. When a person interprets, they use their past experiences to analyze and connect the dots. Perception is sensing and understanding and organizing is categorizing and putting in order information. In the business setting, messages should be direct and to the point and not vague. In my own work experience, I use to send messages and not be clear as I could have been which caused problems. I learned the clearer and more direct I was, the better usually for everyone.