Guide to Managerial Communication

by Mary Munter

This newly-revised sixth edition summarizes practical skills for communication strategy, writing, and speaking—especially important in today's workplace. Chapter topics cover how to efficiently compose written documents, editing for brevity and style, presentations and visual aids, special speaking situations, and listening skills. For anyone who needs to communicate in today's business or professional environment.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Communication, Management, Textbooks, Reference, Leadership

198 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Chandan Chatterjee]

Business Communication

[Oleksii · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very valuable recommendations about the managerial communication

[Mia Qu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very precise and condensed. It is best used as a handbook that you can refer to at any time when communicating for business purposes. It is inclusive of types of communications, literal or verbal, but I would say it's more writing focused. I especially like its advice on using headlines, writing an email, and giving presentations (including PowerPoint designs and public speaking tips). The book also touches on communicating under different circumstances, such as cross-cultural communication and team presentations.

What I appreciate the most about this book is how it uses comparative examples. The guide itself is a demonstration of good business writing. I used this book for my business communication course, and what the book has taught me was transformational.

[Tiina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even though I've worked in business communications for close to 20 years, I expected to learn more from this book. Nothing wrong with it - in fact, I would have benefited from the teachings many times during my career. It just did not offer so much for me right now.

[Willard Rajab · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to read

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a short book on effective writing and speaking in business and workplace situations. The content is fine, but the vast majority of the material covered concepts with which I was previously familiar. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with that (and there were a few new ideas as well), especially if the material is good and accurate, but I am always a bit troubled by books on communication that are not particularly interesting. If the author really wants me as a reader to absorb, accept and even adopt their principles, shouldn't they work to make this a more engaging and persuasive book? Wouldn't their ideas carry more weight if I saw the author as a great communicator?

The book is written almost in outline format, with high-level charts to guide the reader through various ideas about verbal and written communication situations. It comes off as a bit clinical and more as a reference book than as anything one is meant to read cover to cover. And perhaps that is the problem.

It is also a book built around "best practices," and in communications, a lot of these practices presuppose time. You need time to research your subject, time to organize your material, time to understand your audience and so forth. This is great, except that so often in the workplace, we don't have ideal situations or the extra time that we would like. We are faced with a communication challenges that happen "in the moment" and must be dealt with quickly.

Someone should write a field guide to that kind of managerial communication. And they should make it interesting.

[KC · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as textbooks goes, this is a welcome addition to my academic library. It focuses on the fundamentals of business communication, and does so in a concise, accessible way.

The sections read more like articles than a textbook. There are an abundance of charts and graphs, which helps with visual accessibility and aerates the content well.

The book is small, thin, and can be used as a reference instead of a cover-to-cover book just as well.

[Erica Mauter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not necessarily a read-it-front-to-back book. It's a great quick reference for how to structure any type of communication in any medium. I particularly appreciated the section on how to establish credibility.

[Vaijanthotmail.com · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice book