Upon completing this chapter, you will understand the role and nature of communication in business. To achieve this goal, you should be able to:

1. Explain the importance of communication to you and to business.
2. Describe the main challenges facing business communicators today.
3. Describe the three main categories of business communication.
4. Describe the formal and informal communication networks of the business organization.
5. Describe factors that affect the types and amount of communicating that a business does.
6. Explain why business communication is a form of problem solving.
7. Describe the various contexts for each act of business communication.
8. Describe the business communication process.