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Published
September 2025
Page Count
620
ISBN (Digital)
979-8-88794-403-6

Effective Business Communication New: AI-powered guidance within our eReader New: Textbook audio in 32 languages and dialects (upon request) New: Podcasts Available

Version 4.0
By Scott McLean

Included Supplements

Key Features

  • Strong introduction to soft, transferable skills and conflict management
  • Examines communication, culture, and their interactions in practical, real-world contexts
  • Includes coverage of public speaking
  • Focus on developing critical thinking skills
  • Supportive learning features
    • Over 140 embedded hyperlinks to streaming videos enrich hybrid and online courses, engage students, and reinforce or augment many of the presented topics
    • “Introductory Exercises” set the stage for topics to be presented in the coming chapter
    • “Learning Objectives” at the beginning of each main section help guide and focus students’ learning
    • Key terms highlight important concepts and terminology throughout the text
    • “Key Takeaways” at the end of every main section echo and reinforce the section’s “Learning Objectives”
    • “Exercises” at the end of each main section promote deeper learning and retention of new concepts by stimulating critical analysis
  • Customizable

 

Students

Online Access Price
$33.95
Color Printed Textbook with Online Access Price
$60.95
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Effective Business Communication is suitable for courses such as Business Communication, Professional Communication, Communication for Professionals, Managerial Communication, Communication for Business and the Professions, Communicating at Work, or similar course titles taught in business or communication departments at the undergraduate and graduate levels at both two- and four-year institutions.

Effective Business Communication provides a comprehensive, integrated approach to the study and application of written and oral business communication. The book starts with an emphasis on business communication soft skills—increasingly in demand by employers, featured in job descriptions, and clearly related to professional success. Links to self-assessments highlight strengths as well as opportunities for improvement. The book’s second section transitions to a focus on business writing, followed by a third section that features business presentations, conflict, crisis, and intercultural contexts. Each section is supported and enriched by relevant, real world, and current examples. 

New in This Version

Overall

  • New overarching theme explores mobile communications and their impacts on professional interactions, social media influencers, and personal branding
  • Valuable insights into the role of social media influencers and their ability to shape public opinion
  • Examines the transformative power of artificial intelligence (AI), encompassing both its current and potential applications
  • Thoroughly explores ethical considerations about AI, bias in AI-produced content, and its use in professional communications in business, education, and health-care fields
  • Key elements of the previous version’s Chapter 13 moved to Chapter 12
  • New Chapter 14 on AI in professional communication

New and updated coverage on

  • The SIFT Method and combating misinformation (Section 1.3)
  • Social media and digital civility (Section 1.3)
  • Preventing a vulnerability hangover (Section 1.8)
  • Critical, transferable future job skills (Section 1.11)
  • Influencing audiences through social media platforms (Section 2.4)
  • The rise of influencers in media (Section 3.5)
  • Engaging audiences with clear social media and mobile audience writing principles (Section 3.5)
  • Designing interactive documents for mobile audiences (Section 4.5)
  • Optimizing online résumés for AI and human eyes (Section 5.6)
  • Strategies to effectively enhance online profiles (Section 5.6)
  • Strategies to address speech anxiety (Section 6.3)
  • Effective visual aids for mobile audiences (Section 7.5)
  • Clear and predictable mobile messaging organization (Section 8.4)
  • Engaging mobile audiences with informative speaking (Section 9.4)
  • The PEOPLE approach to ethical persuasion (Section 10.3)
  • Service design presentations (Section 11.11)
  • Bullying in the workplace (Section 12.3)
  • Emotional labor and emotional work (Section 12.3)
  • “Coffee Badging” as a trend (Section 12.4)
  • SMART goals (Section 12.5)
  • Team communication and conversation (Section 12.8)
  • Workplace bullying and hostile work environments (Section 12.8)
  • Task sequencing and employee retention (Section 13.5)
  • Self-segmentation, echo chambers, and social media groupthink (Section 13.8)
  • Introduction to artificial intelligence (AI) (Section 14.2)
  • Using AI ethically (Section 14.3)
  • Citing and referencing AI (Section 14.3)
  • AI and business (Section 14.4)
  • AI’s distinct roles including
    • From editor to translator (Section 14.4)
    • Job interviewing (Section 14.4)
    • Stock picking (Section 14.4)
    • Education (Section 14.5)
    • Health care, such as digital twinning, virtual hearts, and 3D brain models (Section 14.6)
    • Relationship advice (Section 14.7)
  • AI and the future (Section 14.7)
  • AI’s significant energy and environmental costs (Section 14.7)

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Scott McLean

Scott McLean

Walden University

Scott McLean is a Senior Contributing Faculty Member in the Communication Department at Walden University and Universidad Andrés Bello, Santiago de Chile. He also served as Associate Professor of Business Communication for the W. A. Franke College of Business, Northern Arizona University—Yuma, on a combined campus partnership with the University of Arizona and Arizona Western College. Scott was the 2007–2011 Shadle-EdgeCombe Endowed Faculty Chair at Arizona Western College. 


Scott has written or co-written several other FlatWorld titles in communication, English, and business. His publishing record includes articles in peer-review journals, classic car magazines, and newspapers. From his experience working with students at the community college and undergraduate levels (including developmental English, college preparation, composition and argumentation, literature and analysis, and business communication), Scott has learned the importance of providing students with clear, concise learning resources with scaffolding and frequent opportunities for engagement and demonstration of skill mastery. He has also come to appreciate the important role the first English and business communication courses play in helping students achieve overall academic success. 

Beyond his classroom experience, Scott regularly serves as a communications advisor to industry, business, and organizations. He’s served as a Subject Matter Expert in Professional Communication for Google (Outlier.org), Ebsco (learningexpresshub.com), Instructure (Canvas) and Strategic Education (sophia.org). He is a Certified Higher Education Professional (CHEP, cheponline.org) in Teaching, Online Teaching, Leadership, and Career Services. He also completed several Google Cloud Skill Boost trainings on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and earned the Elements of AI Certificate at the University of Helsinki.


Scott serves as an international business and industry consultant and has worked with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon. He has also served on the Small Business and Innovative Research (SBIR) Evaluation Panel for the National Institutes of Health and evaluated programs for the Ministry of Hacienda, Chile and many others. He has taught at AWC/San Luis on the U.S./Mexican Border, at Central Oregon Community College’s Branch Campus on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, and at Universidad San Sebastián in Concepción, Chile. Scott studied at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, and at Northern Arizona University–Flagstaff Department of English in the area of Professional Writing. He and his family live in Washington State.

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