Note: If you are not with an organization at present, use this as an opportunity to gather information from another person about these questions or conduct your own research on-line about a specific organization.  With whom does your organization compete in terms of compensation and benefits? What is your company’s competitive pay strategy? Do they attempt to pay more, the same or less than the competitive average in your area and why? What is your company’s policy regarding communications of salary grades and ranges? Why do they do what they do? Explain the difference between salary ranges and salary bands. Which does your employer use and why? What is a competitive pay line (or market line) and how is it used?

After studying Chapters (1,5,6, & 7), you should be able to apply the Learning Objectives outlined in each chapter. Textbook – Cardon,P. (2018), Business Communication: Developing Leaders for a Networked World (3e). Suggestions for Gathering Information to Prepare the Memorandum: (1) Make sure to read Chapters (1,5,6,7) in the course textbook before working on this assignment; (2) Reflect on (Why Does This Matter?) in Chapter 1 of the course textbook; (3) DO NOT use the course text as a reference. You will use information in the chapters to help “think” about key concepts to gather the right information. (4) Use *Business Source Complete to locate discipline (your major) specific journals which identify key abilities and attributes that are sought within your declared major in terms of establishing credibility. Important: You will need to select and use one secondary source (i.e. article from a business journal within your major) to complete the assignment below. Do NOT use an article over five years old. * Business Source Complete- Go to W.I. Dykes Library https://www.uhd.edu/library/Pages/library-index.aspx Click Databases - Under Library Databases –Click B-Scroll Down to Business Source Complete –Click and Start your search Instructions Think about your future career and answer the following question: Why is it important in an academic setting to develop/improve business communication in terms of succeeding in the workplace? In thinking, focus on key concepts from (Chapters 1) in the course textbook and findings from your disciplined based journals which might impede establishing credibility as it related to the three key factors: competence, caring and character. In this same line of thinking focus on key concepts from Chapters 5,6,7 to support your primary theme. Examples include but are NOT limited to: Chapter 5/inaccuracy in writing abilities, failure to apply positive and other-oriented tone in business messages –Chapter 6/inability to evaluate your message via the FAIR Test, Chapter 7/inability to write effective emails or handling emotions effectively in online communications. Planning/Developing Your Business Message: (1) Avoid Relying Heavy on the I-Voice (See Table 5.10). (2) Answer the green highlighted question above by Framing the Message to focus on the primary theme above. (3) Consider dividing your draft into sections/paragraphs inclusive of but not limited to the following. [Make sure to identify your declared major. Based on research findings identify key abilities and attributes that are sought within your declared major. Use these research findings to discuss strategies to circumvent impeding credibility, e.g. competency, caring, and character. Link these findings to the importance of establishing credibility via business communications specific to your declared major for professional aspirations. Format: APA Style and Memorandum APA Style Must have one in-text citation in the body of the memo. Make sure to use APA style to format the in-text citation and reference. *You can review APA formatting (In-Text Citation and Reference) via the following link: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ From your research, select and use one secondary source (i.e. article from a business journal within your major) to document (i.e. in-text citation) your findings when writing. Do NOT use an article over five years old. (The course textbook should NOT be used as a reference.) Use information from the selected secondary source as an in-text citation (must have ONLY one citation/Do NOT use more than one citation) in the body of the memo. You will also need to list the one secondary source as a reference at the bottom of the page. If you need a little extra space to list/format your selected reference use Times New Roman- font size 10 to format the reference.