Chapter 1: Introduction to Professionalism
Welcome to Professional Development: A Business Communication Approach. In this text, you will be learning about skills to form and enhance your professionalism and employability. In this chapter, we will be answering the question, “What does it mean to be professional?” When you ask yourself that question, what comes to mind? A person in a business suit? The friendly customer service agent? Our exposure to different types of professionals, our families, friends, school, work experience, and the media shape our understanding of what it means to “be professional” in terms of behavior and “a professional” in terms of holding a position of employment in a certain area.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Identify key components of professional business communication.
- Identify key qualities of highly employable people.
This chapter includes original content and content adapted from two open educational resources:
Six Steps to Job Search Success by Caroline Ceniza-Levine and Connie Thanasoulis-Cerrachio
Be the Boss of Your Career: A Complete Guide for Students & Grads by Lindsay Bortot and Employment Support Centre, Algonquin College is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Adaptations included editing tone, images, removing content to align the chapter with BCOM210 course learning objectives, and revising examples for an FHSU student population, and adding some original exercises to align with course objectives.
AI Insights in this chapter were written through a collaborative process between Dr. Rose Helens-Hart, a professor of business communication, and AI writing applications, specifically Gemini and ChatGPT. Her approach involved extensive, iterative prompt-based conversations with these AI applications, during which she explored and refined various topics related to AI’s use in business communication. While the AI tools offered valuable suggestions and generated initial content, the final versions of AI Insights reflect a significant amount of human research, drafting, editing, and revision on her part to ensure accuracy, clarity, and relevance to the field.
