Business Communication[1]

Q.1 Describe any situation that you experienced where the communication went wrong because the listening was faulty. Analyze the situation by explaining the type of listening barrier. . How could this barrier be overcome? Ans. Example: Most people are very average listeners who have developed poor listening habits that are hard to shed and that act as barriers to listening. For example, some people have the habit of “faking” attention or trying to look like a listener, in order to impress the speaker and to assure him that they are paying attention. Others may tend to listen to each and every fact and, as a result, miss out on the main point. Yet another habit is to avoid difficult listening and to tune off deliberately, if the subject is too technical or difficult to understand. Sometimes, the subject itself may be dismissed as uninteresting, because the listener does not want to listen. Barriers to Listening 1. Physiological Barriers – This was discussed earlier under the barriers to communication. Some people may have genuine hearing problems or deficiencies that prevent them from listening properly. Once detected, they can generally be treated. Other people may have difficulty in processing information, or memory related problems which make them poor listeners. Another physiological barrier is rapid thought. Listeners have the ability to process information at the rate of approximately 500 words per minute, whereas speakers talk at around 125 words per minute. Since listeners are left with a lot of spare time, their attention may not be focused on what the speaker is saying, but may wander elsewhere. 2. Physical Barriers – These refer to distractions in the environment such as the sound of an air conditioner, cigarette smoke, or an overheated room, which interfere with the listening process. They could also be in the form of information overload. For example, if you are in a meeting with your manager and the phone rings and your mobile beeps at the same time to let you know that you have a message, it is very hard to listen carefully to what is being said. 3. Attitudinal Barriers – Preoccupation with personal or work related problems can make it difficult to focus one’s attention completely on what a speaker is saying, even if what is being said is of prime importance. Another common attitudinal barrier is egocentrism, or the belief that you are more knowledgeable than the speaker and that you have nothing new to learn from his ideas. People with this kind of closed minded attitude make very poor listeners. 4. Wrong Assumptions – The success of communication depends on both the sender and the receiver, as we have seen in an earlier unit. It is wrong to assume that communication is the sole responsibility of the sender or the speaker and that listeners have no role to play. Such an assumption can be a big barrier to listening. For example, a brilliant speech or presentation, however well delivered, is wasted if the receiver is not listening at the other end. Listeners have as much responsibility as speakers to make the communication successful, by paying attention, seeking clarifications and giving feedback. 5. Cultural Barriers Accents can be barriers to listening, since they interfere with the ability to understand the meaning of words that are pronounced differently. The problem of different accents arises not only between cultures, but also within a culture. For example, in a country like India where there is enormous cultural diversity, accents may differ even between different

regions and states. Another type of cultural barrier is differing cultural values. The importance attached to listening and speaking differs in western and oriental cultures. Generally, Orientals regard listening and silence as almost a virtue, whereas Westerners attach greater importance to speaking. Therefore this would interfere with the listening process, when two people from these two different cultures communicate. 6. Gender Barriers Communication research has shown that gender can be a barrier to listening. Studies have revealed that men and women listen very differently and for different purposes. Women are more likely to listen for the emotions behind a speaker’s words, while men listen more for the facts and the content. 7. Lack of Training Listening is not an inborn skill. People are not born good listeners. They have to develop the art of listening through practice and training. Lack of training in listening skills is an important barrier to listening, especially in the Indian context. Lee Iacocca, former Chairman of the Chrysler Corporation in the US, was one of the first to recognize the need for organized training programs in listening skills. Today, many organizations both in India and abroad incorporate listening skills in their training programs. 8. Bad Listening Habits Most people are very average listeners who have developed poor listening habits that are hard to shed and that act as barriers to listening. For example, some people have the habit of “faking” attention or trying to look like a listener, in order to impress the speaker and to assure him that they are paying attention. Others may tend to listen to each and every fact and, as a result, miss out on the main point. Yet another habit is to avoid difficult listening and to tune off deliberately, if the subject is too technical or difficult to understand. Sometimes, the subject itself may be dismissed as uninteresting, because the listener does not want to listen. We can overcome above barriers by taking following steps: 1. Create a Conducive Environment – To an extent, you can try to control the environment in which communication takes place, so that listening can take place without any distractions. Ensuring a proper sound system and acoustics so that the speaker is audible, avoiding places with high levels of activity, loud noises from the outside environment and poor air conditioning systems, shutting off mobile phones and telephones, are some of the ways in which you can overcome some of the physical barriers to listening. 2. Select Face-to-face Channels – Listening is less accurate in the absence of face-to-face communication. For example, listening to and understanding ideas correctly over the telephone is much harder than through a face-to-face meeting. Take the case of calling a restaurant and placing orders over the telephone for home delivery of a meal. The chances are that your orders may not be understood correctly. Therefore, as far as possible, arrange face-to-face contact to ensure more accurate listening. 3. Be Open-minded and Avoid Distractions – Listening is an exhausting activity which requires the right attitude and mindset. You have to focus your attention completely on what the speaker is saying, without letting your mind wander. This kind of concentration can be developed through various techniques and through constant practice. In addition, it is also important to rid yourself of the notion that you have nothing new to learn from the other person. Even if it is a subject about which you may be knowledgeable, the speaker may offer a different perspective or point of view. Therefore it is important to listen actively.

4. Use Nonverbal Cues to Indicate Active Listening – It is important to communicate to the speaker that you are listening actively to what he is saying. This can be done even without verbal communication. All the different aspects of nonverbal communication discussed earlier should be used for maximum effect. For example, maintaining steady eye contact with the speaker, sitting up with an erect posture, nodding now and then to show appreciation and understanding and appropriate facial expressions are some of the ways in which your nonverbal communication can indicate that you are involved in what the speaker is saying. 5. Use Verbal Communication to Indicate Active Listening – While nonverbal behavior by itself can communicate that you are an active listener, it is also important to engage in verbal communication with the speaker. Silence is often interpreted as lack of understanding or attention. You need to seek clarifications, give feedback and suggestions, or just paraphrase in your own words what the speaker has said, in order to convey that you have understood his message. 6. Listen First Before Responding – Always let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak. Avoid the tendency to formulate your own response, even before you have listened completely to the speaker’s words. If you are too busy thinking about what to say next, you may miss the main point that the speaker is trying to make. This also gives the speaker the impression that you are preoccupied or rude. 7. Use the Speaker listener Gap Constructively – It was pointed out earlier that listeners have the ability to absorb information faster than speakers’ rate of speech. This spare time available to listeners is often misused by letting the mind wander and is one of the physiological barriers to listening. One way of overcoming this barrier is to try to use this spare time to note down what the speaker has said, review what has been said so far and anticipate what he may say next. Thinking ahead of the speaker and trying to guess where his talk is leading is a good strategy for effective listening. This is not easy, but can be learnt through proper training. 8. Focus on the Verbal and Nonverbal Message – Listening involves not only hearing and understanding the meaning behind the words, but also being alert to the nonverbal behavior of the speaker. The importance of nonverbal cues has been emphasized throughout this book. It is important to watch for any positive or negative messages that may be conveyed through the speaker’s tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures and outward appearance. 9. Focus on the Content, rather than the Delivery – In order to grasp the true meaning of what the speaker is saying, it is important to concentrate on the content of the message, rather than on how the message is delivered. For example, looking at the power point slides during a speaker’s presentation may distract your attention from the main point that he is trying to convey. Similarly, being over critical of the speaker’s accent or mannerisms may make you miss the essence of the message.

Q.2 Briefly describe the kind of job that you would like to take up after completion of your MBA. List out the main stakeholders that you would have to communicate with, along with the reasons for communicating with them and the appropriate channels of communication with each stakeholder. Ans. After completion of MBA I would like to be a HR Manager. Below are the main stakeholders with whom I would be communicating:1. Superiors

Reason of communication: - to communicate feelings about your job, unsolved problems with coworkers and your suggestions for improvement of the organization.

Appropriate channel of communication: - through oral face-to-face channels 2. Peers

Reason of communication: - Information sharing Appropriate channel of communication: - The most appropriate channel of communication between peers is the oral face-to-face channel, since it helps to build good rapport and improves work relationships. 3. Subordinates

Reason of communication: - performance appraisal and feedback, reward and recognition aspects, subject to good performance. Appropriate channel of communication: - Appropriate channels of communication with subordinates may be both oral and written, depending on the situation. Communicating about organizational procedures is best done through written communication; On the other hand, performance appraisal and feedback should be done through an oral one-to-one meeting and discussion. 4. Employees/Unions

Reason of communication: - welfare aspects, disciplinary aspects and terms of employment Appropriate channel of communication: - written channels such as written contracts are the most appropriate channels.

Q.3 Select a business article from any business publication of approximately 500 words in length. Evaluate it in terms of : a) Appropriate level of readability b) Use of jargon, slang and metaphors c) Common errors in English. Is it well or poorly written, in your opinion? Ans.

Companies Are People, Too By: Anna Muoio Forget all the talk about corporate culture. It's time to analyze your company's personality. This diagnostic will help. Plenty of business gurus -- especially New Age thinkers such as Arie de Geus, Peter Senge, and Margaret Wheatley -- have argued for years that companies aren't just boxes and bubbles on org charts. Instead, they've argued, companies are more like biological organisms -- living things that learn, evolve, and eventually die. Are you ready to take this biological worldview to the next level? According to marketing consultant Sandy Fekete, companies can best be understood when thought of as people -- as unique creatures with their own values, their own personalities, and sometimes, if her clients really get into the spirit, their own names. "Most people assume that a company's personality matches its CEO's personality," says Fekete, 43, founder of Fekete + Company, a marketing-communications firm based in Columbus, Ohio. "But that's not true. An organization has its own ways of being." Fekete's job is to help her clients understand their company's personality -- its strengths and its weaknesses. Her main tool is a diagnostic called, appropriately, "Companies Are People, Too." The 74-question test draws on several bodies of work: the legendary Myers-Briggs Type Indicator instrument; the principles of psychoanalyst Carl Jung; and insights from William Bridges's book "The Character of Organizations" (Consulting Psychologists Press, 1993). So far, people in 63 organizations ranging from museums to construction firms to medical practices have put pen to paper to scrutinize their companies' personalities. Actually, make that 64: Fast Company couldn't resist the chance to take the test It may sound like psychobabble, but the idea behind the tool is fairly simple: An organization, like a person, has preferred ways of focusing energy, gathering information, making decisions, and structuring work. Once people inside an organization understand those preferences, argues Fekete, they can do a better job of articulating their company's identity and values, and they can figure out better ways to work and to communicate. Some of her clients even elect "keepers of the personality" -- volunteers who make sure that their organization is clear about the attributes that it prizes.

"Change comes from awareness," Fekete says. "Once you figure out who you are, you can begin to differentiate yourself from your competitors." Elford Inc., a family-owned commercial-construction company, used the tool several years ago -- and created a fictitious character, Pop, with eating habits, clothes, and favorite TV shows that are meant to capture the company's personality. What are some of Pop's best traits? He's a "superdependable leader" who "always follows through on commitments." What does he need to work on? He "may use energies anticipating dire events that do not occur." Dixon Schwabl Advertising Inc., a fast-growing agency based in upstate New York, has actually undergone a personality change as a result of using the tool. After taking the test for the first time, the agency created a character, named Samm, to embody the company's strengths and weaknesses. But a year later, after the agency worked on its weaknesses, Samm gave way to Jaz. "Samm was too deadline-focused," muses Lauren Dixon, 45, founder and president of Dixon Schwabl. "We're still driven to meet our deadlines, but not at the risk of compromising the creative. We needed a different character to personify who we had become."

A:- Appropriate level of readability:- The above article is very simple in reading and do not have any complex terms. B:- Use of jargon, slang and metaphors:- There is frequent use of jargon, slang and metaphors like:- We're, It's, Inc etc. C:- Common errors in English:spelling mistakes etc.

There is no error in the article regarding verbs,

According to my opinion this article is perfectly written.

Q.4 Briefly distinguish between the different types of reading. Which are the types of reading that you would be required to do most often, as a student of management? Ans. Types Of Reading As mentioned earlier, we read in different ways, depending on the purpose for which we are reading a text. Let us look at a few types of reading.

Skimming Let us say that you are a student of management; and as suggested by your professor, you need to buy a reference text book on Investment Management, or to write a paper on Computer Graphics. You go to a book store and see a rack full of books, with the same title, but different authors. You do not have time to read the pages before deciding on buying the book. Therefore, you quickly go through the contents, title page and the blurb (This is a short piece of writing on the cover of a book that reviews and promotes the book). By now, you have decided to buy one book. This type of reading that you do in the book store is known as “skimming.” Thus, skimming may be defined as “looking over a text/book quickly, in order to get a general or superficial idea of the content.”

Scanning As you read a text, editorial or an article, you may suddenly come across a word that is not familiar to you. Naturally, you would like to know the meaning of the word, for your own benefit. So you get the dictionary and carefully find the word. You see the spelling, pronunciation, meaning and also the various uses of the same word (if any). This type of careful reading to find out the specific, clear details, is known as “scanning.” In this case, you do not just run your eyes across the page, but look into the information for specific details.

Extensive Reading As we have already mentioned, our way of reading is influenced by the purpose of our reading. Most of us have the habit of reading especially when we are free, or have a lot of leisure time. We might get hold of a novel, a comic strip, or a magazine. When we read for the pure pleasure of reading, it is known as “extensive” reading. However, it should not be given less priority, because it is extensive reading. It is enjoyable, as well as informative. Here, we practice rapid reading to get a global/overall understanding of the matter.

Intensive Reading When we read shorter texts like a research paper for getting specific details or information, we read slowly with a lot of concentration. This is known as intensive reading. When you read a book as a resource material for research, you read it intensively because the overall understanding is not the objective or purpose of our reading. When you read an article in order to write a review on it, you read it intensively. We use all the skills of reading when we do intensive reading.

Loud And Silent Reading Most of our day-to-day reading is done silently. When we read an article or an advertisement, we are engaged in the process of deriving meaning from the passage. Actually when we read aloud, our concentration is divided between reading and speaking. This makes reading difficult and may cause problems in understanding the matter. However, there are situations when we may have to read things aloud when others do not have access to them – for example, notices and circulars.

We need to read the instructions aloud to students or employees, so that there is no confusion later. Apart from these extraordinary situations, most of the time the natural way of reading is silent reading, which is ideal and helps comprehension.

As a student of management we would be required Skimming type of Reading most often.

Q.5 Evaluate email as a channel of internal communication, explaining its advantages and disadvantages. List out five ways in which email messages could be made more effective. Ans. Communicating Through Email Although email is a tool for external communication, it is also regularly used within an organization, in place of telephone and face-to-face contact. This is because email is instantaneous and allows you to send messages that others can pick up at their convenience. Besides, email also makes it possible to send messages to people anywhere in the world and to people who are otherwise impossible to reach. While the other forms of written communication are highly formal in nature, email is more informal and spontaneous. It is therefore easier to write an email message than it is to write a business letter or a report, where greater attention has to be paid to the language, style and tone. Since email is quick, easy to use and spontaneous, it can also help to improve personal relationships in the workplace.

Advantages of Email 1. Relatively low cost of fulfillment. The physical costs of email are substantially less than direct mail. 2. Direct response medium encourages immediate action. Email marketing encourages click through to a website where the offer can be redeemed immediately this increases the likelihood of an immediate, impulsive response. 3. Faster campaign deployment. Lead times for producing creative and the whole campaign lifecycle tends to be shorter than traditional media. 4. Ease of personalization. It is easier and cheaper to personalize email than for physical media and also than for a website. 5. Options for testing. It is relatively easy and cost effective to test different email creative and messaging. 6. Integration. Through combining email marketing with other direct media which can be personalized such as direct mail, mobile messaging or web personalization, campaign response can be increased as the message is reinforced by different media.

Disadvantages of Email 1. Deliverability. Difficulty of getting messages delivered through different internet service providers (ISPs), corporate firewalls and web mail systems. 2. Render ability. Difficulty of displaying the creative as intended within the in-box of different email reading systems. 3. Email response decay. Email recipients are most responsive when they first subscribe to an email. It is difficult to keep them engaged. 4. Communications preferences. Recipients will have different preferences for email offers, content and frequency which affect engagement and response. These have to be managed through communications preferences.

5. Resource intensive. Although email offers great opportunities for targeting, personalization and more frequent communications, additional people and technology resources are required to deliver these.

Below are the five ways in which email message could be made more effective:-

1. Avoid “shouting” – Shouting in an email message refers to use of all capital letters in the text. All caps make it difficult to read a message and are therefore considered to be rude, like shouting. 2. Avoid symbols and acronyms – Symbolic messages using punctuation marks, known as “emoticons” (for example, : ) for a smiley face!) should be avoided, especially in business related email messages. Similarly, abbreviations such as BTW (by the way) should be avoided since they sound over casual and may not be understood by everyone. 3. Use friendly salutations and signoffs – Although these are not strictly required in email communication as in business letters, a salutation such as “Dear John” and a signoff such as “Warm Regards”, helps to make the tone friendly and personal. 4. Respond promptly – In the case of business related emails, it is important to respond promptly, especially when communicating with superiors. Even if you are hard pressed for time, are out of town or out of the office, you can set an automatic email response to your received messages, which will mention that you will be responding in detail on a specific date. 5. Avoid personal messages at work – Do not make use of the office facility to send personal email messages. Since confidentiality of the message is not guaranteed, it may lead to embarrassment later.

Q.6 How are business reports different from business letters? In your opinion, which is the most important step in report preparation and why? Ans. Business Report •

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A report is divided into four areas: o Terms of Reference- This section gives background information on the reason for the report. It usually includes the person requesting the report. o Procedure- The procedure provides the exact steps taken and methods used for the report. o Findings- The findings point out discoveries made during the course of the report investigation. o Conclusions- The conclusions provide logical conclusions based on the findings. o Recommendations- The recommendations state actions that the writer of the report feels need to be taken based on the findings and conclusions. Reports should be concise and factual. Opinions are given in the "conclusions" section. However, these opinions should be based on facts presented in the "findings". Use simple tenses (usually the present simple) to express facts. Use the imperative form (Discuss the possibility ..., Give priority ..., etc.) in the "recommendations" section as these apply to the company as a whole.

Business Letter •

The Start: Dear Mr, Ms (Mrs, Miss VERY IMPORTANT use Ms for women unless asked to use Mrs or Miss)

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Thanking the Potential Customer for His/Her Interest: Thank you for your letter of ... inquiring (asking for information) about ... We would like to thank you for your letter of ... inquiring (asking for information) about ...

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Providing Requested Materials: We are pleased to enclose ... Enclosed you will find ... We enclose ...

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Providing Additional Information:

We would also like to inform you ... Regarding your question about ... In answer to your question (inquiry) about ... •

Closing a Letter Hoping for Future Business: We look forward to ... hearing from you / receiving your order / welcoming you as our client (customer).

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Signature: Yours sincerely (remember use 'Yours faithfully' when you don't know the name of the person you are writing and 'Yours sincerely' when you do.

According to us Summary is the most important section of the report as per the following:First, you begin with the title section. If it is a short report, it will include only the front page; for a longer one, you must put here Terms of Reference, Table of Contents and so on. Do not neglect the Summary. It is the most important section of report. Many people, especially senior managers, are not interested in reading all the report. They will concentrate on the Summary, expecting to see there all the main points, the main conclusions and the main recommendations. It is advisable to write this part as a stand alone document. Also, keep the language you use as simple as possible, so anybody can read it and understand it. Avoid copying the points for the Summary directly form the report as it does not work too well.