Semester I MB0039 Business Communication - 4 Credits (Book ID: B1128) Assignment Set- 1 (60 Marks)

Q1. Describe a situation that you experienced where communication went wrong because thenon-verbal behaviour sent conflicting signals. Which aspect of non-verbal communicationwas responsible for the communication failure? How would you rectify this? where Communication was a failure to me: As a Manager, I was a sender for a communication and intended to be received by myexecutives.I have sent the following communication to my executives through a notice and displayed onthe notice board: Coming Sec ond Saturday to complete our targets for the month a review meeting is arrangedand all should attend. If any executive is not able to attend should find out the contents of the meeting from their peers without fail. But my communication went wrong and out of 10 executives, only three executives haveattended at 4.00 PM who checked-in with me the time of the meeting. Following were the barriers of communication which stood in the way of mycommunication: * The Channel I have chosen did not ensure the receipt of the communication by

Receivers

* The communication lacked the Chronological context The second Saturday being a non working day. * The communication has created a Psychological noise by not mentioning correct time of the meeting and confusion has been created. * The social context also is one of the cause for the failure of the communication as I have not taken all my executives into confident by giving any advance information or aintention of the meeting earlier. Lessons learnt in order to overcome these barriers of communication: * My communication was unclear by not giving exact time of meeting. * The media I have used is the placing the notice on the notice board, instead had Icirculated to all the receivers and obtained their signatures by asking their availability orfeedback my communication would not have failed. * I have chosen a wrong day a holiday though the task was a routine one. * I could have maintained good relations with my executives for success of mycommunication.

Q2. Explain why Public Relations is an important part of external business communication

Good public relations are needed to maintain a good relationship with your current clients and also to set an example for any future. External communication is any communicative effort specifically for people and organizations operating outside of the business. While internal communications are specifically for employees and management, external communications focus on spreading news and information about the corporation to the public, customers, and company stakeholders. Common examples of external business communications include direct mailings, financial records, press releases, and newsletters. Public Relations Although many companies focus on sales as a measure of business success, public perception is just as important to the organization's bottom line. Communications are one way to shape and define a corporation's image to the community, clients, and potential investors. External communications such as newsletters, media stories and press releases let the public know about the company workplace, philanthropic and environmental efforts, and other imagerelated activities, all of which serve to strengthen the public relations efforts of a company. Technology and External Communications While traditional print methods of communications are still common, modern technology has changed the face of external communications, and the Internet has become a valued resource in reaching new customers. Companies create websites to let people know of upcoming products and services. Social media such as Facebook and blogs are an easy way to reach target demographics and are a cost-effective means of promotion. However, with interactive technology there is also the possibility of public backlash, such as negative comment posting. In the long run, the benefits far outweigh the risks, as technology is far-reaching and allows the company to communicate with audiences all over the world. Challenges While external business communications seem like an effective way to reach out to the public, it is not without its challenges. The public impression of an organization can define the success or failure of the company in the long-run. One misplaced quote, or badly worded newsletter will not only ruin an expensive external communications plan, but also has the potential to affect corporate revenue. Therefore, those in charge of external communications for the company need to be aware of their audience and the company image they wish to convey.

Q3. Select a company of your choice in a sector that you would like to work in. Imagine that you have to make a brief presentation on this company to business school students. Develop a) A general and specific statement of purpose b) The key idea c) Your style of delivery.

Ans: Tata Consultancy Services. Specific Objectives: The main objective of the corporate advertisement is to make the organisationbetter understood. With this add Tata consultancy services are meeting theobjective that they have presence in the racing car segment. The formula oneFerrari is one of the most advanced racing cars in the world, packing researchn aerodynamics, style, engine technology, brakes, modelling. It has more incommon with a jet plane than with the performance of high speed car.Tata consultancy Services worked with Ferrari before, during and in betweenraces to help their cars go even faster. As one of the worlds fastest growingtechnology and business solution providers, TCS ensures that all mechanicaland electrical systems perform at their optimum under levels of extreme stress.Managing pressure and troubleshooting where every little advantage makes avery huge difference. And, of course Ferrari to experience certainty. Type of advertising: Corporate advertising has not only objectives but has different types of advertising. It has also become wider in scope, going beyond the traditionalimage building.The Ferrari advertisement of TCS comes under the Corporate UmbrellaAdvertising. This type of advertising is aimed at consumers and tries to showthe identity of the company. This highlights the services which they offer tocustomers. The addition of customers to this umbrella is added in this type of advertising. Effectiveness: This advertisement is very effective especially the automobile segment, wherethe customers look for maximum, mileage, good performance of cars withlimited resources.

Q4. Discuss the principles of business writing. PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS WRITING Having dealt with writing in general, we will now go briefly into the specifics of businesswriting. The language, style and tone of business writing is very different from generalwriting. Therefore, we will examine these aspects in some detail. 1. TONE We discussed tone of voice or paralanguage in an earlier section on nonverbalcommunication. It was pointed out that the spoken words, however perfect, can conveya negative message, if the tone of voice is not consistent with what is said. Tone isequally important in conveying written messages, particularly business relatedmessages.In written communication, tone refers to the way a statement sounds, which in turn,depends on the choice of words. A sentence or statement may be grammaticallyperfect, but may convey a negative message, if the choice of words is wrong. There are certain aspects of tone in written communication.ASPECT 1. You failed to meet the sales target.

The above statement has a negative tone, since it emphasizes what couldnot beachieved. The same idea could be expressed in a more positive tone, by emphasizingwhat could have been done instead. ASPECT 2. With a little extra effort, you

could have achieved the target. The example shows that even a negative idea can be expressed in positive languagethrough the use of appropriate words.The tone of business communication should also be confident. You should avoidlanguage that makes you sound unsure of yourself.

ASPECT 3. I hope

you will agree that my qualifications match your job profile.

Beginning the sentence with I hope creates the impression that you lack confidence inyourself. It might be better to say On reviewing my bio data , you will find that my qualifications match your job needs in the following respects While it is important to be self assured, avoid sounding over confident & pompous. ASPECT 4. Another aspect of tone is to sound courteous & sincere. This builds goodwill & goodrelations & increases the likelihood of a message achieving its objective. Avoidstatements such as following

You sent your complaint to the wrong department. You should have sent it to theshipping department. This sounds very discourteous & rude when responding to a customer complain. Instead, it might be better to say We have sent your complaint to the concerneddepartment, which will be contacting you shortly.

2. EMPHASIS & SUBORDINATION A business writer can be compared to an artist or a musician. Just like an artist or amusician tries to make certain elements stand out, so too does the business writer.An important principle of business writing is to

emphasise important ideas and todownplay unimportant ideas, so as to make the reader understand what you consider tobe significant. Generally, pleasant and important thoughts are emphasised, whileunpleasant and insignificant thoughts are subordinated or deemphasised. Several techniques for emphasis may be used by the business writer: Place the idea in the first paragraph or in the last paragraph, in order to get attention. Put the word that you wish to emphasise first or last in the sentence. Example : Success comes through sincere efforts. Failure will result without them.OR, The event was a success . Without your efforts, it would have been a failure . Use the active voice to emphasise the doer of the action and the passive voice toemphasise the receiver of the action. Example : John made the presentation is in active voice.

The presentation was made by John is in passive voice.

 Use words such as primary,major & significant to lay emphasis.

Example : Cost is a significant factor to be taken into consideration. Use repetition Example : The Tata Nano is an inexpensive car. Inexpensive to purchase & inexpensive to maintain.

Number the ideas, so as to rank them in the order of importance. Example : The main reasons for his poor performance are 1. Lack of training2. Lack of team skills &3. Lack of motivation.

Use visual elements such as bold type, capital letters, bigger font size & underlinedwords to emphasize key ideas. Example : The Reva electric car is 25% LESS POLUUTING than other cars. To stress what is known as the you attitude rather than the me attitude .

Example : Instead of saying, Our bank

will be open 24 hours, say You will be able toround-theclock banking service.

3. WRITE AT AN APPROPRIATE LEVEL OF READABILITY

A third very important rule of business writing is to tailor your writing to your audienceand to make it simple enough for even a layperson to read and understand.As pointed out in an earlier section, readability is determined by the length of words andsentences. Robert Gunning

developed what is known as the Fog Index or readabilityformula to measure the readability of a piece of writing . According to this formula,the appropriate reading level in business writing should be between 8 and 11 . Calculation of the Fog Index involves the steps 1. Select a written passage of approximately 100 words.2. Calculate the average length of a sentence by dividing the total number os wordsin the passage by the number of sentances.3. Find the number of difficult words. A word may be defines as difficult if it containsthree or more syllables. Determine the number of difficult words per hundred, by dividing the total number of words in the passage into the number of difficultwords, then by multiplying this figure by100.4. Add the number of difficult words per hundred & the average sentence length.5. Multiply the figure obtained in 4 by 0.4, to calculate the reading grade level forwhich the passage was written, or the Fog Index.Ideally, the Fog Index should be between 8 and 11 for most business writing, indicatingthat a reader between the eighth grade and the eleventh grade should be able tounderstand it without difficulty.

Q5. Write a short note on the SQ3R technique of reading.

The SQ3R Method

Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review

Studying works better when it means something to you, when it relates to your life. There are a number of ways to do this and I recommend you try as many as you can. One fact which we all know from our own

experience and psychological research has documented is that we remember things better when they are connected to emotions. This includes that funny sort of emotion "curiosity" and the nice experience of having it satisfied. So, one way to have things stick more is to find things that you're curious about.

Less intuitive, perhaps, but again documented, and believable once you think about it, is the fact that we remember things better when they are interconnected. To take an example, which of the following lists of 5 words would be easier for you to remember?

1:

dog always smoke question just

or

2:

cars are hazardous inside cities

For most of us, the second is easier, because it means something*, it is a list of things that are interconnected. Making such connections is called elaboration in cognitive psychology and the more elaborate your schema for something, the better able you are to remember it: Chess experts have better memories for positions of pieces in a chess game than do novices, but not if the pieces are randomly placed on the board. You can use these facts about human minds in your own studying by actively making connections between ideas. Any connections seem to help, but the ultimate connection seems to be to things you care about in your life where you bring in the emotion as well.

SQ3R (Robinson, 1970) is a method for active elaboration of material that you read, say in a textbook. It consists of 5 steps. I'll talk in terms of a chapter from the text, but this can be adapted to almost anything.

1. Survey (1 minute): Before beginning reading look through the whole chapter. See what the headings are -- the major ones and the subheadings; hierarchical structures seem to be particularly easy for our brains to latch onto -- check for introductory and summary paragraphs, references, etc. Resist reading at this point, but see if you can identify 3 to 6 major ideas in the chapter.

2. Question (usually less than 30 seconds): Ask yourself what this chapter is about: What is the question that this chapter is trying to answer? Or -- along the curiosity lines -- What question do I have that this chapter might help answer? Repeat this process with each subsection of the chapter, as well, turning each heading into a question.

3. Read (slower for some of us than others!): Read one section at a time looking for the answer to the question proposed by the heading! This is active reading and requires concentration so find yourself a place and time where you can concentrate.

4. Recite/write (about a minute): Say to yourself (I do this out loud so I have to study where I don't embarrass myself) or write down (I sometimes do this in the margins of the book itself ) a key phrase that sums up the major point of the section and answers the question. It is important to use your own words, not just copy a phrase from the book. Research shows that we remember our own (active) connections better than ones given to us (passive), indeed that our own hierarchies are generally better than the best prefab hierarchies.

5. Review (less than 5 minutes): After repeating steps 2-4 for each section you have a list of key phrases that provides a sort of outline for the chapter. Test yourself by covering up the key phrases and seeing if you can recall them. Do this right after you finish reading the chapter. If you can't recall one of your major points, that's a section you need to reread.

This method works. It works for me and it has worked for many students in the past. If you have recommendations for how to improve it, I would welcome them for the "next edition" of this mini-lesson.

* - In fact, one good way to remember the first list is to make it mean something, say by adding words: My dog always has a smoke when the question arises of just what life means -- note here too that the humorous image adds an emotion making the sentence even easier to remember, although remembering which words were actually on the list may be a problem.

Q6. (a) List the importance of effective communication in the workplace (b) Explain the advantages of oral communication with the help of suitable example.

Ans.1

Communication is the nerve center of business today. As you go up thecorporate ladder, you will find that communication skills are required, more thantechnical skills. Communication research has revealed that among the factors mostimportant for managerial success, communication skills rank above technical skills.Several surveys conducted among people who have been successful in theirprofessions have indicated that communication skills are more vital to job success thansubjects taken in college.Communication has assumed eve greater importance today, since the new model ofbusiness is based on teamwork, rather than on individual action. Teamwork requiresgreater coordination & communication.Communication is also required all the more in this age of information & technology.Without communication & human skills, technology will overwhelm an organization.Communication helps to make sense of technology & to manage all this information. EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SERVES THE FOLLOWING SPECIFIC PURPOSESIN AN ORGANIZATION

1. GREATER AWARENESS OF ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS & TEAMWORK: When there is open communication between superiors, co-workers &subordinates, there is smooth flow of information regarding the goals of theorganization. Coordination between the different departments in particular, leadsto greater motivation to work together towards achieving a commonorganizational goal, rather than working in isolation.2. BETTER EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIPS: By listening toemployees, showing empathy & giving them the freedom to express theiropinions without fear of being repressed, manager can create a climate ofopenness that leads to better relationships. Employees will then feel morecomfortable in approaching their superiors & discussing any matter with them.3. PROBLEM SOLVING: Effective communication can help resolve conflictsbetween co-workers, work related & performance related problems. Face-tofacecommunication is especially suited for achieving this task, since it is one to one &highly personalized in nature.4. IMPROVED PERFORMANCE : Effective communication by managers at thetime of appraising the performance of their employees can point out areas forimprovement. A constructive review of performance, through which a manager

gives positive feedback & counsels the employee, instead of criticizing him forpoor performance, can motivate the employee to perform better.5. STRONGER LINK BETWEEN MANAGERS & THE EXTERNALENVIRONMENT

: Apart from internal communication within the organization,effective communication by managers with external audiences such ascustomers, government, bankers, media & suppliers leads to a better rapportwith them. A manager will be able to understand the needs of his customers, beaware of the presence of quality suppliers of material, of government regulations& of the expectations of the community at large, only through propercommunication.

(b)IMPORTANCE OF ORAL COMMUNICATION TO BUSINESS Oral communication constitutes the bulk of all communication. Most0 authorities agree that people on the job, including secretaries, spend an average of about 75 percent of their communication time either speaking or listening. Most secretaries work in jobs demanding welldeveloped oral communication skills. Oral communication plays two important roles in business: 1. It establishes the procedures for accomplishing whatever needs to be done. People usually discuss problems and solutions before deciding on a course of action.

2. Oral communication helps establish human relationships. Office conversations help people understand each other and make working together enjoyable.

Advantages of Oral Communication Oral communication has several advantages over written communication for most day-to-day, routine transactions:

 Oral communication is faster: Two or more people talking can deliver a message, discuss an issue, reach an agreement, or ask a question and receive an answer much more quickly than they could using written communication.

Oral communication permits immediate feedback: When the receiver does not understand a message, he or she can ask for clarification right away.

Oral communication a usually more effective for conveying messages with emotional content: When people communicate orally, the message consists of more than the spoken words. A nonverbal message accompanies every oral communication. Facial expressions, body movements, gestures, tone of voice, rate of speech, and voice inflection all add meaning to the words actually spoken. These nonverbal components help the receiver interpret the emotional significance of the message.

Oral communication helps establish human relationships: Through oral communication, people working together are able to develop team spirit and a sense of mutual responsibility. By communicating with each other orally, people are able to improve each other's morale.