SECTION - A

1. Successful communication depends on the common ground between you and your audience. Describe the ways to adapt your message to audience?

2. Identify the weakness/choose the right option as the case may be in each sentence:

(a) It is essential that you sign and return back the enclosed form.

(b) The production manager, nor the controller, presented (her, their) opposing views.

(c) Paige forgot to retain her expense vouchers; (this, this oversight) caused a delay in reimbursement.

(d) The consultants’ (advice, advise) is to downsize the organization.

(e) I consider your remark a (complement, compliment).

3. What planning should you do before you begin writing or speaking?

4. You usually would want to build positive attitudes towards the information you are presenting, so in that sense how should you organize informative and persuasive messages?

5. Buffers are generally used when writing a bad news message. Discuss the purpose and the common types of buffers?

SECTION - B

1. E-mail communities develop their own norms. Mention the e-mail netiquette that should be followed by people who use email communication.

2. How will you decide whether to decide whether to use a chronological or a skills resume.

3. Find a single word substitute or a shorter phrase for the phrases given below:

(a) In accordance with your request.

(b) Please be advised.

(c) Few and far between.

(d) From the point of view of .

(e) Along the same lines.

4. Organize the following text into meaningful paragraphs.

As individuals, we acquire our culture as we grow up within it. It is not something we inherit. We primarily acquire our culture through the socialization process, which “teaches” us to be proper adults and citizens. The main agents for this process are, at first, parents or other guardians. Other people and institutions, particularly schools and religious organizations continue the process. Important values, patterns of thinking, and ways of behaving are passed on in this way. The process is rarely explicit; parents and others are often not conscious of the process themselves. This is important, because the things learned about our culture become deeply embedded in our mental make-up, to the extent that we are ourselves barely aware of them or reflect on them. They act as a kind of taken-for-granted foundations that guide our thinking, feeling and behavior.

5. Why is listening such hard work and how can one become a good listener?

SECTION - C

1. Is it important to differentiate yourself from other applicants for a job? How can an applicant create that right tone?

2. Discuss the main categories of non-verbal communication.

3. Suppose that you know that people with your qualifications are in great demand. Is there any reason for you to take effort to write a strong resume.

4. Should important e-mail messages be drafted offline? Why?

5. Draft a covering letter in response to an announced job opening which evinced a lot of interest in you?

CASE STUDY - 1

John is a 27-year old who is a foodservice manager at a casual dining restaurant. He is responsible for supervising and managing all employees in the back of the house. Employees working in the back of the house range in age from 16 years old to 55 years old. In addition, the employees come from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds. For many, English is not their primary language.

John is Safe Serve® certified and tries his best to keep up with food safety issues in the kitchen but he admits it’s not easy. Employees receive “on the job training” about food safety basics (for example, appropriate hygiene and handwashing, time/temperature, and cleaning and sanitizing). But with high turnover of employees, training is often rushed and some new employees are put right into the job without training if it is a busy day. Eventually, most employees get some kind of food safety training. The owners of the restaurant are supportive of John in his food safety efforts because they know if a food safety outbreak were ever linked to their restaurant; it would likely put them out of business. Still, the owners note there are additional costs for training and making sure food is handled safely.

One day John comes to work and is rather upset even before he steps into the restaurant. Things haven’t been going well at home and he was lucky to rummage through some of the dirty laundry and find a relatively clean outfit to wear for work. He admits he needs a haircut and a good hand scrubbing, especially after working on his car last evening. When he walks into the kitchen he notices several trays of uncooked meat sitting out in the kitchen area. It appears these have been sitting at room temperature for quite some time. John is frustrated and doesn’t know what to do. He feels like he is beating his head against a brick wall when it comes to getting employees to practice food safety. He has taken many efforts to get employees to be safe in how they handle food. He has huge signs posted all over the kitchen with these words: KEEP HOT FOOD HOT AND COLD FOOD COLD and WASH YOUR HANDS ALWAYS AND OFTEN. All employees are given a thermometer when they start so that they can temp food. Hand sinks, soap, and paper towels are available for employees so that they are encouraged to wash their hands frequently.

Questions:

1. What are the communication challenges and barriers John is facing? Suggest solutions.

2. What are some ways John could use effective communication as a motivator for employees to follow safe food handling practices?

CASE STUDY - 2

Monsooned Rebecca works with United Technologies, a Chicago based company. She is talking on the phone to Anubhav, the manager of one of United Technologies vendors for customer service outsourcing.

Rebecca: We really need to get all of the customer service representatives trained on our new process in the next two weeks. Can you get this done?

Anubhav: That timeline is pretty aggressive. Do you think it’s possible?

Rebecca: I think it will require some creativity and hard work, but I think we can get it done with two or three days to spare.

Anubhav: Ok.

Rebecca: Now that our business is settled, how is everything else?

Anubhav: All’s well, although the heavy monsoons this year are causing a lot of delays getting around the city.

Two weeks later…

Anubhav: We’ve pulled all of our resources and I’m happy to say that 60% of the customer service representatives are now trained in the new process. The remaining 40% will complete the training in the next two weeks.

Rebecca: Only 60%? I thought we agreed that they all would be trained by now!

Anubhav: Yes. The monsoon is now over so the rest of the training should go quickly.

Rebecca: This training is critical to our results. Please get it done as soon as possible.

Anubhav: I am certain that it will be done in the next two weeks.

Questions

1. Did Anubhav agree to the initial timeline requested by Rebecca? Explain

2. What might Rebecca be thinking about Anubhav? What might Anubhav be thinking about Rebecca? How will this incident affect their future interactions?