National Institute of Business Management

Chennai - 020
SECOND SEMESTER EMBA/MBA
Subject : Business English

Question No. 1- Explain the principles of effective communication or guidelines to

overcome barriers to Communication.
Answer - In almost any career or area of business, written communication is a key to
success. Effective writing can prevent wasted time, wasted effort, aggravation, and
frustration. The way we communicate with others both inside of our business and on the
outside goes a long way toward shaping the organizations image. If people feel they are
listened to and able to get answers from the firm and its representatives, their opinion will be
favorable. Skillful writing and an understanding of how people respond to words are central
to accomplishing this goal.
How do we display skillful writing and a good understanding of how people respond to
words? Following are some suggestions.
Do Sweat the Small Stuff
Let us begin with a college students e-mail to a professor:
i am confused as to why they are not due intil 11/10 i mean the calender said that they was
due then so thats i did them do i still get credit for them or do i need to due them over on one
tape? please let me know thanks. also when are you grading the stuff that we have done?
Whats wrong with this e-mail? What do you observe that may act as a barrier to
communication? Lets start with the lack of formality, including the fact that the student
neglected to tell the professor his or her name, or which specific class the question referred
to. Then there is the lack of adherence to basic vocabulary and syntax rules. And how about
the lower case is and the misspellings?
One significant barrier to effective written communication is failure to sweat the small stuff.
Spelling errors and incorrect grammar may be considered details, but they reflect poorly on
you and, in a business context, on your company. They imply either that you are not
educated enough to know youve made mistakes or that you are too careless to bother
correcting them. Making errors is human, but making a habit of producing error-filled
written documents makes negative consequences far more likely to occur. When you write,
you have a responsibility to self-edit and pay attention to detail. In the long run, correcting
your mistakes before others see them will take less time and effort than trying to make up for
mistakes after the fact.
Get the Target Meaning
How would you interpret this message?
You must not let inventory build up. You must monitor carrying costs and keep them under
control. Ship any job lots of more than 25 to us at once.
Bypassing involves the misunderstanding that occurs when the receiver completely misses
the sources intended meaning. Words mean different things to different people in different
contexts. All that difference allows for both source and receiver to completely miss one
anothers intended goal.
Did you understand the message in the example? Lets find out. Jerry Sullivan, in his
article Bypassing in Managerial Communication, [1] relates the story of Mr. Sato, a manager
from Japan who is new to the United States. The message came from his superiors at

Kumitomo America, a firm involved with printing machinery for the publishing business in
Japan. Mr. Sato delegated the instructions (in English as shown above) to Ms. Brady, who
quickly identified there were three lots in excess of twenty-five and arranged for prompt
shipment.
Consider the Nonverbal Aspects of Your Message
Lets return to the example at the beginning of this section of an e-mail from a student to an
instructor. As we noted, the student neglected to identify himself or herself and tell the
instructor which class the question referred to. Format is important, including headers,
contact information, and an informative subject line.
This is just one example of how the nonverbal aspects of a message can get in the way of
understanding. Other nonverbal expressions in your writing may include symbols, design,
font, and the timing of delivering your message.
Suppose your supervisor has asked you to write to a group of clients announcing a new
service or product that directly relates to a service or product that these clients have used
over the years. What kind of communication will your document be? Will it be sent as an email or will it be a formal letter printed on quality paper and sent by postal mail? Or will it
be a tweet, or a targeted online ad that pops up when these particular clients access your
companys Web site? Each of these choices involves an aspect of written communication that
is nonverbal. While the words may communicate a formal tone, the font may not. The paper
chosen to represent your company influences the perception of it. An e-mail may indicate
that it is less than formal and be easily deleted.
Review, Reflect, and Revise
Do you review what you write? Do you reflect on whether it serves its purpose? Where does
it miss the mark? If you can recognize it, then you have the opportunity to revise.
Writers are often under deadlines, and that can mean a rush job where not every last detail is
reviewed. This means more mistakes, and there is always time to do it right the second time.
Rather than go through the experience of seeing all the mistakes in your final product and
rushing off to the next job, you may need to focus more on the task at hand and get it done
correctly the first time. Go over each step in detail as you review.
Question No. 2 - Explain the common barriers of Communication.
Answer - Most people would agree that communication between two individuals should be
simple. Its important to remember that there are differences between talking and
communicating. When you communicate, you are successful in getting your point across to
the person youre talking to. When we talk, we tend to erect barriers that hinder our ability to
communicate. There are seven of these types of barriers to effective communication.
1. Physical barriers are easy to spot doors that are closed, walls that are erected, and
distance between people all work against the goal of effective communication. While most
agree that people need their own personal areas in the workplace, setting up an office to
remove physical barriers is the first step towards opening communication. Many
professionals who work in industries that thrive on collaborative communication, such as
architecture, purposefully design their workspaces around an open office plan. This layout
eschews cubicles in favor of desks grouped around a central meeting space. While each
individual has their own dedicated work space, there are no visible barriers to prevent
collaboration with their co-workers. This encourages greater openness and frequently creates
closer working bonds.

2. Perceptual barriers, in contrast, are internal. If you go into a situation thinking that the
person you are talking to isnt going to understand or be interested in what you have to say,
you may end up subconsciously sabotaging your effort to make your point. You will employ
language that is sarcastic, dismissive, or even obtuse, thereby alienating your conversational
partner. Think of movie scenarios in which someone yells clipped phrases at a person they
believe is deaf. The person yelling ends up looking ridiculous while failing to communicate
anything of substance.
3. Emotional barriers can be tough to overcome, but are important to put aside to engage in
conversations. We are often taught to fear the words coming out of our own mouths, as in the
phrase anything you say can and will be used against you. Overcoming this fear is
difficult, but necessary. The trick is to have full confidence in what you are saying and your
qualifications in saying it. People often pick up on insecurity. By believing in yourself and
what you have to say, you will be able to communicate clearly without becoming overly
involved in your emotions.
4. Cultural barriers are a result of living in an ever shrinking world. Different cultures,
whether they be a societal culture of a race or simply the work culture of a company, can
hinder developed communication if two different cultures clash. In these cases, it is
important to find a common ground to work from. In work situations, identifying a problem
and coming up with a highly efficient way to solve it can quickly topple any cultural or
institutional barriers. Quite simply, people like results.
5. Language barriers seem pretty self-inherent, but there are often hidden language barriers
that we arent always aware of. If you work in an industry that is heavy in jargon or technical
language, care should be taken to avoid these words when speaking with someone from
outside the industry. Without being patronizing, imagine explaining a situation in your
industry to a child. How would you convey these concepts without relying on jargon? A
clear, direct narrative is preferable to an incomprehensible slew of specialty terms.
6. Gender barriers have become less of an issue in recent years, but there is still the
possibility for a man to misconstrue the words of a woman, or vice versa. Men and women
tend to form their thoughts differently, and this must be taken into account when
communicating. This difference has to do with how the brain of each sex is formed during
gestation. In general, men are better at spatial visualization and abstract concepts such as
math, while women excel at language-based thinking and emotional identification. However,
successful professionals in highly competitive fields tend to have similar thought processes
regardless of their gender.
7. Interpersonal barriers are what ultimately keep us from reaching out to each other and
opening ourselves up, not just to be heard, but to hear others. Oddly enough, this can be the
most difficult area to change. Some people spend their entire lives attempting to overcome a
poor self-image or a series of deeply rooted prejudices about their place in the world. They
are unable to form genuine connections with people because they have too many false
perceptions blocking the way. Luckily, the cure for this is more communication. By engaging
with others, we learn what our actual strengths and weaknesses are. This allows us to put
forth our ideas in a clear, straightforward manner.
Communication is not a one-way street. To have others open up to you, you must be open
yourself. By overcoming these barriers to communication, you can ensure that the statement
you are making is not just heard, but also understood, by the person you are speaking with.
In this way, you can be confident that your point has been expressed.

Question No. 3- Describe the steps for effective writing.

Answer - Written documents are how professionals convey their ideas to the peers, clients,
and bosses. This means that professionals need to be skilled writers if they want to get ahead.
(Heres more on why writing is a critical skill for professionals today).
Unfortunately, I often find that even the smartest, most talented professionals lack the
requisite writing skills. Here are my three most important lessons for getting better at
business writing:
1. Plan ahead by writing an outline
Creating outlines can help you ease the intense mental burden of the writing process. While
you write, you have to (1) organize your ideas into a coherent structure, (2) translate your
ideas into words and sentences, and (3) re-evaluate whether each new sentence conforms to
what youve already written. If you try to do all three steps at the same time, youll get stuck.
A better strategy is to separate these steps of the writing process, as much as possible. That
lets your brain focus on one thing at a time, instead of having to juggle many different tasks.
You can accomplish the first step of the writing processorganizing your ideas into a
coherent structureby creating an outline before you actually start writing. Write down your
key points and think about how they go together. Which points, or counterpoints, follow
from your main arguments?
Although the step of creating an outline takes time, youll make up for it when you sit down
to actually write. Thats what Professor Ronald Kellogg, an expert on the science of the
writing process, found in his experiment. Professor Kellogg randomly assigned students into
two groups, one that was told to outline for up to 10 minutes before writing, and another
group that was told not to outline at all. Both groups wrote the same number of words per
minuteeven taking into account the time spent outlining. Independent scorers found that
the outline group tended to write better papers.
2. Dont try to write a perfect first draft
A lot of people get hung up trying to perfect the wording of every sentence before moving
onto the next one. In other words, they try to write and revise at the same timecreating a
very high mental workload.
Instead, you should be willing to write a very rough first draft. Try to capture the gist of your
ideas, without worrying too much about whether youre saying it in the best possible way.
After writing a draft (of the entire document, or at least a significant chunk of it), you can
come back and revise your original sentences.
Better yet, take a break after writing before coming back to analyze your wording. Go for a
walk, or do some of that mindless busy-work that youve been putting off. After a mental
break, youll be able to approach your draft with a fresh mind, which will help you come up
with the new ideas that you need.
3. Structure your writing for skimmers
If youre writing a lengthy document (more than a page or two), you should write in a style
that makes it easy for time-sensitive readers to find the information that they need. These
skimmers might be looking to pick up the main ideas, a specific example, or something
else related to their own purpose for reading your document.
That means including an executive summary and/or a clear introduction that summarizes the
main points of your document. Similarly, your conclusion should provide the key takeaways
without just summarizing what youve already written. In addition, you should make use
of subtitles and headings to direct your readers to the sections most relevant to them.

Finally, organize each paragraph to make it easy for skimmers: start each one with a topic
sentence that conveys what the paragraph will say. A skimmer should be able to understand
the line of argument (or main points) of your document by reading only your topic sentences.
If you follow these three steps, you will write faster and more effectively helping you
become a more productive professional.
Question No. 4-Describe the pressure of writing performance reviews?
Answer -No matter how frequently (or infrequently) they occur, performance evaluations are
nerve-wracking for both employees and their managers. A worker may not be thrilled about
being scrutinized by the boss. Meanwhile, managers face a lot of pressure to present both the
positives and negatives of their employees' work and behavior in a respectful, professional
manner. When managers need to review serious problems, evaluations can be especially
stressful.
As a manager, giving your staff constructive feedback is a crucial part of ensuring that your
organization operates smoothly. Performance reviews give you the opportunity to praise
employees for what they've done well, correct what they're doing wrong and discuss your
vision for their growth and future at the company. But too often, bosses struggle to
effectively communicate their thoughts in a way that doesn't overwhelm the employee during
the review.
BusinessNewsDaily spoke with human resources administrators, managers and executives,
and based on their responses, we've compiled a list of the best tips for writing and
conducting an effective performance review
Make it comprehensive
An effective performance review covers all the bases concerning an employee's work. It
shouldn't be all positive or all negative; a healthy balance of both is necessary to help your
staff members evolve in their roles.
"A formal evaluation needs to have a few key components," said Don McIver, COO of 5W
Public Relations. "The feedback should be relevant and specific, with examples for both the
good and bad points. Employee strengths should be acknowledged, and corrective action
needed in weak performance areas should be identified."
In addition to highlighting strengths and weaknesses, a review should establish performance
goals for the upcoming year, and discuss the employee's role as part of a collaborative team.
Bill Peppler, managing partner of staffing firm Kavaliro, also advised providing employees
with a formal objective of the evaluation beforehand.
"A good manager will explain the purpose of the review, what they will go over and how
frequently performance reviews are given," Peppler said. "This manages employee
expectations and helps everyone involved be more fully prepared for the meeting."
Recap regular, informal feedback
Employees' annual or biannual evaluations should not be the only time they
receive feedback about their performance. While there's no need to call a meeting for every
individual issue that comes up, there shouldn't be any surprises when workers read their
reviews from the boss.
"Employee feedback should not wait for an annual review, but [should] be given throughout
the year as performance issues, good or bad, arise," McIver told BusinessNewsDaily. "A
formal evaluation is ideally a recap of things that have been addressed during the year."
When there is a problem with an employee's habits or actions, address it as soon as possible
after the incident occurs to avoid bringing that tension into the evaluation. If an employee's

behavior (positive or negative) doesn't warrant immediate feedback, make a note of it and
use it as a reference point during a formal or informal performance discussion.
Give honest, constructive criticism
It's never easy to tell an employee what he or she needs to improve, but giving constructive
criticism about your workers' performance is an important part of the review process. Be as
clear and direct as possible about any shortcomings and mistakes, but also take the time to
provide solutions to those problems.
"Fully explain what the issue is, and then expand on options for improvement," Peppler
suggested. "If you see a problem in an employee's work, then he or she should have a
solution to how it can be fixed. Also, let employees know where this improvement can take
them, such as a promotion to a management role."
If suggested improvements are related to reaching a professional goal, be sure to let
employees know what you plan to do as a manager to help them achieve that goal.
Encourage discussion about the review
Most managers agree that it's frustrating when an employee has nothing to say in response to
his or her performance evaluation. You don't want your staff to fight you on every point, but
you also don't want to be met with silence if you have suggestions. Push your employees to
give you feedback on the issues you raised. The written review should be a brief but direct
overview of discussion points, making for a more nuanced face-to-face conversation; this
calls for employee feedback.
If the conversation starts to get heated and you want to avoid saying something that you
might regret, you can try diffusing the tension with humor. You can then continue a more
serious discussion later via email or in another meeting, after the employee has had a chance
to cool down.
End on a positive note
Always end performance reviews on a positive note. Regardless of what else was discussed
during the evaluation, encouraging your employees and letting them know you appreciate
what they do for the company will give an added boost to a primarily good review, or lift
their spirits after a somewhat negative evaluation. Positive phraseology and reinforcement
can go a long way in giving workers the confidence and drive they need to perform their jobs
even better.