NEPAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Management and Law

Office of the Dean Mid-Semester Examination
2075 (2018)

Semester: I Time: 4Hours Exam starts – 6.00 PM – Ends at 10 PM

Subject: Managerial Communication (MG-COM 203/ English)
Attempt all questions. The figures indicate the full marks.

Group A [1x 25= 25]

1. What is the IMPACT paradigm of strategic communications? Study the following case
about a difficult situation in a workplace conversation. How would Jeena, an employee,
initiate a difficult conversation with her boss, Dave, in this context as per the principles
of intending, messaging, attending to each other, connecting and together? Provide a
sample of conversation between Jeena and Dave at each stage.

Jeena, 28 year old assistant, works in Research and Development Department of a mega
business consultancy firm. Her major responsibilities include communicating with the line
supervisors, collecting their reports on a day-to-day basis and to report to the boss about progress
and issues of the firm. Jeena has to work in the office from Monday to Friday, from 9.00 A.M. to
5.00 P.M. Occasionally she has to travel to visit clients or business associates.
Jeena was an acquaintance of her boss, Dave since both of them worked together in a local
government office for two years 10 years back. When Dave started the consultancy firm, he recruited
Jeena because he valued her intelligence and work ethic. They had a great rapport, too. In the firm,
they worked for six years without any problem- Dave was supportive to Jeena; she took all
responsibility with enthusiasm, and had a strong personal commitment for result and success. The
firm also supported her for pursuing her higher education and training. She got a promotion as well.
From early this year, the firm started experiencing a serious business recession. Some
employees had to be given a lay- off as well. Now, the opinions and reports of the line supervisors
needed to be scrutinized seriously. Under enormous stress, Dave asked Jeena to take another role of
reviewing reports of the supervisors and evaluate their consistency or pitfalls. Jeena took up the
added responsibility for two full months- she worked with equal loyalty and commitment. Although
it was an enormous workload, she struggled to make a balance between success and personal stress
as well. But eventually, she felt it was unsustainable and concluded that she had to talk to the boss
to settle the issue of her extreme workload.

IMPACT principles focus on essentials of communication that are interrelated, effectively

integrated and combine together to form an organized whole. The steps of IMPACT paradigm of
strategic communications are:

• Intending
• Messaging
• Presence
• Attending
 • Connecting
• Together

IMPACT is a whole system- that all components of communication are equally important; as
an organism

• Intending:
• Think about the results of communication
• Direct all actions towards attaining the outcomes
• Involve both mind and body
• Messaging:
• Convey thoughts and feelings in multiple modes- verbal and non- verbal
• All parts combine to give congruence of the message
• Presence:
• Communication exist between our brain and body
• Interaction of brain and body
• Different networking in the brain and body affect how we show up physically and
vocally in a given situation
• Attending:
• A meeting of live systems- ours and others
• Making a connection with life
• Connecting
• Keep the dynamism between the communicators- speaker and listener
• Backgrounds and mindsets are important
• Together:
• Conversation as a process of meaning making, creating meaning and agreeing on
goals and actions
• Communicators think together, learn together and reflect together; together we
agree on thinking and actions

Intending:
As Jeena has been working really hard since the past 10 years. She is hard working, dedicated but
recently she is overloaded with work. She is not being able to handle this pressure, she is going to
lose herself if she doesn’t talk to her boss. As the boss known Jeena and is impressed by her work
she wishes that may be her boss will understand her situation. If she puts this in a very
understanding manner, may be her boss will understand her situation. As Jeena is going to talk
about a sensitive issue, she doesn’t want to upset her boss by coming direct. She checks the mood
of her boss, waits for everyone to come out of his room and ask for the permission to enter the
room.

Messaging:
Jeena: Good morning, Sir. Do you have some time, I have something important to discuss with
you. {Politely, with lowered tone, patience, serious}

Dave: Yes go on.

Jeena: I am really grateful for all the opportunity I have received in this organization. You have
always helped me and encouraged me to better. I have always worked hard and never given you
chance for any complaints.

Dave: Are you here to talk about all this?

Jeena: Actually, I am trying my best, but I am not being able to complete this report. I know you
are in pressure and you have given me this task because you trust me and I have been working
really hard for the past 2 months but this doesn’t seems to be working. This is not sustainable.

Presence, attending and connecting

Dave looks at the report and listens carefully at what Jeena has to say.

Dave: I gave you this because only because I did not have time to review it. These reports needs
to be reviewed as soon as possible. The opinions and reports of the line supervisors needed to be
scrutinized seriously.

Jeena Listens to her boss carefully and responds

Together

After listening to her boss carefully Jeena understands his problem and start thinking about
solution. Her boss is also now aware of her problems. The understand eachothers problem and
thinks about a solution.

Jeena: Once you look at the reports, and suggest me the problematic one, I can sit down with the
team members and train them how to improve.

Dave: I will look at some of this, guide you and you can take help of Mr. Shrestha and Miss. Lama.
You can train them and ask them to help you.

They come to a conclusion. Jeena feels relieved.

Group B (2x12.5= 25)

2. Imagine that your organization has a visible team conflict. This has caused a serious setback in
your company’s productivity. In this context, the Board of Directors has asked you to investigate
the case and come up with the following:
a. The problem, its causes and effects\
b. Options available with the company to solve the problem
c. The best option for implementation
d. A plan of action
Now, write a letter to the Board of Directors of your company reporting the findings of your
study and recommendations in line with your assignment.
December 26, 2018

To,
The President
Board of Director
X & X Company

Subject: Regarding the team conflict issue

Dear Sir,

As per the meeting held on 10th December, 2018, I was assigned to investigation on the issue of conflicts
between the staff in our company which is hampering our productivity. After detail study, interaction
with the staffs and investigation, I have come up with following conclusions.

The major problems that we are facing are:

1) Unbalanced work distribution: As the work load is not distributed properly, some of the
staffs are overloaded with works and deadlines feeling frustrated whereas some of them are
feeling left out due to lack of responsibility.
2) Overlapping Authority: As the hierarchy is not properly defined, staffs are confused about
who they are supposed to work under. Some of the staff thinks that they are superior to
others and are dominating other staffs creating conflicts.
3) Undefined goals: As the staffs are not properly oriented about the exact goal of the
company they seem to be confused.
4) Some of the conflicts are arising as there is not sufficient resources. For example, the
account department has only 2 computers but 4 staffs, they have to share same computer
to do their work, so they are having conflicts and problems with each other.
5) There was high level of communication gap between the staff which is the major cause of all
these conflicts.

These things are creating more and more misunderstandings between staffs, they are having ego
clashes and they don’t seem to trust each other anymore.

There are many ways in which we can help to reduce conflicts between them. There are many conflict
resolving training, team building, communication skill courses available. We can send them to those
courses. We need to organize regular meetings, to motivate and orient the staffs and to take regular
updates of the progress. Different seminars, programs and team building activities should be regularly
organized. Workloads need to be equally distributed.

I think regular meeting and trainings is the best solution

.
 Action Plan
 Regular meeting every Sunday Morning
 Team building training ( Group A) – January 26th, 2019
 Team building training ( Group B) –February 12th , 2019
 Picnic once a year
 Communication skill training – May 28th, 2019
 Conflict resolving training – August 27th, 2019
 Proper hierarchy

The main problem is lack of proper communication. If we can improve the communication between the
staffs using some of the above suggested strategies, the conflicts will reduce and we can get more
productivity.

…………………….

Sincerely
Sambriddhi Shrestha
Manager
X and X company
 3. Your CEO is interested in using sponsorship as a way of promoting your company and its
products. He has asked you to make a recommendation about how this can be done. He would be
interested in sponsoring either an arts or a sports event. Write a proposal for the CEO including
the following information:
a. the type of activities which might be suitable
b. the benefits of this type of sponsorship for your company
c. the costs involved
d. your recommendation

Proposal for the sponsorship

Introduction:

XYZ Company Pvt. Ltd has been producing energy drinks since 1980. As it is used by sports
player, I would like to suggest you to organize a sports competition, a football match. The
national level football match is going to be organized on the end of March. If we can sponsor this
event there will be a lot of participants, in this way we can increase our costumer.

Cost involved:

Cost involved will also not be high. The detail cost estimate of the program is given below:

S.N. Description Rate Quantity Amount

1 Jersey with the advertisement 1000 17 17000

of xyz company

2 Food 200 100 20000

3 Xyz energy Drink 100 500 50000

4 Banner 2000 1 2000

89000/-

The total cost will be around 1 lakh. For a single match. This can be really effective. So I would like to
suggest you to sponsor this program.
 Group C [16x1.5= 25]

4. Read the following extracts and chose the best alternatives for the questions that follow
each extract.

Extract 1
Besides playing a major role in most individuals' personal lives, technology plays a major role in
most businesspersons' professional lives, as it's convenient, reliable, and efficient. From text messaging to
emailing and scanning files to Skyping, high-tech practices are common in companies.
To benefit as much as possible from these practices, businesspersons must craft and send
professional business emails, or emails that serve an official, company-related purpose and are
appropriately written. Professional business emails are appreciated by coworkers, customers, and potential
clients alike.
Professional general emails are carefully worded and concise messages about any company subject.
For example, one can send a professional general email to a coworker in regards to supply information, to
a customer in regards to purchase needs, and so on and so forth. It's important that professional general
emails be attentively worded and as brief as possible, to help receivers digest the enclosed information and
requests.
Professional response emails are courteous and useful messages sent to a person or organization
that sent an initial message. For example, a business manager who's asked about his company's outlook in
an email would send a professional response email to address the sender's questions and concerns. This
type of email should provide answers and data that are useful to the recipients, based upon what he or she
stated initially.
Perhaps the most considerable difficulty in sending professional business emails is remaining calm
and official. For example, it might be tempting to send an angry email in response to a customer complaint,
but doing so would negatively impact one's company, reputation, and performance. Instead, one should
form an email response that is collected, helpful, and useful.
The short-term benefits of sending professional business emails are enhanced productivity, optimal
cooperation, and a minimal amount of wasted resources. In the long-term, however, someone who
consistently sends professional business emails will likely develop a professional reputation.
Questions
A. What are professional business emails?
a. Fun emails exchanged between friends
b. Text messages sent during work
c. Emails that serve an official, company-related purpose and are appropriately written
d. Emails sent in response to other emails
B. What are professional general emails?
a. Unimportant emails sent by a company's president
b. Emails send to a company's stockholders
c. Carefully worded and concise messages about any company subject
d. None of the above
C. What are professional response emails?
a. Emails sent to ask a question
b. Emails sent for an official, company-related purpose
c. Courteous and useful messages sent to a person or organization that sent an initial message
d. b and c
D. How should professional response emails be composed?
a. Calmly and professionally
b. Angrily
c. Without consideration for the recipient's concerns
 d. As unprofessionally as possible
E. What are the benefits of sending professional business emails?
a. Improved relationships
b. Effective communication
c. Saved money
d. All of the above

Extract 2
Customers might not think about competition when they’re walking through the grocery store or
making an online purchase, but it happens to be a cornerstone of business and the free economy that
impacts every single thing that’s bought and sold. Technically, competition consists of the cumulative
force of actions taken by companies that are designed to improve their market standing, sales, and
ultimately, profits. But really, competition is simply what allows businesses to try and get ahead of each
another, and consumers to get the best possible value.
Like many business ideas, competition is best explained through an example. Imagine that a
company opens a profitable retail location and sells bread at an enormous profit. After another company
notices all the profits that are being made through bread sales in this neighborhood, they may open a store
of their own and undercut the competition, or sell similar items or services for lower prices. The first
company may respond by lowering their own prices (so they sell more bread to their former customers,
who’re presumably buying the cheaper bread), and the end result is much cheaper bread for consumers. In
this way, businesses going head-to-head benefits customers.
Reverse competition, or the tendency of some businesses to purchase items that are being sold
below market value (or the price that an item can reasonably be expected to sell for) and reprice them, is
also a business practice that’s worth considering. Imagine that a bread company, to limit the success of
other businesses, sells their bread that’s worth five dollars per loaf elsewhere for one dollar per loaf.
Instead of being pushed out of the market, a competing business could recognize the discrepancy between
the bread’s value and its sale price, and then proceed to purchase all the first company’s bread for one
dollar and resell it for two dollars with their own label.
The effects of not having competition, in a particular professional sphere or entire economies, are
devastating to consumers and the wellbeing of citizens generally. Consider the example of railroad
companies in Europe and America a couple centuries back that owned a multitude of tracks and land;
essentially no other companies existed to create competition (because the major railroad companies
bought all the land and kept others from doing so), and they were able to charge whatever high prices they
wanted. This described scenario is an example of a monopoly, or a situation when one company has
complete control over an industry and its prices due to a lack of competition.
Lastly, an oligopoly is a style of competition wherein businesses are small in number and
coordinate with each other to raise prices—thus making goods and services more expensive for
consumers. Modern-day examples of oligopolies are satellite television and internet services, which,
although they cost companies very little to provide, are billed to consumers for sizable sums. Thus,
something of a general understanding has been reached by leading internet and television companies, as
they would make far less money if they competed rigorously.
Questions
F. What is competition in business?
a. An annual physical competition between company executives
b. Steps taken by companies to enlarge their profits and success by taking business away from
others
c. One of the most important business elements, and one that’s responsible for drastically
reducing prices
d. b and c
G. What is reverse competition in business?
a. The process of giving products away for free, to improve brand recognition
 b. The process of undercutting companies that are selling products for less than the market value
c. The process of helping another business improve their profits
d. Nobody is quite sure
H. What are some of the effects of a monopoly?
a. Little-to-no competition
b. Increased prices
c. Massive profits at the expense of consumers
d. All of the above
I. What is an oligopoly?
a. A business phenomenon characterized by one company ruling a market with little to no
competition
b. A business phenomenon characterized by a group of companies limiting their competition to
keep prices high
c. A business phenomenon characterized by full competition
d. A business phenomenon characterized by artificially low prices
J. How do consumers benefit from competition?
a. By enjoying lower prices
b. By being able to choose from optimized products
c. By being able to enter the business world themselves, if an opportunity arises
d. All of the above

Extract 3
1. Every organisation has its share of employees-from-hell: the lazy, deluded, hypochondriac under-
performers. They are difficult to manage and miserable to work with. Their productivity is low and
their ability to poison staff morale high. They are, alas, always well-entrenched and management-
resistant. Interestingly, their numbers in any organisation have more to do with management’s
refusal to deal with the situation than with poor selection. That is, their existence in the organisation
is nearly always due to a long line of weak managers who have declined to tackle the problem.
2. Traditionally, there are three classic ineffective ways of dealing with the incompetent. The first is
to ignore the problem, hoping that it will go away. Rather than confront laziness or serious
absenteeism, the manager gives the employee less work to do. This inevitably leads to frustration
on the part of the good hardworking staff who see the problem employee getting away with it.
3. The second approach, which has traditionally been the most favoured, is to pass them on. There is
usually a part of any business where people believe the poor performer can do no damage.
Alternatively, poor performers can be moved to another branch in the dreariest part of town, or to
another town, or even to another country. A clever variant of this tactic is to herd all the incompetent
employees into one part of the company that is then sold off or privatised.
4. There is a third approach which is to promote the incompetent. This sounds bizarre and exceedingly
stupid but is not infrequently adopted. The idea is that, although these posts are quite senior and
well-paid, the actual jobs are fairly pointless ones in which incompetent people can hide without
doing any serious damage. The employee is thus confirmed in his or her delusions of competence.
5. All three of these strategies are the result of not dealing with the problem early on. Many managers
find dealing with incompetence very difficult. The scenario that all managers hate is as follows:
show a subordinate a low mark on their appraisal form. The employee first wants the behaviour
defined; then wants an example of when this behaviour occurred; then argues about how this
incident occurred and how typical it was. The net result is a row about the past and frustration on
the part of both.
6. A different and more successful method is the problem-solving approach. This insists that one still
shows the low score but, rather than attempting to explain it, one describes what needs to be done
differently to achieve a higher score. The emphasis is on the future not the past; on a clear
 description of the desirable behaviour, not the incompetent behaviour. The touchy or sensitive
employee normally responds to this reasonably well. Nevertheless, there are those who cannot, or
will not, respond to good management. They may be unable to do the job due to not having the
ability to learn ever-changing tasks fast enough. They may be distracted by problems at home or
more likely they have been managed very poorly in the past.
7. There is really only a very limited number of things that can be done with the really incompetent.
Buy them out, which may be the best solution for all concerned; raise the game by making sure
they are given ever higher but reachable targets. A final strategy is to insist that they have an annual
psychological test where a disinterested outside consultant does a motivation analysis and has the
power to recommend that they be let go – not encouraged to go to another part of the organisation,
but into the bracing waters of the job market.
Questions
K. What criticism does the writer make of managers in the first paragraph?
a. They lose interest in the issue of incompetent employees.
b. They fail to take a firm line with inefficient employees.
c. They have little idea of what is really required of their staff.
d. They often make bad decisions when choosing new staff.

L. What is the effect of the first of the methods suggested for dealing with incompetent staff?
a. It has only a short-term effect on the problem.
b. It means that better workers will not have to work so hard.
c. It makes good workers aware that problems are being dealt with.
d. It sends a negative message to those who do their job well.
M. In both the second and third ineffective methods of dealing with incompetent employees, the
managers’ aim is to:
a. have all of the incompetent staff working in the same part of the company.
b. improve the attitude of the incompetent staff to work by giving them promotion.
c. put the incompetent staff in a situation where they can do as little harm as possible.
d. make the work so unattractive that the incompetent staff want to leave.

N. The writer says in the fifth paragraph that employees who are given a low mark on their appraisal
form will
a. demand a detailed explanation of what they have done wrong.
b. claim that special circumstances have had an effect on their work.
c. deny that their work has been in any way unsatisfactory.
d. argue that they find the work they have had to do frustrating.

O. In the sixth paragraph the writer says that when talking to an incompetent employee a manager
should:
a. make no reference to the most recent appraisal mark.
b. compare the work of the employee with that of more efficient workers.
c. make clear what will happen if performance does not approve.
d. explain to the employee how he or she can gain a better appraisal mark.

P. What does the writer suggest as a way to deal with incompetent employees who fail to respond
even to a problem-solving approach?
a. Set them targets which it would be impossible to attain.
b. Give them a test designed to identify their strengths.
c. Pay them a sum of money to leave the company.
d. Get an outside consultant to find them another job
 Group D [5x5= 25]

5. Decide whether the following verb forms should be in an ‘infinitive- v/to v’ or a ‘gerund-
v+ ing’ form. Number A has been done for you.

After reaching A (reach) Europe with Columbus in 1502, chocolate rapidly became popular
as a drink that people took B to improve (improve) their health. C Eating (eat) solid
chocolate, however, was unpopular; it was dark and bitter, and manufacturers did not know
how D to mix (mix) it with milk or cream E to make (make) it taste better. The discovery
of milk chocolate was made in 1876 by Daniel Peter in Switzerland. After F trying (try)
unsuccessfully for eight years to mix milk and dark chocolate, Peter began working with
his neighbor, the chemist Henri Nestlé. Nestlé had developed a new product G to feed
(feed) babies; in the process, he had discovered how H to make (make) condensed milk,
which Peter tried instead of I using (use) ordinary milk. The result was an instant success,
and the two men joined forces J to manufacture (manufacture) milk chocolate for a grateful
world.

6. Write the verbs in brackets in the correct forms in the following sentences. One has been
done for you.
A. Do you advertise your products on television? No, if we advertised (advertise) on TV,
I think we will find ( find) our costs too high.
B. We‘ve always maintained good relationships with our customers. If we can’t manage
not manage) to do so, I think we will go ( go) out of business long ago.
C. I’m not sure about CRM.I mean, if we have ( have) a complete database with all our
customers’ details,…….we will be ( be) able to use it efficiently?
D. It’s a pity that, with all his expertise, Don left the company. If he stays (stay), he will
know ( know) how to deal with the present situation.
E. I’ve never had such a terrible boss. If he can be ( be) more polite when he speaks to
me, I wouldn’t mind ( mind) so much, but if I had realized ( realize) he was so rude
when he came, I would have left ( leave) the company months ago.

7. Rewrite the sentences below beginning with the statements that follow and converting the
direct questions into embedded questions. One has been done for you.
A. When will the new factory site become operational? I wonder...............
I wonder when the new factory site will become operational.
B. How long is the construction work expected to take?
Do you have any idea how long will the construction work continue.
C. Why couldn’t the goods have been delivered on time?
Could you please tell me why the goods couldn’t the goods be delivered on time.
D. Do we have to send the invoice with the goods?
Several people have asked me if we have to send the invoice with the goods.
E. What time did you finally finish writing the report?
 Tell me at what time you finished writing the report.
F. When must we have the work completed by?
I’d be grateful if you could tell me when the work must be completed.

8. Match the words/ phrases with their definitions. One has been done for you.
A. bank charges 1. calculation of someone’s ability to pay back money which they
have borrowed
B. bookkeeping 2. amount of money that a bank customer with an account is
temporarily allowed to owe the bank
C. cash 3. amount which is less than the level that was expected or needed
D. credit limit 4. amounts of money that regularly have to be spent
E. credit worthiness 5. money which is immediately available
F. debtor 6. operating business while not having enough money to pay creditors
and employees
G. factoring 7. someone who owes money
H. outgoings 8. sums of money paid by a customer for a bank’s services
I. overdraft 9. system of buying debts for less than they worth and then obtaining
payment for them from the debtors
J. overtrading 10. the job of keeping a record of the money that has been spent or
received by a business
K. shortfall 11. the maximum amount of money a bank will allow you to borrow

A-8 B-10 C-5 D-11 E-1 F-7 G-9 H-4 I-2 J-6 K-3

9. Study the following sentences. Match the sentences beginnings (a-f) with their endings
(1-6). One has been done for you.
A. We have entrepreneurial 1. for example, it doesn’t have a dress code
culture;
B. People in my company are 2. We’re encouraged to look for new business
highly competitive; and take risks.
C. My company is pretty 3. the boss is autocratic, and we do as we’re told
bureaucratic; without question.
D. My company has a supportive 4. there are lots of regulations and ‘correct
culture; procedures’. We’re encouraged to do things
by the book.
E. My company has a controlling 5. We battle each other for promotion and for
culture; bonuses.
F. My company is quiet in 6. When we need them, we’re sent on training
formal; courses. Every employee has a mentor.
A-2

B-5

C-3

D-6
 E-5

F-1

The End