ENGLISH-II

Assignment 1
Due Date and Time: March 17, 2021; 11:59 PM
Total Marks: 25 Obtained Marks:

Read the case study and answer the questions given at the end. Every question carries 5
marks and each answer should be within the word limit of 350-500 words.
Ahmer has been working at ComfyZone, a furniture company, as a marketing manager for two
years. Having joined as an intern in the marketing department, Ahmer was quickly able to climb
up the ladder and get to the position of Marketing Manager in two years’ time. He is a hard working
employee who has the required leadership and teamwork skills as well as the technical expertise
required to perform well at his job.
Recently, Ahmer has had a groundbreaking breakthrough in a project overtaken by ComfyZone.
They have been able to sign a partnership deal with Maiden Home, a very well-known and big
name in the furniture market. ComfyZone has been trying to sign this deal for more than eight
months but had little success.
Sarfraz, the Director and CEO of ComfyZone, arranged a meeting with Ahmer to comgratulate him
on the recent success and inquire about what Ahmer did differently than the other teams sent out
to Maiden Home in order to get them to agree to the partnership.
When Ahmer is conveyed the meeting details stated above, he becomes anxious and worried as he
cannot decide what to say to Sarfraz. The truth was that Ahmer had signed a private deal with
Maiden Home, wherein they would be able to acquire 80% of ComfyZone’s stocks after a year of
working together as partners. He knew that ComfyZone had experienced multiple failures in
getting Maiden Home to sign the partnership deal. If he was able to achieve success on this task,
he would be praised and hailed as a wonder employee in the company. He could even get promoted
or get a bonus.
However, on his initial meeting with the Maiden Home executives, his offer was rejected point
black without any room for discussion. Maiden Home did not want to sign a deal for another project
with another company as they did not see the value in it. Following this, he arranged an informal
meeting with one of the marketing team employees at Maiden Home, and asked him for inside
information and strategies that might work in finalizing the partnership deal. The discussion helped
him make a decision: he bribed ComfyZone’s legal team manager and had him draft a contract
wherein 80% of the company’s profit would go to Maiden Home starting from the first month of
the product launch. Flash forward a few days, and Ahmer was able to finalize the deal between
ComfyZone and Maiden Home.
Of course, Ahmer cannot admit all of this to Sarfraz, and he becomes extremely anxious while
thinking about what to do. During the meeting, Ahmer talks highly about his team (consisting of
six members), highlighting how their junior most team member Ali had been tasked with
conducting an extensive and intensive research on Maiden Home, including all of their past deals
and contracts with other companies, their recently completed and currently ongoing projects, and
their preferences for the kinds of companies and people they sign deals with. Ali was able to
provide intensive guidance to the team about how they should draft and organize the partnership
contract as well as the proposal presentation that they will present in front of the Maiden Home
executives. Following that, Meshal, incharge of designing the presentation slides and handouts, is
able to create an engaging and dynamic slide set that highlights all the important points of the
proposal while ensuring audience interest and attention. The speech itself was finalized through
the efforts of Zeeshan, Junaid and Sajid.
The next day, Sarfraz calls for a marketing department meeting and announces that Ali has been
promoted to the position of Assistant Marketing Manager as a reward for his exceptional role in
finalizing the partnership deal with Maiden Home and will be working directly under Ahmer as
the co-leader of the marketing team.
Upon receiving this news, the marketing team is in a state of confusion. As per their awareness,
Ahmer had not included them in any of the plans for the partnership deal after the initial failure
when they had gotten a straight no from the Maiden Home executives. Ali feels especially
befuddled to receive a reward for something he had no part in doing. Being an honest and fair
employee, it doesn’t sit right with him and he arranges a meeting with Sarfraz. He knows his boss
is very friendly and open with his employees and has an open door policy for their concerns.
Therefore, he finds it very easy to talk to Sarfraz about this recent case and let him know that the
marketing team had no part in the partnership deal finalization. “The promotion”, says Ali, “is not
something I earned and therefore I do not feel comfortable accepting a reward I know I do not
deserve”.
Sarfraz, perplexed and confused, calls up his personal secretary, and asks him to investigate the
case and find out the truth. Eventually, the truth is revealed, and a figurative hell breaks loose in
the ComfyZone company. Ahmer is fired, and blacklisted from the industry altogether, the legal
team leader is also fired, the contract deal has been revoked, and ComfyZone has to pay the
cancellation fee. The next year is the hardest for ComfyZone, as the company falls down the
economic ladder due to the heavy financial lose suffered as a result of the partnership deal
cancellation. Moreover, the company reputation suffers an immense damage.
Questions:
1. To your knowledge, what ethical principles of communication are being fluked or upheld
in the given scenario?
2. If you were in Ahmer’s shoes, at what point would your course of action be different than
what Ahmer did? Give reasons.
3. Can you identify any communication barriers in the given case study? If yes, list them
and give reference to where they make an appearance in the text. If no, explain the
reasons for the communication breakdown if there are no barriers, and justify your
answer with examples from the text.
4. Between Ahmer and Ali, who do you think is right in terms of ensuring the company’s
success, remaining objective in making decisions, and maintaining professionalism?
5. Evaluate Sarfraz and Ahmer as team leaders.