Assignment Cover Sheet

Bachelor of Business (Talented)

Student Name Cao Phương Quỳnh

Student Number 31211024567

Subject Name Business Communication

Lecturer
PETER MICHAEL SARAM

Title of Assignment Learning Portfolio 3

Length 1685 words

Due Date Nov 7, 23:59

Date Submitted Nov 6, 21:07

 Declaration:
 I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged.
 I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work or from
any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment.
 No part of the assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other person except where
collaboration has been authorised by the subject lecturer/tutor concerned
 I am aware that this work may be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for the
purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future plagiarism
checking)

Signature: …………………Cao Phương Quỳnh…………………………………………………….

Note: An examiner or lecturer/tutor has the right not to mark this assignment if the above declaration has not been signed)

1) Compare and contrast between listening and hearing. Why is listening important in the
workplace?
A. Compare and contrast
 Similarites :
The biggest similarity between listening and hearing is that both words use your ears
 Differences:
LISTENING HEARING

Listening is the act of hearing a sound and Hearing is the act of perceving sound and receiving
Defininiton understanding what you hear sound waves or vibrations through your ear

Natural Secondary and Temporary Primary and Continous

Process Active mental process Passive bodily process

Time point Listening starts after hearing Hearing begins before we listen

Function Listening involves decoding or interpretation
of the message
Listening is the best way to gain knowledge,
receive useful information.
Use of senses Listening used different senses, like the sense
of hearing, seeing or sense of touch
Hearing just receive the verbal message
We hear because we neither have full awarness nor
any control over what we hear
Hearing used your ears only. It one of the five
senses

Act Psychological Physiological

Occurs at Conscious levek Subconscious level

Attention and Required Not required

Concentration

Attention and In listening, we pay close attention and put In hearing, we neither pay any close attention nor
Efforts focused mental efforts put any mental efforts

Selection and Focus In listening, we are selective and focus only on In hearing, we are neither selective nor focused at
some wanted sounds and ignore unwanted all.
sounds

Examples I tried to listen but i couldn’t hear anything Speak louder please, I can’t hear you.
I love listening to music in my free time I heard about this story last night
 B. Why is listening important in the workplace?

No matter what profession you are in, from lawyer to consultant to salesman to office worker, listening
skills are always important. Listening not only helps us learn from experience; understanding the
personality, habits, interests, feelings, and emotions of colleagues, customers, and partners also helps us
come up with ideas to solve problems quickly. Especially, for leaders, listening skills will help them
understand their employees, create cohesion and increase work efficiency.
In the workplace, listening is always influential to each individual in a company, such as:

Listening to Customers
 By listening to customers, companies learn objective information about their products and
services, how they relate to the competition, and what customers want.
 When customers perceive a salesperson or company is listening to them, they are more likely to
trust, be more satisfied with, and be more likely to do future business with that salesperson or
company.

Listening to Supervisors
 Effective listening can help you improve your relationship with your boss:
 Listen to understand your supervisors' and their instructions.
 Use that knowledge to guide your general interactions with your supervisors.
 Develop the expertise of your supervisor's values.

Listening to Coworkers
 Businesses depend on strong interpersonal relationships among coworkers. Therefore,
relationship development depends on careful listening to coworkers.
 Explain your ideas completely and explicitly when members have few shared experiences.
 Show you are "listening"
 Concentrate more on information gathering and sharing rather than persuasion.

2. How are the different communication styles (assertive, aggressive, non-assertive) likely to
impact relationships in the workplace?

A.
ASSERTIVE
Supportive Defensive

Description X Evaluation

Problem Orientation X Control

Spontaneity X Strategy

Empathy. X Neutrality

Equality X Superiority

Provisonalism X Certainaly

Assertive style is supportive in workplace because:

 Description: Assertive is defined as someone who is self-confident and strong willed, though
sometimes domineering or pushy.
 Problem Orientation: The problem will be oriented in a specific and clear way by receiving
everyone's opinions and solving it together.
 Spontaneity : Here, spontaneity is autonomy in work, optional, cooperation based on the
consent of both parties.
 Empathy: Sensitive people often tend to have a hard time speaking assertively. Especially if they
think they might hurt someone's feelings.
 Equality: It’s built on the understanding that your own needs and another’s needs are both
important to consider, and that both deserve to be respected.
 Provisonalism: You are open to expressing your feelings and thoughts as well as protecting your
rights.

B.
AGGRESSIVE
Supportive Defensive

Description Evaluation X

Problem Orientation Control X

Spontaneity Strategy X

Empathy. Neutrality X

Equality Superiority X

Provisonalism Certainaly X

Aggressive style is defensive in workplace because:

 Evaluation: They often make comments and comparisons in a one-sided, one-way direction,
tending to disparage others so that they can recognize their ideas. 
 Control: Perhaps they are uninterested in obeying any instructions. This suggests they want
everyone to obey them. They prefer to control others instead of letting themselves be
controlled
 Strategy: They have many ways to find all sorts of reasons to prove to people that their point of
view is always right, therefore they don't pay attention to the truth.
 Neutrality: They only focus on expressing their views and feelings, not caring about the thoughts
and feelings of others.
 Superiority: They believe their point of view is the best option and reject alternative ideas.

C.
NON- ASSERTIVE
Supportive Defensive

Description X Evaluation

Problem Orientation X Control

Spontaneity Strategy X

Empathy. X Neutrality

Equality X Superiority

Provisonalism Certainaly X

Non- assertive style is supportive in the workplace because:

 Description: They usually give their opinion in favor of anyone who has a solution without any
further comments or suggestions.
 Problem Orientation: In every discussion, they agree with the ideas, follow all the rules to limit
the debate.
 Strategy: They lack confidence and fear when they have to give their opinion in front of a crowd
as well as participate in any debate, so conflicts are minimized.
 Equaility: They always feel anxiety and pressure when thinking that they are the burden of
others. Therefore, they care a lot about people's feelings and states and will feel disappointed if
people are not happy.
 Certainaly: They don't have any feedback or debate on the issues that other people raise. They
completely agreed, showing high agreement in every discussion.

3A. Why is a positive emphasis and an audience-focus in professional and interpersonal

communication highly valued in the workplace?

 Positive emphasis is one of the foundations for building good business writing.
 Positive emphasis may be achieved by the use of appropriate language, content, structure, and
layout. This guarantees that your reader's requirements are satisfied.
 Furthermore, positive focus fosters a good mindset through the use of words, content,
structure, and layout.

 Audience-focused helps you know more detail about your audience (their general age, gender,
education level, religion, language, culture, and group membership).
 Furthermore, analyzing your audience will help you discover information that you can use to
build common ground between you and the members of your audience.
 In particular, it's no secret that the most impactful presentation is the intentionally audience-
focused presentation. It's the presentation that includes minimal, punchy text and outlines the
key points before adding the finer details.

 Interpersonal skills are the attitudes and habits that make workers at any seniority level
valuable employees and contributing members of the work environment.
 Thus, employers will notice the presence or absence of these skills immediately during an
interview, and they can also impact long-term advancement opportunities.
 Besides, interpersonal communication skills are necessary because they allow people to discuss
problems and weigh the pros and cons of alternatives before coming up with the final solution.
 Last but not least,  people with interpersonal skills also tend to tend to build good relationships
and  make good leaders because of their ability to communicate with and motivate those
around them.
=> From the importance of the three factors mentioned above, we can explain why they are highly
valued in the workplace. Firstly, the positive emphasis helps us to build a solid foundation in
communication, helping us to achieve effective use of language and content that meets the
requirements of the readers. Second,  an audience-focus helps you understand as well as identify the
audience you want to reach optimally and reasonably. Combined with interpersonal communication
skills, they help boost work efficiency by allowing people to come together to pose problems and find
final solutions.

3B. What are possible negative aspects of positive audience-focused business communication in social
media?

b) In recent days, we can't imagine our lives without social media. The usage of social media has spread
into all facets of our lives, including our professional, personal, and familial lives. Utilizing social media is
beneficial to us, but we must keep in mind that our usage of social media should not interfere with our
personal lives or the lives of others. Because there are a few negative aspects that positive audience-
focused effects on social media, such as There is a group that involves spreading rumors by using social
media platforms like Facebook, and it is ultimately a symptom of sharing false information about a
person or entity. It is bad practice by those people who use social media for their own benefit.
Moreover, cyberbullying on social media is becoming an alarming issue where the format of unwanted
messages, comments, or posts about others is increasing attacks on other users' personal information.
As a result, it may hamper the personal image of a use

REFLECTION
After finishing a new session and completing research from study materials and portfolios, I was able to
easily distinguish between listening and hearing. Furthermore, I was able to see the importance of
listening at workplace and the benefits it brings. Next, I learned about different communication styles,
along with the six elements of supportive and defensive. Thanks to the detailed information provided
from the documents as well as the lectures, I have a better overview of the appropriate communication
requirements and principles in the company. It may be the focus on potential customers or personal
communication skills that have helped the activities and work to be completed better than expected,
creating a good relationship between colleagues, between customers. It can be seen that, after the
lesson, a lot of useful knowledge has been completely summarized, helping me to orient and improve
my communication style in different environments, helping me to expand new relationships and be
more successful in the future.

References:
Cheesebro, T., O'Connor, L., & Rios, F. (2009). Chapter 6: Interpersonal Relationship Skills.
In Communicating in the workplace (pp. 133,134,135,136). Pearson College Division.