Assignment Cover Sheet

Bachelor of Business (Talented)

Student Name NGUYEN HA MY

Student Number 31211024563

Subject Name Business Communication

Lecturer Mr. Michael Saram

Title of Assignment Learning Portfolio 3

Length 940 WORDS

Due Date NOV 5

Date Submitted NOV 5, 4:55 PM

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: …………………Nguyen Ha My…………………………………………………….

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

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Textbook questions

1. Compare and contrast between listening and hearing. Why is listening important in the
workplace?

Hearing Listening
Similarities Involve the use of ears: receive sound waves and noise by ears
Differences Process, function, or power of Paying attention to sound; to hear
 Definition perceiving sound, the special sense something with thoughtful attention; and
by which noises and tones are to give consideration
received.
 Status Passive, involuntary, happen Active, conscious, involve making a choice
automatically if you want to listen.
 Process Process of recognizing sound Process of receiving, constructing meaning
through ears by catching vibrations. from, and responding to spoken and/or
nonverbal messages.
 Involvements Hearing is a physical act that only Listening is an internal behavior that
involves the ears. involves both the mind and body
 Requirements No preparations or concentrations To understand the message, listening
needed. requires preparations, concentrations and
paying attention:
 Physically: maintain an alert, upright
posture, facing the speaker directly,
establish eye contact.
 Mentally: block internal distraction,
keep an open mind, discover interest
in the speaker and message,
withholding premature judgments.
 When it Hearing happens when perceiving Listening happens when decoding
happen? sounds by receiving vibrations (understanding the content and the
through ears. feelings) the message in an attempt to
understand what the speaker intended.
 Feedbacks No feedbacks or responses needed. When listening has occurred, response or

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 feedback is necessary.

Listening is important in the workplace due to the following reasons:

- Sincere listening promotes respect, builds relationships, and creates trust between people
in workplace.
- Productivity is increased, and problems are addressed sooner when people engage in
sharing and listening before offering advice.
- Attentive listening helps both the sender and the receiver to maintain composure when
handling a crisis or discussing emotionally charged topics.
- Employees who listen effectively can get along better with others in the workplace.
- Listening efficiency promotes retention of important information resulting in fewer
misunderstandings and on-the-job errors.
- Active listeners who are opportunistic at work can strengthen interpersonal ties,
encourage creativity, and facilitate networking.
- Poor listening at work may cause productivity loss, strain relationships, and lower morale.

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

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 Assertive Aggressive Non-assertive
- Share information - Share information - Respecting others while
directly, openly, honestly directly, openly, stating thoughts,
Definitions and respectfully honestly but feelings, wants, or
disrespectfully needs indirectly or not
at all.
- Supportive style - Defensive style - Neither supportive nor
- Build trust, help prevent - Get needs met, defensive style
conflicts, and enable to effective in preventing - Avoid conflict, be
get needs met. conflict. cooperative team
- Present problem clearly, - Associated with players but fail to get
objectively that can characteristics: needs met.
minimize defensiveness impatient, irritated, - Non-assertive people
Impacts on
and encourage positive angry and aggressive. may feel resentful,
relationships
solutions. - Make other people suffer low self-esteem
in the
- Manage conflicts uncomfortable, and stress
workplace
effectively through aggressive individual - Other people can be
empathy, direct, honest may be given cold- frustrated because non-
and appropriate shoulder because assertive people rarely
messages. people avoid share their true
- Make other people feel confrontations with thoughts and feelings.
respectful and high aggressive
comfortable. individuals.

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

communication highly valued in the workplace? What are possible negative aspects of positive
audience-focused business communication in social media?

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 Positive emphasis Audience-focus
Professional - A positive work environment is essential - Satisfy the customers’ needs,
communication to recruit, retain, and motivate wants, and demands.
employees. - Address problems clearly,
- A positive workplace is more productive concisely, comprehensively,
and helps exchange information completely and correctly.
effectively. - See different points of view to
- Promote creativity and create create new solutions and push
opportunity for new ideas. productivity.
Interpersonal - Build relationships, goodwill between - Build relationship
communication people. - Respect other people
- Make message persuasive. - Concentrate on what the
audience want to know

There are several drawbacks of positive audience-focused business communication in social media:

- When using positive emphasis in social media, a business may omit some negative but
important information that may lead to misunderstanding. Moreover, the business may get
unwanted or inappropriate behaviors on their site, including bullying and harassment.
- Some businesses use software tools on social media to understand their customers’ needs,
wants, demands through searching history may make their audience think they are being
stalked and feel uncomfortable.

Portfolio Reflection

After reading books and answering the portfolio questions, I understand clearly the differences between
hearing and listening, know more about the benefits of effective listening and realize the importance of

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assertive communication style. Reading the examples about listening at the workplace gives me a more
obvious view of the serious consequences of failure to listen and the significances of effective listening
at work. Analyzing the differences in the impact of different communication styles on relationships at
the workplace clarifies the superior points of assertive communication. Assertive communications are
not only about the contents including behavior description, feeling message, consequence statement
and request statement but also about the ways to express the messages like clear and firm voice,
fluency, facial expression, eyes contact, and body movements. I will improve my active listening skill as
well as develop assertive communication style to communicate effectively and maintain great
relationships in my life.

Reference

Braun, K., Locker, K. O., & Kaczmarek, S. K. (2016). Business communication: Building critical skills (6th
ed.). Mc Graw Hill Education.

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Cheesebro, T., O'Connor, L., & Rios, F. (2009). Communicating in the workplace (1st ed.). Pearson
College Division.