Case Study on Business Communication

PSG Institute of Management Effective Communication should be developed through trust

A Case study on

Effective Communication should be developed
through Trust

Prepared by

SUNAM PAL KIRAN VARGHESE JACOB
PGPM student of Marketing Specialization, PGPM student of Marketing Specialization,
Alliance University School of Business Alliance University School of Business

Official Address Official Address

Sunam Pal, Kiran Varghese Jacob
Room number MS-324, Room number BS-202,
Boys Hostel, Faculty Quarters (Boys),
Alliance University School of Business, Alliance University School of Business,
Central Campus, Central Campus,
Chikkahagade Cross, Chikkahagade Cross,
Chandapura - Anekal Main Road, Chandapura - Anekal Main Road,
Anekal, Bangalore - 562106 Anekal, Bangalore - 562106
Karnataka, India Karnataka, India

Contact Number: +91 9620368402 Contact Number: +91 9886401773
Email-Id: Email-Id:
sunam.pal@alliancelive.com kiran.varghese.jacob@alliancelive.com

BENCH MARK 2011 PSG Institute of Management, Coimbatore Page 1


Effective Communication should be
developed through Trust

Transparency, credibility and sticking to the commitments are very important while
communicating. Effective communication is driven through loyalty and trust of the
people.

Purpose is of this case is to know:
 Importance of communication in business
 Understanding unethical practices in business
 Transparency, Credibility & accountability are a major concern for managers.
 Trust is must in an employee driven company.
 Commitment is a worth of company’s values
 Effective management is won through loyalty

This case is based on a real incidence that happened last year in one of the top fortune 100
company.

NOTE:

Names of all character, company & events in this case has been kept confidential with the
intension not to reveal the identity of those who had an impact or were responsible for this
incidence.

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee and just as hard to sleep after.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 'Gift From the Sea'

Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.

William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have
some conversation.

Judith Martin, (Miss Manners)

Source: http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/communication/



Case Overview
Mr. Shantanu Bannerjee was having his cup of coffee near the balcony of cafeteria after he had
completed his task for the day. It was dusk all around. He was sitting alone & thinking upon few
important issues. He couldn’t digest few things about the day & was regretting that why he didn’t
act upon it before. He was also disturbed that why did he trust his manager & also why was he not
made aware of it before hand. Any how Shantanu had no other choice as he knew that it was too
late & only what he could think ahead was for a better future & learn a good lesson out of what
had happened.

Mr.Shantanu recently passed his B.Tech from Punjab Engineering College in computer
science. Just as a part of his internship training he joined this company. Although he was
technically sound, on his part he could make the best of what he could do for the company. He
was selected for the position of project trainee in a domain meant for hardware testing.

During the entire tenure of 6 months of his internship technically he learned a lot. Initially he
was being appointed to simulate the circuit diagrams & review the wires, cables in case of any
disorder. He was very good at performing tasks. Though he was a fresher he could mend
circuits and verify it better than any other person in his team. Soon within span of 2 months he
was given the in charge of the project that dealt with procurement & reviewing the electronic
items. Being a fresher it was like a prestigious reward for him to be given a responsible task
that was just new to his field of work. It gave him much courage & also motivated him to
perform his tasks in a more productive way.

As per one of his team member Satyajit Khurana, “Shantanu was very talented & technically
expert. Once you provide him with the objective, he does that task before the stipulated time
with perfection. There is no need of any mentor or supervisor to guide him all the time. He
knew his work, deadlines & how to make things done”

While he was undergoing his new project he could found some flaws in the inventory
management system for procurement. He worked for about a fortnight and could come up with
a solution to optimize the inventory management system using software’s which reduced the
whole procurement project life cycle time by 23%. It was a huge achievement and an abnormal
gain that no one can ever estimate.

Soon his model of inventory system was being adopted by other teams & implemented. His
manager rewarded him for his extreme innovation at his work.

Shantanu got more priority over other trainees. He also got opportunity to interact with
clients overseas. Shantanu’s instant innovation made him to be a lime light in his team.
However he could notice that some of his senior team members were not happy with his
manager’s decision. He could realize that his dynamism & progress were taken as a threat to
the position & prestige of other team members because he was just a fresher & was doing well
compared to those experienced.



One month was left for Shantanu to complete his training. Shantanu knew that apart from his
good performance there was no vacancy for him in his domain as most of the old employees
were on bench during recession.

However on 5th July he got a call from Miss Sheela, Project manager of CII team from other
domain. It also dealt with hardware testing which was very close to Shantanu’s work profile.
She gave an offer to him saying that they have an urgent vacancy in their team & they would
like to hire him, if he is right for the job based on two rounds of technical interview.

Shantanu before agreeing for the proposal decided to speak to his current manager so that
there are no disputes. So he asked for some time from Miss Sheela to convey his opinion.

His current manager Mr. Ravi Sharma called Shantanu to his cabin. He said that he would
ask his manager Mr. Shyam Kumar about it & let him know soon as he hopes that there is
some project about to come to his team in next 2 months and they need to hire someone. Based
on past 5 months performance of Shantanu, he & his manager were very satisfied & would like
him to work as a permanent employee for the new project.

Within two days Shantanu was informed to extend his internship by three months so that he
would be absorbed as a permanent employee based on a formal interview. However it was
clearly indicated to him that the interview was just a formality. Ravi & his manager Shyam
were ready to hire him at any cost. He also mentioned “no need to worry. You can decline your
proposal from Sheela & also from other teams if coming to you. Interview is just a formality.
You are in. Now don’t think about your interviews much & concentrate on your projects. We
have lot of expectation from you.”

The news was spread all over the team that soon Shantanu will be a part of their team. But
few members in his team were having objections but there were no other alternatives as it was
manager’s decision.

Shantanu called Sheela & said “Hi! Sheela, thanks for your offer. But today my manager
informed me that there is a vacancy for me in my team itself. So sorry for keeping you on
hold”

Sheela replied “No problem at all. Congratulations”

Shantanu was eagerly waiting for the days to pass & finally the day came when he was about
to attend the formal interview. He was assured quite a number of times before that “the
interview was formal & his performance was no way going to affect his selection. He was
already being selected by both of his immediate managers. Interview was just a step to follow
the employee recruitment guidelines of the company.Shantanu was also asked not to
concentrate much on interview & rather pay attention on his routine work.

Finally Shantanu had his interview on 30th July, 2009 at 5:00 Pm. Interview was carried by his
team members some of whom were not always in favor of him. Shantanu was surprised to find
that none of his managers were in the interview panel as they promised that at least one of
them would be there.



Shantanu had a tough time in the interview. He was asked with the questions that were out of
context & those that were not related to him & his work. Neither he had worked in that nor
did his profile for which he was being selected match to the questions asked.

Bust since Shantanu was technically sound & also had been resolving partly the technical
disputes of other teams, he had ideas about the out of box questions and could manage to
perform satisfactory in his interview.

Still 8 days were left. Shantanu didn’t ask about his feedback as he was assured that it’s not
going to impact anyway. Mr. Ravi gave him a call. Shantanu went to his cabin.

Shantanu was told that “he will not be hired because he couldn’t perform well in the
interview”.Shantanu argued that “Why Ravi, I performed well till date. I am having a very
good track record for last 5 months & feedbacks were very good as given by you only. I kept
to all my deadlines. You people awarded me. Because of you only I denied sheela’s offer.
You only assured me that the interview was just a formality & I need to concentrate on my
work.”

Ravi replied back “Our Company’s policy says that while recruitment it is the interviewer
who decides the final selection. The panel of your interviewer is not ready to hire you. They
have an opinion that the task to which you were going to be assigned is different from your
current profile & does not meet their expectation. So you can apply for your resignation latest
by next 5 days so that it gets updated to the database before your tenure of training ends by
default”

Shantanu was helpless. He also knew that as per company’s policy “Interns are hired
temporarily for projects & thus have no assurance about confirmation of their job after
completion of the project even if they had performed well. He also didn’t have any
documentary proof as everything was intended to him orally. There was no written evidence
or mail that could suggest that he was being assured that he will be hired.

He could have talked to HR’s, But in his company he knew that HR will only say that if the
line managers are not ready then no one can do anything as the entire decision is based on
managers.

He called Sheela in case vacancy was still there. She replied that the vacancies were filled
and there were no other vacancies in her team and in the entire domain for coming 6 months.

Finally he had no other alternative, sat in front of his system. He applied for resignation,
filled the form, clicked on the final button & his resignation got accepted.

Then he went for a cup of coffee to the cafeteria.He could realize that he made some
mistakes and could have rectified it earlier by being alert rather than taking the situation very
casual.



Teaching Notes

Prior action to overcome the situation
Shantanu’s intuition should have predicted beforehand that something is wrong with the
point of not giving a feedback immediately after his interview was over that he wasn’t selected.
He was conveyed the same just 8 days before his internship last date. Shantanu was not clarified
properly about the reason for not hiring him and thus Shantanu had no faith in what managers
were saying. His manager’s statement was ambiguous and didn’t match to his action. Shantanu’s
next project manager was out of the scene.

Shantanu could have overcome the situation by being alert for his interview without taking it
casually and preparing well for it.He should have not only questioned his manager Ravi but also
to his further higher manager Mr.Shyam about his doubts & to justify the reason to not hire
him.He should have given a trial, to freely convey the same to his domain HR.He should have
intelligently managed to use the written documents like mail about the assurance given by the
manager , so that he could have at least conveyed to HR about his circumstances. He should have
talked to HR regarding other vacancies in other teams or domains.

Major Communication Barrier

The major communication barriers were the lack of transparency in communication, non-
fulfilment of commitment by the manager which indeed lead to lack of trust, improper
Organizational structure because he couldn’t convey his problems to his domain HRs.

He had a prior perception as he believed that the HR’s cannot solve his problem in any way.
Lack of autonomy & privileges given to bottom employees to discuss & resolve their personal
issues with higher officials were lacking. Shantanu’s expectation was not high. The strength of
an ethical company lies in its commitment. So when an organization assures him that he is being
selected, it is quite genuine for anyone to think & stick to what organization has committed. Also
Shantanu’s expectation was quite genuine from his team as he was being awarded for his work &
could meet all deadlines within time. He could also fix many technical issues in his entire tenure
of work.

Mistakes committed by the management
Shantanu’s project manager did the mistake by giving assurance. He should have kept control
on his emotions & could have patiently watched the outcome till the interview was over. He
shouldn’t have assured him, rather should have told him to prepare well without giving any
guarantee beforehand. He should have justified Shantanu at the end, stating him the actual
reasons for not hiring & should have clarified all his doubts.



He should have conveyed the message with the motive to convince him, till he found that
Shantanu was with his statement & was in a position to agree to what he was saying. Shantanu
should have been given with adequate time to make necessary arrangement in the meantime & to
make up himself for the cause.

Conflicting statements
His earlier statement was “No need to worry. You can decline your proposal from Sheela & also
from other teams if coming to you. Interview is just a formality. You are in. Now don’t think
about your interviews much & concentrate on your projects. We have lot of expectation from
you.”

But his later Statement statement was “Our Company’s policy says that while recruitment it is
the interviewer who decides the final selection. The panel of your interviewers is not ready to
hire you. They have an opinion that the task to which you were going to be assigned is different
from your current profile & does not meet their expectation. So you can apply for your
resignation latest by next 5 days so that it gets updated to the database before your tenure of
training ends by default”

Role of HR & their policy
There should be an open door policy where employee can approach them with any sort of
problem they have. There should be a well expertise team to carry out employee counselling &
manage stress.

HR department should train those Managers without a Management Degree about
communication barriers. How to tackle them. How to frame sentences so that they don’t deviate
from their statements. Also they should be made learnt about the importance of maintaining
transparency, accountability, credibility & autonomy within employees. They should know how
to build trust & be loyal to its subordinates.

There should be a feedback form to be filled by every employee while leaving their
organization. From survey in various Indian software company it is being concluded that
majority of the employees don’t leave their company but leave their managers”

All employees who are undergoing resignation process should be examined well. They should
track their details & come up with report to analyze different types of circumstances to encounter
such problems before hand & optimize them.



Conclusion
To maintain effective communication, maintaining transparency within the company and
sticking to its commitment plays a very important role. The doubts among the bottom line
employees should be clarified and HR should take care to resolve such issues. Enough of
clarification should be given so that the person is convinced with manager’s decision and should
have faith in the organization. Organizational structure should be designed in such a way that it
is easy for employees to sort out their problems with HR and is genuinely clarified with the
cause behind such decisions.

Q Questions based on above case study:
1) What were the major communication problems faced in this case? Were
Shantanu’s expectations his team were very high or it was quite
genuine.
2) Do you think there was lack of transparency?
3) What would Shantanu have done to overcome the situation?
4) In what better way Ravi could have handled the situation?
5) What were the conflicting statements said by Ravi in this case? How
could he have sorted it?
6) How HR within an organization can play an important role in tracking
miscommunication and resolve such issues



Exhibit-1

FACTORS: EXPRESSER DRIVER RELATER ANALYTICAL

They seek a lot of
They like their They like positive data, ask many
How to own way; decisive attention, to be questions, and
They get excited.
Recognize: & strong helpful & to be behave
viewpoints. regarded warmly. methodically &
systematically.

What (the results Why? (The How? (The
Who? (the personal
Tends to Ask: oriented personal non-goal technical analytical
dominant question)
question.) question.) question.)

Rejection, treated
Boring Someone wasting
impersonally, Making an error,
What They explanations/wasting their time trying
uncaring & being unprepared,
Dislike: time with too many to decide for
unfeeling spontaneity.
facts. them.
attitudes.

Reacts to Taking charge Becoming silent,
"Selling" their ideas Seeking more data
Pressure and taking more withdraws,
or argumentative. & information.
Tension By: control. introspective.

Get excited with Provide lots of
Best way to Deal Let them be in Be supportive;
them. Show data &
With: charge. show you care.
emotion. information.

Activity &
Likes To Be Applause, feedback, Results, Goal- Friends, close
busyness that
Measured By: recognition. oriented. relationships.
leads to results.

Get into a Make decisions at
Relax, feel, care,
Must Be Allowed Get ahead quickly. competitive own pace, not
and know you
To: Likes challenges. situation. Likes to cornered or
care.
win. pressured.
A position that A structure of
Recognition & some Interpersonal and
Will Improve requires goals & methods
structure with which communication
With: cooperation with for achieving each
to reach the goal. skills.
others. goal.
Face. They hate to
Effort they rely Time. They like to Relationships. make an error, be
Likes to Save: heavily on hunches, be efficient, get Friendship means wrong or get
intuition, feelings. things done now. a lot to them. caught without
enough info.
Allow them Care & provide
Inspire them to Structure a
For Best freedom to do detail, specific
bigger & better framework or
Results: things their own plans&activities to
accomplishments. "track" to follow.
way. be accomplished.

Source: http://www.drbackman.com/print-communication-styles.htm



Exhibit-2

Passive Assertive Aggressive

Communication Communication
Communication
style in which you style in which you
style in which you
put the rights of stand up for your
stand up for your
Definition others before your rights while
rights but you
own, minimizing maintaining
violate the rights
your own self respect for the
of others
worth rights of others

my feelings are not we are both your feelings are
important important not important
Implications to
Others I don't matter we both matter you don't matter
I think we are
I think I'm inferior I think I'm superior
equal
apologetic I statements you statements
Verbal Styles overly soft or
firm voice loud voice
tentative voice
looking down or staring, narrow
looking direct
away eyes
Non-Verbal Styles relaxed posture,
stooped posture, tense, clenched
smooth and
excessive head fists, rigid posture,
relaxed
nodding pointing fingers
movements
lowered self
higher self esteem guilt
esteem
anger at self self respect anger from others

Potential false feelings of respect from lowered self
Consequences inferiority others esteem
disrespect from disrespect from
respect of others
others others
pitied by others feared by others

Source :http://www.cedanet.com/meta/communication_styles.htm



References

http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/communication/ [ Page-2]

http://www.drbackman.com/print-communication-styles.htm [ Page-9]

http://www.cedanet.com/meta/communication_styles.htm [ Page-10]


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