Mohammad, Amal, and Noura were recently hired as audit assistants. This is the first full-time professional position for each of them. During the first few months of work, each of them experienced successes and failures

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Learning Outcomes:

1. Understand and apply concepts of communication theory as they affect business organizations and the individuals in them.
2. Communicate better, knowing that good communicators make better managers and that communication is a dynamic process basic to individuals and organizational life.
3. Analyze effective business letters, memorandums, and case studies.

 

 

Assignment Question(s):

Part 1 (5 Marks)

Credibility for an Entry-Level Professional

Mohammad, Amal, and Noura were recently hired as audit assistants. This is the first full-time professional position for each of them. During the first few months of work, each of them experienced successes and failures.

 

Mohammad gained a reputation for finding out exactly what clients wanted. He asked the right questions, he respectfully explained points of disagreement with them, and he showed them he was genuinely interested in them. Several of his colleagues commented that clients trusted him to act appropriately on their behalf. His supervisor was pleased that Mohammad always followed through on commitments and was positive he wouldn’t avoid reporting tax violations made by clients. However, Mohammad’s performance was far from perfect. His supervisor noticed that Mohammad sometimes made fairly basic mistakes in his audits and his colleagues would have to redo some of his work.

 

Amal has gained a reputation for completing audits more accurately than all other new audit assistants. Her supervisor is worried, however, about her long-term success at the firm. Amal tends to overpromise. Last week, she told her supervisor she’d finish an important project but instead worked on other tasks. Last month, she called in sick for a few days. On one of her sick days, her supervisor saw pictures of her at a party that she had posted to Facebook.

 

Noura is the top performer on audits among the new group of employees at the firm. She is precise and efficient. She can typically accomplish many tasks in about half the time of most other audit assistants. Her supervisor is concerned, however, about her interpersonal skills. She tends to often criticize her colleagues for their mistakes and rarely offers appreciation for their help. She also seems to rub clients the wrong way and comes across as “antisocial” according to one valued client.

 

Read the case above and answer the following questions:

1. Which element of credibility does Mohammad lack? What would you recommend to Mohammad to improve his credibility? (1 Mark)
2. Which element of credibility does Amal lack? What would you recommend to Amal to improve her credibility? (1 Mark)
3. Which element of credibility does Noura lack? What would you recommend to Noura to improve her credibility? (1 Mark)
4. What is the importance of establishing credibility in business communication?

(2 Marks)

 

 

 

Part 2 (5 Marks)

Create a sample business message to propose a new marketing approach.

Note: You will be evaluated based on applying the process for creating effective business messages. (5 marks)

Part 3 (5 Marks)

Read the email and answer the questions that follow:

1. Identify five principles violated in this email. (2.5 Marks)
2. Re-write the email following the principles of writing an effective email. (2.5 Marks)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Answers

 

 

Part 1

Credibility for an entry-level professional

Introduction

The scenario of the business environment is changing with time. Rising competition has forced business organizations to adopt new and innovative strategies. Sustainable business growth is thus, a dream for every entrepreneur. Management of business has multiple issues. One of these issues is the maintenance of ‘credibility’ (Venica et al., 2017). Credibility helps in developing trust from clients, customers, and stakeholders. It improves brand image and hence establishes effective communication between employers, clients, and employees. The credibility of employees directly influences the credibility of the company. It consists of having a set of qualities like honesty, integrity, efficiency, consistency, and awareness about the individual as well as the company’s strengths and weaknesses to ensure trust by stakeholders is maintained (Aguilar, 2017). Similarly, it forms a trust between employer and employee.

Case study – Credibility for an entry-level professional

Question 1

Mohammad has a positive reputation for understanding the right questions from clients. He was aware of the demands of clients. This developed healthy communication between Mohammad and the clients. Mohammad also managed to represent other employees of the company and worked with commitment. He used to easily agree or disagree on any particular point such as tax violations, and clients trusted him. However, his credibility was not perfect. He used to commit regular mistakes in audits. He lacked the quality of perfection and doing mistakes in an audit like this could have caused a large blunder that could spoil the company’s image. His colleagues used to correct his mistakes. But he has to overcome this problem of ‘non-accuracy’ and must focus on audit work. He has to stop repeating these mistakes to improve credibility.

Question 2

Amal has a good reputation for handling audit work with more accuracy compared to Mohammad. She used to complete audit tasks with fewer or no mistakes. It showed that she had great command over her work with authenticity and accuracy. Clients and employers can easily trust her regarding her work. However, she lacks elements of credibility like ‘commitment’, ‘honesty’, ‘truth’, and ‘non-compliance’ with deadlines. For example, she overpromised on various occasions about the completion of work. She promised her supervisor to finish a particular task, but she never completed it and began doing other projects. Moreover, she misguided the management by going on sick leave instead, she was having a party with her friends, which was proved by her picture on social media. This overshadowed her performance and developed mistrust. Amal must overcome the shortcoming of honesty and commitment if she wanted a long-term carrier.

Question 3

Noura is considered one of the best audit assistants. Her performance regarding audit work is outstanding. She has established a great reputation as an employee having perfection in skills like precise and efficiency. These skills enabled her to perform audit tasks in less amount of time. However, Noura also lacked credibility elements like ‘lack of interpersonal skills. This is concerning for her seniors as her work is extremely professional and perfect but her attitude with colleagues was not good. She used to point out the mistakes of everyone and criticize them all the time. She never appreciated anyone due to good work. Such a lack of credibility element had deteriorated trust in her. One of the clients had highlighted her as being ‘antisocial’. Therefore, she must learn to be social and cooperate with others to enhance her credibility.

Question 4

The questions in the case study showed different scenarios of credibility loss for audit assistants. Credibility in business communication is a vital component for business long-term success. The importance of credibility can be observed that it develops trust between employers and employees. It establishes trust between employers and stakeholders or clients as well. On basis of such trust and communication, a business can flourish and so does the careers of employees. A healthy employer and employee relationship is the outcome of trust (Martins & Roode, 2004). Due to trust, the employer can assign important tasks to his trusted employee. If the tasks are completed, it will enhance the credibility of the employee in the eyes of the employer with more trust and the client will also be happy. As a result, the client can give further tasks or projects or make further future investments. In this way, profitability and business will grow.

There are many aspects of credibility. It is mainly the qualities and attributes. The biggest importance of credibility is that it helps in establishing trust and respect towards an individual or company. This enhances communication and interaction (Kim et al., 2009). Similarly, credibility helps in influencing the thoughts and behavior of people. Hence, if a business organization or employee is not credible, stakeholders would not believe and trust them. Furthermore, credibility is a useful tool to attract new customers as well as retain existing customers. It ensures customer loyalty. Trust by customers can boost sales and business is improved as credibility reflects the values and skills of employees and employers. On other hand, credibility can be improved through hard work, focus, consistency practice, open and honest communication, compliance with promises, and staying committed (Business team, 2022).

Part 2

Question 1

            Effective business messages are one of the most important elements of communication. In business, effective messages can positively influence or spoil the communication first, and then relationship with trust between two parties or persons can be destroyed. As a result, overall business performance is affected. Thus, receiver of messages must get clarified messages without any ambiguity (Munjal, 2017). Preparation of effective business messages can be made through different steps. First, is to define the purpose of the message. Second, analysis of audience or receiver of messages must be done. Third, is the right selection of ideas for an effective message while fourth, is to gather facts about the idea of message described and fifth, is outlining and organization of message in a way that effective way.

Effective business messages can be used for right marketing approach. Marketing is the backbone for any sale of a product. Proposal of new marketing approach is always needed for finalizing the strategies for marketing and for the attraction of stakeholder to perform the promotion of product (Zomaya, 2022). Such proposal for marketing also revolves around effective business messages to improve communication. Hence, effective business message in marketing proposal is based on some characteristics like focus on client or customers, clarity in defining the problem of business along with possible solution of it, and maintain the content short. Moreover, business proposal message consists of writing first the executive summary, defining the challenges and objectives of marketing proposal, explaining the scope of marketing proposal, and discussion about financials.

Part 3

Question 1

Writing an effective e-mail is a skill. Correspondence and interaction between employers, clients, customers, employees, etc. are made through e-mail. The usage of e-mail has increased due to advancements in technology and the facility of widespread internet. An E-mail has replaced hard copy letters for official uses. Realizing the importance of effective e-mail, the writing skill must be professional so that communication is made in an effective manner (Krotov, 2016). The sentences and structure of e-mail decide the trust of senders.

As business companies require formal style and language in e-mails, care must be taken so that information is conveyed in the right way to enhance the influence on the sender in a positive way. In the sample e-mail, there are five different principles of e-mail writing, which are violated. These are:

• Over-communication. There is a chance that e-mail could be forwarded to other individuals without removing any sensitive information like the sender’s e-mail id and subject matter. Similarly, e-mail lacks discussion and bad news or information is directly given to the sender.
• No good use of the subject line. Writing the e-mail subject has to be attractive and must highlight the crux of the whole e-mail. The subject should not be blank or too detailed. In this e-mail, the subject shows that a clear final answer/reply is provided in a subject that is not good for effective e-mail writing rather it should just highlight the topic or subject matter of the e-mail (Tools, 2022).
• No clarity in the message or e-mail. The message in the e-mail is not clear. It is on one side regret to accept the damage complaint but on another side, e-mail response is giving a discount coupon on next shopping.
• No politeness. This e-mail has not followed polite language. An E-mail has started directly on focus on the complaint issue with the straight forward reply of having no responsibility for any damage claim. Reply also pointed out that the customer could be responsible for damage during the opening of the package, which is not polite language and a way for effective communication.
• Bad tone. No introductory greetings are seen in this e-mail. The message directly pointed toward third-party vendors and customers for the damages. The writing has adopted a bad tone that could have a negative influence on customers with a loss of customer retention.

Question 2

The e-mail must be written according to the principle of e-mail writing to maintain trust and positive influence on the customer. It has to be written as:

E-mail

From: Roberto Jimenez <roberto@gmail.com>

To: (Client)

Date: October 4, 2022

Subject: Claim for product damage (claim # 82492)

Dear valued customer

I hope you will be in good health. We have received your complaint regarding the above subject matter. It is our responsibility to provide the best available services from our organization to satisfy your needs. We have evaluated your damage complaint in detail. Our company has investigated into the matter of damage claim from the detail of the product you have provided. We are committed to providing quality services to our customers.

From the evaluation of the matter, it has been observed that damage to the product might have happened due to the negligence of a third-party vendor. Similarly, another possibility of damage could be from the customer side. The product is sensitive and can be broken while opening the package by the customer.

It is, therefore, to inform you that the company regrets taking any responsibility for the claim for damage to the product. However, we hope to maintain a strong relationship and you keep trust in the quality of our products.

As a valued customer, we like to give you a token of appreciation in form of a loyalty discount coupon of 10% on your next purchase from our company on shopping of $100.

I hope you will understand our terms and conditions. You can ask any further questions regarding the subject matter.

Regards,

Roberto Jimenez

Customer Service Representative

 

 

References

Aguilar, T. (2017, Oct 6). The Importance of Credibility. Retrieved Oct 4, 2022, from https://aguilarpr.com/importance-of-credibility/#:~:text=When%20you%20establish%20credibility%2C%20your,%2C%20do%2C%20and%20stand%20for.

Business team, M. (2022, Oct 4). Establishing credibility in business. Retrieved Oct 4, 2022, from https://www.marcuslemonis.com/business/credibility-in-business

Kim, T. Y., Bateman, T. S., Gilbreath, B., & Andersson, L. M. (2009). Top management credibility and employee cynicism: A comprehensive model. Human Relations, 62(10), 1435–1458. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709340822

Krotov, V. (2016). Basic Principles of Effective Written Communication. November 2016.

Martins, N., & Roode, M. (2004). the Influence of Credibility on Employer -. South African Journal of Labour Relations, Winter(January), 4–32. https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/EJC59583

Munjal, D. (2017). Effective Business Communication: Key to Success. International Journal of Applied Research, 3(7), 698–702. http://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/?year=2017&vol=3&issue=7&part=J&ArticleId=4119

Tools, M. (2022, Oct 4). Writing Effective Emails. Retrieved Oct 4, 2022, from https://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/EmailCommunication.htm

Venica, S., Driussi, F., Vaziri, S., Palestri, P., & Selmi, L. (2017). Graphene base transistors with bilayer tunnel barriers: Performance evaluation and design guidelines. IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, 64(2), 593–598. https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2016.2636447

Zomaya, D. (2022, Aug 5). A Beginner’s Guide to Writing a Marketing Proposal. Retrieved Oct 5, 2022, from https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/small-business/email-marketing/articles/marketing-proposal/