CJB 40403

MANAGEMENT FOR CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

TECHNOLOGIST

TITLE:
PROBLEM BASED LEARNING (PBL) REPORT
TOPIC: COMMUNICATION

GROUP MEMBERS:
No. NAME ID NUMBER
1 NUR ALIMAH BINTI MOHD AZELI 55218218019
2 NADIRA ADAWEIAH BINTI JAMALUDDIN 55213218027
3 NUR AZIEMAH BINTI MOHD AULAN 55218218018
4 ANIISATUSIRRISYAAFI BINTI AMALILASMAR 55218218017
5 TUSENTIRAAN A/L KRISHNAN 55213116035
6 HARWIND PILLAI A/L SARAVANAN 55213116170
7 PURUSOTHAMAN A/L PARTIBAN 55213116171
8 OBAID ULLAH USMAN ULLAH 55213217163
9 STEPHANIE ANAK EDWIN 55213217133
10 VYNESSA ANAK JAMES 55213217120
11 EMILY MANDAH ANAK KASSY 55213217072

SECTION : L01-T1
LECTURER : DR WAN NOOR AIDAWATI

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

CONTENT

1.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………………...3

2.0 Questions and answers based on the case study

2.1 Methods of communication and effective communication

medium……………………………………………………………………………...4

2.2 Barriers to communication and its solution…………………………………5

2.3 Mistakes committed by the management and conflict statement in

the case study……………………………………………………………………...6

2.4 Role of human resource (HR) and its policy……………………………......8

2.5 Conclusion and how technology affects managerial

communication…………………………………………………………………9

3.0 References………………………………………………………………………….12

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1.0 Introduction

Communication is the transfer and understanding of meaning where it is involving the

understanding of meaning. Communication can be divided into two which are the interpersonal
communication and organizational communication. Interpersonal communication is
communication between two or more people while organizational communication is all the
patterns, networks and system of communication within an organization. Before
communication can take place, a purpose, expressed as a message to be conveyed must
exist. It passes between the sender and a receiver. The message is converted to encoding or
symbolic form and passed by way of some channel to the receiver, who retranslates the
sender’s message which is also known as decoding. The result is the transfer of meaning from
one person to another.

Figure 1.0: The communication process

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2.0 Questions and answers based on case study.

2.1 Discuss methods of communication and effective communication medium prior

action to overcome the situation?

In this situation given Mr. Santanu Bannerjee trusted 100% Mr. Ravi Sharma throughout
oral method of communication for his employment at the company without any documentary
proves to assure his placement at the company. Mr Ravi assured him that he would get that
job not matter what happens in the interviews section. During interview period Mr Santanu
were question out of his context, thus he fails to manage nor prepare for the interview just
because trusting Mr. Ravi words. If just Mr. Santanu had followed the 12 method of
communication this would be easier for him to be hired in any of the company aside trusting
others. Managers have a wide variety of communication methods from which to choose and
can use 12 questions to help them evaluate these methods.

i. Feedback: How quickly can the receiver respond to the message?

ii. Complexity capacity: Can the method effectively process complex messages?
iii. Breadth potential: How many different messages can be transmitted using this
method?
iv. Confidentiality: Can communicators be reasonably sure their messages are received
only by those intended?
v. Encoding ease: Can sender easily and quickly use this channel?
vi. Decoding ease: Can receiver easily and quickly decode messages?
vii. Time-space constraint: Do senders and receivers need to communicate at the same
time and in the same space?
viii. Cost: How much does it cost to use this method?
ix. Interpersonal warmth: How well does this method convey interpersonal warmth?
x. Formality: Does this method have the needed amount of formality?
xi. Scanability: Does this method allow the message to be easily browsed or scanned for
relevant information?
xii. Time of consumption: Does the sender or receiver exercise the most control over when
the message is dealt with?

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2.2 Explain the barriers to communication and how to overcome it?

The barriers to effective communication from this situation was firstly through
misinterpretation. In this case the manager interpret the information based on the performance
of the worker and it made the worker happy and overconfidence and made him trust the
manager. The sender’s which was the manager manipulate information and to be seen more
favourable to the worker which give him hope without any worry. The worker then rejects all
other offers from human resource and in the end did not manage to get any job as he willingly
follows his manager instruction because the manager had promised him a position in the
company. Moreover, without any official offer letter or black and white document regarding
Mr.Shantanu’s .Next, emotions play a part in the barriers as the worker was confidence from
the informal message from his manager and did not prepare anything for the interview. In
addition, Mr.Shantanu have to know that every company have their own interview policy with
the layers of interview such as human resource interview, engineer interview and then
manager interview. He simply trusted with the word that given by the project manager

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2.3 Discuss the mistakes committed by the management and list down the conflicting
statements in this case.

BEFORE INTERVIEW

i. Mistake: No appropriate documentation to prove the job confirmation.

Conflicting statement: The project manager, Mr Ravi said that the company will take
the trainee, Mr Shantanu Bannerjee as a permanent employee. They were ready to
hire Mr Shantanu at any cost. In addition, Mr Ravi said, “No need to worry. You are in”.

ii. Mistake: Miscommunication between project manager, Mr Ravi and trainee, Mr

Shantanu because Mr Ravi did not provide sufficient information to the trainee. Thus
the trainee does not well prepared for the interview.

Conflicting statement: As Mr Ravi said to Mr Shantanu, “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.”

DURING INTERVIEW

i. Mistake: Trust issue between Mr Shantanu and Mr Ravi because Mr Ravi

promised that he will help Mr Shantanu in interview session that ensure Mr
Shantanu will be hired.
Conflicting statement: Mr Ravi asked Mr Shantanu to decline proposal from Miss
Sheela and also from other teams.

ii. Mistake: Weak interpersonal relationship between interviewer team and trainee
because although he was managed to answer all the question, however the
interviewer team still have different interpretation towards him.
Conflicting statement: He was asked out of context questions which were not
related to his work. Neither he had worked nor did it match with the profile of the
work he was about to assigned.

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AFTER INTERVIEW

i. Mistake: Inappropriate recruitment decision from the interview session that proved
that Mr Shantanu did not meet the requirement during the interview because Mr
Ravi only refer the feedback from the interviewer that is not from his team. During
the interview, there is none of the representative from team Mr Ravi to interview
Mr Shantanu that related to the job field.
Conflicting statement: Mr Ravi said that Mr Shantanu did not performed well in
the interview. Mr Ravi add his company’s policy says that while recruitment it is
the interviewer who decides the final selection.

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2.4 What is your opinion about the role of human resource (HR) and its policy.

Human Resources Management (HRM) is important for three reasons. First, it can be a
significant source of competitive advantage. Second, it’s an important part of organizational
strategies. Finally, the way organizations treat their people has been found to significantly
impact organizational performance. The external factors that most directly affect the HRM
process are the economy, labour unions, legal environment, and demographic trends. The
role of human resource is staffing, setting policies, compensation and benefits, retention,
training and worker protection

Policy
i. 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

Regarding the policy stated by the company, the policy is standard guidelines that
HR must follow and refer for the any recruitment. Furthermore, though HR has the
ability in recruiting employee, but still HR must follow the hierarchy of organization
where the entire decision is based on the managers.

ii. While recruitment, it is the interviewer who decide the final selection

Regarding that policy, supposedly the decision for the recruitment is not fully
depending on the decision from the interviewer only because the manager, the
business head, and other team lead should also review the interview session.
Moreover, during the interview session the related representative or department
must involve to ask more related question regarding the job assigned. From that,
by any chance the skills of the interviewee is what the company desire and looking
for.

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2.5 Make a conclusion and describe how technology affects managerial
communication.

From this case study, we knew that Mr Shantanu has a few conflicts with the
management. Mr Satyajit and Mr Ravi have given a lot of appraisal on Mr Shantanu verbally.
They should not have giving any guarantee to Mr Shantanu, rather should have told him to
prepare well for interviews. Normally, we have to go through a formal interview before getting
that particular job position. There is no such a short cut to get a job nowadays. Mr Shantanu
at least should have managed to use the written documents about the assurance given by the
manager, so that his claims to HR would have been strong during the interview session.

Next, Mr Shantanu should have been very alert for his interview. Before comes to
interview, one needs to well-prepared about the job that being applied and at least equipped
yourself with a few knowledge on what the company is about, their activities, who is their top
management, what is the company goals, vision, and mission, and etc. The most important is
to apply job that is match with your qualification. Mr Shantanu may also ask HR regarding
other available vacancies in the company that fits with his qualification.

In addition, we can see that there is lack of autonomy and privileges to bottom
employees to discuss and resolve their personal issues. For example, in this case study, Mr
Shantanu could have talked to HR but then 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. Mr Shantanu believed that HR’s cannot solve his problem in any way. In
organization, all departments should have a good communication and good relationships in
order to drive the company. When there is a good relationships and communication between
all departments, the entire organization will have no misunderstanding issues or
misinterpretation of information. Employees also get motivated and happy with their job
without cursing or grapevine any particular departments.

Overall, communication is important as it brings people together, closer to each other

which can in turn improve morale and efficiency. Communication is also an important
management function closely associated with all other managerial functions (Robbins &
Coulter, 2012). Maintaining effective communication and sticking to commitment plays an
important role. Moreover, doubts of the bottom line employees should be clarified also.
Organizational structure should be simplified so that the employees can sort out the problem
with HR easily.

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 Technology has radically changed the way organizational members communicate.
Technology affects organizations by influencing the way that organizational members
communicate, share information, and do their work. communication and the exchange of
information among organizational members are no longer constrained by geography or time.

Some ways technology affect managerial communication are through videoconference

where the managers or the staff in certain organizations that are in different areas
communicate via video chat over the internet. Video conferencing can be the holding of
meetings with individuals in two or more locations by means of closed-circuit television. This
video conferencing is synchronous which means that the senders and receivers can engage
in simultaneous communication of the type associated with face-to-face conversation. Video
conferencing boosts productivity, saves time, reduces travel expenses and overall promotes
collaboration (Guide, 2014).

Besides, Electronic data interchange (EDI) also may affects managerial communication.
EDI is the electronic interchange of business information using standardized format which is
a process that allows one company to send information to another company electronically
rather than with paper. For example, organizations exchange their standard business
transaction documents, such as invoices or purchase orders by using direct computer-to-
computer networks (Guide, 2014). Business entities conducting business electronically are
called trading partners (Guide, 2014).

Teleconferencing is the simultaneous communication among a group by telephone or via

computer using specially designed software. The software is often referred to a “groupware”.
There are several advantages by using teleconferencing such as meeting can be held while
members are not in the same location, each group member has access to their own computer
which is linked to a network and to an overhead projector, messages are anonymous, most
communication is done through the computers, and these systems have incredibly high
speeds and very high success rates. Besides that, the disadvantages of teleconferencing are
less effective nonverbal communication, space limitation, eliminate informal interactions and
affect professionalism due to participants are often forced to multitask.

An electronic mail (e-mail) system also affect managerial communication where this mail
system allows high-speed exchange of written messages through the use of computerized
text processing and communication networks. This technology is more preferable in most
company because it is a time-saver and leads to exchanges of information among managers

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who previously did not communicate. However, e-mail may lead to an excess of irrelevant mail
and eliminates the nonverbal cues that serve as aids in face-to-face communication.

In a nutshell, with the proliferation of IT, it has made it possible for people to be fully
accessible at virtually any time, in any place. Smartphones, laptops, and tablets are sufficient
enough to support voice calling, video conferencing, instant messaging, email management
and even can communicate via social networking. Even when the employees is not in the
office, they can be contacted via one of their other devices and that particular issues can be
addressed immediately as they arise, instead of waiting for the next business day. Moreover,
technology has provided employees more opportunities to collaborate and share information.

In addition, communication within the office also has seen changes with IT
integration. Should management need to privately discuss a matter with an employee, this
conversation can be carried out via an instant messenger (WhatsApp, Facebook messenger)
as opposed to calling the employee away from their workstation for a meeting. Members of
different departments can all conference with one another via video calls and utilizing
messaging software like Skype and other communications tools.

This can be particularly useful when two departments are separated physically by
considerable distance. However, we should be careful on how we utilize IT for communicating
with others employees. Managers must not forget to address the psychological drawbacks.
Do not cross work/home boundaries by abusing IT, like calling an employee who is on vacation
or on leave.

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3.0 References

Guide, M. S. (2014, March 8). How Technology Affects Managerial Communication. Retrieved
November 17, 2019, from Its all about management:
http://managementstudyguid.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-technology-affects-
managerial.html

Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. (2012). Management.

Shah, S. I. A. (2014, July 8). Case Study on Effective Communication. Retrieved November
17, 2019, from https://www.slideshare.net/syediftikharalishah/casestudy-on-effective-
communication.

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