Previously, I’ve covered Consumer Behavior Questions and Answers. Here, we will discuss some important Business Communication questions with detailed answers.
Business Communication is one of the important areas in the MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree. Being a broad topic, it requires proper attention and preparation. So, to help you pass the Business Communication paper, in this article, I have tried to cover all the important Business Communication questions.
If you are pursuing an MBA and looking for Business Communication Questions, this article will be a one-stop solution for you. So, let’s dive deep and get ready for the Business Communication paper.
Here are the Business Communication Questions with Detailed Answers
Q 1. What are business ethics?
Answer: Business ethics primarily refers to a set of guidelines that tell the business what is right or wrong at the workplace. The primary focus of business ethics largely revolves around the impact of a business’s products or services or its relationships with stakeholders. Business ethics serve as a guiding light for enterprises in the event of controversial situations and ethical dilemmas. Some examples of situations leading to ethical dilemmas include references to the governance of business, trading of stocks, and businesses’ role in social issues.
In addition, enterprises can also perceive the meaning of business ethics from legal, philosophical as well as scientific perspectives. Enterprises should also notice that the primary foundation of business ethics is the law. Following the rising dominance of business ethics as a topic of academics in the 1970s, many laws and regulations came into place for classifying businesses as ethical. For example, in Anglo American, the ‘social license’ from local communities is an essential legal precedent for mining development operations to be deemed ethical.
2. Why should a business act ethically?
Answer: In order to understand the reasons for which a business should act ethically, it is essential to consider the reasons underlying the importance of business ethics. One of the first tenets of business ethics is legal compliance. Business ethics ensure that businesses are operating well within the law’s limits in their dealings with employers, consumers at large, investors, and other stakeholders. Therefore, business ethics indirectly or directly have a huge influence on building the impression of a brand on consumers. A business that acts ethically is more likely to gain more trust from consumers in comparison to its competitors. So, ethical actions have a prominent impact on helping a business improve its brand equity. An ethical business is also more likely to come across better investment opportunities with a better and positive appeal for more investors and shareholders. On the human resources front, ethical businesses can easily attract top talent as they showcase the better potential for acting in employees’ best interests.
3. What are the effects of acting ethically?
Answer: The outcomes of the ethical conduct of business are mostly positive in nature. For example, ethical actions towards social issues improve the brand equity of a business. In general, consumers and communities can perceive an ethical business as an initiator or advocate of social change. Acting ethically also saves a business from various legal complications arising from business operations.
The ethical conduct of businesses relies mostly on following legal precedents and regulations that would make them classified as ethical. So, ethical conduct also saves a lot of time and effort for the business by resolving dilemmas that impede decision-making. Another promising impact of acting ethically is the improved contribution of the business in escalating local communities’ capabilities. Most important of all, the ethical conduct of businesses could also drive better prospects for transparency among stakeholders regarding business operations.
4. What do you understand by communication?
Answer: Communication is the most frequently tossed around the word in the domain of business worldwide. Even though the basic notion surrounding communication appears quite simple, communication is associated with various complex concerns. The first response that comes to mind when thinking of communication refers to the transfer of information from the sender to the recipient. However, communication is much more than just an act of moving information from one person, group, or place to another. So, the most basic definition of communication directly refers to the process of interaction between two parties that involves understanding and exchange of meaning. It is easier to understand communication by breaking down its definition into significant terms in it. By ‘process’, you can understand that communication is a dynamic activity and has to adapt to environmental factors and elements of the process itself.
The next component in communication refers to ‘understanding,’ which showcases a comparison of perception or interpretation of a message with the information you already have. The following component in the definition of communication is exchanging. You have some information, you share it with others, and in return, the other person shares information with you. The information could be feedback or response or new information altogether. That brings the final component in the definition of communication i.e., meaning. Participants in a communication ‘process’ have to ‘understand’ and ‘exchange,’ ‘meaning,’ or information.
5. Explain the process of communication.
Answer: The most promising explanation for the process of communication could be evident in the outline of the important components of the process. The communication process depends prominently on the components such as source, message, channel, receiver, feedback, environment, context, and interference. All the components have a crucial role in determining the efficiency of the process of communication. The source is responsible for developing, creating, and sending the message. The message is the information, meaning, or stimulus that the sender or source produces for the audience or receiver. The channel is the medium through which the message moves from the source to the receiver. The receiver is responsible for receiving the message of the sender or source, followed by its analysis and interpretation with intended as well as unintended perspectives of the sender or source. The feedback refers to the receiver’s intended or unintended response to a message by the source or sender. The environment component in the communication process refers to the physical and psychological environment in which the process of communication happens.
The context part of communication directly refers to the overall setting of the communication process alongside the involved parties’ expectations. The final aspect of the communication process is interference. Interference could be anything that is responsible for modifying or blocking the intended meaning of a message by the source or sender.
6. Explain the email and video conferencing?
Answer: Email is basically the short form of electronic mail and is an important requirement for enterprise communications. Email is basically electronic information on a computer that could be exchanged among users through telecommunications networks. The basic explanation of email states that it is an electronic message that could contain either text, images, attachments, or files. The email could be transferred through a network to a particular individual or a group.
Video conferencing is the process in which two users can participate in visual communication. Video conferencing also focuses considerably on the real-time transmission of audio and video content. Technical aspects of video conferencing involve endpoints such as PCs or telepresence systems, video conferencing servers, peripherals such as a microphone, webcam, and others, and the software infrastructure. It is basically a modern tool for improving the efficiency of business communication and speeding up decision-making processes.
7. What do you understand by the term departmentation?
Answer: Departmentation is the basic theme underlying the foundation of the organizational structure of an enterprise. It is the process of dividing the work of an enterprise into smaller components followed by their re-arrangement into larger units or departments on the grounds of similarity in features. The creation of different departments is one of the general requirements that emerge with the organization’s growth in size. Various scholars have pointed out different definitions of departmentation, albeit while referring to the same theme of dividing a large unit into smaller, simple, and easily manageable units.
8. What role does communication play in decision making?
Answer: Communication is more than just an instrument for sharing information in an organization. It has a formidable influence on decision making with various precedents to prove the same. Communication is responsible for improving an understanding of the extent of complexity in the decisions of the enterprise. Communication is also a vital tool for conflict resolution, thereby resulting in the reduction of stress among employees. Subsequently, team members can work amicably on the identification of problems and the suggested alternatives for the same. Communication efficiency also improves the assessment of available alternatives, thereby resulting in higher probabilities for arriving on ideal decisions.
9. What are the various barriers in the effective listening?
Answer: The common barriers to effective listening are excessive talking, fear, distractions, misunderstanding, noise, interruptions, fake attention, and expecting other participants to share personal values and beliefs. It is not uncommon that people don’t like to communicate with an individual who talks incessantly without listening to them. Talking constantly could also be perceived as a sign of aggression in many cases. Fear could also prevent people from effective listening as they become more defensive. Physical, visual, auditory, or mental distractions can also be critical in disturbing a listener’s attention. Misunderstandings of the speaker’s message can also be the primary reasons for losing interest in the message. Faking attention is also a prominent barrier to effective listening. Most important of all, lack of open-mindedness and expecting the speaker to have the same values and beliefs as yours could also restrict effective listening.
10. What is the concept of attitudes?
Answer: Attitude is one of the prominent factors that shape up organizational behavior. It basically implies a neural or mental state of awareness, developed through experience. The state of awareness has a direct and dynamic influence on a person’s response to different situations, events, and people. One can simply understand attitudes as the total outcome of an individual’s feelings, bias, preferences, threats, fears, preconceived notions, and ideas.
11. How do attitudes affect behavior?
Answer: The impact of attitudes on an individual’s behavior could be negative or positive. Interestingly, an individual may not always be aware of their attitude or the impact of their attitude on their behavior. Positive attitudes towards work and peers such as friendliness and satisfaction can exert a positive influence on their surroundings. People with a positive attitude could deliver higher productivity and are more active. The positive attitude of individuals is manifested in their behavior as they work to improve their surroundings’ mood. On the other hand, people with negative attitudes such as boredom or discontentment would also showcase negative behavior.
12. What are the sources of understanding?
Answer: Sources of understanding human behavior are primarily vested on the three factors of emotion, knowledge, and desire. Emotions are the outcomes of prominent internal and external events in the life of an individual. As a result, emotions can initiate action, and without the ideal balance, emotions could create a distorted evaluation of reality. Knowledge of the context and participants also influences the understanding of an individual regarding human behavior. The final source for understanding is desire or the conviction to listen and participate in a process of understanding. The commitment of an individual to understanding information and another person’s behavior is a significant source of understanding.
13. What is commerce? What are its elements?
Answer: Commerce generally refers to the process of large-scale buying and selling of products or services by large businesses. In simple words, any exchange of services, products, or anything of value between different individuals or businesses classifies as commerce. When a business sells a particular product and a consumer purchases it, it qualifies as a transaction. On the other hand, commerce encompasses all the transactions associated with the product’s sales and purchases in an economy. Electronic commerce has completely changed the approaches for commerce among nations. The significant elements of successful e-commerce include supply chain management, warehousing, product acquisition, financial security, transaction flexibility, and customer support. The evolution of eCommerce has completely revised the general notions surrounding commerce and continues to establish new benchmarks for permeating different industries.
14. Write Short Note –
i.) International Communication
International Communication literally gives away its meaning. It basically implies communication between the two nations. International communication basically happens between governments or specifically, government representatives. International communication scope generally includes issues and topics related to nations and larger problems in trade and conflict resolution. The interplay of behavior and international communication is clearly evident as political, economic, cultural, and legal systems dictate and guide parties’ behavior in international communication. Furthermore, ethical perspectives also have a crucial role in dictating the effectiveness of international communication.
ii.) Fax or Facsimile
Fax has been one of the oldest forms of telecommunication and was developed to facilitate the telephonic transfer of printed material. Users have to scan the original document with a fax machine. The fax machine converts the contents of the document, including text as well as images, into a single graphic image in the form of a bitmap. Information travels as electrical signals to the telephone number of the recipient of a fax message. The fax machine of the recipient takes the coded graphic image and develops a printed version of the document on paper. Despite being an old technology, fax is still one of the top methods of communication followed by businesses worldwide. Countries such as Germany and Japan have prevalent dominance of the use of faxing alongside notable industries in the US such as financial services and healthcare. One of the prominent benefits of fax which have been able to sustain its credibility as a tool for business communication is its adaptability. Fax servers and cloud-based fax servers showcase the potential of fax as a long-term, trustworthy method for business communication.
iii.) SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a commonly used tool for strategy development. It is a basic outline of the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for an enterprise in a specific market. Businesses can use the SWOT analysis tool for identifying the internal and external factors alongside the evaluation of existing and future potential. In addition, SWOT analysis could also help businesses in finding out the ideal safeguards against potential risks and employ mitigation measures. The most important aspect of SWOT analysis is the diversity of its applications. Businesses can use it for a specific product, a potential market, or the industry. For example, the SWOT analysis of the Coca-Cola Company in 2015 showcased its brand name and distribution network as strengths while listing foreign currency fluctuations as weaknesses.
15. What do you understand by précis? Why do we need précis? What are the uses of preci-writing? What are the essential points of good précis? Give some steps in précis writing?
Answer: A précis is basically the summarized version of an article, book, text, speech, or another form of information. In many cases, a précis is also referred to as an executive summary, abstract, or synopsis. The précis portrays the views and tone of the author with coverage of essential points in the piece of information. A précis is not just an outline or selection of important sentences in the passages. Furthermore, you cannot pass off a collection of disconnected statements in a passage as a précis.
The basic factor that establishes the need for précis is to understand the ‘gist’ of a passage of information. Writing a précis showcases that the reader can summarize the information they gained from a passage with the author’s perspective. The restriction on limits in précis writing enables a directed focus on the passage’s tone and topics.
The most primary use of précis writing is to direct the reader’s attention to the theme and context of the passage. This is a helpful initiative for addressing the concerns of careless reading that may leave certain points unattended. So, précis writing develops an individual’s capability to read passages of information carefully with concentration to derive the ideal input for writing a précis. In addition, précis writing is also a promising contributor to the overall writing skills of an individual. Writing précis helps an individual express their thoughts with better clarity, efficiency, and conciseness. As a result, people could find better words and sentence structures to logically and concisely present their comprehension.
The foremost traits of good précis are clarity, precision, and simplicity. The writer must use their own words to showcase their understanding of the passage in a concise manner. A well-written précis should have a logical relationship between the sentences with a properly defined view. A good précis also showcases coherence with the use of linking devices to present a portrayal of the ideas in the exact order as the original passage.
Some of the recommended best practices for steps in précis writing are as follows,
- Begin the précis with a focus on the main theme of the passage as the stage to present vital points.
- Now, illustrate facts, steps, methods, findings by the author in the passage.
- Establish the purpose of the author and researchers in presenting the information in the passage.
Final Notes
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