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Case Study: The Logistic Company

Most of the courier and cargo companies, when they send their total consignments
(load in their language) to a particular station, they do it with advance intimation
by way of sending E-mail (pre-alert message in their language). ABC Logistics was
no exception to this procedure. Whenever they sent their load by evening flight to
Mumbai, they sent pre-alert to Mumbai giving details of the load like flight number,
total number of bags, total weight of the bags etc. Night-duty Airport Executive at
Mumbai Airport use to retrieve the load and use to confirm the receipt of the load to
the Bangalore office.
The arrangement worked fine for months and even years. Airport Executive
continued to get the pre-alert message and after retrieval of the load, he continued
to confirm the receipt of the load.
On one fine night, Satish who was on night-duty at Mumbai airport observed that
neither any pre-alert has been received from Bangalore . Nor Bangalore office had
sent any load to them. He tried calling Bangalore office. But it was well past
midnight and there was no response from Bangalore office. Security guard on duty
told to the Airport Executive that nobody is available in the Bangalore office and
staff on duty had left already. Satish knew that generally Ravi works in the night
time. He tried calling on Ravi s mobile number but it was switched off.
Satish had no other option except calling Asst Manager Operations of Bangalore ,
Charles. Charles tried contacting Ravi but he observed same what Satish had
observed, that Ravi s mobile was off.
This was unique situation. He was concerned about what had happened. Charles
tried calling other operations staffs to find out whether anybody knew home of
Ravi . But none of them knew where Ravi s house was. Charles was disappointed.
Though he had disturbed couple of staffs in the dead of the night, there was no
much headway. Charles was on the horns of dilemma. Should I defer the matter for
early morning or settle right away? After deliberating for couple of minutes, he
chose latter.
As a last resort, Charles called Hari, HR Executive. Charles explained situation to
him and told him to go to office and find out address of Ravi from the personal
documents of Ravi . By the time it was 01:30 hours and Hari was aghast[1] to find
out that he was told to go to office at dead of the night.
Willy-nilly, Hari went to his office, pulled out personal documents of Ravi and noted
his address. Later he confirmed the address to Charles.
Charles had no option but to commute 15 KM in order to go to house of Ravi . He
reached Ravi s home at 02:15 hours.

For Ravi , it was a strange experience to find out that his manager was knocking his
door at well past midnight. When questioned why he did not send the pre-alert, he
just told that very simple, today there was excess booking by other logistic
companies and there was no space, so cargo officials of all the airlines refused to
accept our load. And since no load was connected, I did not send pre-alert as well.
However, I have done booking for morning flight and load will be connected through
morning flight.
Charles was damn infuriated by his answer. But his fate had stored a little more
frustration for him as while returning home from Ravi s home, night duty patrol
cops caught for him driving his two-wheeler without driving license.
***
Read the above case study carefully and find out the communication issues
involved in it.

Case Study The Wet Floor

Sushma works in Infosoft Solutions Pvt Ltd. She works there as Project Leader.
Occasionally her job demands coming early for her duties or stay till late evening
hours.
Once she was handling 2 projects simultaneously and on one such day she had
convened a meeting with her team members regarding project delivery. She had
called her team members at 0800 hours.
Sushma is a disciplinarian and generally she follows duty timings strictly. Discipline
starts with me, was her firm principle. She had made a habit of coming 5 minutes
early at least. However, on that day she could not make meeting time of 0800
hours and she was worried of her reputation could be at stake.
Time was 0805 and she reached main gate of her company. Hurriedly she swiped
her card and rushed towards board room. That time few housemen were doing
cleaning. One of the housemen had spread soap solution on the floor. Unaware of
what is on the floor, she continued to rush to the board room. In hurry, Sushma
slipped her foot. The floor was made of marbles and soap solution was sprinkled
over it. The floor had become quite slippery. Sushma, could not control her balance
on the slippery floor and fell down. Slippery floor dragged her couple of feet further.
The impact was so strong that she wailed loudly. Her team members rushed to help

her. Somehow she could get up with the help of her team members. Considering
her wailing because of pain, she was taken to the hospital. In the hospital it was
discovered that her hip bone was broken. Later she was immobile for about two
months because of hip injury.
Later in investigation, it was revealed that the houseman who was cleaning the
floor had not put the display board Caution: Floor is Wet.
***
Read the above case study carefully and find out the communication issues
involved in it.

Case Study
This short case study shows how even the simplest misunderstandings between cultures can
affect relationships, and even cause suspicion and mistrust.
James writes:
Several years ago, I trained an Italian woman, a lawyer, who had recently begun a one-year
secondment at her bank's branch in the City of London. On the first day I asked her how she got
on with her British colleagues. She was fairly non-committal, and said "Ok".
By the middle of the week, she had opened up completely, and over lunch confessed that she was
having a really hard time with her colleagues. "I'm very open with them, and I've told them about
myself, but I get nothing back. Why are the British so closed and unfriendly? I don't think they
like me, and I'm having problems working with them. As a trainer who has worked with Italians
for many years, I understood where the problem lay.
On our return to the training room, I suggested we enact a typical conversation between her and
her colleagues. She agreed, and began talking. After ten minutes of speaking about herself, while
I sat in silence, I stopped her. Her immediate reaction was: "This is exactly what happens. I talk,
and my colleagues say nothing. Why are you so cold?"
I explained that English is like a game of ping-pong. We communicate in short exchanges,
largely through asking questions, and giving our counterpart time and space to respond. Ping: I
ask you a question. Pong: You respond or ask me one back. We are not comfortable with long
statements: we get bored and we find it difficult to interrupt, because in British culture it is not
very polite. In the British context, we ask questions to show interest and to establish a
relationship. People who only talk about themselves are seen as egotistical.
For Italians, on the other hand, communication is a series of statements, where the listener is free
to interrupt with their point of view or information. To show you are open and willing to
establish a good relationship with your listener, you give a lot of detail about yourself. Someone

who asks too many questions before the relationship has been cemented is viewed with
suspicion.
I discussed all this with the Italian lawyer, and suggested she try to adapt her style when she went
back to the office. I recommended asking lots of questions to show interest, and to limit what she
told them; instead, wait until they asked her.
She agreed to do this, and two weeks later came back on a follow-up day of training. She
bounced into the training room, a completely different person. "I have made the breakthrough,"
she said. "I have tried asking lots of questions, and it really works. They seem to be much more
comfortable with me, and have really opened up to me. We are getting on really well now, and
I'm making friends with my colleagues."
What can we learn from this story? Firstly, what is normal to you in your home culture, may not
be normal when you do business with a different culture. Secondly, it is essential to learn how
people from other cultures communicate, and to adapt your style as far as you can, when you are
communicating in a different culture, while still being true to yourself and your values. There
was no suggestion that she try to become British, but to become a bit of a chameleon when
working in England, and to use the communication style that the British feel comfortable with.
Equally, for a British person working in Italy, adapting to how Italians communicate would be
essential to be able to work successfully there.
The Italian lawyer needed good relationships with her British counterparts. By learning how to
communicate with them, she was able to establish and cement those relationships.

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