Prelim Examination for Effective Communication

Nam: Sarmiento, Aljun T. Time Schedule: 12:30-1:30 Score:

Part I. Creating Communication Scenarios and Communication Analysis

1. “Where Do I (or Have I) Worked” Communication Analysis: Make a narrative on the

communication process/communication type (how communication is done) on the organization
for which you currently or previously have worked. Introduce us briefly to this organization and
to your role within it (title, task performed etc.).

I work at Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue as a legal assistat.

I mostly communicate with my direct supervisor, whom I am answerable to in the project

site. The communication is usually informal and done verbally. When I have to contact the main
office, it is usually done via telephone or though e-mails. I only usually communicate with the
latter when there are report to be submitted or when I need to update them with regard to the
employment status of the employees in the project site. We occasionally have meetings with the
Project in Charge, Vis-Min Regional Head of MDC or Administrative Department Head of Cebu at
Pag-Ibig Bldg. across Ayala Center Cebu. During those meetings they are usually the ones talking
about what they expect of us and how they want things to be done.

Then answer the questions that follow:

a. What are the causes of Communication Breakdown in your organization?

Just like other work places, we also have a lot of politics in the project site. Gossip is
one of the common causes of communication breakdown in the site. People talking behind
other people’s back instead of talking to the person they have problem with causes a lot of
issues.

Superiority complex, is one of the things that causes communication issue in the
site, just like any other work place. Most superiors refuse to listen to suggestions or accept
their own mistakes, most especially from their subordinates. Sometime they even pawn off
their mistakes to their subordinates.

b. What are some examples of Communication problems and Bad communication in your
work place?

Like when the Project in Charge reprimands the Administrative Staff for not getting
the manpower that they need on order to finish the project on time. When in truth and in
fact it was his fault why so many of the workers go AWOL because he forced them to do
overtime even if they were clearly to tired to do so.

There was also time when some of the Architects and Engineers refuse to renew
their contract because they were promised a salary increase upon contract renewal but did
 not. Which I completely understand because you cannot just pay an award-winning
architect who has built six-star hotels if foreign countries 25,000php/month.

There was also times when my supervisor asked me to place a recorder in the
project site clinic because he thought that there was something inappropriate happening
there during lunch breaks. I refused and told him that he can do it himself if thinks it was
the appropriate thing to do.

c. How did you manage to solve the communication problems in your

workplace/organization?

In the first example, we were not able to resolve the issue is terms of
communication. All that we were able to do was conduct a mass hiring selecting workers
who would most likely to be able to tolerate the demands of the Project in Charge.

In the second example I would inform main office of the engineer/architect’s refusal
to renew their contract along with the reason for the refusal. More often than not main
office advices me to increase the amount indicated in the contract and present it to the
engineer/architect. In these circumstances the employee usually signs the contract unless
they’ve receives a better offer from another company.

In the third example I merely explained to my supervisor that I don’t think that what
he wanted was appropriate and suggested that what we could do is to not allow the other
employees, aside from the project site nurse, to stay in the clinic during lunch break.

2. Create at least two scenarios (personal experiences) illustrating the following models of
communication:
a. Berlo’s Model

a.1. An Englishman goes to America for a vacation. He meets a typical American who shows
he around the city. The American brought the Englishman to a taco food truck. The
Englishman was hesitant to eat food from a food truck because in their culture these are
not places that you could trust to be compliant to health standards, but the American
convinced him to try anyway.

The Englishman’s refusal to eat from a food truck, in this example, is an example of
cultural barrier between the source and the receiver.

a.2. A student of applied physics talks to a business management student about the string
theory. The business management student was dumbfounded throughout the whole
conversation since it is not something that he knows much of.

The business management student’s lack of knowledge about applied physics is the
barrier between the source and the receiver.
 b. Schramm’s Model

b.1. Tom invites Jerry to watch a movie. Jen neither accepts nor refuses to go with Tom to
watch a movie.

In this example the lack of response from Jerry makes the cycle of communication of
incomplete because under this model whenever the information reaches the recipient, it
becomes his responsibility to give the feedback and let him know if he has downloaded the
message in exactly the same manner the speaker wanted. If he is not clear with anything or
has any doubts, it must be cleared with the speaker. Thus, when the speaker conveys any
message to the listener, the listener, decodes the message and once again passes the
message to the speaker after understanding it and completing the full circle.

b.2. Spongebob sees Patrick across the street and shouts to come by his house to watch the
game. Patrick shouts back asking if he should bring anything to eat. Just as Spongebob shouts
back saying that he doesn’t need to bring anything, a motorcycle passed the street between
them. So, Patrick thought that he heard Spongebob say that he should bring food. And then
they both nodded going on their own way.

In this example the is interference in communication when the motorcycle passed

casusing miscommunication between Spongebob and Patrick.

Interference is a factor in Schramm’s Model which is taken into consideration during the
communication process which may cause misunderstanding.

c. Shannon-Weaver’s Model

c.1. In a class activity the students were divided into 5 groups and played a game of message
relay. The initial sentence to be relayed was “How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if
a woodchuck could chuck wood?”. But because everyone was rushing to finish the relay, the
message was altered and the final receiver only heard “How Chuck chucked wood”

In this example the there is noise in the form time constraint in finishing the game first
which altered the initial message sent by the source to the final receiver. The noise is a factor
considered in this model of communication.

c.2. A mother calls her son who is in a place where the network signal is not strong. The
mother asks if her son will be coming home for dinner. But because of the poor signal, what
the son understood was that his mother was asking him to bring dinner.

In this example the communication barrier is the poor network signal which caused
misunderstanding between the mother and the son.

Part II. Create/Provide your own interpretation/insights on the following sayings and integrate real life
communication situations:
a. “No man is an island, no man stands alone”

Humans are social beings. We can not make it happily in life without interactions.

When we are happy or sad we usually share our emotions with our family and/or friends.

b. “Speech is the voice of the heart.” – Anna Quindlen

Through your speech you can open honest communication that’s deep within your heart to
the people who matter to you most.

When you get into a misunderstanding with a friend because he/she said something which
may be offensive to you but he/she didn’t realize that it was, you find a way to explain to that
person how you feel about it in the hopes that he/she would understand you point of view.

c. “Your eyes say it when your lips fail to express it”

Sometimes our actions may be different from what we actually feel. But more often than not,
the people who care for us deeply can tell by the way we look how we really feel.

Like a person may go about his/her day as he/she usually would even though he/she has a
problem that’s eating him/her up inside. A person who cares of knows the other person well may
be able to tell that there’s something wrong simply from the look on his face.

d. “No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Culture should not be for any one particular race. It should be shared and so everyone can get
knowledge and benefit from it.

If we keep our Filipino delicacies exclusive to Filipinos there is a chance of it disappearing

through time because of globalization.

e. “The art of communication if the language of leadership” – James Humes

If you know how to express yourself properly, you will have other people’s attention. And if
they so desire, they will follow you.

Like in a group activity, if you have a good leader who knows how to convey his/her ideas
clearly, it will be easier for the members to do their respective task which would result to a
successful outcome.