1. Chapter 7
Setting your job goals:
Before writing your resume, applying for a position, or schedule an
appointment for an interview you must set your job goals.
Jobs goals can be expressed as the type of position you want and the
outcomes you want from your employment.
Identify the following elements:
•types of positions you would enjoy
benefits you expect from a position
your salary requirements
•types of employers you would like to work for
• types of industries you would like to work in
•lifestyle you expect from the position
Starting places to use for job research:
•The internet: find job boards, view a company’s website, view online
profiles and prospectuses, locate news articles, and consult professional
organizations.
•Company employees, friends, and relatives - to gather insider information
on a specific organization.
•Company tours: to gather information on work habits, dress code, and
departmental interaction.
•Campus recruitment office: to determine the success rate of other grads
who have been placed with a particular company or to research and
schedule appointments with companies that are interviewing on campus.
2. Company Tours:
Tours are often available at large companies like CNN, BMW, and warner brothers. They are
useful for gathering information about an organization, while touring pat close attention to
interaction of employees, the dress code, and the working environment.
If t a tour is not offered called human recourses and ask for a tour of the organization. If
taking a tour is not an option ask human recourses for some suggestions on getting to know
the company.
Campus Recruitment Office:
The campus recruitment office at your college or university can be an excellent source of
information about prospective employers, dressing for an interview, targeting résumés, and
more. College students looking for a job should visit their college recruitment office at least
once. The college recruitment office may be able to put you in touch with alumni working
for a company that interests you.
Targeting your Resume:
A résumé is a formal statement of who you are. It is part autobiography, part work history,
and part sales presentation. The primary goal of a résumé and cover letter is to compel the
reader to contact you for an interview.
3. Chapter 8
• The Downside to Information Technology: These days, because information is a
commodity of primary value in a global economy, the effects of falling behind in information
technology have never been more potentially devastating. Companies with well-developed
information technology systems and the economic resources to train people to use them
become more powerful, and those who rely on out dated modes of accessing and processing
information find they can no longer compete. Simply having technology systems is unlikely
to be enough. We must also provide intelligent ways of deciding which technologies are
needed to carry out meaningful tasks, and which technologies are less useful or merely
redundant. We must combine our ability to provide material resources with better instruction
about becoming more conscious and ethical in our professional uses of those resources.
• Cultural and Gender Differences:
The way we use information technology differs from culture to culture and between
genders. These differences include how:
•Information technology is used
•People think about technology
•Technology plays a role in managing professional relationships
4. Cultural Differences:
How a country views power distance, or how members of institutions and organizations expect
and accept the unequal distribution of power, can give us insights into how a country may view
the use of certain information technologies.In some cultures, people prefer to communicate with
technologies that have more visual cues, such as video conferencing, than communicating with
e-mail. The important thing to note is that not all cultures, even within the United States, view
the use of information technology in the same way, and it is important to remain conscious of
this when communicating with others.
Gender, Class, and Digital Divide Differences:
Differences are based on gender, social class, and familiarity/willingness to learn to use new
forms of digital communication. Gender differences impact the introduction and diffusion of
information technologies. Women tend to experience greater levels of anxiety than men do when
it comes to implementing new information technologies, and user-friendliness matters more to
women than to men. But women tend to adopt characteristically masculine usage patterns once
the technology is in place.
Women tend to place information technology within a social context. They have a greater need
for “a technological medium to convey ‘the presence’ of the communicator—her feelings and
thoughts” Women tend to want to express themselves in a medium that allows for greater
elaboration of their reasons and feelings, whereas men tend to focus primarily on the
instrumental function of mediated speech.
5. Chapter 9
When organizations place people in groups and teams without unifying goals or the training
needed to operate successfully as a team, misunderstanding and miscommunication become more
likely—and so does conflict. Conflicts may take the form of:
•clashes over contradictory goals for the group
•differences over preferred methods and strategies for carrying out the team’s work
•disagreements about perceived individual roles and hierarchy
• frustration with a lack of progress or success by the team or individually
• resentment or anger caused by one person doing the bulk of the work while others get or take
the credit
Developing Effective Leadership Strategies:
• Leadership in groups refers to a set of managerial functions.
• The real power for leadership emerges from the leader’s success with managing the
communication of the group, including:
• Choosing team members
• Clarifying individual and team goals
• Facilitating communication
• Consensus building
• Seeking and providing information
• Making assignments
• Evaluating, summarizing, and reporting
• Celebrating success
6. Seeking and providing information: A key element in team leadership is information.By
contrast, successful team leaders act as a conduit for information, allowing information to flow
freely among team members and with those outside the team while also encouraging transparency
in their work. A team cannot function in isolation from other teams or other units of an
organization, or from its customers and clients. To be a conduit, the team leader has to learn to
listen to the myriad of conversations—verbal and electronic—that flow within an organization,
and from those conversations take the information that the team needs to make good decisions,
meet its goals, and build consensus.
Consensus building: Although a good team leader recognizes that teams are made up of
individuals, he or she also knows that to move forward, the team must move forward together. It is
the task of the team leader to build understanding among team members. This may require team
members, at the team leader’s urging, to practice give and take. When conflicts or impasses occur,
a team leader needs to:
•Address the issue as soon as the conflict arises, rather than waiting until it grows into a serious
problem
•Ask team members for point of agreement
•Ask team members to listen to each other’s point of view
•Determine if there are reasonable ways to accommodate differing points or expand resources
more equitably
•Adjust schedules and assignments to alleviate conflict
•Realign goals when necessary
•Thank team members for working together to get beyond the conflict or impasse
7. Chapter 10
The Goal for your presentation: The first step for preparing a successful presentation is to choose
the goal(s) and
• desired outcome(s) that will guide it. There are five components to choosing the
• goals for a business presentation. They are:
• selecting a speech purpose and type
• developing an audience profile
• establishing outcomes
• establishing your credibility
• developing criteria that allow you to measure success
• We discuss each of these components in detail below.
• Developing an audience profile:
• An early step in organizing a presentation is to develop an audience profile. This
• step is particularly important with global audiences because you want them to get
• the most out of your presentation. A good audience profile allows you to:
• determine the needs and expectations of the audience
• establish the desired outcomes for each audience
• determine the best way to establish credibility with your audience
• establish criteria by which you can measure your success after the presentation
8. Audience Needs and Expectations: The needs and expectations of an audience
and those of the speaker are rarely the same. Do not make the mistake of assuming that your own
needs, as the speaker, should come first. They do not. You are not trying to educate or convince
yourself. Instead, the focus must be primarily on the needs and expectations of your audience.
By taking into account the needs and expectations of your audience while you
prepare, your primary need—to make a successful presentation—will be met. Successful
communicators recognize that although it is important to know what you
personally expect to get out of giving a presentation, it is even more important to
understand what your listeners expect to gain from listening to your presentation.
As in every other aspect of doing business, meeting the needs of your customers or
clients should be a primary goal.
Outcomes :are what you want to achieve as a result of your presentation. What do
you want your listeners to know, believe, or do after listening to your presentation?
In an informative presentation, the outcomes you are working toward should be to
educate or inform. Additionally, you can work toward outcomes that increase your
credibility or reputation as well as provide useful and necessary information for audience
members.
Credibility: Both types of presentations—informative and persuasive—rely on the credibility
of the speaker to be truly effective. Credibility is derived from a speaker’s perceived status,
believability, and trustworthiness with an audience. If a speaker has high credibility, the audience
will likely feel that they can believe the information presented to them, and that they can trust the
speaker to provide all of the important facts. If a speaker demonstrates low credibility, his or her
message is easily dismissed.
9. Chapter 11
Concierge persuasion: To succeed in business, we need to adopt an attitude of
“concierge” persuasion. Concierge persuasion is a persuasion of discrete problem-solving
and assiduous Service
Brutal Strategy:
Choosing a brutal strategy is appropriate when the following conditions apply:
• You are not offering the target audience a choice, yet you want to convince
them that compliance is in their best interest or is the only option available.
• Your target audience has a history of being resistant or closed to your ideas or
products.
• The needs of your target audience are less important than the outcome you are
presenting.
• You need to make the presentation in a one-on-one setting to avoid publicly
embarrassing or undermining your target audience.
• Your ability to persuade your target audience lies more with your position of
organizational authority than with your personal credibility.
• All other forms of negotiation and persuasion have failed.
• Your main goal is compliance, in the form of agreement with your position or
proposal.
10. Rational Strategy:
Choosing a rational strategy is appropriate when the following conditions apply:
• You want to lead your target audience to consensus by presenting alternatives
and then ultimately the best alternative.
• Your target audience is somewhat open to your ideas.
• Your ability to persuade your target audience relies on both your knowledge
of the subject or product and your personal credibility.
• Your main goal is consensus for your position or proposal.
Rational Emotional strategy:
Choosing a rational/emotional strategy is appropriate when the following conditions
apply:
• Your goal is a call to action.
• Your target audience is open and receptive to your ideas.
• You need to persuade your target audience that you can meet their needs,
especially when they might be unaware of what their needs are.
• Your ability to persuade your target audience lies with your ability to
meet their emotional needs and to rely on your personal credibility with
them.