1. Communication Stories
Lecture 11

2. Cultural Divide
Abe, a man from the Philippines, joined an American company
Asked questions about people’s family and childhood
Other employees seemed offended and tried to avoid him
Why are the other employees trying to avoid him?

3. Cultural Divide Answer:
- The other employees may not be used to talking about those things with people they don’t know well.
- Abe should try to talk about subjects that are less personal for now.

4. Face and Respect for Different Levels
David’s company is trying to make a deal with a Chinese company.
At what should have been the last meeting, David criticizes the Chinese manager in front of his employees.
David tells the manager that he smokes too much and is a bad influence on his employees.

5. Face and Respect for Different Levels
The manager replies by calling the foreign company “foolish” and leaves the meeting in anger.
What caused the meeting to end?

6. Face and Respect for Different Levels
Answer:
- Dave did not understand the importance of face in Chinese culture.
- In the US, employees at different levels sometimes are treated like equals.

7. Confused and Bored
Betsy had to give a one hour presentation to her teammates every week.
Every week they would seem to be listening, but would not remember the important parts.
They also often seem bored and confused even before she told the team her main points in the middle of the presentation.
Why don’t her teammates understand?

8. Confused and Bored Answer: -Her main points are in the middle.
-They should be in the beginning and end as well.
- Research shows people remember the beginning and end best.
- If main points are not made clear at the beginning, the audience may well be confused.

9. Look Up Please
Robert has worked at the company for four years and has just been promoted into lower management.
He is frequently asked to give presentations about his divisions work.
For presentations he usually just prepares a report and reads it to everyone.
Recently he has heard other manager say that he is not a good manager.

10. Look Up Please Why do other managers not seem to respect Robert?
Answer:
-Reading reports as a “presentation” has hurt Robert’s credibility
- Other managers think his reading is just a waste of time
- Robert should improve his communication skills to gain their respect.

11. “Team Spirit”
Stephen often worked in problem solving teams at his company.
While on these teams, whenever he ran into a disagreement he would argue to the end.
If the team did not agree that his ideas were correct, he would refuse to help them.
Today he was called into his boss’ office and fired.

12. “Team Spirit” Why was Stephen fired? Answer: - He lacked “team spirit”
- It is good to express one’s ideas, but not good to assume one is always right.
- Even if he disagreed with the team he should have compromised and kept working.

13. Making Customers Feel Satisfied
Every time a customer complains about his products Li Weiguo becomes angry and tells them to go to his competitors
He does not understand why customers would be upset because he believes his products are the best
Li Weiguo’s company has the lowest customer satisfaction rate in the industry

14. Making Customers Feel Satisfied
Why are Li’s ratings so low?
Answer:
- Instead of politely trying to solve problems, Li tells the customers to buy someone else’s product.
-Politeness is key.
-Anger is never a suitable way to deal with a customer.

15. Looking Good to the Public
Jerry’s company’s competitor spends five percent of its profits helping local people.
The competitor also has a special team to focus on ways to improve the company’s public image.
Media studies suggest that the competitor is seen as “good for the community” while Jerry’s company is not well-known

16. Looking Good to the Public
Are their advantages for companies that help the public?
Answer:
-image of “goodness” in normal people’s minds.
-people will likely choose the good product
-especially important for companies the public does not already like or know

17. Difficult Questions
An explosion happened at Nancy’s company killing 8 workers.
Nancy is the Public Relations representative.
When asked questions about what happened, she first told the media that it was all a lie created by a competitor.
After the media showed her proof of the deaths, she refused any more questions.

18. Difficult Questions Nancy was fired from her job the next day.
Why was Nancy fired?

19. Difficult Questions Answer:
By trying to pretend that nothing happened Nancy destroyed the credibility of the company and her own.
By refusing to answer other questions Nancy showed the company’s lack of concern at an important time.
Since Nancy harmed the company deeply and lost her own credibility she was fired.

20. We need time to prepare
Whenever Wang Doufeng comes up with an idea for a new product he immediately calls a team meeting
After explaining the idea the team usually says little or nothing
One day he asked a team member why they never shared ideas with him. The team member said they never feel ready.

21. We need time to prepare
Eventually, Wang Doufeng stopped calling meetings thinking they were a waste of time.
Why weren’t Wang Doufeng’s meetings productive?

22. We need time to prepare Answer:
- People need time to prepare for meetings if they are going to offer useful advice.
-Wang should consider handing out an agenda and other information days or at least hours before the meetings.

23. Don’t be too confident
Stanly knew all the other candidates for the job and knew his resume was easily the best.
He therefore expected to get the job no matter how he did on the interview.
He therefore spent most of the time just asking about the company and the salary.
When the interviewer asked a question he would just answer quickly.

24. Don’t be too confident He never heard back from the company.
Why might Stanley not have gotten the job?

25. Don’t be too confident Answer:
- Because Stanley expected to get the job he did not do what should be done for interviews.
-He should have already studied the company a little before the interview.
-He should not have talked about salary until it was clear he would get the job.

26. Email credibility loss
Bob sends out tens of s a day.
To make them feel “more human” he often adds   and other smileys.
He also attaches jokes that he thinks are funny.
Many of Bob’s overseas clients and even his coworkers don’t think the jokes are funny.
Bob’s manager wants Bob to stop.

27. Email credibility loss
Why does Bob’s manager want him to stop?
Answer:
-Smile faces and jokes may be okay among friends, but not where informality will lose respect.
-Some foreign clients and new customers might be especially affected.

28. The problems with cheating
John was asked to write a report on how other companies have improved customer satisfaction.
He was told that the report would be shared with an important newspaper.
He found several similar reports on the internet and copied them into his larger report.

29. The problems with cheating
It was great to be able to get done with the report so quickly.
The next day John gave the report to his boss.
A few hours later John was called into the manager’s office.
The manager said, “It’s a great report. Too bad I have read it before. You’re fired.”

30. The problems with cheating
Why was John fired?
Answer:
- It is illegal to copy directly from others’ work without a reference
- Even when you do use a reference you can only use a little
- Copying material for his report resulted in a big loss in credibility and trust
- It also put the company at legal risk

31. Too much extra stuff Frank does not really know how to write reports.
When he is asked to write reports he puts everything he can find that seems related in.
When he feels like there is enough information he gives his boss the report.
His manager has ordered him to take writing classes or leave the company.

32. Too much extra stuff Why is his boss ordering him to study writing?
Answer:
- Writing is not a matter of just putting in a lot of information.
- Writing involves selecting the right information and organizing it in the right way.

33. Yes, yes, yes
Sam has been in negotiation with some Japanese business whose company he wants to buy.
Every time he asks them a question they always reply positively.
After Sam prepares the contract according to what Sam thinks they have agreed to, the Japanese look very surprised.

34. Yes, yes, yes Why do the Japanese look surprised? Answer:
- Some of their “yeses” were actually “nos”
- Sam probably comes from a culture that relies more on words to communicate ideas like “yes” and “no”
- The Japanese often rely more on other ways to communicate disagreement.

35. Good and Bad Letters
Two companies sell the same product at the same price
To sell this product they both use the same method of mailing letters to possible customers
Company A, however, makes three times as many sales as Company B
Why might Company A be more successful?

36. Good and Bad Letters Answer:
- There are a lot of possibilities but one big one is the letters that the two companies write.
- Company A’s letters may create a better image of the company and product
- It may also have created a better logical and emotional argument for the use of the product.