Communication in the Workplace

  1. Consider a job you hold now or have held in the past, and answer questions a & b below. If you have never
    held a job, interview a friend or family member about their work experience and answer the questions from
    their standpoint.
    a. Did your employer practice any kind of employee empowerment? By empowerment, I mean giving
    employees power to make decisions, solve problems, make suggestions that are implemented, etc. If so, what
    were they? If not, why not? It’s OK to speculate a little here.
    b. What were the results of empowerment or non-empowerment? I.e., did empowerment result in improved
    performance and higher motivation, or abuses resulting from lack of supervision? Did lack of empowerment
    result in lower morale, or higher quality due to closer supervision?
  2. Describe the following at your workplace:
    a. channels of communication and
    b. conflict resolution
    For both a. and b. above, consider (but don’t limit yourself to) the following:
    Informal channels as well as formal ones.
    Do a little investigative work and chat with as many managers as you can at your workplace to discover how
    the communication and conflict resolution channels change as you move up the management ladder.
    Do you think the methods your employer uses are effective? How do these methods affect your morale? Would
    you recommend any changes?
  3. Quality is vital in all areas of business. One measure of a product's quality is the feedback a company
    receives from its customers.
    Directions: Complete the following items to learn how companies solicit customer feedback about their
    products.

  4. Select three food, personal care or other products you've recently purchased and complete the following chart.
    If no feedback options are provided on the packaging, list "none" in the right column.
    "Feedback options" means customer service telephone number or e-mail address, snail mail address, online
    survey, etc.

Sample Solution