The First Major Communication Barriers That Can Be Observed From This Case

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SUGGESTED ANSWERS FOR AUG 2012 PAPER
1a) the first major communication barrier that can be observed from this case would be perception. Perception is a person’s view on reality, coming from different background; no two people would have the same interpretation of about on situation. From this case, it can be seen that both Shirley and Nick felt that it is alright to omit Nick’s past to the company so long as the same crime is not committed again. However, coming from a different background, Peter disagrees on this view and decides to speak to Michael, the vice-president of the company about Nick’s situation without revealing Nick’s identity. This greatly disadvantages Nick’s position, as he had no chance to defend himself or speak up for himself, as his story is being retold by Peter, which may distort the message, as it would be infused with Peter’s reinterpretation of the subject, giving rise to the another communication barrier: Number of links. Without clarification of the case, Michael jumped into conclusions that Peter was trying to report about Nick to him, thus firing Nick as a result.
The second major communication barrier would be Status. Status refers to a person’s rank in a company; this may cause miscommunication as subordinates tend to rephrase or omit information, telling their superiors only things they believe the boss wants to hear. In this case, Peter, when speaking to Michael about the situation may have omitted certain information, hence misguiding Michael into inferring that Peter thinks Nick have committed the crime of stealing in the company. Thus, Michael took things into his own hands and fired Nick without further clarifications with Nick and Peter, causing Nick to lose his job, and the friendship with Peter. The last communication barrier would be emotional blocks. Emotional blocks restricts a person’s ability to think clearly, hence message can be conveyed or interpreted wrongly. In this case, Nick was furious for losing his job, and perceived that Peter had betrayed him by telling on him to the company behind his back. Without listening to Peter’s explanation, Nick punched him and left the office. This barrier did not help in Nick’s situation, as without clarification with Peter, neither party knew what went wrong, and no further actions could have been done to improve Nick’s position.
Other barriers that you may state are:
Closed mind = Peter wasn’t open to Shirley’s view and advice because it was opposite to what he had in mind. Thus, he chose to ignore her advice as he felt that she didn’t understand the issue.
Inference= Nick inferred that Peter, being a good friend would keep his secret to himself but Peter proved to be untrustworthy and spoke of Nick’s past criminal record to Shirley and Michael.
Another good answer:
(a)
• Inferences – state what is inference first
Peter has made a wrong assumption regarding Nick. He assumes that if a person has stolen in the past, it is likely that he will do it again. This assumption made Peter consider whether or not he should tell the truth about Nick to his employer,

• Perception- state what is perception first.
No two people have the same perception of reality. Given that both Peter and Shirley are managers, they each have their own separate perception or interpretation about Nick’s situation. For Shirley, she thinks that Nick stealing in the past is not big deal since it does not affect the present. As for Peter, he does not agree with Shirley and has a strong sense of justice. He feels that it is not right that Nick can tell a major lie and yet be able to still move on in his career.

• Status Effects –
Status refers to the attributes that rank and relate individuals in a group. A Vice-President is of a higher rank than a manager in a company. Peter went to speak to the Vice-President about the situation without revealing that it is Nick. However, the Vice-President used his higher authority to force Peter into revealing that it was Nick by
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