Communicating Effectively in Organizations

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Communication Skills
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Table of Contents
The process of communication (AC 1.1)
............................................................................... 3

Why communication within organisations is sometimes not
effective (AC1.3) ...................... 4
Outline modes of communication used at for various purposes.
Please support this with an
assessment of what other organisations do and examples of that
could apply to SHDE (AC
1.2).
...............................................................................................
....................................... 6
How organisations portray themselves through their
communication. What image does SHDE
Holdings currently have? Give an assessment of other
organisations and the images they
portray through their communications (AC 2.3).
................................................................... 7
Explain formal communications systems that should be used to
communicate with customers.
Please evaluate different systems. (AC 2.1)
........................................................................... 8
Conduct an analysis of the effectiveness of social media to
Please use current examples (AC 2.2)
.................................................................................... 9
An assessment of the impact of personal relationships on

communications (AC 3.1) ............. 9
An assessment of impact of non-verbal communication on oral
communications (AC 3.2) .. 12
Assess the effectiveness of your oral presentation skills (AC
4.4) ........................................ 12
Review your written communication (AC 5.4) including the
conventions you have used (AC
3.4)
...............................................................................................
...................................... 13
Assess the impact of technology on oral and written
communication (3.3) .......................... 14
Following our discussions I wish you to produce written
documentation from this meeting
(AC 5.2)
...............................................................................................
............................... 15
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The process of communication (AC 1.1)

Communication is a process conveying intended meanings to a
desired person. An effective
communication comprises of four crucial elements, which
include sender, receiver, media
and message. The Sender is a person who has an idea that he or
she plans conveying to other
person. The receiver is the person who is intended to receive the
message which was sent by
the sender. The media refer to the channel that transfers
message from the sender to receiver.
Finally, message refers to the information or idea that the
sender wants to convey. Once the
receiver gets the message, he or she immediately gets back to
sender through the same media
or some other media. The process of giving response is,
sometimes, called as feedback to the
original message. The purpose of the communication is not
served if the receiver does not
understand the meaning of the message in the same way that the
sender wants.
Example-1: A personal interview conducted by business
manager with a job seeker is a best
example for a communication process.

Example-2: The negotiation meeting that takes place between a
sales executive and customer
in a conference room is also considered as an example for
communication process.
Schramm Model of Communication
The major purpose of the communication is to provide
information to somebody or to gain
information from somebody. Communication would also play an
important among teams to
generate ideas, develop team cohesion and inspire team
members to contribute to the
organizational goals. The communication structures can be
classified into several types which
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include Vertical Communication and Horizontal
Communication. The vertical
communication structure emphasizes on message travelling
towards downward direction
from top or upward direction from bottom. The communication

is also classified into internal
communication and external communication. The internal
communication refers to the
communication which takes place within the organizational
settings. On the other hand,
external communication refers to the communication that takes
place between organization
and its external stakeholders such as customers, investors,
creditors, suppliers and
government.
Why communication within organisations is sometimes not
effective (AC1.3)
Lack of Clarity in Communication: The clarity of
communication would be missed due to
factors such as differences in languages and poor writing skills.
For example, the difference
in native languages between the team leader and team members
can act as a major
communication barrier at the workplace. The team leader is
expected to communicate the
organizational aim to the team members on regular basis to keep
them motivated. If the team
leader does not know the language in which the team members
are comfortable, he would not

be able to interact with the team members comfortably and thus
fail to motivate them (Wright
and Noe, 1995).
Interpersonal Relationships- Personal conflict which develops
prejudice among people is
one of the important aspects in the personal relationships. Since
organizations are recruiting
people from difference races, religions, backgrounds and
regions, the scope for prejudice
among employees that belonged to one race on other employees
that belonged to other races
has been increased. Since the prejudice makes an individual to
think negatively about the
other individual, the possibility of communication gaps within
the teams would be increased.
Technology and Technical Knowledge - Technical knowledge is
another important factor
that acts as major communication barrier at the workplace. In
organizations, employees are
habituated to use technical jargons while carrying-out day-to-
day activities. The new
employees who don’t have technical knowledge might fail to
receive communication that

contains the technical jargon and thus struggle to perform in an
expected manner. In
approriate usage of the technology also acts as barrier to the
communication.
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Non-Verbal Communication – Poor integration of the verbal and
non-verbal
communication can also become make communication least
effective. If the speaker does not
use approriate facial expressions and hand signals that reinforce
the verbal communication,
there is a high possibility that the listeners get confused.
Reasons for ineffective communication at SHDE Holdings
1. SHDE has been suffering from ineffective communication
majorly because of poor
communication protocols at the workplace. Due to poor
protocols, the service
executives are facing problems in responding to the customers
over phone. This

clearly shows that external communication procedures are not
good at SHDE
Holdings.
2. SHDE has employees people of different age groups and
made them work together.
Whilst the younger professionals are trying to use latest
technologies for
communication, the older professionals are facing problems in
using these
technologies. For example, the text messages sent by the
younger professional about
delivery timings to older professionals are not received properly
because the latter are
not used to texting.
3. The interpersonal skills play an important role in increasing
the efficiency of
communication at the workplace. The poor interpersonal skills
of executives of SHDE
Holdings are making the communication ineffective at the
workplace.
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Outline modes of communication used at for various purposes.
Please support this with
an assessment of what other organisations do and examples of
that could apply to
SHDE (AC 1.2).
Oral Communication – It is a method of communication where
in the sender tries to
communicate the message by speaking. The business manager
interacting with the team
members and top management of the organization presenting the
organizational goals to the
employees are best examples for verbal communication (Riel
and Fombrun, 2007). This is
called team meetings. The meeting that human resource
managers hold with employees in
order appraise their performance is also considered as one of
the types of oral/face-to-face
meetings. Similarly, interview which emphasizes on business
heads of the organization
meeting the job seekers face-to-face, would also fall under the
category of the oral

communication. Likewise, oral communication is used at
organizations while sales
executives hold face-to-face meetings with potential customers
and top management conducts
annual general meeting with shareholders. The oral
communication is extensively used at the
workplace of SHDE Holdings in areas such as Team Briefings,
Business Conferences,
Interviews, Performance Appraisals and Sales Meetings.
The foremost advantage of the oral communication is that it is
easy and quicker way of
communication. The impact of the oral communication is very
in methods such as face-to-
face communication or team meetings because they give an
opportunity for the listener to
under the emotions of the speaker. However, the oral
communication is criticized for
confusing the listeners and giving scope for omitting main
subject.
Written Communication - It is a method of communication
where in the sender tries to
communicate the message through words. The written
communication at organizations takes
place through newsletters, bulletins, business letters and

noticeboards. Newsletters carry the
piece of written information about the latest happenings at the
workplace. Business letters are
used at the workplace for formal communication. If the business
manager wants to offer an
employment to the job seeker, he would send a written letter
inviting him onboard.
Noticeboard clips which carry written information would appear
on the walls of the
organization to convey about the important deadlines and
milestones to the employees.
SHDE Holdings can make use of all four above mentioned
written communication tools to
facilitate the internal and external communication at the
workplace. It can use newsletters to
let employees know about the latest recruitments or latest
technological procurements.
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Similarly, SHDE can use noticeboards to give notices about the
changes in working

structures or work culture.
The major advantage of the written communication is that it
ensures the main subject is
communicated to the listeners without any omissions. However,
it is considered as an
expensive process which does not give any scope for listeners to
gain an understanding on
emotions of the source. An efficient written communication is
possible only when the
vocabulary of the source is perfect.
Electronic Communication: Electronic communication is a
widely used communication
methods which gives an opportunity to send videos, audio and
text to other people by making
internet as a media. Organizations have been using emails,
Facebook, Twitter and blog
effectively to carry out the e-communication. Emails are
personalized electronic mails
through which an individual can send information another
individual. Facebook and Twitter
are widely used social networking platforms extensively used by
organizations to interact
with the customers. SHDE is one of many companies using

email system, Facebook and
Twitter to interact with both internal and external stakeholders.
Though the electronic communication quick and easy to use, it
is highly expensive.
Moreover, one needs to under a bit of training in order to make
use of electronic
communication.
How organisations portray themselves through their
communication. What image does
SHDE Holdings currently have? Give an assessment of other
organisations and the
images they portray through their communications (AC 2.3).
Communication has played vital role in the development of
image building of an
organization. Corporate image refers to the perception and
inferences about the organization
as a stakeholder of organization be it customer, suppliers or the
employees of company.
A communication system of an organization provides all the
stakeholders an opportunity to
interact with one another in the sense of exchanging views and
ideas, complaining about
something, for whistle blowing and for telling the targeted goals

and objectives that are set by
top management. Organizations use open communication
channels with the external
stakeholders i.e. customers, community, shareholders and
government through the vision and
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mission statement, memorandum of association, articles of
association. Organizations
manage company’s image through trademark, branding,
advertising, public relations and
customer service.
Apple Inc. is world’s best Technology Company as it sells
prestigious iPhone, iPod and Mac
books. The vision and mission statement revolves around the
products and services offered
by the company but it the communication department and public
relations department that
maintains this image of company. This is concerned with
portraying the positive image of

company by reflecting upon the customers’ feedback, suppliers’
complaint and resolving the
issues faced by them. All these activities help to maintain “tech
& innovative image” of
Apple Inc.
As far as the SHDE holding is concerned, the image of company
is being negatively affected
by the ineffective communication system. The complaints of
customers and suppliers fall on
deaf ears along with plethora of spelling mistakes in written
emails and letters. Moreover, the
telephone calls in this regard are not being handled
appropriately
Explain formal communications systems that should be used to
communicate with
customers. Please evaluate different systems. (AC 2.1)
Website: Website is a bunch of web pages that carry a wide-
range of information about the
organization. Through website, the organization can
communicate about its history, guiding
values, top management, experience, case studies of existing
customers, services, products
and contact information. The foremost benefit of website is that
it is a single stop-shop to get

the information about the organization. On flip side, it rarely
facilitates two-way
communication. An example for a website is provided below.
Social Media: Technology is integrated with organizations.
Today, social media has become
a communication tool for most of the organizations irrespective
of their operational size. The
mediums such as Facebook and Twitter, which have millions of
monthly user base, would be
able to convey the message sent by the organization to
thousands of people with single mouse
click. The best part of the social media is that it facilitates two-
way communication and
engages customers in discussion. On flip side, the excessive use
of social media triggers
addiction behavior among employees.
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Brochure: Brochure is pool of papers pinned together for the
purpose of distributing

information about the organization to customers in physical or
electronic form. The brochure
comprises of graphs, figures and pictures that give information
about services and products
offered by the organization. The organization would not get
immediate response by
communicating information through brochure. Moreover, it
could be a costly affair for
SMEs.
Face-to-Face Communication: Organizations can use face-to-
face communication while
interacting with any of the stakeholders. For example, the sales
executives can personally
meet the customers and explain them about the products and
services offered organization.
The human resource executives can use this communication
while interacting with employees
to understand their concerns. One of the important benefits of
face-to-face communication is
that it helps the speaker and receiver to understand the emotions
of the opposite person. On
flip side, the face-to-face communication is highly time-
consuming process.

Conduct an analysis of the effectiveness of social media to
Please use current examples (AC 2.2)
There is no doubt that the social media taken a special place at
the workplace. The social
networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are extensively
used by organizations to
promote their products to customers. The usage of the social
media is very cost-effective for
the organization. It is estimated that the cost of social media is
just 10% of what the
organization normally spends on the traditional marketing. The
second benefit of the social
media is that it helps in reaching wider-section of audience.
Since internet has no
geographical boundaries, the social media which makes internet
as medium would help the
organization to reach global customers. However, the reaching
ability of the message posted
on the Facebook page of a particular organization depends on
the number of followers it has.
For example, the official Facebook Page of Google comprises
200 million followers; this
indicates every message posted on Google’s Facebook page

would be reached to all these 200
million people within no time.
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The social media has received great appreciation because it
facilitates two-way
communication between organization and customers. This
feature has been helping
organizations to increase interaction with customers and engage
them into a discussion. The
customer engagement is significantly helping organizations to
collect feedback from the
customers. The customer engagement would also give an
opportunity for marketing teams to
influence the minds of customers and develop positive
perception among them towards the
organization. If the organization has qualified services or
products, the social media helps in
creating positive word of mouth in the target market. An
example of the customer interaction

is provided in the form of a screenshot below.
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An assessment of the impact of personal relationships on
communications (AC 3.1)
Personal relationship refers to a close and emotional
relationship between any of two persons.
The attributes such as personal conflicts, cohesion, favoritism
and job
satisfaction/dissatisfaction are expected to influence the
communication between two persons
or two entities. Personal conflict arises majorly because of the
differences in interests,
principles and responsibilities between two people. The
personal conflicts can grow to an
extent that one individual completely hates another individual.
Apparently, the hate and
dislike on the individual to whom communication is targeted
reduces the sincerity in

communication. The low sincerity leads to communication gaps.
Cohesion refers to the strength of bond between two or more
people. When a group of people
is working together as a team, it is the cohesion that enhances
the coordination and
communication flow among team members. If cohesion is
reduced, the coordination levels
within the team would be reduced. The coordination within the
team starts with the
communication. If the coordination is not good within the team,
it is a clear indication that
the communication is not good among team members.
Favoritism is expected to play a major role in communication.
When favoritism is existed, it
is a clearly indication that the individual hates a group of
people. When the individual is
made to interact with people, whom he does not favor, he would
not convey the message
wholeheartedly. Since favoritism negatively influences the
sincerity in the communication,
the communication gaps would pop-up.
Job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction discloses the
relationship that the organization has

with employees. If employees have higher job satisfaction
levels, they would be morally
enthused to put more efforts when speaking to their peers and
sharing ideas. On the other
hand, dissatisfied employees don’t have same enthusiasm and
zeal to interact with peers and
share information. Thus, it can be concluded that the job
satisfaction/dissatisfaction could
also influence the communication levels at workplace.
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An assessment of the impact of non-verbal communication on
oral communications (AC
3.2)
Non-verbal communication is a type of communication which
makes use of body language,
facial expressions, hand signals, tone of voice and eye contact
to convey a message. The oral
and nonverbal communication should go hand in hand to ensure
that the message is conveyed

properly. If non-verbal communication does not sync with the
oral communication, the
confusion among listeners would be increased significantly. The
best example of how a
senior business manager could confuse employees of the
organization during a conference if
there is no sync between the nonverbal and oral communication.
For example, the organization has generated 4% increase in its
sales from the previous
quarter. To convey this message to the employees, the senior
manager during the conference
should spell it out (oral communication applied) and show four
fingers to reinforce what he is
speaking. If this happens, the message would be registered in
the minds of employees. If the
senior manager raises three fingers or five fingers and spell out
4% orally, the confusion
would start among the employees.
The body language of the speaker would also impact his oral
communication. If the body
language of the speaker is lethargic, the listeners would also
become lethargic while receiving
the message. If the speaker has poor body language, there is a

high possibility that the
listeners get bored very quickly at the conference room. Eye
contact, one of the important
nonverbal attributes, reinforces the oral presentation. If the
speaker maintains eye contact
with the listeners, he would be in a position to control the group
of listeners. The good eye
contact of the listeners motivates speaker further and makes him
to give better explanation on
the topic that he has been explaining. The sitting posture of the
listeners is also expected to
influence the oral communication of the speaker. The alertness
and interest levels of the
listener can be seen in his or her sitting posture. If the listener
is sitting very stiffly, the
speaker considers it as an indication for active listening and
gets motivated to give
explanation better.
Assess the effectiveness of your oral presentation skills (AC
4.4)
I got an opportunity to assess my oral presentation skills
through the presentation that I have
given to the staff of SHDE. Through this presentation, the staff
of SHDE has got the

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opportunity to gain the knowledge about the importance of the
formal presentation systems,
and effectiveness of face-to-face communication. The
presentation was last for about 30
minutes. At the end of the presentation, I have also given
information about how personal
relationships such as favoritism, personal conflicts and job
satisfaction could influence the
communication.
To assess my oral presentation skills, I have collected feedback
from more than half of the
people who have attended presentation. The feedback was
collected on areas such as
“Knowledge Transfer”, “Communication Skills” and “Body
Language”.
The staff of SHDE has clearly indicated that they have gained
much clarity on the formal
communication systems, impact of the personal relationships on

the communication and
effectiveness of usage of the face-to-face communication. Most
of the staff of SHDE has said
that they are going to use the technique that I have explained in
day-to-day workplace. When
asked to rate my ability to knowledge transfer, nearly 90% of
the staff has rated me
“Excellent”.
The communication skills play a major role in oral
communication. If the communication
skills of the speaker are not perfect, he would not be position to
properly convey the message
to listeners. This is the major reason why, I have collected
feedback on my communication
skills. When asked to rate my communication skills, more than
80% of the staff of SHDE
have rated me “Good to Excellent’.
I have also got the feedback on my body language too because it
impacts my oral
communication skills significantly. When asked about my body
language, nearly 90% of the
staff has said that I was a bit lethargic on the podium. However,
I have maintained good eye

contact and used appropriate facial expressions and hand signals
to reinforce the oral
communication.
Review your written communication (AC 5.4) including the
conventions you have used
(AC 3.4)
The speaker notes or presentation notes were also developed
along with the presentation
slides. The presentation notes have been distributed to the staff
of SHDE during the middle
stages of the presentation. The presentation notes comprise of
the detailed information on the
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concepts presented to the staff through the presentation slides.
The presentation notes are
given to the staff of SHDE only to let them have, what is being
explained during the
presentation, in the written form. This written speaker notes
help them when they want to

recollect has been listened during the presentation. However,
more than 70% of the people
who have participated in the feedback have said that my
vocabulary in written
communication is very poor and I should learn what kind of
vocabulary should be used at
what time.
The feedback has been collected from the staff of the SHDE on
my written communication
skills. While collecting the feedback, the emphasis was given to
factors such as “Correct
Grammar”, “Punctuations” and “Simple Language”. The
feedback suggests that I scored
more than 90% of the positive opinions on all these three areas.
The staff members of SHDE
have personally informed that the presentation notes are really
helpful for them when they are
recollecting the concepts. The presentation notes seem to be
helping people who did not
attend the presentation too.
The writing conventions that I have used while developing the
speaker notes helped me a lot
to get the positive feedback from the staff of SHDE. I have used
two important conventions

while developing the speaker notes. They are Spell Check and
Punctuation. Through the spell
check convention, I have ensured that content, of both the
presentation slides and
presentation notes, is free from spelling mistakes. Similarly, the
usage of the punctuation
convention has helped me that the speaker notes have proper
English language that could be
understood by anybody. The spell check and punctuation
conventions were run for multiple
times to get better results.
Assess the impact of technology on oral and written
communication (3.3)
The implementation of latest technologies is expected to
influence the oral and written
communication in both positive and negative manner.
Positive Impacts
Enhance clarity of information: Business managers try to
communicate complicated and
complex information about the patterns related to sales figures,
revenue, expenditure. At this
point, the message can be communicated in a better if used the
technology such as

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PowerPoint Presentation where the sales figures or revenue are
shown in the form of graph or
table.
Helps reinforce messages: A message need to be reinforced
through various forms to help
the listener to remember it for longer-period of time. There is a
high possibility that the
listener forgets the message that he or she receives through oral
and written communication.
If the same message is received from a medium which is not
used before, the impact would
be very high.
Help those with different learning styles: Not every listener or
individual has same learning
style. Some people prefer oral communication and others prefer
written communication. In
this technology driven world, there are people who prefer
electronic communication. The

usage of the technology helps people that prefer visual learning
style which emphasizes on
conveying message through images, graphs, and pictures.
Negative Impacts
Reliance on technology at meetings/presentations: The
technology is something to which
people get addicted to. If an individual starts using a
technology, he would rely completely on
it without bothering about the consequences. The higher
dependence on the technology
develops an attitude of ignoring the essentials of the oral and
written communication during
the meetings and presentations. If technology does not support
during the meeting for
unknown reason, the individual would fail to complete the
presentation.
Stress: As already mentioned, technology is a bit addictive in
nature. The addiction leads to
stress if the technology does not work for the individual in a
desired way which often
happens due to lack of connectivity and sudden failure of the
network.
Following our discussions I wish you to produce written

documentation from this
meeting (AC 5.2)
Agenda
Objective: The core objective of the written communication is
to transfer knowledge on
topics such as oral communication and written communication
to staff of SHDE.
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Method: the evaluation has been conducted with the help of
Self-Evaluation and Feedback
Collection.
Minutes of Meeting
1. Helped staff of SHDE to gain knowledge on the written and
oral communication.
2. I have used appropriate body language during the
presentation.
3. I have distributed to well-written speaker notes to the staff of
SHDE.

Documentation
It was evident from my self-evaluation and feedback that I have
collected from the audience
that my oral and written communication skills are really great.
Through self-evaluation, I
came to know that I did one of the best presentations in my life.
The body language that I
have used and the clarity of thought that I have on the concept
helped the employees of
SHDE to gain knowledge on a wide-range of concepts related to
oral, written and nonverbal
communication. Since I was using appropriate body language
and relevant technology
throughout the presentation, I was highly successful in
reinforcing the message
communicated. The high rating that I have received from the
employees of SHDE tells how
successful I was in transferring knowledge to them through my
presentation. On a whole, it
was a successful oral presentation that its objective of
transferring knowledge to the
employees of SHDE.
My written communication has also helped the employees of
SHDE to gain in-depth

understanding on the factors that influence the communication.
Since I have ensured that the
presentation notes which comprise of tables, pictures and graphs
are given to the people who
have attended the presentation. My written communication was
very good because I have
followed writing conventions such as Spell Check and
Punctuation perfectly. The written
communication was error free because of the conventions that I
have used. The technology
such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Projector
has helped me to reinforce the
message that I have communicated to the employees of SHDE.
Please deliver your presentation to staff at SHDE Holdings
represented by XXX (AC
4.2)
A PowerPoint Presentation delivered to staff of SHDE Holdings
is attached with this paper.
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Design an oral presentation (using presentation software) with
supporting notes for the
customer facing staff at SHDE Holdings (AC 4.1, 4.3).
A PowerPoint Presentation delivered to staff of SHDE Holdings
is attached with this paper.
References
Argenti, P.A., 2009. Corporate Communication. New York:
McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Burnett, M.J. and Dollar, A., 1989. Business Communication:
Strategies for Success.
Houston, Texas: Dane.
Gibson, J.W. and Hodgetts, R.M., 1990. Business
Communication: Skills and Strategies.
New York: Harper & Row.
Riel, C. B. M. and Fombrun, C., 2007. Essentials of Corporate
Communication. Abingdon:
Routledge.
The process of communication (AC 1.1)Why communication
within organisations is sometimes not effective (AC1.3)Outline
modes of communication used at for various purposes. Please
support this with an assessment of what other organisations do
and examples of that could apply to SHDE (AC 1.2).How
organisations portray themselves through their communication.

What image does SHDE Holdings currently have? Give an
assessment of other organisations and the images they portray
through their communications (AC 2.3).Explain formal
communications systems that should be used to communicate
with customers. Please evaluate different systems. (AC
2.1)Conduct an analysis of the effectiveness of social media to
communicate with customers. Please use current examples (AC
2.2)An assessment of the impact of personal relationships on
communications (AC 3.1)An assessment of the impact of non-
verbal communication on oral communications (AC 3.2)Assess
the effectiveness of your oral presentation skills (AC
4.4)Review your written communication (AC 5.4) including the
conventions you have used (AC 3.4)Assess the impact of
technology on oral and written communication (3.3)Following
our discussions I wish you to produce written documentation
from this meeting (AC 5.2)Please deliver your presentation to
staff at SHDE Holdings represented by XXX (AC 4.2)Design an
oral presentation (using presentation software) with supporting
notes for the customer facing staff at SHDE Holdings (AC 4.1,
4.3).

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