1) The document describes a case study of ineffective communication between a project manager, Mr. Ravi, and a project trainee, Mr. Shantanu Bannerjee. 2) Mr. Ravi assured Mr. Shantanu that an upcoming interview was a formality and that he would be hired, but Mr. Shantanu was then rejected in the interview. 3) This caused confusion and distrust for Mr. Shantanu as the communication from his manager lacked transparency and fulfilled commitments.

1. A case study on
Effective Communication should
be developed through Trust
1 Friday, 25th January 2011
Business
Communication
Authors:
Sunam Pal
Kiran Varghese Jacob
Alliance University School of Business
BENCHMARK-2011
PSG Institute Of Management, Coimbatore

2. • Importance of communication in business
• Understanding unethical practices in business
• Transparency, Credibility & accountability are a
• major concern for managers
• Trust is must in an employee driven company
• Commitment is a worth of company’s values
• Effective management is won through loyalty
Purpose of this case
Transparency, credibility and sticking to the commitments is
very important while communicating. Effective Communication
is driven through loyalty and trust of the people.
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3. Case Overview
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Characters in Case
Mr. Shantanu Bannerjee
B.tech,Punjab University
Designation: Project Trainee
Internship: 6 months
Mr. Shyam Kumar
Designation: Domain Lead
Experience: 13 years
Business Head
Domain Lead
Team Lead
Project Manager
Trainee, Engineers
Mr. Ravi Sharma
Designation: Project Manager
Experience: 9 years

5. Case Overview
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Work Profile:
• Simulating and mending circuits
• Development & validation
Mr. Shantanu Bannerjee
Achievements
1. He was given the in charge of entire procurement team & reviewing
electronic items
2. He found flaws in inventory system .optimized it using software and
reduced the whole project life cycle time by 23%
3. His inventory model was accepted & implemented by other teams
4. His manager rewarded him for his innovation
Strengths
• Very good at performing task
• Committed to all deadlines
• Mend and verify circuit better than anyone
else in the team al though being a fresher

6. Case Overview
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Mr. Shantanu Bannerjee
Mr. Satyajit Khurana
Designation: Senior Engineer
Experience: 3 years
Opinion
• Shantanu got more priority over
other trainees
• He interacted with client overseas
• He was in the lime light for a while
• Some senior team members were not
happy
• His dynamism & progress were taken
as a threat to prestige & position of
other team members
“Shantanu was very talented and technically
expert. Once you provide him with the
objective, he does that before the stipulated
time with perfection. There is no need of any
mentor or supervisor to guide him. He knew
his work, deadlines and how to make it done”

7. Case Overview
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Mr. Shantanu Bannerjee
Ms. Sheela,Project Manager
Sheela: “Hi! Am I speaking to Mr. Shantanu
Shantanu: “Yes, Shantanu Speaking”
Sheela: “We have an urgent opening for project trainee. Your CV has been
shortlisted. You would be hired after undergoing 2 rounds of technical PI.Kindly
let me know if you are interested. But the condition apply only when you are not
being hired by the current team or any other team”
Shantanu: “Thanks sheela. I would talk to my manager regarding the same and
revert back in case they are not hiring me”.

8. Case Overview
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Mr. Shantanu Bannerjee Mr. Ravi Sharma
• So he had a talk with his current manager, Mr. Ravi who asked
his manager Mr. Shyam Kumar about the vacancy
• Within 2 days he got a reply that Mr. Ravi & his manager are
very satisfied with his performance
• Mr. Ravi informed him that Shantanu’s training period will be
extended to 3 months & will take him as a permanent
employee
• They were ready to hire him at any cost
• They said that there will be an interview as a formality and
either of them will be there

9. Statements by Mr. Ravi
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“ No need to worry. You can decline your
proposal from Sheela & also from other teams if
coming to you. Interview is just a formality. You
are in. Now don’t think about your interviews
much & concentrate on your projects. We have
lot of expectation from you. One of our team
members will be in the panel to take care.

10. Shantanu in Interview
• Shantanu rejected Miss Sheela’s offer
• Shantanu waited for the day to come…
• During the interview, none of his managers were present
• Shantanu was fired in the interview
• He was asked out of context questions which were not related to his
work. Neither he had worked nor did it match with the profile of the
work he was about to be assigned.
• Shantanu managed the out of box questions as he was resolving partly
the technical disputes of other team
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Mr. Shantanu Bannerjee

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“Why Ravi, I performed well till date. I am having a very
good track record for last 5 months & feedbacks were
very good as given by you only. I kept to all my deadlines.
You people awarded me. Because of you only I denied
sheela’s offer. You only assured me that the interview
was just a formality & I need to concentrate on my work.
“Shantanu,we cannot hire you because you couldn’t
perform well in the interview
Our Company’s policy says that while recruitment it is
the interviewer who decides the final selection. The
panel of your interviewer is not ready to hire you. They
have an opinion that the task to which you were going to
be assigned is different from your current profile & does
not meet their expectation. So you can apply for your
resignation latest by next 5 days so that it gets updated
to the database before your tenure of training ends by
default
Mr. Shantanu
Mr. Ravi
Mr. Ravi
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12. Case Overview
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Mr. Shantanu Bannerjee Ms. Sheela,Project Manager
Shanrtunu: “Hi Sheela, Shantanu speaking. Earlier you called me
regarding a opening in your team. Is it still there”
Sheela: “Shantanu there is no vacancy in our team expected probably till
next 6 months”
Shantanu: “Thanks sheela.”

13. • Shantanu did not ask for the feedback after interview as
he was assured that it’s not going to impact anyway.
• He knew that as per company’s policy “Interns are hired
temporarily for projects & thus have no assurance about
confirmation of their job after completion of the project
even if they had performed well.
• He also didn’t have any documentary proof as
everything was intended to him orally.
• He could have talked to HR’s, But in his company he
knew that HR will only say that if the line managers are
not ready then no one can do anything as the entire
decision is based on managers.
• Shantanu was helpless.
• Finally he resigned 13
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Shantanu’s Perception
Mr. Shantanu
HR
Cannot help

14. Teaching Notes
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15. Prior action to overcome
the situation
• When the feedback was delayed, Shantanu should have
thought about the other odd situations.
• Shantuna should have been very alert for his interview
• He should have talked to HR regarding other vacancies.
• He should have intelligently managed to use the written
documents like mail about the assurance given by the
manager , so that his claims to HR would have been strong
• He should have talked to his manager’s manager about the
issue
• He should have given a trial, to freely convey the same to his
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16. Major Communication Barrier
• Lack of transparency in communication
• Lack of trust
• Lack of fulfillment of commitment by the manager
• Perception: He believed that HR’s cannot solve his problem in
any way
• Improper organizational structure :Lack of autonomy &
privileges to bottom employees to discuss & resolve their
personal issues.
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17. Mistakes committed by the
management
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• Project manager should have kept control on his emotions
and waited till the results of the interview came out
• He shouldn’t have assured Shantanu, rather should have told
him to prepare well without giving any guarantee before hand
• Project manager should have justified Shantanu stating him
the actual reasons for not selecting him & should have cleared
all his doubts
• He should have conveyed the message with the motive to
convince him, till he found that Shantanu was with his
statement & was in a position to agree to what he was saying
• Shantanu should have been given with adequate time to make
necessary arrangement in the meantime & to make up himself
for the cause

18. Conflicting statements
“ No need to worry. You
can decline your proposal
from Sheela & also from
other teams if coming to
you. Interview is just a
formality. You are in. Now
don’t think about your
interviews much &
concentrate on your
projects. We have lot of
expectation from you ”
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“ Our Company’s policy
says that while
recruitment it’s the
interviewer who decides
the final selection. The
panel of your interviewers
is not ready to hire you.
They have an opinion that
the task to which you were
going to be assigned is
different from your current
profile & does not meet
their expectation ”

19. Role of HR & its policy
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• Open door policy should be implemented
• They should have a well expertise team to carry out
employee counseling & manage stress
• HR department should train their managers about of
maintaining transparency, accountability, credibility
& autonomy within employees
• Feedback should be collected from employee when
they are leaving about the reason for leaving
• HR Dept. should train managers without MBA about
communication barriers
• All employees who are undergoing resignation
process should be examined well. They should track
their details & come up with report & analyze all
types of circumstances to encounter such problems
before hand & optimize them.

20. Conclusion
• Maintaining effective communication, transparency&
sticking to commitment plays an important role
• Doubts of the bottom line employees should be
clarified
• Employee should have faith in organization
• Organizational structure should be simplified so that
the employees can sort out the problems with HR easily
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E-procurement system of Honeywell & Vedanta
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Questions Please ????