Question

Learning Outcomes:

1. Identify sentence and paragraph level language needed to convey a business voice in management writing (Lo 1.3)

2. Describe appropriate writing format for business letters using in-house communication principles. (Lo 4.5)

Your boss has a habit of making last-minute arrangements with clients-‘the scramble’, as you and your co-worker call it, that somehow precedes most important deals. This current negotiation is no exception. Your boss leaves you voicemail saying that an important client is arriving late in the afternoon for a business meeting, but needs his dry-cleaning dropped off at a nearby cleaner no later than 6pm. Your boss tells you to stop by his office around 4:30 pm to pick up the bag of laundry and take it over to the dry-cleaner, then to pick it up the next morning. You have worked for the company for four years and have never been asked to do these sorts of non-work tasks. They are definitely not part of your job description.

In this situation, you worry about two types of response:

a) Your boss needs your service and you have to send him a ‘Yes’ letter.

OR

b) The service asked by your boss is not among your prerogatives and you can send him ‘No’ letter.

1) For every alternative, write a letter while justifying the nature of your response. Your letters should consider all ethical consideration (specify why you say yes or no; begin with buffer when needed; clearly state what you can and cannot do; offer alternatives to your boss; maintaining goodwill…).

Your boss ask also from you to inform the operations director and commercial director about this business meeting and ask from them to prepare their interventions.

2) What is/are the form(s) of in-house communication is/are more appropriate for this case? Why? (1 Mark)

Answer 1

1. It is given in the case that boss has habit of making last minute arrangements and this leads to panic and confusion among the employees. A similar incident has occurred again and the boss has asked to do a personal favor and drop off his bag of laundry, drop them off at the dry cleaner and then pick it up the next morning. There are 2 ways in which I could react to this situation. One is by saying Yes and other by No. For this case, based on the past experiences given I would opt to say yes but with a clear communication that it will not be repeated again. I would write him the following short letter as response to this request.

“Hi,

As you have mentioned our client is arriving and there is some personal work that you have to attend to. I believe I can help you out in this case and ensure your personal work does not affect the important meeting. I will do the tasks you have asked me to since closing the deal is the bigger task at hand right now.

I understand that this is a task which could have been done by office staff and I would suggest you to use their services for similar tasks in future. I am aware that they offer their help and they do a wonderful job of carefully managing the tasks even if it is outside their routine tasks.I can give them a heads up regarding them considering this kind of work which will be helpful for you.

For the tasks that you have assigned, I will reach your office around 4:30 and do the needful.

Regards,

ABC”

The above letter shows willingness to do the task assigned for once while also giving solution to such problems in the future. The boss may be appreciative of this gesture and will not assign such tasks to me again in future.

Letter to operations director and commercial director will be as follows.

“Dear sirs,

We have been in discussions with Mr.XYZ regarding a long term deal which will be a big gain for us in the long term. PQR has been dealing with them for over 2 weeks and they are at an advanced stage of closing the deal.

Mr. XYZ is arriving today for an important business meeting with Mr. POR late evening. I will send a meeting invite to block your calendars and share the meeting location. Please attend the same and do come prepared with the set of questions you may have regarding this deal.

Regards,

ABC”

2. Based on the limited information given in the case, we can conclude that the organization uses formal communication using email. It shows the professionalism of the staff and that formal communication is of high property. While mail communications are good to have, it would be wise to talk to the concerned partners regarding the plans and meetings to that they are also aware of the same. It could be possible that the leaders and other members may miss certain mails due to excessive work load or any other work. Rather than just sending a mail and hoping for them to work out, it would be wise to call them up or meet them regarding any important actions that need to be taken.