Post-Graduate Diploma in Business Management

Area: Business Communication

Course Title: Business Communication for Professional Development (BCPD)

(Term I)
Academic Year: 2015-16
(Credit Value: 1.5 Credits)

COURSE DESCRIPTION
With multifarious challenges and opportunities that accompany globalization, the need of the
hour is to develop personal competencies to be responsive in a dynamic world with a serviceorientation. In this era of extreme competitiveness, we are judged by our appearance; our
disposition that constitutes personality and distinguishes us from the pack. Lack of timemanagement skills; stress, conflict and ineffective crisis communication in the workplace
result in communication styles that can often cause difficulties. Negative personality traits
can hinder or prevent individual adjustments and lead to alienation. Those who communicate
well are tend to be trusted more and given more responsibility because they are seen to be
more articulate .With organizations getting leaner, good communication skills is an essential
asset for getting hired and job mobility .
This course will help the students to assess their strengths and weaknesses with respect to
communication and productivity. It would provide a roadmap to the students in using that
information to design a specific, focused self-improvement action plan and will help them
attain realistic goals and objectives in preparation for successful employment or
entrepreneurship. The students will be inspired from within to develop strategies to
continuously build and develop a Personal Brand for creating an impact that makes all the
difference. Thus the course will help students develop skills and attributes necessary for
successful transition to professional life.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
a. To reinforce the importance of effective Business Communication for success in
todays global business environment.
b. To understand the function of body talk in fully interpreting the underlying message
of words.
c. To develop good interpersonal skills, understand behaviour of team members, practice
empathy towards others, help low achievers and go along with high performers.
d. To plan a business presentation that accomplishes the speakers goals, meets the
audiences needs by selecting, designing, and using presentation visuals effectively.
(1.3)
e. To understand the nuances of designing recruitment related correspondence like
application letter, resume etc.

PEDAGOGY
The course shall be delivered essentially through a combination of interactive lectures, exercises and
discussion of real life communication situations.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
i.

The course requires students to come with a positive attitude and actively participate
in all the class activities and discussions.

ii.

iii.

All the activities are focused on experiential learning, therefore students need to
create an amiable environment with their peer group where everybody can introspect
and conveniently share their feelings.
The students are required to work on group projects which would give them a
platform to enhance their interpersonal skills. During the presentations, students
would be judged on various dimensions of presentation skills along with their
interpersonal behaviour.

EVALUATION

Specific Assessment
Methods / Tasks
Continuous
Assessment
Group:
Role Plays (15)
Group Presentations
(20)
Individual:
Class Participation
& PE(10)
Role Play (15)
Quiz (15)
Individual
Presentation Skills
(25)
Total

% Weighting

100%
45

55

100

*This component of assessment will be used for AACSB Assurance of Learning (Learning
objective-1.3)

GROUP PROJECT
Students will make group presentations on case lets and situations of contemporary
relevance. They will be evaluated both at the individual and group level. Individual
evaluations will be done on the basis of the following criteria: Meets objective; Rapport with
audience; Voice Modulation; Poise & Confidence; and, Articulation. Group evaluations will
be done on the basis of the following criteria: Audience Impact; Content Research; Content
Development and Overall Presentation.

RECOMMENDED TEXT BOOK

Kalia & Agarwal (2015). Business Communication: A Practice Oriented Approach, Wiley
India.

OTHER REFERENCE BOOKS

Reading List and References
Hory Sankar Mukerjee. (2013). Business Communication: Connecting at Work, First Ed.
New Delhi: OUP.
Ober, Scot 2011: Effective Business Communication; Cengage Learning.
Locker, K. O. and Kaczmarek, S. 2010: Business Communication: Building Critical
Skills: Tata McGraw Hill.
Lesikar, Raymond and Flately, Marie, 2005: Basic Business Communication, Skills for
Empowering the Internet Generation; Tata McGraw-Hill.
Monippally, Matthukutty, 2007: Business Communication Strategies; Tata McGraw-Hill.
Murphy, Herta, Hildenbrandt, Herbert and Thomas, Jane, 2008: Effective Business
Communication; Tata McGraw-Hill Companies.
Courtland L Bovee, John V Thill, Mukesh Chaturvedi, 2009: Business Communication
Today; Pearson Education.
Gamble and Gamble, 2010: Communication Works; Tata McGraw-Hill.
Williams , Krizan, Logan, Merrier ( First Indian Reprint 2012). Communicating in
Business, 8th Edition. Cengage Learning.

RECOMMENDED ACADEMIC JOURNALS

Bulletin of the Association for Business Communication

Business Communication Quarterly Journal of Business Communication
Communication World
Strategic Communication Management
Journal of Business and Technical Communication; Thousand Oaks
Journal of Communication Management; London
Journal of Organizational Culture, Communication and Conflict; Cullowhee
Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly; Columbia
Management Communication Quarterly : MCQ; Thousand Oaks
Strategic Communication Management; Chicago
Technical Communication Quarterly; St. Paul

COURSE OUTLINE: SESSION/MODULE/READING MATERIAL

Session 1: Communication at Work place
What are employers looking for?
Adapting your Message to Your Audience
Challenges in organizational communication
Sessions 1 (75 minutes)
20 minutes

20 minutes

20 minutes

15 minutes

What are
employers
looking for?

Adapting
your Message
to Your
Audience

Challenges in
organizational
communication

Activity

Readings: Kalia & Agarwal (2015). Business Communication: A Practice Oriented

Approach, Wiley India, Chapter 1.

Sessions 2 -3 : Interpersonal Communication

Using your Body Language to your Advantage

Giving and Receiving Feedback
Assertive Communication
Sessions 2 and 3 (150 minutes)

15 minutes

15
minutes

Intro to
Using your
Body
Language to
your
Advantage

Common
challenge
s in dayto-day
nonverbal
signals

15
minutes

Improvin
g nonverbal
communi
cation

10
minutes

10
minut
es

10
minutes

Activity

Styles
of
Com
munic
ation

Assertive
Commun
ication

15
minutes

10
minutes

10
minutes

15
minutes

15
minutes

10
minutes

Differenc
e
between
Assertive
and
Aggressi
ve
Commun
ication

Activit
y

Styles
of
Comm
unicati
on

Asserti
ve
Comm
unicati
on

Differe
nce
betwee
n
Asserti
ve and
Aggres
sive
Comm
unicati
on

Activit
y

Readings: Kalia & Agarwal (2015). Business Communication: A Practice Oriented

Approach, Wiley India, Chapter 2, 7.

Sessions 4 and 5: Employment Communication-Introduction to Employment

Communication, Impact of your online identity on job search process, Resume
Writing, Employment Letters and Other Employment Messages
Sessions 4 and 5 (150 minutes)
15 minutes

40 minutes

40
minutes

10
minutes

15
minutes

15 minutes

15
minutes

Impact
of
your online
identity on
job search
process
Significance
of Resume
Writing in
Employmen
t Process

Designin
g
and
Drafting
Resume
Customiz
ing
Resume
in IMT
Format

Designi
ng and
Drafting
Resume
:
Practice
Exercise

Significan
ce
of
Applicati
on Letters
in
Recruitme
nt Process

Drafting
Applicati
on letters:
Practice
Exercise

Other Employment
Messages
Following
up an
applicatio
n and
interview
Rejecting
Employme
nt
Resigning
from a job

Drafting
Employm
ent
Messages:
Practice
Exercise

Readings:
Kalia & Agarwal (2015). Business Communication: A Practice Oriented Approach, Wiley
India, Chapter 9.
Williams , Krizan, Logan, Merrier ( First Indian Reprint 2012). Communicating in Business,
8th Edition. Cengage Learning. Chapter 16 -17.
Mishra, S. & Monippally, M.M. (2014). Online Communication Strategies for Managers.
New Delhi: McGraw-Hill Education. Chapter 1 & 4

Session 6: Presentation Skills

Discussion on important steps in preparing an effective oral presentation
Major elements in the introduction, body and conclusion of an oral presentation
Identification of appropriate visual aids/ hand outs for a presentation
PowerPoint and Online Presentation
Session 6 (75 minutes)
20 minutes
Preparing an
effective oral
presentation

20 minutes
Major
elements
in the
presentation

20 minutes

15 minutes

Appropriate
visual aids/
hand outs

Power Point
and Online
Presentation

Readings: Kalia & Agarwal (2015). Business Communication: A Practice Oriented

Approach, Wiley India, Chapter 3.

Sessions 7 10: Project Presentations and Feedback