A Case Study In Inter-Profession Miscommunication

The Beginning

Describe about A Case Study in Inter-Profession Miscommunication?

In a world where being knowledgeable may not be the order of the day, core programmers or techie as are most commonly called, find it hard to make a break through. This happens most often than naught whilst a techie tries to sell his nurtured product (Shulman 2011). This is not due his lapse or lack of technical knowledge but mostly because in order to sell one has to be a salesman. Shed all superficial aura of being a knowledgeable person and be rooted to the ground level of earnestly trying to score a client. This is nothing short of an unhappy marriage between a mind that seldom thinks of money making endeavours and the other which seems to survive on that (Coupland et al 2004). A serious case of dilemma is hence the basic outcome, in fact the philosophical term horns of dilemma is the perfect term to explain the situation. This sorry sight may sometimes be very hilarious for an onlooker. The constant struggle within an individual can be very similar to the extent of the famous characters Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, only in a very low key. One such case comes to my mind which perfectly sits on the title of a web developer trying to present his designs to a fashion designer.  A perfect case of mismatch which then leads to a serious case of miscommunication. Information technology has become inevitable part of everyone and web services such as electronic mail(email) and databases or cloud storage are a necessity in this era (Lami 2013). Yet when there happens a problem in the technological end the clients may not be a very understanding bunch. So a techie out for business in a business meeting with a goal to score clients may face questions that may very well offend him. Although these questions may not be necessarily asked to offend, but nevertheless a miasma of uneasiness may prevail (Shulman 2011). Let us look at the case of the web designer and the fashion designer for further insight to this very topic of discussion.

As I sat on my chair accompanied by the famous designer, the receptionist handed us a business card. It said Mr Richard Lassi, web designer and developer. Looking at this the designer (let’s call him Mr X for our comfort) looked at me with twinkling eyes, smiled called his receptionist and said, “Send him in”. I was little surprised as to what was on store for me to witness. There was a light knock and then the door opened slightly and a face appeared followed by a strong voice, “May I come in Sir?” To this Mr X immediately replied “Yes” with an affirmative nod. “Mr X, Good morning, I am Richard”, said the web designer introducing himself while offering a hand to shake to Mr X and me. After the formalities and being offered to sit Mr Richard was sitting facing us. “So what brings you here Mr Lassi?” asked Mr X. “Well Mr X I am here to offer you an innovative solution to take your business forward” replied Mr Lassi. Mr X leaned forward with interest gesturing Mr Lassi to continue with his proposal (Norlyk 2007). “As these days e-commerce is on the surge it is high time for you Sir to take your business forward. As i have seen your website lacks a lot of things of which i have hence made a note. I will like to tell you what i have observed so far, if I may.” To this Mr X seemed a little surprised but nevertheless continued to listen calmly whilst Mr Lassi continued, “Your products are not reaching at a global scene, you have yet to tap on the full market even regionally due to the lack of a decent web application. I am here to offer you a perfect solution to overcome these hitches.”

The Miscommunications

After the hearing of the proposal, what followed next was a series of miscommunication.

Mr X: “How can you be sure that your proposal is the perfect solution to my business growth?”

Mr Lassi: “My solution provides a platform for your products to be accessible by many individuals globally; it is a global market you see”

Mr X: “But can you guarantee it?”

Mr Lassi: “No one can guarantee in business Sir.”

Mr X: “I guarantee that my designs are authentic and genuine in nature. Am I not a businessman?”

Mr Lassi: “Sir guaranteeing in material and in clientele is different, I am here to offer you technical solutions and not marketing. (Shattel et al 2003)”

Mr X: “But when you started your proposal you clearly mentioned that your innovative proposal will increase my clientele globally”

Mr Lassi: “Sir I said that my web strategy will help in bringing your work into the orbit of more individuals globally, it is not a rocket science to understand that.”

Mr X: “So you are saying that even though you cannot guarantee whether or not i will gain from your product, i still need to pay for it?”

Mr Lassi: “It is a service Sir and every service has a cost”

As I listened to the following discussions, there appeared to be few stand out problem statements. I have hereby selected one for our case study (Kruger et al 2005).

There seemed to be a pragmatic approach on the part of Mr Lassi on the issue of Guarantee. He seemed to be at a point of contradicting his own statement.

Because of the fact that Mr Lassi came prepared for answering each and every question to be thrown at him for the technical aspect, he was taken aback when simple business propaganda was involved.

Possible Solutions:

Mr Lassi could now reiterate what he said of business not being a guarantee.

Mr Lassi could guarantee Mr X of his proposal being the only solution to his business.

Mr Lassi could hire someone else to make business proposals on his behalf.

Solution I: Mr Lassi could now reiterate what he said of business not being a guarantee.

Advantage: This will be a long term solution and he may very well get Mr X to decide to hand him the order without the extra clause of guarantee (Winerman 1990).

Disadvantage: This may lead to annihilation of any possibility of scoring a clientele.

Solution II: Mr Lassi guarantee Mr X of his proposal being the only solution to his business.

Advantage: This will be a short term solution and he may get the proposal accepted.

Disadvantage: This may lead to further confrontation in the future with Mr X if the latter’s client base is not increased (Barry 1982).

Solution III: Mr Lassi could hire someone else to make business proposals on his behalf

Advantage: this will give a steady long term solution as the hired person will be well versed in the approach and execution of business proposals and will not be involved in miscommunications.

The Problem Statement

Disadvantages: This will lead to added burden for Mr Lassi as he has to pay the hired individual for the services and also have to be in the constant loop of what may have resulted during the meeting.

Choice: Solution III: Mr Lassi could hire someone else to make business proposals on his behalf

Mr Lassi’s main problem is his lack of ethical business skills rendering to delivering a proper business proposal. If he hires an individual he will have that aspect of it covered. Also Mr Lassi will have more time at hand to concentrate on honing his technical skills to design and develop better and more innovative ideas could be realized. Apart from that in any business proposal it is important to be prepared to woo the client with charm and humour which was seriously lacking in Mr Lassi, thus a hired help would seem to be the perfect solution (Chang 2002).

To be able to reach to a solution we must not assume anything on our own rather take the points as presented in the picture. An equal weight to pros and cons must be rendered into each possible solution (Clark et al 1980). Assumptions must be kept at bay and only the facts must be taken into account. The easiest way to reach at a possible solution is first to indentify the possible solutions that may be put forward and then logically selecting the one that suits the case more aptly.

Conclusion and recommendation

Thus from the above discussion and at a close look at the case study cited above we can infer that for every possible miscommunication there always exists solution. The only major concern is there may be more than one possible solution and thus selecting the proper and more apt one becomes the need. It may be recommended to be an astound listener and also a verbose to avoid such miscommunications (Eduardo 2010). Also the above study proves that assumption without any hard fact may lead to more miscommunications.

Reference:

Eduardo, G., 2010, A Case Study in Inter-Profession Miscommunication, Intercultural Communication and Diplomacy, 2-6,308-316

Shulman, M., 2011, Case Study Report- Student Perspective, Cultures in contrast: student life at US colleges and Universities, pp 1 – 3

Coupland, N., Giles, H., and Wiemann, J.N., 2004, Miscommunication and problematic talk, Vol 18 (1), pp 312-440

Lami, R., 2013, Mis-communications between members of different subcultures”, 4-8,6-12

Norlyk, B., 2007, Miscommunication and discourse practices in occupational cultures”, New York, pp 405

Shattel, M., and Hogan, B., 2003, The problem of miscommunication,3,1-32

Kruger, J., Nicholas, E., Parker, J., and Ng, Z.W., 2005, Egocentrism over E-Mail: Can We Communicate as Well as We Think?, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, No. 6, 2005, pp. 925-935.

Winerman, L., 1990, E-Mails and Egos, Monitor on Psychology,

Barry DS,1991. “Acuracy in social perception”. Journal of personality and psychology,61,298-307

Cody, MJ.,1982, A typology of disengagement strategies and examination at the roles of intimacy, reactions to inequity , 49, pp 148-170

Clark, H H., and Shunk, D H., 1980, A polite reply to polite request, Cognition,8.113-140

Chang, H., 2002, The interrelationship between language and culture, Journal of Pan-Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 6(2), 183-97.