Question

CASE N P OINT The Training Program The management ofJ. B. Williams knows that it has a great many communication problems. A communi -cation audit that was-cendueted two-months ago re vealed that, among other things, the firm's upward communication channels are viewed by the em- pluyees as totally, ineffecuve. Ater giving the matter a great deal of thought, top management decided to approve communication training for all departments. Judith Cornwell is in charge of one of the firm's largest departments. When she learned of manage- ment's decision she was very pleased. "I've had lots of problems in my department," she told her boss, "be- cause my people are ineffective listeners. I'm going to shop around and find a seminar that will help them improve their listening skills." Since the firm does not have an in-house training department, Judith began talking to some of her fel- low managers. From the conversation, she realized that they too intended to rely Judy knew just the person she was going to get. Pro- fessor Henry Valzone is a professor in the Manage- ment Department at a large localuniversity. Judy had been a student in Henry's strategic planning course, and she had enjoyed it very much. Henry does quite a bit of training and consulting, and when Judy called him up, he problem. Why don't 1 drop by and talk to you about it7" The following Tuesday Judy and Henry had lunch. During the meal Henry mentiorned a dozen firms for whom he had conducted communication seminars. Judy recognized the names of over half the firms. Henry then explained how he would go about addressing her problem. It all sounded very good, and the two ot them quicklv agreed on a price for the one-day seminar. Earlier this week Henry conducted the work- shop. He began hy discussing the importance of up- ward communication and having each person list the two maior problems that cornfronted them on a daily basis. Later in the day he listed on the board and offered general guidelines for deal- ing with them. The rest of the seminar was focused on three specific communication, learning how to identily informal groups, and understanding why feedback is vital to effective communication. When the conterence was over, Judy thanked Henry for his work. She then asked the participants to Al our a the prob e areas: understanding barriers to on outside training. questionnaire regarding the value of the seminar. The most frequent response was, "interest- ing and enjoyable but I received very little specific help in how to open upward communication chan- nels for my people." When Judy's boss read the re- views, he was not pleased. "What happened during this seminar?" he asked her. "Apparently most peo- ple didn't get much out of it. I'd like you to write me a memo regarding what went wrong. was delighted to hear from her. .. "I've got something of a problem," she told Henry. "I need to get my people some training in the area of upward communication'channels. Our com- munication audit revealed that most of our personnel do not feel comfortable communicating with their boss.Do you do much work along the lines of open- ing upward communication channels?" Henry swered that communication was one of his major training areas. "I've been working with a number of different firms over the past year on just this type of an-

Answer the following question:

1. Determine if a task analysis or performance analysis was done by top management in order to determine the kind of training needed. Explain your answer with evidence from case.

Answer 1

In the above-mentioned case, the approach adopted by the top management is Performance analysis since it was revealed in the communication audit that took place two months back that the employees are not effective in communicating with their boss also as mentioned in the case Judith Cornwell realized and said that the employees in the organization are  ineffective listeners.

It should be noted that Performance analysis involves analysis of weakness and strength of the employees and strategizing the required steps to overcome the loopholes and the weakness.