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Education Resources

Pronoun – Types of Pronoun and Uses of Pronoun from Business Communication of SMU MBA

Monday, November 16, 2009

After the discussion of Noun, I need to share some thought about Pronoun. The chapter is the most important in English grammar. Types of Pronoun are related to the uses of pronoun. The chapter deals the book of Business Communication of SMU MBA.

Pronoun:

Pronoun is known as another face of Noun. Pronoun is used as a proxy to the proper noun to avoid repetition of the Nouns. The word “Pronoun” means “For a Noun”. Thus, Pronoun is a word that is used instead of noun.

Types of Pronoun:

Personal Pronoun

Relative Pronoun

Distributive Pronoun

Demonstrative Pronoun

Indefinite Pronoun

Reflexive Pronoun

Emphatic Pronoun

Interrogative Pronoun

Reciprocal Pronoun

The personal Pronoun replacing the noun should conform to the gender, number and person of the noun.

Relative Pronoun must always be placed as near its antecedent as possible.

Distributive Pronoun is singular in number and must be followed by singular verb.

Demonstrative Pronoun is also used to avoid the repetition of a preceding noun.

Indefinite Pronoun refers to noun in a general way.

Reflexive Pronoun is used when subject and object refer to the same person.

Emphatic Pronoun is used to emphasize the subject of the sentence.

Reciprocal Pronoun expresses a mutual or reciprocal relationship.

Interrogative Pronoun is used for questions.

Uses of Pronoun:

When two singular nouns joined by “and” are preceded by “each” or “every”; the pronoun must be singular in number.

For example: Every student and every teacher took his seat.

When two singular nouns are joined by “and” denoting the same person/thing, the pronoun used for them must be singular in number. The definite article “the” is placed before the first noun.

For example: The accounts officer and treasurer should be careful in his work.

When nouns of different genders are combined by a conjunction, the pronoun must agree with the gender of the noun which is next to the conjunction.

For example: Every boy and girl went to her house.

Pronoun is always considered as the biggest chapter in English grammar. To develop communication skills, pronoun is the essential chapter.

About Noun and Uses of Noun by Remedial English from Business Communication

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Remedial English is the chapter of Business Communication of SMU MBA. SMU introduces the book as MB0023 for MBA student. I want to discuss about the Remedial English chapter from the Business Communication book. This is the very big chapter of Business Communication which is about parts of speech. During the English language learning, grammar is known as the foundation. In the English Grammar, parts of speech is the base on which we make a sentence. There are eight parts of parts of speech in English grammar such as – Noun, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Adjective, Preposition, Conjunction and Interjection.

Here, I want talk about Noun and uses of Noun. Noun is the basic and most important chapter of English grammar. It is the first chapter of parts of speech. It is the communication process from where we begin.

Definition of Noun:

There are many definitions about Noun but we take only few for references. According the David Green, “A Noun may be defined as the name of a person, place or thing. By ‘thing’, we mean something that can be seen and touched (concrete) or something that can only be thought of and not seen and touched (abstract).” This definition is very suitable that says everything about Noun in short.

For example – Lisa, Shyam, Rohan etc. for names; Park, Patna, Delhi etc. for places; Pen, Pencil, Book etc for thing.

Functions of Noun:

Noun can function as subject, object and compliment in a sentence. For example – Ram Reads a Book. (Ram is Noun). A Book is read by Ram. (A Book is Noun). Ram’s book is very informative. (Ram’s Book is Noun).

Kinds of Noun:

There are very differences about kinds of noun between modern grammar and old grammar. According to the old grammar, noun is divided into five parts such as – Proper Noun, Common Noun, Abstract Noun, Collective Noun and Material Noun. New grammar treats these in two parts such as – Countable Noun and Uncountable Noun.

According to the Business Communication book, noun can be shown as:

Kinds of Noun

Gender in Noun:

Father, Boy, Hero; male denoted noun is known as the Masculine Gender.

Mother, Girl, Heroine; female denoted noun is known as the Feminine Gender.

Baby, Parent, Student, Teacher; common denoted noun is known as the Common Gender.

Tree, Jewel, Building; neuter denoted noun is known as the Neuter Gender.

Number of Noun:

Single thing is known as the Singular Noun such as – tomato, boy, card etc.

More than one is known as the Plural Noun such as – tomatoes, boys, cards etc.

So, this chapter gives knowledge about Noun and uses of Noun in English grammar which is the first and basic chapter of parts of speech. This is the most important chapter in the process of learning English grammar. It is the most preferable chapter of business communication to develop communication skills and to know about types of communication also.

Types of Communication and Impact of Communication

Friday, September 11, 2009

We already have discussed about communication process and communication barriers in our previous post. Here, I want to tell about types of communication and impact of communication on human behaviour.

Communication is possible with words. We talk to our friend to write a letter or E-mail. It means we are talking through words. We are establishing a communication with our friends. This is one type of communication but here we will discuss on many types of communication.

Communication through words:

When a baby cries, the mother turns to her. Communication through spoken words or written words is called verbal communication. Verbal communication is known as spoken communication also.

Non-verbal communication:

Non-verbal communication is known as communication without words. In this process we don’t use words to send or receive massages. We can categories non-verbal communication as:

Gestures

Body Language

Posture

Facial Expression

Eye Gazing

Impact of Communication on human behaviour or performance:

Effective communication is known as the well-defined strategy that enables any organization to achieve its set goals. A close tie between business, performance, technology and communication strategies provides a strong base for understanding and support within an organization.

The performance of an individual is either enhanced or hampered depending upon the effectiveness of communication in the work place. An organization is more than a set of by-laws, financial reports or organizational charts. It is a group of ‘people’. We cannot deny the social aspects of the workplace because it inhibits the transfer of information and knowledge and hinders the organization’s ability to outperform and innovate.

Just turn around- you may be in the cafeteria, front office, recreation area or the administrative block. Pay attention to different communication that I going on. Are they clear? Are they too harsh or too dry? How are they perceived? Is the receiver of the message accepting or rejecting the message? Do people care to what you say? Do you accomplish your goal? It is more than often that you are in a dilemma about issuing new instructions.

Effective communication enables you to hold a “relaxed” meeting and read to them what you wrote so that they could critique.

Communication Process and Communication Barriers in an Organization

Monday, August 17, 2009

Mostly, “Communication” term is used by behavioural theorists, management scholars and the general public. We will follow here some definition of communication which has been varyingly defined over the years.

I am going to share some definition of communication process from one of the MBA books - MB0023.

According to the Newman and Summer, communication is used as,
“an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more persons.”
Here Newman and Summer theorizes communication as an exchange of views.

Hoben defines it as,
“Communication is the verbal interchange of thought or idea.”
He is not dealing with written and visual communication.

We get a good definition about communication by Anderson who says,
“Communication is the process, by which we understand others and in turn endeavor to be understood by them. It is dynamic, constantly changing and shifting in response to the total situation.”
So, the definition is in the process and continuances.

Function and Purpose of Communication

In an organization communication helps to establish and disseminate the goals. It facilitates the development of plans for the achievement of goals. Communication helps to manage and utilizes manpower and other resources in the most effective and efficient manner. Communication helps manager lead, direct and motivate employees to contribute right things.

Process of Communication

Normally, communication is known as interpersonal, wherein the information or message is transferred from one person to the others. Transmitting person of the message is called the sender or transmitter. Receiver of message is called the receiver. The process of converting information that has to be sent, into a format which the receiver can understand is known as encoding.

Information can be encoded into various formats – oral, written or visual. To show each of the formats we had to go through a medium called channel. There are many channels of communication which may be a letter, memorandum, computer, telephone, fax, telegram or a television.

Information which is transferred to the receiver has to be interpreted. Interpretation is known as decoding. The process of replying is known as feedback. Here is a diagram of communication process:

Communication Process Diagram

So, to send any message a sender chooses a suitable channel and finally receiver sends a message back to the sender.

Barriers to Effective Communication

In each process of communication – encoding, transference and decoding, there may be possibility of interface. It may hamper the communication process. This is known as noise. It is just like carrying water in leaky bucket. Barriers are also major difficulties during message transferred. To ensure clarity in communication, barriers must be eliminated or minimized.

Barriers of communication can be defined as

Linguistic and cultural differences: It creates the problem for receiver to complete or understand the language used by the transmitter.

Environment: Noise is the basic barriers in the types of environment barriers of communication.

Channel: A faulty fax machine, a crackling phone or illegible hand-writing can be barriers of channel communication.

Receiver’s Attitude and Behaviour: The type comes basically in organization to satisfy clients. It can lead the inaccurate hearing of the information.

Transmission Journey: There can be some difficulties during transmission journey. So, it is necessary to repeat the massage and use more than one channel to communicate a message.

Lack of Planning: Purpose to communicate a person should be very clear. So, planning is the most effective thing to void lack of planning in communication.

Semantic Distortion: The distortion comes in the uses of words. It may be a serious barrier to effective communication.

At last, we can sum up communication definition, function, process and barriers. To handle a person or an organization it is the most necessary thing to understand communication, communication process and communication barriers. There should be a planned way of communication to understand or send a message.

Leader and Leadership in an Organization

Thursday, July 9, 2009

There are great debate on leader and leadership. Some of the people say that leaders are born not made but some are against it. It is said that Alexander/Julius Caesar were leader from born.

On the chapter we have to discuss about leader and leadership in an organization. A manager should be leader or not? A manager has better quality of leaders or leaders have better quality of managers?

Leadership objectives:

Meaning of leadership

Qualities of a good leader

Theories of leadership

Different types of leaders

Functions of a leader

Differences between ‘managers’ and ‘leaders’

According to the Haiman Leadership is, “the process by which an executive or a manager imaginatively directs, guides and influences the work of others in choosing and attaining specified goals by mediation between the individual and organization in such a manner that both will obtain the maximum satisfaction.” In other word we can say leadership is, “the relationship in which one person influences others to work together willingly on related tasks to attain that level which he desires.”

Some quality of a good leader:

Has foresight

Has influence

Has representative role playing

Communicates properly

Commands attention and respect

Helps to achieve task objectives

Commands trust and confidence

Is sensitive to the task, people and environment

Builds team and becomes a model

Has the ability and skill to manage the team

Has the ability to take decision and many more

In the leadership theories “Great Man” theories comes first and according to it great leaders are born, not made.

According to trait theories people inherit certain qualities and traits that make them better suited to leadership.

According to Contingency theories leadership focus on particular variables related to the environment that might determine which particular style of leadership is best suited for the situation.

According to situational theories leaders choose the best course of action based upon situational variable.

According to the behavioural theories leaders are based upon the belief that great leaders are made, not born.

According to the participative theories ideal leadership style is one that takes the input of others into account.

Management theories focus on the role of supervision, organization, and group performance.

Relationship theories focus upon the connections formed between leaders and followers.

About the classification of leadership we know these types:

Bureaucrat Leaders

Autocrat Leaders

Diplomat Leaders

Expert Leaders

Quarter Back Leaders

But according to the Chris Argyris leadership classification leaders types are:

Directive type

Permissive type

Participative type

Abraham Zaleznik (1977), delineated differences between leadership and management. He saw leaders as inspiring visionaries, concerned about substance; while managers are viewed as planners who have concerns with process. Warren Bennis (1989) further explained a dichotomy between managers and leaders. He drew twelve distinctions between the two groups:

Managers administer, leaders innovate.

Managers ask how and when, leaders as what and why.

Mangers focus on systems, leaders focus on people.

Managers do things right, leaders do the right things.

Managers maintain, leaders develop.

Mangers rely on control, leaders inspire trust.

Managers have a short-term perspective, leaders have a long-term perspective.

Managers accept the status-quo; leaders challenge the status-quo.

Managers have an eye on the bottom line, leader have an eye on the horizon.

Managers imitate, leaders originate.

Managers emulate the classic good soldier, leaders are their own person.

Managers copy, leaders show originality.

In the end of the chapter we can say leaders are far ahead from a manager. Manager vision should be like a leader. Above mentioned all the resources will clear you about the function of a manager and leaders. In this term we can say leaders purpose are for high term however manager purposes are for short-term.

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