Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

Acknowledgment

I would like special thanks of gratitude my teacher as well as the manager of IDM- Galle who gave me the opportunity to do assignment on the topic Computer Platforms which helped me in doing a lot of research and came to know about so many things. I am really thanks full to them.

Secondly I would also to thank my parents and friends who me a lot finishing this assignment within a limited time.

THANKS AGAIN TO ALL WHO HELPED ME

Batch No: 233

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

Contents Table of Contents

TASKS ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3 TASK 01 ........................................................................................................................................................................ 5 1.1 Importance of Communication .......................................................................................................................... 5 1.2 Types of Different Ways of Communication ...................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Body Language ................................................................................................................................................... 9 TASK 02 .................................................................................................................................................................. 12 TASK 03 .................................................................................................................................................................. 14 TASK 04 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 17 TASK 05 ...................................................................................................................................................................... 19 1.1 Stress ................................................................................................................................................................ 19 1.2 Symptoms of Stress.......................................................................................................................................... 19 1.3 Effect on Physical Health of Stress ................................................................................................................... 21 1.4 Other Physical Effects of Stress........................................................................................................................ 22 1.5 How to deal with stress to live stress free life ................................................................................................. 23

Batch No: 233

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASKS
Task 01 Elaborate and explain the importance of Communication and its types of different ways of communication with relevant examples. Explain the use of body language and its importance in an organizational context (meetings) with examples. Task 02 Create and maintain a project planner to explain the time frame you followed from the beginning of this assignment and the end. Follow the table below; Task No. Date Date begin No. of Hours Date end Comments

Task 03 You have been assigned to provide an effective decision for an issue that has come up in your team at your workplace. The issue is you find that your fellow team members are not submitting their tasks on time and they are very de-motivated and often develop conflicts with others. Yu have to provide a solution to this issue as soon as possible as you have a very important project coming up and you want to be united. Explain in detail how you will apply the Decision making and implementation process that you have learnt in your PSD module to solve this issue.

Task 03 Create a SWOT analysis to evaluate your performance on completing this assignment (PSD).I.e include that you were good at, what should you improve in, the threats you faced ,and the opportunities you foresee by completing this assignment.

Task 05 At certain times we experience stress at the workplace. Define stress, its symptoms, effect on physical heath and the ways you would deal with stress to live a stress free life and work in an effective manner.

Batch No: 233

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 01

Batch No: 233

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 01
1.1 Importance of Communication What is communication ?
Communication is neither transmission of message nor message itself. It is the mutual exchange of understanding, originating with the receiver. Communication needs to be effective in business. Communication is essence of management. The basic functions of management (Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling) cannot be performed well without effective communication. Business communication involves constant flow of information. Feedback is integral part of business communication. Organizations these days are very large. It involves number of people. There are various levels of hierarchy in an organization. Greater the number of levels, the more difficult is the job of managing the organization. Communication here plays a very important role in process of directing and controlling the people in the organization. Immediate feedback can be obtained and misunderstandings if any can be avoided. There should be effective communication between superiors and subordinated in an organization, between organization and society at large (for example between management and trade unions). It is essential for success and growth of an organization. Communication gaps should not occur in any organization.

Importance of Communication in an Organization

1. Communication promotes motivation by informing and clarifying the employees about the task to be done, the manner they are performing the task, and how to improve their performance if it is not up to the mark. 2. Communication is a source of information to the organizational members for decision-making process as it helps identifying and assessing alternative course of actions. 3. Communication also plays a crucial role in altering individuals attitudes, i.e., a well informed individual will have better attitude than a less-informed individual. Organizational magazines, journals, meetings and various other forms of oral and written communication help in molding employees attitudes. 4. Communication also helps in socializing. In todays life the only presence of another individual fosters communication. It is also said that one cannot survive without communication. 5. As discussed earlier, communication also assists in controlling process. It helps controlling organizational members behavior in various ways. There are various levels of hierarchy and certain principles and guidelines that employees must follow in an organization.

Batch No: 233

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

1.2 Types of Different Ways of Communication

Business Communication can be of two types: 1. Oral Communication - An oral communication can be formal or informal. Generally business communication is a formal means of communication, like: meetings, interviews, group discussion, speeches etc. An example of Informal business communication would be Grapevine. 2. Written Communication - Written means of business communication includes - agenda, reports, manuals etc.

Oral Communication
Oral communication implies communication through mouth. It includes individuals conversing with each other, be it direct conversation or telephonic conversation. Speeches, presentations, discussions are all forms of oral communication. Oral communication is generally recommended when the communication matter is of temporary kind or where a direct interaction is required. Face to face communication (meetings, lectures, conferences, interviews, etc.) is significant so as to build a rapport and trust.

Advantages of Oral Communication 1. There is high level of understanding and transparency in oral communication as it is interpersonal. 2. There is no element of rigidity in oral communication. There is flexibility for allowing changes in the decisions previously taken. 3. The feedback is spontaneous in case of oral communication. Thus, decisions can be made quickly without any delay. 4. Oral communication is not only time saving, but it also saves upon money and efforts. Disadvantages/Limitations of Oral Communication 1. Relying only on oral communication may not be sufficient as business communication is formal and very organized. 2. Oral communication is less authentic than written communication as they are informal and not as organized as written communication. 3. Oral communication is time-saving as far as daily interactions are concerned, but in case of meetings, long speeches consume lot of time and are unproductive at times.

Batch No: 233

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

Written Communication
Written communication has great significance in todays business world. It is an innovative activity of the mind. Effective written communication is essential for preparing worthy promotional materials for business development. Speech came before writing. But writing is more unique and formal than speech. Effective writing involves careful choice of words, their organization in correct order in sentences formation as well as cohesive composition of sentences. Also, writing is more valid and reliable than speech. But while speech is spontaneous, writing causes delay and takes time as feedback is not immediate.

Advantages of Written Communication 1. Written communication helps in laying down apparent principles, policies and rules for running of an organization.

2. It is a permanent means of communication. Thus, it is useful where record maintenance is required. 3. It assists in proper delegation of responsibilities. While in case of oral communication, it is impossible to fix and delegate responsibilities on the grounds of speech as it can be taken back by the speaker or he may refuse to acknowledge. 4. Written communication is more precise and explicit. 5. Effective written communication develops and enhances an organizations image.

Disadvantages of Written Communication 1. Written communication does not save upon the costs. It costs huge in terms of stationery and the manpower employed in writing/typing and delivering letters. 2. Also, if the receivers of the written message are separated by distance and if they need to clear their doubts, the response is not spontaneous. 3. Written communication is time-consuming as the feedback is not immediate. The encoding and sending of message takes time. 4. Effective written communication requires great skills and competencies in language and vocabulary use. Poor writing skills and quality have a negative impact on organizations reputation. 5. Too much paper work and e-mails burden is involved.

Batch No: 233

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

Examples for Types of Communication

Type of Communication Oral Communication

Examples Speeches, Telephone calls, Debates, Talks, Interviews, Meetings

Written Communication

Letters, Memos, Notes, Reports, Minutes, Documents

Visual Images

Photographs, Cartoons, paintings, Videos, slides, illustration

Symbolic gestures

Gestures, facial expressions, movements, tone of voice, actions

Multimedia

TV, newspapers, leaflets, booklets, internet, posters,

Batch No: 233

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

1.3 Body Language

Body language is a form of mental and physical ability of human non-verbal communication, which consists of body posture, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Humans send and interpret such signals almost entirely subconsciously. Gestures such as making eye contact, nodding when talking with somebody, creating empathy, all these can tell that you are concealing your real feelings. A person can control the body language to certain extent, not totally. When you are talking choose your words very carefully, being honest, otherwise your body language may contradict you.

Figure 1

Batch No: 233

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

Use of Body Language in Meetings

Body language signals that you might observe among your meeting partners include: Resistance or disagreement can be implied if you observe a negative posture, with an impassive or slightly hostile expression, arms folded as if to form a barrier and legs crossed with the person leaning back. However, you should be careful to avoid making judgments based on observing one aspect of body language in isolation. For example crossed legs or crossed arms on their own should not automatically be read as a negative reaction. A neutral and open attitude is often accompanied by a neutral or slightly friendly facial expression and an upright or slightly forward leaning seating position.

Action

Symptoms

Listening with approval

Hand on chin, Slight tilt of the head together with the friendly eye contact. Raised eyebrows, eye making contact, Body leaning forward.

Paying attention

Emphasizing point

Using a hand to gesture forcefully, add emphasis with hand

Showing uncertainty

Indirect gaze, Slightly biting finger or pens

Needing reassurance

Arm wrapped around body, One hand around the neck, and other the waist Closed eyes, Nose pinching

Experiencing conflicts

Batch No: 233

10

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 02

Batch No: 233

11

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 02

Task No

Date

No. of Hours

Comments

Date begin TASK 01 17/04/2012

Date end 17/04/2012 4h

TASK 03

18/04/2012

19/04/2012

6h. 30min

It was hard to understand the question.

TASK 04

22/04/2012

22/04/2012

2h

TASK 05

21/04/2012

21/04/2012

1h.10min

The easiest task.

Batch No: 233

12

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 03

Batch No: 233

13

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 03
Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.

Following are the steps to be taken to solve this issue

1) Identify issue Identification of the real problem before a business enterprise is the first step in the process of decision-making. It is rightly said that a problem well-defined is a problem half-solved. Information relevant to the problem should be gathered so that critical analysis of the problem is possible. 2) Analyzing the Problem After defining the problem, the next step in the decision-making process is to analyze the problem in depth. This is necessary to classify the problem in order to know who must take the decision and who must be informed about the decision taken. 3) Collecting Relevant Data After defining the problem and analyzing its nature, the next step is to obtain the relevant information/ data about it. There is information flood in the business world due to new developments in the field of information technology. All available information should be utilized fully for analysis of the problem. This brings clarity to all aspects of the problem. 4) Developing Alternative Solutions After the problem has been defined, diagnosed on the basis of relevant information, the manager has to determine available alternative courses of action that could be used to solve the problem at hand. Only realistic alternatives should be considered. It is equally important to take into account time and cost constraints and psychological barriers that will restrict that number of alternatives. If necessary, group participation techniques may be used while developing alternative solutions as depending on one solution is undesirable.

Batch No: 233

14

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

5) Selecting the Best Solution After preparing alternative solutions, the next step in the decision-making process is to select an alternative that seems to be most rational for solving the problem. The alternative thus selected must be communicated to those who are likely to be affected by it. Acceptance of the decision by group members is always desirable and useful for its effective implementation. 6) Converting Decision into Action After the selection of the best decision, the next step is to convert the selected decision into an effective action. Without such action, the decision will remain merely a declaration of good intentions. Here, the manager has to convert 'his decision into 'their decision' through his leadership. For this, the subordinates should be taken in confidence and they should be convinced about the correctness of the decision. Thereafter, the manager has to take follow-up steps for the execution of decision taken. 7) Ensuring Feedback Feedback is the last step in the decision-making process. Here, the manager has to make built-in arrangements to ensure feedback for continuously testing actual developments against the expectations. It is like checking the effectiveness of follow-up measures. Feedback is possible in the form of organized information, reports and personal observations. Feed back is necessary to decide whether the decision already taken should be continued or be modified in the light of changed conditions.

Batch No: 233

15

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 04

Batch No: 233

16

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 04
What is SWOT ANALYSIS?
SWOT analysis (alternately SLOT analysis) is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses/Limitations, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective.

In this task I have mentioned the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities & threats of mine on completing this assignment. Strengths 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Willingness to complete the assignment. The resources I have got. The knowledge I have got. Good at working alone. Creative

Weaknesses 1. I wasnt good at completing this assignment within a short period of time. 2. Poor typing 3. Self criticism Opportunities 1. I can use this knowledge when doing my higher educations. 2. New challenges 3. New technology Threats 1. Competition 2. Financial difficulties 3. Technology issues

Batch No: 233

17

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 05

Batch No: 233

18

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

TASK 05
1.1 Stress
Stress is a term that is commonly used today but has become increasingly difficult to define. It shares, to some extent, common meanings in both the biological and psychological sciences. Stress typically describes a negative concept that can have an impact on ones mental and physical well-being, but it is unclear what exactly defines stress and whether or not stress is a cause, an effect, or the process connecting the two. With organisms as complex as humans, stress can take on entirely concrete or abstract meanings with highly subjective qualities, satisfying definitions of both cause and effect in ways that can be both tangible and intangible.

1.2 Symptoms of Stress

Emotional and cognitive symptoms of stress include: 1. Feeling irritable 2. Feeling frustrated at having to wait for something 3. Feeling restless 4. Unable to concentrate 5. Becoming easily confused 6. Having memory problems 7. Thinking about negative things all the time 8. Negative self-talk 9. Having marked mood swings 10. Eating too much 11. Eating when you are not hungry 12. Finding it difficult to concentrate 13. Not having enough energy to get things done 14. Feeling you can't cope 15. Finding it hard to make decisions 16. Having emotional outbursts 17. Generally feeling upset 18. Lack of sense of humor

Batch No: 233

19

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

Physical symptoms of stress include: 1. Muscle tension 2. Headaches, irritability, depression 3. Hair loss 4. Dry mouth, mouth ulcers 5. Pains in chest 6. Aggravation of conditions such as asthma 7. Pains in shoulders or neck 8. Low back pain 9. Stomach/abdominal pain 10. 'Butterflies' in stomach 11. Indigestion and 'the gurgles' 12. Diarrhea, irritable bowel 13. Ulcers, gastritis, colitis 14. 'Pounding' or 'racing' heart 15. Cardiovascular disease, hypertension

Batch No: 233

20

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

1.3 Effect on Physical Health of Stress

The American Psychological Association has summarized the most common physical effects of stress on the internal systems of human's body.

1. Nervous System When stress physically or psychologically the body suddenly shifts its energy resources to fighting off the perceived threat. In what is known as fight or flight response, the sympathetic nervous system signals the adrenal glands to release adrenaline and cortical. These hormones make the heart beat faster, raise blood pressure, change the digestive process and boost glucose levels in the bloodstream. Once the crisis passes the systems usually return to normal

2. Musculoskeletal System Under stress muscles tense up. The contraction of muscles for extended periods can trigger tension headaches, migraines and various musculoskeletal conditions. 3. Reproductive System In men excess levels of cortical, produced under stress, can affect the normal functioning of the reproductive system. Chronic stress can impair testosterone and sperm production and cause impotence. In women stress cause absent or irregular menstrual cycles or more painful periods. It can also reduce sexual desire. 4. Immune system The immune system is the internal system which is designed to protect us from any external bodies (viruses or bacteria). It costs a lot to the body meaning that it has very high energy usage. 5. Respiratory System Stress can make you breathe harder and cause rapid breathing, which can bring on panic attacks in some people.

Batch No: 233

21

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

1.4 Other Physical Effects of Stress

1. Aggression This is an emotional state of anger towards you, another person or sometimes towards the whole world. Usually you can assess this state as wrong but you cannot stop it. It is stronger than you and keeps manifesting day after day. 2. Apathy This is a feeling that you dont care about anything and you dont want to do anything. The apathetic person is not interested in the events around or in the future and cannot do anything to protect them in case of a danger. 3. Guilt This is a feeling which comes when we have already done or want to do something which we classify as wrong. Often the thought which results in guilt might be unconscious such as: If I was more careful I would be so rude to Jim this morning. 4. Numbness Sometimes as a result of stress you cannot feel anything in a particular part of your body legs, arms They just do not obey to your orders. 5. Headaches Headaches might be caused by different reasons, one of them being chronic overwork and stress. In addition tensions and deep disappointments can also result in stress and terrible headaches. Find out more about stress headaches and how to deal with them.

Batch No: 233

22

Ramesh Thamara

Personal Skills Development

Reg. No: 10404

1.5 How to deal with stress to live stress free life

1. Take control of your life and take a moment to think about all you have been given and how blessed you are. Be thankful for everything you do have in control and dismiss everything you don't. Be thankful for even the simplest things such as having a roof over your head, having a bed to sleep on, having quality food, warmth, security, and mostly good health. This is something that many people in the world don't even have so think how lucky you are. 2. Be aware of your choices; you always have a choice. This is true for emotions as well as work. Sometimes you need to let your emotions out but still stay in control. 3. Say something positive to yourself as soon as you wake up every morning. This will keep your energy and mind going. 4. Be organized. Much stress arises from feeling overwhelmed. Being organized and getting your priorities straight can help you break responsibilities down into manageable pieces and focus on the things that really matter. 5. Identify the things that put you under stress. Make sure you understand why you become stressed so that you can try to avoid these circumstances.

Batch No: 233

23