SCHOOL OF Business

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

STUDENT DETAILS

Student name: Sachin Student ID number: 18443758

UNIT AND TUTORIAL DETAILS

Unit name: Working in Professions Unit number: 200914

Tutorial group: Tutorial day and time: Friday 1-3pm
Lecturer or Tutor name: Miss Noor / Mr. Krishan Prasad

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS

Title: Week 3 Portfolio

Length: Due date: 12/08/18 Date submitted: 12/08/18
Home campus (where you are enrolled): Parramatta City

DECLARATION

I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged.

X
I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work
X or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment.
I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been submitted by me in another
X (previous or current) assessment, except where appropriately referenced, and with prior permission
from the Lecturer / Tutor / Unit Coordinator for this unit.
No part of the assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other person except
X where collaboration has been authorised by the Lecturer / Tutor /Unit Coordinator concerned.
 I am aware that this work will be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for
X the purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future
plagiarism checking).
Student’s
signature: Sachin
Note: An examiner or lecturer / tutor has the right to not mark this assignment if the above declaration has
not been signed.
Textbook question from chapter 6 and 7
Answer 1a. According to Westpac (2005), Westpac’s primary goal is to maintain such business model in
which corporate responsibility along with best practice governance has been fully integrated. Corporate
responsibility entails conduction of business in such a way in which their financial, social and
environmental responsibilities are aligned.

Answer 1b. They are trying to project themselves as a “good” organization, by providing a great workplace
for their staff members, an exquisite experience for their customers and best possible returns for their
valuable shareholders (Westpac, 2005).

Answer 1c. Their effort seems to be very convincing, as one of my friends who works there, completely
agrees with their position as a good corporate citizen in the industry and is evident in the article produced
by The Sydney Morning Herald (2010) which shows that Westpac is listed as one of the most ethical
organization in the world.

Lecture videos and pods

Answer 1. According to the Lecture Pod 200914 Working in Professions - Communication in the
Workplace, ten key points are

1. Communication is rated as one of the most vital soft skill in business.

2. Good communication skills can result in achieving higher grades and better jobs.
3. Being good at communicating readily increases an employee’s chances to get promoted to a
higher-level position.
4. In large organizations an individual is commonly judged by his/her communication skills.
5. Higher-level jobs require an individual to possess great communication skills.
6. Apart from communication skills, other vitally important traits are strong work ethics, ability to
work as a team and ability to initiate.
7. Keeping up with the technology has become a norm in a 21st century workplace.
8. Incorporation of E-mails in 1980 in workplaces completely revolutionized the way businesses
communicated.
9. Communication and efficiency are the two top skills that requires improvement in the workforce
10. Some communication challenges are: Media literacy, Increased globalization, Analytical skills,
Ethics and Social responsibility.
Answer 2. According to Supplementary Lecture Pods, five key points from each point are:

a). - The components of a communication chain are: Sender-The Channel-Recipient.

- The way we communicate varies according to the situation. For instance, our communication structure
while we are communicating to our boss is different to the way we communicate with our friends.

- The factors that can have a huge impact on the way we communicate are education, life experiences,
upbringing, cultural background, economics, environment and genetics.

- Two main types of communication are Written and Verbal communication.

- Communication can take place as a one-way medium such as lecture videos; and two-way medium
with clients and peers.

b). – 35% of communication is done verbally and 65% of communication is dome non-verbally.

- Verbal communication consists of tone, pitch, volume and rate.

- Non-verbal communication consists of facial expression, movement, appearance, eye contact, gestures
and postures.

- Maintaining eye contact is very important while discussing business deals as bad eye contact shows
that one is hiding something important and being dishonest.

- A great way of finding out about your gestures is to talk to yourself in front of the mirror.

c). - Effective communication is not just about sending (talking) information but also but receiving
(listening) it.

- Good listening skills play an important role as without listening the provided information clearly, we
cannot take the required action.

- While communicating one can be the sender and the recipient.

- Questioning skills are also very important while we are communicating. Our questions should be open
ended, clarifying and leading.

- Close ended questions are usually answered with Yes or No.

d). - Communicating properly requires a lot of practice but it is possible to achieve.

- While communicating it is vital that we pay attention to the talker while receiving information.

- Talking over someone (interrupting) will negatively affect the way we are perceived by the information
provider.

- Sarcasm should be avoided while communicating in the workplace.

- It is important to be respectful to the speaker.

Answer 3. a). Check if the information you are looking is available on learning guide; Vuws; UWS
website; has the tutor previously discussed it; and do not forget to ask fellow students before emailing
your query.

Answer 3. b).

- To: This choice is for the intended recipient and we can choose multiple.

- CC: This option is used when an email is sent to several recipients, but they are not the primary
recipient.

- BCC: This option is used to send email to several recipients without having to share other recipients’
emails for privacy purposes.

Answer 4. a). Before sending out emails we should make sure that we are sending to the right receivers;
inclusion of proper subject; emails should be kept within the appropriate channel of decision making; be
extra careful while forwarding emails.

Answer 4. b). The subject and the content of the email should be concise and meaningful; the subject
should directly relate to the body of the email; we should be aware of the numbers of email we send;
appropriate practices and professionalism should be kept in mind while sending out emails;

Answer 5. a).

- Professional is a titled that is earned, and it should be used as an adjective by others while describing
us.

-The way we write emails, talk on the phone and conduct ourselves in person tells a lot about us to our
employers.

- It is easier or staff members at universities if students communicate in a professional manner.

- It is vital to be clear and polite while constructing our emails.

- Being professional involves reliable and consistent behavior.

Answer 5. b).

- Email is the most important professional tool used for written communication.
- Email is used in almost all the professions such as PR agents, graphic designers and academics
such lecturers and tutors.
- Bad emails usually reflect the writers poorly.
- Sometimes we would get our answers but that does not mean that we should keep resending
our emails as the recipients such as teachers usually have hundreds of emails to reply to.
Therefore, it is important to be patient after sending an email.
- UWS students must use student emails to communicate with staff members as they are not
allowed to reply to queries sent through personal/non-student email accounts.

Answer 6. a).

- Verbal communication refers to the words we use while communicating.

- Non-verbal refers to all aspects except the words themselves.
- Oral communication refers vocal aspects of communication (usually by mouth).
- Non-oral mainly refers to the written words.

Answer 6. b).

- It is usually thought that we are only judged by our verbal and written communication but that
is wrong as actions speak louder than our words.
- Communicating through technology is not only done in a written manner as we can be required
to communicate through voice and video calls.
- While on workplace it is more important to have quality knowledge than quantity of knowledge.
- It is important to not repeat ourselves during the meetings or presentations.
- It is assumed that using of complex words or jargons at workplace would make us look smarter
but it makes us sound incomprehensible.

Answer 6. c).

- In order to communicate our message clearly and have a positive first impression it is important
to write a well-structured letter.
- A letter must always be typed in an appropriate font that is easy to read and professional at the
same time.
- Body paragraphs should be double spaced and should be set flush left.
- If our letter is longer than one page, the next page should include heading as well as page
number.
- While constructing a letter these steps should be followed: Prewrite; Draft; Revise; and Refine.
AFR: Earnings push ASX to 10-year high

Although it was a volatile for the global financial market, the Australian securities market has closed this
week with 10-year high, due to the rise of strong earning results. Despite all the tumbling of metal
market, the ASX-200 rose by 1% from 6275.8 to 6339.2. Great news for Telstra and their shareholders as
Telstra share prices rose by 5.9% which is the biggest jump of price in this decade.

Week 3: Personal Reflection

This week’s material articulated how minor things such as email and shaking hands can have a huge
impact in regards to how we are perceived in a professional world. I learnt that communication is rated
as one of the most valuable soft skill in business as it has the potential to increase grades for students
and chances of promotion for an employee. In large organization an employee is typically judged by
his/her ability to communicate as well as other significant skill such as ability to work as part of a team.
Personally, group projects are something I have never liked but this week’s content has changed my
perception about the group projects, I now look at it as an opportunity to improve my abilities to work
as a team. It is evident how important this skill is in todays corporate world.
References
The Sydney Morning Herald. (2010). Westpac one of the world's most ethical companies. [online]
Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/business/westpac-one-of-the-worlds-most-ethical-companies-
20100323-qsbz.html [Accessed 19 Aug. 2018].

Westpac. (2005). Corporate responsibility and our business. [online] Available at:
https://www.westpac.com.au/docs/pdf/aw/Corporate_Responsibility03.pdf [Accessed 19 August 2018]