Principles of Management

Management

Management is the art of getting things done through people

Management as a process consists of planning, organizing, actuating and controlling, performed to determine and accomplish the objectives by the use of people and resources.

Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish selected aims.

Importance of Management

1)   Management is a critical element in the economic growth of a country

2)   Management is essential in all organized efforts, be it a business activity or any other activity

3)   Management is the dynamic, life-giving element in every organization

Management Functions

1)   Planning

2)   Organizing

3)   Directing

4)   Controlling

5)   Innovating

6)   Representation

Planning

Determination of what is to be done, how and where it is to be done, who is to do it and how results are to be evaluated

Function which is performed by managers at all levels – top, middle and bottom

Organizing

To provide a business with everything useful: majorly human organization and material organization

According to Allen, Organization refers to the structure which results from identifying and grouping work, defining and delegating responsibility and authority, and establishing relationships’.

Directing

Function can also be called leading, directing, motivating, actuating, etc.

Directing involves 3 sub-functions:

1)   Communication

2)   leadership

3)   motivation

Two broad categories of motivation

1)   Financial

2)   non-financial

Controlling

Function of controlling involves

1)   Establishing standards of performance

2)   Measuring current performance and comparing it against the established standards

3) Taking action to correct any performance that does not meet those standards

Innovation

   Creating new ideas which may improve a product, process or practice

1)   Innovation in packaging: HUL’s shampoo sachets

2)   Innovation in distribution: Eureka forbes’ DTH salesforce

3)   Innovation in business model: ITC’s e-choupal

Representing

A manager is required to spend a part of his time in representing his organization before various outside groups which have some stake in the organization

Retail Service Layout

Service facilities can be costly, like hospitals, resort hotels, universities, and company headquarters, or less costly than other types of facilities, like groceries, department stores, restaurants, banks, hotels, cleaners, clinics and low offices.

Factor influence location of retail and service facilities.

A.-Dominant factors

1)   Proximity of customers

2)  Integration with other parts of organization.

3)  transportation costs and proximity to market

4)  Location of competitors

B.-Secondary factor

A.  Dominant factors

The factors considered for manufactures are also applied to service provides, with one important additions- the impact of location on the sales and customers satisfaction. Customers usually look about how close a service facility is, particularly if the process require considerable customers contact.

Proximity of customers

Location is key factor in determining how conveniently customers can carry on business with firm for examples.- few peoples would like to go to remotely located dry cleaner or supermarket if another is more convenient. Thus the influence of location on revenues tends to be the dominant factor

Integration with other parts of organization

If the new plant or facility is one of a number owned operated by a single organization or group, it should so situated that its work can be integrated with that of the associated units.

Transportation costs and proximity to market

For warehousing and distribution operations, transportation costs and proximity to market are extremely important. With a warehouse nearby, many firms can hold inventory closer to be customers, thus reducing delivery time and promoting sales.

Location of competitors

One complication in estimating the sales potential at different location is the impact of competitors management must not only consider the current location of competitors but also try to anticipate their reaction  to the firms locations. Avoiding areas where competitors are already well established often pays.

B.-Secondary factor

Retailer also consider level of retail activity, residential density, traffic flow and site visibility. Retail activity in the area important, a shoppers often diced on impulse to go shopping or to it in a restaurant. Traffic flow and visibility are important because businesses customer arrives in car. Visibility involes distant from the street and size of near by buildings in sings. High residential density insure nighttime and we can business when the population in the area fits the firms competitive priorities and target market segment.

Dividend Policy

Dividend policy is the set of guidelines a company uses to decide how much of its earnings it will pay out to shareholders. Some evidence suggests that investors are not concerned with a company's dividend policy since they can sell a portion of their portfolio of equities if they want cash.

Dimensions of Dividend Policy

1) Funds requirement

The funds required for forecasting prepares context of long range planning and consequently considerable funding needs tend to keep their payout ratio rather low to conserve resources for growth.

2) Liquidity

Dividend entitles cash payment. Hence, the liquidity position of the firm has a bearing on its dividend decision. A firm may be unable to distribute more than a small fraction of its earning, despite to do so, because of insufficient liquidity.

3) Access to external sources of financing.

The firm which has difficulty in raising finance externally is likely to lean heavily on internally generated funds.

4) Shareholder preference

The preference of shareholders may influence the dividend payout ratio of the firm.

5) Difference in the cost of external equity & retained earnings

The cost of external equity, expecting that which is raised by way of rights issue, is higher than the cost of retained earnings. Two factors cause this difference: Issue cost & under pricing.

6) Control

External finance, unless it is through a right issue, involves dilution of control. If the finance is raised by public, the existing shareholders will have to share control with new shareholders.

7) Taxes

Presently dividend income is tax exempt in the hands of investors.

Transaction Process System

A transaction process system is an information processing system for business transactions involving the collection, modification and retrieval of all transaction data. Characteristics of a TPS include performance, reliability and consistency.

TPS is also known as transaction processing or real-time processing.

A transaction process system and transaction processing are often contrasted with a batch process system and batch processing, where many requests are executed all at one time. The former requires the interaction of a user, whereas batch processing does not require a user to be present. Also, in batch processing the results of each transaction are not immediately available. Additionally, there is a delay while the many requests are being organized, stored and eventually executed. In transaction processing there is no delay and the results of each transaction are immediately available. During the delay time for batch processing, errors can occur. Although errors can occur in transaction processing, they are infrequent and tolerated, but do not warrant shutting down the entire system.

To achieve performance, reliability and consistency, data must be readily accessible in a data warehouse, backup procedures must be in place and the recovery process must be in place to deal with system failure, human failure, computer viruses, software applications or natural disasters.

Organization Behavior

OB refers to the behavior of individual & Group with in the organization and their interaction b/w Organization members and their external environment.

Organization Behavior is the subset of Management activity concerning with Understanding, Predicting and Influencing individual behavior in the organization setting.

Positive OB

Positive prospective of OB emphasis on the needs to recognize and built strength rather them attempting weakness and to cure them .

Categories of Positive approach

1)   Internality

2)   Self –Management

3)   Optimism

4)   Trust

5)   Collaboration

Indian Organizational Setting

Organizational Structure

1)   Work Specialization

2)   Departmentalization

3)   Chain Of Command (Authority, Unity Of Command)

4)   Span Of Control

5)   Centralization & Decentralization

6)   Formalization

Organizational Design

1)   Simple Structure

2)   Bureaucracy

3)   Matrix

Contemporary Organization

1)   Team Structure

2)   Virtual Organization

3)   learning Organization

4)   Boundaries Organization

5)   Empowered Organization

Attribution Theory

When individuals observe behavior, they attempt to determine whether it is internally or externally caused.

Distinctiveness - shows different behaviors in different situations.

Consensus - response is the same as others to same situation.

Consistency - responds in the same way over time.

Errors and Biases in Attributions

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to underestimate the influence of external factors and overestimate the influence of internal factors when making judgments about the behavior of others .Ex Sales Target

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency for individuals to attribute their own successes to internal factors while putting the blame for failures on external factors.

Mutual Company

A mutual company is a privately held company owned by its policyholders, depositors, or other customers. A share of the profits is distributed as dividends, allocated in proportion to the amount of business each customer does with the company.

Insurance companies, federal savings and loan associations, and savings banks are examples of mutual companies, although each type operates somewhat differently.

Reputed Universities of the World

1)   Harvard University (USA)

2)   Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)

3)   University of Cambridge

4)   University of Oxford

5)   Stanford University (USA)

6)   University of California (USA)

7)   Yale University

8)   Princeton University (USA)

9)   Ecole.Polytechnique University (France)

How does soap soil stain Removal?

The wardrobe is an excellent means of water to wash any item. Water is a liquid which dissolves in the liquid of the majority Dust particles and other debris so that it rested on the wardrobe body could only be removed by water But do not dissolve in water, sticky substances such as oil. Attract other particles if the substance on the clothes and saw that the stain on the clothing. A mixture of soap with water to remove the stain of such, Water and oil do not mix with each other in the soap acts as a catalyst.

Soap is a chemical made from the processing of oil. There are a range of hydro carbon atoms. It is with one end and the other end of the process water with oily substances. Especially if the process is easily slightly hot water. Soap solution provides oil cloth released into the water to swim and feel. This seems easy, but the process is complicated. Oily substances when heated becomes thinner so the density is less.

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Wholeseling

It includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services to those who buy for resale or business use

How do wholesalers differ from retailers

1)   Pay less attention to promotion, atmosphere and location

2)   Their transactions are usually larger than retail transactions

3)   Government regulations are different for wholesalers and retailers

Types

1)   Merchant Wholesalers ( own business that takes title of products they handle)

2)   Full service wholesalers ( Carry stock, have sales force, offer credit, make deliveries etc)

3)   Limited service wholesalers

4) Brokers( works on commission of selling price) and agents ( represents seller on a more permanent basis)

5)   Manufacturer’s and retailers branches and offices

Functions

1)   Selling and promoting

2)   Buying and assortment building

3)   Bulk breaking

4)   Warehousing

5)   Transportation

6)   Financing

7)   Risk bearing

8)   Market information

9)    Management Service and counseling

Selection - A Part of Recruitment Process

Selection has been regarded as the most important function of HRD. It ensure the organization that means .It has right number, right kind of people at the right place and at the right time

Selection is the process of picking up more competent and suitable employees

Process of Selection

The Main process of selecting employees are as following

Application Blank

1)   Application black is filled by candidates

2) Applicants gives relevant personal data such as his Qualifications, specialization, experience, firms in which he has worked etc.

3)   These are checked by company with reference to specifications prescribed for the jobs to decide applicants who are to be called for interview.

Initial Interview

1)   Applicants selected in application blank are called for interview.

2) It provides rough ideas concerning the person’s fit with the job & organization or not

Employment Tests

Tests that are used in this are

1)   Aptitude test

2)   Interest test

3)   Intelligence test

4)   Performance test

5)   Personality test

Checking References

If the candidate is found satisfactory at interview & if performance is good at tests than employer will get the important personal details about candidate such as character, past history, background etc.

Physical & Medical Examination

Objectives of this examination are

1)   To check physical fitness of applicant for the job applied for

2)   To protect company against the unwarranted claims for compensation under certain legislative enactments, such as workmen’s compensation act,

3)   To prevent communicable diseases entering the business concern

Final Interview

This interview is conducted for those who are ultimately selected for employment. In this interview candidates are given an idea about their future prospects within the organization.

Employee Socialization

Employee socialization is the process by which new employees understand the company's policies and the internal culture, how the company hierarchy works and the ways to function effectively in the organization.

Assumptions of Employee Socialization

1)   Socialization strongly influences employee performance & organizational stability.

2)   New member suffer from anxiety.

3)   Individual adjust to new situation remarkably similar way

Socialization Process

There are 3 Stages in Socialization Process that is

1)   Pre-arrival stage

2)   Encounter stage(Entry stage)

3)   Metamorphosis stage(change stage)

Pre-arrival Stage

This socialization process stage recognizes that individual arrives in an organization with a set of organizational values, attitude & expectation.

Pre-arrival sources for Socialization are

1)   Educational & training

2)   Recruitment process

3)   Selection process

Encounter stage(Entry Stage)

1)   It refers the entry of new employee in the organizations.

2)   If the expectations match the reality, socialization may not be needed.

3)   If the expectation do not match the reality, socialization will be needed. New learning will be needed.

4)   If the employee become disillusioned with the reality, they resign the job.

Outcomes pf Socialization

1)   Productivity (High Productivity)

2)   Commitment (High Commitment)

3)   Turnover (less propensity to leave the organization)

4)     Employees pursue a career.

Retailing

It is defined as all the activities involved in selling goods and/or services directly to final consumer for personal, non business use

Retailing

Retailing

Types of Retail Outlet

Specialty stores - specializing on specific merchandise, such as toys, shoes, etc.

Department stores- Department stores are general merchandisers. They offer to the customers mid- to high-quality products like "Westside" and "Lifestyle"--popular department stores.

Super market - A supermarket is a grocery store that sells food and household goods. They are large, most often self-service and offer a huge variety of products.

Hyper market(1,00,000 squaremeter to 1,50,000 squaremeter) - Big Bazaar and Reliance Fresh are hypermarkets that draw enormous crowds.

Retailing on the basis of service

1)   Wheel of retailing hypothesis

2)   Retailing on the basis of services – self service, self selection, limited service and full service

3)   Retailing can also be divided into two categories – store retailing and non store retailing

3)  Non store retailing – Direct selling ( Amway, Eureka), Direct marketing ( telemarketing, internet selling – flipkart, amazon.com), Automatic vending machine

What are Wisdom Teeth?

 Wisdom Teeth

Many young people will listen to the wisdom tooth to grow. Grow human molars in a young age, it is true, but it is not relationship with all the wisdom.

After the baby is born is called milk teeth start to grow teeth six to seven months, The milk teeth about six or seven a year adds the new fall simultaneously, and each molar teeth develop automatically. The amount of blood the size of the teeth and molars grow to play a part in Importance. The composition can be inherited. Molar and dental rises by simultaneously growing a tooth in the process, sometimes not. Since there is not enough space between the teeth is thus, but late in the tooth comes out of his way to them. Many even have pain when the tooth grows. The molars known as wisdom teeth. In a group of teeth of the specific location of the molar teeth. But this does not have anything to eat except for the use of food.

Managers

Manager is a person who manages or is in charge of something.

Managers can control departments in companies or guide the people who work for them.

Managers must often make decisions about things.

Managers Levels

First-Line Managers

Managers who are responsible for the work of operating employees only and do not supervise other managers; they are the “first or lowest level of managers in the organizational hierarchy.

Middle Managers

Managers in the midrange of the organizational hierarchy; they are responsible for other managers and sometimes for some operating employees; they also report to more senior managers.

Top Managers

Managers responsible for the overall management of the organization; they establish operating policies and guide the organization’s interaction with its environment.

Types

Functional Manager

A manager responsible for just one organizational activity, such as finance or human resources management.

General manager

The individual responsible for all functional activities, such as production, sales, marketing and finance for an organization such as a company or a subsidiary.

Cooking

1.   Show Me The Curry

2.   Sailu's Food

3.   Vahrehvah

4.   Tarla Dalal

5.   Sanjeev Kapoor

6.   Manjula's Kitchen

7.   Indian Food

8.   India Tastes

9.   Indian Food Forever 

Brand Equity

Brand Equity is the set of assets and liabilities linked with a brand.It is the added value endowed to the products and services reflected in how consumers think, feel and act with respect to the brand

Customer based brand equity is the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand

Brand knowledge consists of thought, feelings, images, experiences, beliefs that are associated with the brand

Brand promise it is the marketer's vision of what the brand must be and do for consumers

Brand Equity Models

Young and Rubicam’s Brand Asset valuator  according to which there are four key components

1)   Differentiation – degree to which the brand is seen as different from others

2)   Relevance – measures the breadth of a brand’s appeal

3)   Esteem – measures how well the brand is regarded and respected

4)   Knowledge – measures how familiar and intimate consumers are with the brand

  

Brand

Aaker’s  model of  Brand equity is a set of five categories of brand assets and liabilities linked to a brand that add and subtract from the value provided by a product or service to a firm. The categories are.

1)   Brand awareness

2)   Brand loyalty

3)   Perceived Quality

4)   Brand associations

5)   Proprietary assets like patents, copyrights

 

Measuring Brand Equity

Direct approach - assess the actual impact of brand knowledge on consumer response to different aspects of marketing

Indirect impact - assess potential sources of brand equity by identifying and tracking consumer brand knowledge structures.

Channel Design Decisions

Customer’s desired service output levels channels produce five service outputs

1)  Lot size - Number of units the channel permits a typical customer to purchase on one occasion

2)   Waiting and delivery time- Average time customers of that channel wait for receipt of goods

3)   Spatial convenience - Degree to which channel makes it easy for customers to purchase the product

4)   Product variety-  Assortment of products that the channel can supply to the customer -  more variety , better the chance of getting what the customer wants

5)   Service back up- Add o services like credit, delivery, installation and repairs are provided by the channel

Establishing objectives and constraints

1) Channel objectives vary with product characteristics – perishable products need direct marketing, bulky products need less shipping distance and less handling, customized products and high value products need company’s sales force

2)   Strength and weakness of the different  channels also needs to be studied

Identifying major channel alternatives – channel alternatives are identified by three elements

1)   The types of intermediaries needed

2)   The number of intermediaries needed

3)   Terms and responsibilities of each channel member – which include – price policy, conditions of sale, territorial rights, mutual services and responsibilities

Evaluating the major alternatives

1)   Economic criteria - cost and sales. Example: company’s sales force are trained to sell the company’s product.

2)   Control criteria - Control issue Example: agent might not know the technical details or handle sales brochure properly

3)    Adaptive criteria - some duration of commitment and loss of flexibility.

Comics Website

1)   Kids Comics

2)   Big Blog Comics

3)   Stan N Isaac

Marketing Management

Marketing deals with identifying and meeting the human & social needs.

AMA – marketing is an organizational function & set of processes for creating, communicating & delivering value to customers & for managing customer relationship in ways that benefit the organization & its stake holders.

Marketing Management as the art & science of choosing target markets & getting, keeping & growing customers through creating, delivering & communicating superior customer value.

Exchange & Transactions

Exchange: obtaining a product in exchange of something

Transactions: exchange with terms & conditions.

What is marketed?

1)   Goods

2)   Services

3)   Events

4)   Experiences

5)   Persons

6)   Places

7)   Properties

8)   Organizations

9)   Information

Who does Marketing?

1)   Marketers & Prospects

2)   Marketer is someone who seeks a response from another party called Prospect

3)   Marketer are skilled in stimulating demand for a company’s products.

4)   Prospect may be the customer or the consumer

Key Customer Markets?

1)   Consumer Markets

2)   Business Markets

3)   Global Markets

Market concepts

1)   Market Places

2)   Market Spaces

3)   Meta Markets

Company Orientation towards Marketplace

1)   The Production Concept

2)   The Product Concept

3)   The Selling Concept

4)   The Marketing Concept

5)   The Holistic Marketing Concept

Holistic Marketing concept

Internal Marketing

1)   marketing department

2)   Senior mgmt

3)   Other departments

Integrated Marketing

1)   Product / services

2)   Communications

3)   Channels

Socially Responsible Marketing

1)   Ethics

2)   Environment

3)   Legal

4)   Community

Relationship Marketing

1)   Customers

2)   Channel

3)   Partners

Fundamental Marketing Concepts

1)   Needs, Wants & Demands

2)   Target Market, Positioning & Segmentation

3)   Offering & Brands

4)   Value & Satisfaction

5)   Marketing Channel

6)   Supply Chain

7)   Competition

Effective Communication in Business

Effective communication at work is about knowing your employees and choosing the right message and channel for transmission. It may be necessary to develop a communications plan to outline strategies. The company’s culture is reflected in the nature of office communications, and business can hinge on effective communication.

Importance

1)   Important for the development of human civilization

2)   The ancient world depended heavily on oral communication

3) With the evolution of human civilization, the art and science of written communication were developed

4)   Writing became more important as a means of keeping permanent record of communication

5) The origination of communication principles can be traced back to the bureaucratic traditions of China.

       

Benefits

A Valuable Job Requirement

1) Managerial career requires mainly intellectual inputs to perform tasks effectively and hence an ability to communicate effectively becomes a valuable asset.

2)Communication is a primary responsibility in many careers, such as marketing, sales, public relations, human resources, customer relations, financial services, and teaching.

3)   Even if your work is mainly with figures, as in the accounting profession, the ability to communicate to those who read your financial reports is essential.

An Essential for Promotion

1) Managers spend 60 to 90 percent of their working days communicating – speaking, writing, and listening.

2) Ability to communicate is one of the very important aspects of becoming successful in managerial career.

3)   Develop the right attitude

4)   Be flexible

Components

Context

1)   Every message, whether oral or written, begins with context.

2)  It is a broad field that includes country, culture, organization, and internal stimuli.

3) Every country, culture and organization has its own conventions for processing and communicating information.

4) Your attitudes, opinions, emotions, past experiences, likes and dislikes, education, etc. influence the way you communicate.

5)   Especially important is your ability to analyze the culture, viewpoint, needs, skills, status, experience and expectations in order to communicate effectively.

6)   Words alone have no meanings. They are meaningful in a given context.

Sender - Encoder

1) As a sender-encoder, you use symbols that express your message and create the desired response.

2)   Alphabets are verbal symbols, which are used to design a message.

3)   Posture, gesture, eye contact, facial expressions, silence, etc. are some of the non-verbal symbols managers use to encode a message.

Message

1)  It is the core idea that on wants to communicate and it contains both – verbal and non-verbal symbols.

2)  A communicator’s first task is to decide exactly what the message is and what other information to include.

3)   Choice of medium is crucial in determining the effectiveness of the message being communicated.

Medium

1) The selection of communication channel depends on all the contextual factors and the nature of the message itself.

2)   The choices of medium include oral conversation, presentation, meeting, on one hand and e-mail, letter, memorandum, report, proposal, on the other hand.

Receiver-Decoder

1)   The receiver of the message - either a reader or a listener – is also known as decoder.

2)   The receiver-decoder is influenced by the context and by the external  and internal stimuli.

3) The receiver decoded the whole message – the verbal and non-verbal contents of the message.

Feedback

1) The receivers’ response to a message depends on the meaning that is communicated through the message.

2) The receiver gives feedback using either a verbal or non-verbal or both symbols.

3)  Feedback can be an oral or a written message, an action or simply silence.

Decision In Information System

Structure Decision

Situations where the procedures to follow when a decision is to be made can be specified in advance e.g. inventory re-order decision.Decision made at the operational management level tends to be more structured.

Semi Structure Decision

Situations where only part of problem has clear-out answer provided by accepted procedure. E.g. Credit management. Such decisions are required at Tactical level

Un Structure Decision

Situations where the procedures to follow when a decision is to be made cannot be specified in advance Decision maker must provide judgment , evaluation, and insight to solve problems. E.g. Decision to launch a new product. Such decisions are required at strategic level

Level in Organization to be supported by Information System

Strategic Management

Typically, a board of directors and executives committee of the CEO and top executive develop overall organization goals, strategies, policies and objectives as a part of the system in real time. 

System used at this level : Executive Support Systems

Tactical Management

Increasingly business professional in a self directed terms as well as business unit managers develop short and medium range plan schedule and budget and specific the policies, the procedures and business objectives for their sub units of the company.

System used at this level : Decision Support Systems, MIS      

Operational Management

The member of self-directed terms or operating manager develop short range plan such as weekly production schedule.

System used at this level : Transaction Processing Systems

Human Foot

Human Foot

Reasons To Avoid Instant Noodles

Nutrient Absorption

Noodles inhibit the absorption of nutrients for the children under 5.

Cancer Causing

The ingredient in the instant noodles called "Styrofoam', Which is a cancer causing agent.

Miscarriage

Women who are Eating instant noodles during their pregnancy causes miscarriage, because it affect the development of a fetus.

Junk Food

Instant noodles are enriched with full of carbohydrates, but no vitamins, fibre and minerals. This makes the instant noodles considered as a junk food.

Sodium

Instant noodles are power packed with high amounts of sodium. Excess consumption of sodium leads to heart disease, stroke, hypertension and kidney damage.

MSG

Mono sodium Glutamate is used to enhance the flavor of instant noodles. People who are allergic to MSG consume it as part of their diet, then they end up suffering from headaches, facial flushing, pain, burning sensations.

Overweight

Eating Noodles is the leading cause of obesity. Noodles contains fat and large amounts of sodium, which causes water retention in the body and surely it leads to overweight.

Digestion

Instant noodles are bad for digestive system. Regular consumption of instant noodles causes irregular bowl movements and bloating.

Propylene Glycol

The ingredient in the instant noodles called "Propylene Glycol" which has a anti-freeze property. This ingredient is used because it prevents the noodles from drying by retaining moisture. It weakens the immune system of our body. It is easily absorbed by the body and it accumulates in the kidneys, heart and liver. It causes abnormalities and damage to those areas.

Metabolism

Regular consumption of instant noodles affect the body's  metabolism, because of the chemical substances like additives, coloring and preservatives inside the noodles.

Listening Skills

Listening  = Hearing + Comprehending + Interpreting + Responding

Purpose of Listening

Content Listening - Understand & retain information given by speaker

Critical Listening - Absorb the message & attempts to analyze the evidence or ideas & make critical judgment.

Appreciative Listening - Understand speaker’s feelings, needs, wants, tone & mood.

Stages of the Listening Process

1)   Sensing

2)   Recognizing

3)   Integrating

4)   Interpreting

5)   Evaluating

6)   Remembering

7)   Responding

Barriers to Active Listening

1)   Lack of rapport between speaker & audience

2)   Inadequate physical condition

3)   Non-conducive factors

4)   Inappropriate language

5)   Inappropriate articulation

6)   Lack of perspective

Overcoming Listening Barriers

1)   Definite purpose for listening

2)   Prior background of the topic

3)   Pay attention

4)   Take notes effectively

5)   Keep away prejudice & personal opinions

6)   Be emotionally stable

Guidelines for improving  Listening skills

1)   Think about the topic in advance

2)   Determine the personal value of the topic

3) Keep an open mind by asking by asking questions that clarify understanding

4)   Be flexible in your views

5)   Evaluate the content not speaker

6)    Distinguish important point from the unimportant        

Projective Techniques in Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research includes an array of interpretative techniques which seek to describe, decode, translate, and otherwise come to terms with the meaning, not the frequency, of certain more or less naturally occurring phenomena in the social world.

Qualitative techniques are used at both the data collection and data analysis stages of a research project. Because researchers are often looking for hidden or suppressed meanings, Projective Techniques can be used within the interview structures. Some of these techniques include

Types of Projective Techniques

Word or Picture association: Participants are asked to match images, experiences, emotions, products and services, even people and places, to whatever is being studied.

Sentence completion: Participants are asked to complete a sentence.

Cartoons or empty balloons: Participants are asked to write the dialogue for a cartoon like picture.

Thematic Apperception Test: Participants are confronted with a picture (usually a photograph or drawing) and asked to describe how the person in the picture feels and thinks.

Component sorts: Participants are presented with flash cards containing component features and asked to create new combinations.

Sensory Sorts: Participants are presented with scents, textures, and sounds, usually verbalized on cards, and asked to arrange them by one or more criteria.

Laddering or benefit chain: Participants are asked to link functional features to their physical and psychological benefits, both real and ideal.

Imagination exercises: Participants are asked to relate the properties of one thing/person/brand to another.

Imaginary Universe: Participants are asked to assume that the brand and its users populate an entire universe; they then describe the features of this new world.

Visitor from another planet: Participants are asked to assume that they are aliens and are confronting the product for the first time: they then describe their reactions, questions, and attitudes about purchase or retrial.

Personification: Participants are asked to imagine inanimate objects with the traits, characteristics and features, and personalities of humans.

Authority figure: Participants are asked to imagine that the brand or product is an authority figure and to describe the attributes of the figure.

Ambiguities and paradoxes: Participants are asked to imagine a brand as something else, describing its attributes and position.

Semantic mapping: Participants are presented with a four-quadrant map where different variables anchor the two different axes; they then spatially place brands, product components, or organizations within the four quadrants.

Brand Mapping: Participants are presented with different brands and asked to talk about their perceptions, usually in relation to several criteria. They may also be asked to spatially place each brand on one or more semantic maps.