Case Study - The House Keeper
Julie works at the Sheraton Towers in Melbourne. At the Sheraton she works in the
Housekeeping department.
Her role within the department is to train all new staff in general housekeeping skills.
Today she is training a new staff member Anna, on how to clean.
Anna who has just recently arrived from Fiji finds that Julie’s Australian accent is
quite difficult to understand.
She keeps asking Julie to repeat the instructions because she is unable to understand
easily and at the end she decided to complete the task on her own way.
When Julie came to check the work, she discovered that Anna has not completed the
task as she was instructed to. She wonders how this could happen when she has
instructed Anna over and over again.
As Anna is about to go home Julie catches up with her and asks Anna to redo the
work again. Anna can’t understand why Julie wants her to do this again.
1. Why has communication failed here?
…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
2. How can communication be improved between Anna and Julie?
…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
3. What methods should Julie have used to check for understanding?
…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
4. Consider a situation in which you have experienced similar poor
communication. What happened? Write down your experiences here and
we will discuss your experience.
…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………
Fedaa Mohamed
Solution
1. Why has communication failed here?
Your answer should include the following:
-
The reason why there was misinterpretation between Julie and Anna –
Discuss the barrier that made the communication fail
-
The statement that stressed on the problem that was between both of them
2. How can communication be improved between Anna and Julie?
Your answer should include the following:
-
Discuss how Wilbur Schramm’s model can be applied to improve the
communication
-
Finding solutions for the language problem – Such as avoiding Word of
Mouth
3. What methods should Julie have used to check for understanding?
Your answer should include the following:
-
Ways and Methods that Julie could have used to make sure that Anna
understood the way of cleaning well.
4. Consider a situation in which you have experienced similar poor
communication. What happened? Write down your experiences here and
we will discuss your experience.
Your answer should include the following:
-
Your personal situation where you said or did something that was
misunderstood or misinterpreted from the other people.
Fedaa Mohamed