12 marks
Identify two reasons why effective internal communication is important for a business.
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Internal & External Communication (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE Business)
Exam Questions
2 hours17 questions24 marks
Case Study
Gloria is a sole trader. Her business provides house-cleaning services. Gloria uses telephone calls to communicate with her 4 employees. She wants to expand the business by offering a repair service. Gloria plans to carry out some market research. She has been told producing a business plan can help reduce risk. Gloria would also like to reduce her workload and is considering taking on a business partner.
Outline one advantage and one disadvantage to Gloria of using telephone calls as a method of communication with her employees.
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32 marks
Define 'external communication'.
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42 marks
Identify two factors that may influence the choice of communication method chosen by a business.
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52 marks
Define 'one-way communication'.
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64 marks
Case Study
Gloria is a sole trader. Her business provides house-cleaning services. Gloria uses telephone calls to communicate with her 4 employees and her customers. Sometimes she forgets to call customers back and risks damaging her business reputation. There have been incorrect invoices sent to customers in the past.
Outline two forms of written communication Gloria could introduce to improve record keeping in her business.
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74 marks
Case Study
TFN is a travel business which sells holidays. It has 37 shops and 1000 employees. Last year TFN’s profit increased to $46 million. The Managing Director knows that good communication is essential to maintain customer loyalty.
Outline two barriers to communication that TFN may experience.
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16 marks
Case Study
SWB is in the secondary sector. It produces 150 000 wooden bookcases each week using batch production. SWB sells all its output to one customer. Quality control is important. SWB has 240 employees, of which 100 are part-time workers. SWB’s managers use noticeboards around the factory and meetings with employees every month to help reduce communication barriers. The Operations Manager is considering introducing just-in-time inventory control to reduce the amount of waste.
Explain two possible communication barriers that might exist at SWB.
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26 marks
Case Study
BGR is a private limited company. It operates 6 cinemas in different towns. Effective internal communication is important for BGR. The Finance Director has been analysing BGR’s accounts and an extract is shown in the below table. BGR plans to open another cinema and will need to recruit 10 new employees. The new cinema will cost $8m. The Finance Director has to decide whether BGR should issue new shares or use a bank loan to finance the expansion.
Extract from BGR’s Income statement for year ending 2020 ($000’s) | |
Revenue | X |
Cost of sales | 180 |
Gross profit | 720 |
Expenses | Y |
Profit | 400 |
Explain two reasons why effective communication might be important to BGR.
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36 marks
Case Study
MBH is a business organisation in the public sector. It controls 5 hospitals and has 5600 employees including 440 doctors. External recruitment is used when recruiting skilled employees. The Human Resources Director uses ideas from Herzberg’s theory to improve employee motivation. He is worried about communication barriers within MBH. The business has a tall organisational structure and a long chain of command. Most of MBH’s internal communication is by email and phone calls.
Explain how MBH might reduce or remove each of the following communication barriers:
Messages lost
Use of jargon
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46 marks
Explain two methods of internal communication a large business could use to share important information with its employees. Justify which method should be used.
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58 marks
Explain four barriers to communication for a business.
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66 marks
Explain two possible methods of internal communication that a small business could use to inform workers about a possible expansion. Justify which method should be chosen.
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78 marks
Explain four reasons why effective communication between the owner and employees in a business is important.
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86 marks
Do you think having regular meetings is a better way for a business to communicate with part-time employees than using text messages? Justify your answer.
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112 marks
Consider the benefits and limitations of the following three methods of communication FO could use.
Email
Mobile (cell) phone
Letter
Which method of communication would be most suitable when contacting suppliers about a late delivery? Justify your answer.
Refer to the following insert when answering the question
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212 marks
Consider how the following three barriers could make communication less effective between SSE’s head office in country Z and its new factories in other countries.
Problem with the medium used
Problem with the sender
Problem with the receiver
Which barrier would be the easiest to overcome? Justify your choice.
Refer to the following insert when answering the question
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