Critique of Business Letter

Sorry for the long letter... Here it goes,

Dear NLB Library Member,

1. Thank you for using our library services.

2. To promote responsible use of public library resources, and to ensure that library materials are available for all to use, NLB will be changing its borrowing policies from 1 April 2009. If you accumulate library fines and fees, this change will affect you. If you return items on time, or do not accumulate fines and fees, then you will be unaffected by this change.

3. Library Policies Changes for (1) Unpaid library fines and fees and (2) Renewal Charges
From 1 April 2009,

-All library members with any unpaid library fines and fees in their account will have their borrowing privileges disrupted until ALL library finds and fees have been settled.

- However, to enable library members to better enjoy our services, books and magazines can be renewed for FREE from 1 April 1009. The current renewal charge of $0.50 per book/magazine/music score will be removed from 1 April 2009.

a) Books/music score can be renewed once for an additional 3 weeks loan period.

b)Magazines can be renewed once for an additional 2 week loan period.

c)Audio-visual materials will continue to be non-renewable die to their limited collection size (no change).

d) All your borrowed items must be before or on the due date. Items which have been reserved by other library users cannot be renewed.

With this change, we will encourage borrowers to return library items promptly, so that resources can be made available for others.

4. Library Fines and Fees in your account.
As of 15 January 2009, you have a total unpaid sum of $4.35 in your account. We request you to settle these immediately so that your borrowing privileges will not be disrupted on 1 April 2009.

5. If you have already paid, please ignore this letter.

6. Should you need any help, please contact us:
Xxxxxxxx
Xxxxxxxx

7. We look forward to your continued visits to our libraries.

Thank you
Yours sincerely,
N Varaprasad (DR)
CHIEF EXCUTIVE
NATIONAL LIBRARY BOARD
______________________________________________________________

After reading through this letter, I feel that this can be classified under a bad news letter applying the indirect method. The method of writing can be easily detected when it states the reasons for the change in the policy of unpaid library fines and charges, and giving the details to show that such changes will benefit all other library members.

As this is not a letter between companies but to consumers, I feel that it would be more appropriate to use the indirect method. If a direct approach method was used, the message may invoke strong reactions from the recipients and may be considered as being rude to the consumers.

Looking at the template of the letter, I feel that there were too many sub-points to the letter especially at point 3. This may cause the readers to be confused with what are the more important points in the letter. This also does not match with the 7Cs of effective communication on conciseness, using the least number of words to present the ideas.

For the 4th point, it was mentioned that "We request you to settle these immediately..." This is an inappropriate usage of words and tone. Using the words "request" and "immediately" are too blunt. Thus, it would be more tactful to rephrase the sentence to "We strongly encourage you to settle these fines as soon as possible, to avoid disruption in your borrowing privileges."

Applying the 7Cs in effective communication, I feel that this letter is generally well written fulfilling the rest of the 7Cs and the template of a letter.

#2 Resolving Conflct (Real Situation)

This happened when I was working in this tele-survey company during my holiday. My duties were to make appointments to do a survey through the phone. As I was considered sensible, I was made to work with the program coordinators, and was soon well-liked among the workers. The conflict started after I entered the company.

Jenny, one of the program coordinators, could not handle stress. She gets worked-up easily, and will then vent her anger on others. During lunch, she would complain about her work to her best friend, Jason, who is overall in-charge of the company.

Jason, unlike Jenny, takes his work seriously. However, he is hot-tempered and fierce. Other workers in the company will always not approach Jason for help.

Dawn, a permanent worker, is a happy-go-lucky person. She does things in a relax manner, and will slack as and when she likes.

The conflict started when Jenny insisted that Dawn was not doing her work (making appointments), as she was supposed to. Instead, she uses the telephone to call her boyfriend. Jenny also pointed out that Dawn would fake the survey results in order to achieve her target of completing 6 surveys a day. This made the progress of completing the project stagnant. Jenny, easily stressed, complained this to Jason.

Jason was furious, and confronted Dawn straight after lunch, in front of everyone. Dawn retaliated, saying that what Jenny told him was not true. Jason was angry as he thought that Dawn did not feel apologetic and retorted back still.

Tension between the 3 started, and I was stuck in the middle, being close to both Jenny and Dawn. Who should I believe? What should I do to make the atmosphere less tense? Though I left the company not long after, I was asked to go back and help out. Should I go back?