Page 14 - Communication in Organizations Basic Skills and Conversation Models

Introduction 3

After practising the students receive feedback on the application of the skill(s) or
conversation model. One thing we would like to mention here is that reinforcing
appropriate behaviour will lead to the highest learning effects (Ivey & Bradford Ivey,
2003). This means that in the debriefing one first discusses the effective actions of the
students. Less appropriate actions are discussed in relation to suggestions for
improvement.
In Appendix A of this book you will find a number of exercises for each chapter that
can be used in training programmes.

Description of Dinner Ltd

Dinner Ltd is a catering organization located in London. Dinner Ltd provides food and
beverage for company gatherings and parties. It prepares and serves dinners at locations
chosen by the client.
The Managing Director of Dinner Ltd is Freddy Fortune. He studied at the School for
Hospitality Service in Manchester. In his last year at this school he founded Dinner Ltd
together with Gerald Glass. The company turned out to be very successful. Gerald Glass
has a degree in economics and is the Commercial Director. Jenny Jacobson is the
Secretary of Dinner Ltd. She is in charge of reception and all secretarial activities.
Middle management consists of the Chef, Bert Berman, the Food and Beverage (F&B)
Manager, Harry Haddock, and Charlotte Cohen, who is in charge of the financial
department. Bert Berman and Harry Haddock both have assistants. Dan Diamond is
Assistant Chef and Carl Campbell is Assistant F&B Manager.
Three headwaiters, Alex Armstrong, Grace Green and Ronald Rosenthal, are in charge
of the waiters—temporary employees who work by the hour. These temporary employees
are usually students from various hotel schools in Europe.
Dinner Ltd values good communication. This implies that employees should be aware
of the values and norms within the company such as cooperation. Dinner Ltd does not
want to appear to be a hierarchical company, which means that orders are seldom given
and everybody participates in decision making. The structure of Dinner Ltd is shown in
Figure I.1.