business meetings and communications

Question 1

NOTICE OF MEETING

Answer 1

informs those attending of the date, time, location, and purpose of the meeting.

Question 2

AGENDA

Answer 2

lists, in order, the items that will be discussed at a meeting.
It will also reconfirm the date, time, location, and purpose of the meeting.

Question 3

MINUTES

Answer 3

a written summary of what was discussed and agreed during a meeting.

Question 4

CONFERENCE DOCUMENTATION

Answer 4

delegates, staff, and presenters.

Question 5

Delegates

Answer 5

Delegates are the people who are taking part in a meeting.
Documents for delegates may include publicity, invitations, joining instructions and evaluation forms.

Question 6

Staff

Answer 6

Staff are the people who are running the meeting.
Documents for staff may include help sheets and attendance registers.

Question 7

Presenters

Answer 7

Presenters are the people who are leading the meeting.
Documents for presenters may include prompt cards and PowerPoint slides.

Question 8

STAKEHOLDERS

Answer 8

STAKEHOLDERS are people or organisations that are affected by an organisation.

Question 9

INTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

Answer 9

employees of a business or owners of a business who are actively involved in that business (e.g. sole traders, partners or shareholders who are also employees of a limited company).

Question 10

EXTERNAL STAKEHOLDERS

Answer 10

customers, suppliers, communities, HMRC, lenders (e.g. banks) and owners of a business who are not actively involved in the business (e.g. shareholders in a public limited company)

Question 11

Characteristics which inform the design of business communications include:

Answer 11

● The audience for the communication
● The purpose of the communication
● The content of the communication
● The business function that is responsible for the communication
● The resources that are available to create the communication

Question 12

Choices of resources used for business communications include:

Answer 12

● The quality of paper or card
● The use of colour or black & white
● Whether to produce a hard copy or only an electronic copy

Question 13

Factors affecting the choice of resources include:

Answer 13

● The characteristics of the business communications (listed previously)
● Whether the audience for the communication is internal (maybe black and white instead of colour) or external (maybe glossy and full colour)
● The cost of consumables (paper, card, printer ink, typesetting, postage, etc.)
● The ease and cost of distribution
● Timescales / deadlines
● The availability of IT and relevant software
● The availability of reprographics (photocopying) and other ways of printing materials
● Environmental issues (e.g. unnecessary use of paper or card)

Question 14

FORMAL COMMUNICATION

Answer 14

exchanging official information, usually in writing, by following predefined rules and using official channels of communication

Question 15

Methods of formal communication

Answer 15

include letters, reports and notices.

Question 16

Letters should include the following elements:

Answer 16

The name and address of the sender (often on headed paper), the name and address of the recipient, the date, ‘Dear …’, and ‘Yours sincerely’ or ‘Yours faithfully’.

Question 17

Reports should include the following elements:

Answer 17

Title, Introduction, Body, Conclusions, Recommendations, Appendix and References.
Body means the sections with the main content of the report.
Appendix comes at the end of a report and contains additional information such as raw data or interview transcripts.

Question 18

Notices

Answer 18

a less formal internal method of communication that are used to provide information to all or most of the employees.

Question 19

VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Answer 19

spoken conversations or messages.
Methods of verbal communication include telephone conversations, messages on voicemail or answerphones and face-to-face conversations or meetings.

Question 20

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION includes:

Answer 20

● Email

● Text message or short message service (SMS)

● Picture message or multimedia messaging service (MMS)

● Social media

● Web page

● Presentation slides (e.g. using PowerPoint)

Question 21

MARKETING DOCUMENTATION includes:

Answer 21

● Business card (given to customers or potential customers with contact details)

● Press release (a media announcement, e.g. about a new product)

● Promotional literature (advertising materials such as leaflets, brochures and posters)

● Questionnaire (to be used when using a survey to carry out market research)

● Data collection sheet (to be used for tallying or recording the results of market research)

Question 22

RECRUITMENT DOCUMENTATION includes:

Answer 22

● Job description (summarises the nature and the key tasks of a job role)

● Person specification (summarises the type of person that the business is aiming to recruit, often listing skills and characteristics as ‘Essential’ or ‘Desirable’)

● Job advertisement (which is placed in media such as the business’s website, newspapers, or trade magazines)

● Application form (which is completed by people applying for a job, so that they can be shortlisted into those who will actually be interviewed).