Faculty
of Business Studies

LB160:
Professional Communication Skills for Business Studies

Second
Semester 2013-2014

Tutor
Marked Assignment (TMA)

Academic Year 2013 – 2014

Semester: Spring

Branch: KSA

Program: Faculty of
Business Studies

Course Title:
Professional Communication Skills for Business Studies

Course Code:LB160

Student Name:

Student ID:

Section Number:

Tutor Name:

Total Mark:

Awarded Mark:

Mark details

Allocated
Marks

Questions

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q5

Q6

Total

Weight

10

10

Marks

10

10

20

Allocated
Marks

Criteria

Content

Language

Organization

Total

Marks

Q1

Marks

Q2

Student’s
Total Mark

20

Notes on plagiarism:

A. According to the Arab Open
University By-laws, “thefollowing acts represent cases of
cheating and

Plagiarism:

§ Verbatim copying of printed material
and submitting them as part of TMAs without proper academic acknowledgement and
documentation.

§ Verbatim copying of material from
the Internet, including tables and graphics.

§ Copying other students’ notes or
reports.

§ Using paid or unpaid material
prepared for the student by individuals or firms.

B. Penalties for plagiarism ranges from failure in the TMA to expulsion
from the university.

Declaration:
I hereby declare that the submitted TMA is my own work and I have not copied
any other person’s work or plagiarized in any other form as specified above.

Student Signature

…………………….

Tutor’s Feedback

Tutor Name:

Tutor Signature:

Date returned:

·
This TMA contains 2 parts. You should answer both parts.

·
The value of TMA is 20 points.

·
The mark assigned to each part is 10 points.

PART 1 (10
points)

Purpose:

·
To check the student’s skill in applying SWOT when
analyzing a case study (B1S4, pp122).

Answer Notes:Students may begin by creating a grid to identify the SWOT
components as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and a mind map
to construct the analysis text. Students
are required to identify 6 strengths, 3 weaknesses, 1 opportunity, and 2
threats. Then to write an analytical text for the case study,
you may refer to Text 4.3 in the Resource Book 1 as an example.

Answer Guide:

B1S4, Act. 4.10- 4.11, pp. 123;
RB1 Extract 4.3(use as an example of analysis writing), pp. 56-57.

In about 300 – 400
words, write an essay analyzing the below case study using the SWOT framework.

Johnson
& Johnson Consumer Products, INC.

Johnson
& Johnson is a household name in baby-care as
well as medical products. Nearly every family in the United States has in its
house at least one product made by this company. Founded in 1885, Johnson & Johnson is currently an
international enterprise, with 170 affiliated companies in fifty-five
countries. J&J enjoys a
reputation for high-quality products and business integrity. Consumers feel
that they can trust J&J
products. Trust is a big issue for a firm that makes pharmaceuticals. Customers
must believe that the products improve, not endanger, their health. J&J makes a big thing of its credo
statement, a four-paragraph guiding philosophy that outlines a commitment to
business integrity. According to its credo, the J&Jcompany is required to place a high priority on the needs of
customers. Protecting customers is the company’s first concern.

All was well until J&Jreceived news that its leading
product, Tylenol capsules, had been contaminated with lethal poison. In the
United States, Tylenol and other mild pain relievers are sold in the pharmacies
and other stores over-the-counter, that is, without a doctor’s prescription.
Mr. David Clare, the president of J&J,
said that someone hadopened the capsules and poisoned them with cyanide.

The fact that seven
people in the Chicago area died when they took Extra-Strength Tylenol, a common
pain-relieving medicine made by J&J,
shocked people all over the world. People all over the world were horrified by
the deaths of seven innocent people who took Tylenol capsules laced with deadly
cyanide. It seemed that anyone could have bought those deadly pills, and anyone
could have died from ingesting them. This element of randomness was
particularly frightening.

After seven innocent
people died from taking contaminated Tylenol, sales of the painkiller fell
dramatically. The nonaspirin drug’s share of the $1.2 billion painkiller market
fell from 35 percent to 7 percent. In a poll, a majority of Tylenol users said
they probably would never return to the capsule. But J&J
responded to the frightening incident in a notable way. Its executives took
a decision that turned out to be not only ethical but profitable, too. Going
against all odds, the chairman of J&J
decided to spend whatever millions it would cost to recall 31 million bottles
of Tylenol capsules from store shelves across the United States. The day after J&J learned that some of its
popular Tylenol capsules had been poisoned, the company started withdrawing 31
million bottles of Tylenol from country. They were afraid that other bottles
might have been tampered with1. Official at the Food and Drug
Administration, the U.S. government agency that approves products for sale to
the public, feared that the recall would increase the panic already touched
off2 by the poisoning deaths of seven Chicago-area residents who
had taken capsules that had been laced with cyanide. The FBI3argued
that such an expensive action would demonstrate to potential terrorists that
they could bring a $5.9 billion corporation to its knees4.
But J&J chairman’s decision
prevailed, and his move proved to be decisive in a remarkable and unparalleled
winback of public confidence in his company’s product… Tylenol regained more
than 80 percent of the market share it held before the still unsolved
poisoning.

As a result of the
seven deaths in Chicago, Illinois, J&J
was able to play a significant role in affecting positive changes in the U.S.
pharmaceutical industry and in government regulation of that industry. The
company began redesigning the package to restore public confidence. Within
twenty-four hours, J&J had
contacted many of the companies that would be involved in the redesign. By the
end of the week, J&J had decided
that the new Tylenol bottle would have three barriers to prevent tampering: a
glued box, a ‘shrink’ neckband and an inner seal. To get Tylenol back on the
market, J&J spent $ 1 million on
engravers to redesign 650 pieces of artwork for the product. Cartons and
sealing equipment cost more than $ 5 million during the first few weeks. By the
fifth week after the Chicago deaths, the first 500,000 units of the new
tamper-resistant Tylenol package were produced. While J&J led industry efforts to protect consumers, the Food and
Drug Administration began developing stronger packaging regulations. As a
result, all capsules and liquid drugs must now come in tamper-resistant
packages. These guidelines do not only protect the consumer but also the
pharmaceutical companies such as J&J.
must also apply to any drugs that are imported to the United States.

Four years after the
first incident, another person died after taking poisoned Tylenol from
so-called tamper-resistant package. J&J
is faced again with the problem of winning back the public trust. To do this,
it must get the media on its side.

Adapted from: Boyd, F. (1994). Making
Business Decisions: Real Cases from Real Companies.USA: Addison-Wesley
Publishing Company.

1. Opened
and changed in a harmful way

2. Suddenly
started

3. Federal
Bureau of Investigation: the central U.S. government police agency

4. ruin

__________________________________________________________________________________

PART II (10
points)

Crisis
managementis
the process by which an organization deals with a situation that is threatening
foran organization, its stakeholders, or the general public. A crisis is
characterized by:

(a) beinga
threat to the organization

(b) havingthe
element of surprise

(c) providinga
short decision time

(d)
necessitating change

The crisis management process requires
skills/techniques to identify, evaluate, and handle a ‘serious situation’from the
time it first takes placeuntil thefinal recovery phase.As can be seen from the
case study shown above,Johnson & Johnsonhas already faced a crisis
and attempted to manage it.

Choose a brand other than Johnson
& Johnson and in a well-written essay
of around 500 words:

1.
Explainthe major problem that faced the
brand and identify its causes.

2.
Describe the strategy the brand adopted to
successfully cope with the threatening situation.

At least 2 outside resources are to be used. The
resources are to be submitted to the tutor. The criteria on pp. 50-53 of B2S2
should be observed while locating source material.

Purpose: To write a well-structured essay.

Learning
Outcomes:(B2S3 pp.69, B2S2 pp.41, &
B2S4 pp.98):

Comments:
The student needs to select a specific brand that has been through a crisis, describe
the problem and the causes behind it, and the measures the brand took to successfully
solve this threatening situation. Paraphrasing, summarizing, and citing the
sources used are essential since using the words of others or including their
work without acknowledgment is considered plagiarism. The Harvard referencing
system, as presented on pp. 167-171 of B2S6, should be respected regarding the
in-text referencing as well as the reference list.

Answer
Notes:Your essay should include the features of essay
writing as described by the checklist on pp.183-184