Question No. 1 What do you understand by the term Decision making discuss in detail?

Decision Making:

Most important component of decision-making is self- confidence. If you are confident in your
mental capabilities and how you envision the world around you, then you will have no
problem in analyzing a situation and making a decision you can stand by for better or worse.
That leads into the second element, the ability to be analytical. The value of analysis cannot be
overstated because it allows a person to systematically break down a situation and see its
individual parts for what they are, thereby, providing a thorough overview. Thirdly, a major
part of decision-making is the ability to think critically. The great value of critical thought can
be traced all the way back to the philosopher Socrates.

(b.399 B.C.) of Athens, who advocated that critical thought and self-reflection are major
components of what it is to be human.

Finally, the last two attributes of being a decisive person understand the value of research
and the ability to manage conflict, within yourself and your belief structure, and with and
amongst others. One must be able to 'nip things in the bud' before they grow and turn into
invaluable and possibly destructive forces within the workplace. All these components
make up decisive behavior techniques and flow out of an overall orientation toward
action, and an assumption of risk. These components do encourage individual
development through self-awareness, as well as skill acquisition and improved
competence.

To clarify, this writer is not advocating that managers must take responsibility for
everything going on in the workplace, and it is okay to "decentralize decision- making
and rely on decision teams rather than solely on ourselves" (Novak 1997,24). However,
this focuses on the different kinds of decisions required by organizations; who should be
involved; and how to make the best decision in a complex situation. Regardless of team
support, when all is said and done, we must be the ones who step up to the platform and
make things happen.

Talking about his book The Leadership Engine, Noel M. Tichy says that good leadership
is a lot like good parenting; both need the systematic investment of time and what he calls
"a teachable point of view" (HRFocus Jan. 1998,5). He insists that you must have
the edge to make the important yes/no decisions: the edge or the courage. Courage is the
missing link that puts the concept of taking risks and having the guts to be decisive into
play and transforms them into a reality, often, in the face of great opposition.

An important responsibility of formal leaders is to make decisions about objectives,

strategies, operational procedures and the allocation of resources. The decision making is
extensive, and much progress has been made studying how important decisions are made
in organizations. Descriptive studies and analyses of cognitive processes have both been
useful for understanding how decisions are made in groups and organizations
(Narayanan, Zane & Kemmerer, 2011).
Question No. 2 What mistakes we do while setting common goals? Also Discuss how a leader
can craft a vision?

Answer:

Defining Goals:

To have common goals, you first need to define what those goals are. Goals generally can be
divided into short term and long term. Short-term goals might include reaching a certain
amount of sales for the month, improving on specific customer service issues or successfully
launching a new product. Long-term goals may include generating a certain amount of profit
over the course of a year or expanding into more locations over the course of five years. Short-
term goals should be in support of the larger long-term goals.

Eight Common Goal Setting Mistakes:

Achieving Your Dreams the Right Way:

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is
too low and we hit it. – Michelangelo Buonarroti, Renaissance artist

John is reflecting on the last goal that he set for himself... Everything started well – he was
making progress, he felt great about what he was doing, and he was excited about future
possibilities. But then things unraveled.

The goal took longer to complete than he thought it would, and he became discouraged. And,
because he did not stop to look at what he had achieved, he lost his drive and focus. Before he
knew it, the goal – and the opportunities it would have brought – were forgotten.
Sound familiar?

In this article, we'll look at some common mistakes that people make when they set goals.
Learn how to recognize these mistakes, so that you can avoid making them yourself!

Mistake 1: Setting Unrealistic Goals:

When you are exploring possible goals, you need to unleash your imagination and ambition,
put your reservations aside, and dream big dreams. However, once you have decided on a
goal, make sure that it is realistic, and that you can actually achieve it in the time frame that
you have set for yourself.

For instance, if your goal is to run a marathon, it is wildly unrealistic to sign up for one next
month, unless you've already done several months of training. Or, if your goal is to become
CEO of a company, but you have no experience, this goal might not be practical
– at least not yet!
 To set realistic goals, use SMART Goal Setting strategies: make sure that your goals are
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Mistake 2: Focusing on Too Few Areas

Imagine that you have just written your list of goals for the next year. You have committed to
increasing your sales by 15 percent, applying for a promotion, and reading one leadership
book each month.

Although this is an ambitious but achievable list of goals, there is a potential problem: these
goals focus only on your career. You have completely omitted goals from other parts of your
life.

Many people focus solely on their work when they set goals. However, you can not neglect
activities that bring you joy. Goals like writing a book, competing in an adventure race, or
starting a home garden might also be incredibly important for your happiness and well-being.

So, when you set your goals, make sure that you strike the right balance between different
areas of your life. And remember that "balance" is different for everyone – use the Wheel of
Life tool to understand which areas of your life you need to focus on most.

Mistake 3: Underestimating Completion Time

How often has a task or project taken longer than you thought? Probably more times than you
can count! You may also say the same for goals that you've set in the past.

If you do not estimate goal completion time accurately, it can be discouraging when things
take longer to achieve than you think they should. This can cause you to give up.

So, use Action Programs and effective scheduling strategies when planning your goals. And
always pad your timelines to account for delays and setbacks. If you add extra time into your
estimate, you will feel less pressure to rush and finish by a certain date.

Mistake 4: Not Appreciating Failure

No matter how hard you work, you will fail to achieve goals from time to time. We have all
been there, and it is not fun!

However, your failures are what ultimately determine your character. They also contain
lessons that can change your life for the best, if you have the courage to learn from them.

So do not be too upset if you fail to achieve your goals – just take note of where you went
wrong and use that knowledge to reach your goals next time around.
Mistake 5: Setting "Other People's Goals"

Some people – family, friends, or even your boss – may want to influence the goals you set.
Perhaps they feel that they know what's best for you, or maybe they want you to take a certain
path or do certain things.

Clearly, it is important that you have good relationships with these people, and you need to do
what your boss asks, within reason.

However, your goals need to be your own – not anybody else's. So be politely assertive, and
do what you want to do!

Mistake 6: Not Reviewing Progress

It takes time to accomplish goals. And sometimes it can feel that you are not making much
progress.

This is why it is important to take stock of everything that you've accomplished on a regular
basis. Set small sub-goals, celebrate your successes, and analyze what you need to do to keep
moving forward. No matter how slow things seem, you probably are making progress!

You can also take this opportunity to update your goals, based on what you have learnt. Have
your priorities changed? Or do you need to set aside some extra time for a particular goal
activity?

Goals are never set in stone, so do not be afraid to amend them if you need to.

Mistake 7: Setting "Negative" Goals

How you think about your goal can influence how you feel about it, and whether you achieve
it.

For instance, many people have a goal to "lose weight." However, this goal has a negative
connotation; it is focused on what you do not want – your weight. A positive way to
reframe this goal is to say you want to "get healthy."

Another example of a negative goal is to "stop staying late at work." A positive way to
rephrase this is to "spend more time with family."

Negative goals are emotionally unattractive, which makes it hard to focus on them. Reframe
any negative goals so that they sound positive: you may be surprised by the difference this
makes!

Mistake 8: Setting Too Many Goals

When you start setting goals, you may see many things that you want to accomplish. So you
start setting goals in all areas.

The problem with this is that you have a fixed amount time and energy. If you try to focus on
many different goals at once, you cannot give individual goals the attention they deserve.

Instead, use the "quality, not quantity" rule when setting goals. Work out the relative
importance of everything that you want to accomplish over the next six to twelve months.
Then pick no more than, say, three goals to focus on.

Crafting of Vision by a leader:

Core Ideology

 Define Core Values

 Should be small in number (usually between 3 to 5)

 Do not change through time

 Discover Core Purpose

 Company’s reason for being

 Reflects people’s idealistic reasons for doing company’s work
 Should be enduring (but not necessarily eternal)
 Use 5 Why’s technique to get at the organization’s purpose

Envisioned Future

 The Quest

 10-to-30 year BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) or Bold Missions

 Clear and compelling
 It’s a unifying focal point of effort
 Acts as a catalyst for team spirit
 Has a clear finish line
 Applies to the whole company
 Requires a long timeframe to complete (10-30 years)
 Vivid Description

 Expressed as future casting

 Should be Engaging
 Should be Vibrant
 Expresses what will it be like to achieve the previously set Bold Goals
Question No. 3 Describe leadership characteristics and skills in detail?

Long-Sightedness

Visionary and Long Sighted Leaders

Far-sightedness in a leader is the ability to envision and articulate a successful future in a

compelling and inclusive way. It’s one of the essential qualities we look for in a leader. If a
leader cannot tell us where he or she believes we can go, what we can accomplish together, we
hesitate to follow him or her. Visionary leader/long sighted leaders are uncommon, but they
share many characteristics. The qualities of visionary leader/long sighted leaders include
openness, imagination, persistence, and conviction. Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison are
examples of great visionaries.

Qualities of Visionary Leader/Long Sighted Leaders/Long Sighted Leaders

There are relatively few people that are universally regarded as visionaries. These might
include individuals such as Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, the Wright Brothers
among others. While universally acclaimed, they are often disregarded as super-talented
genius, outliers that live outside of the range of normal human experience.

Visionary leader/long Sighted Leaders are Open to New Information

Visionaries possess an unusually large degree of openness to new information. This openness
may or may not extent to people. Inflexible people, once they make up their mind, cannot be
persuaded, nor do they continue to search for or take in new information. Not so with
visionaries, they are constantly searching for additional information. Visionaries know that
each new piece of information might yield an insight that helps solve a problem or create a
breakthrough. In addition, visionaries typically exercise a low degree of deference to
convention, historical precedent, or authorities within their fields. While they seek to know as
much as possible within their fields, they do not defer to the judgments of the existing
authorities within their fields. By ignoring or purposeful violating norms with their respective
disciplines, visionaries are able to experiment and try things that others overlook or are not
willing to challenge. As a result of their willingness to experiment and try things, visionaries
often are in the best position to make “breakthrough” creative discoveries or happy accidents.

Visionary Leader/long Sighted Leaders Possess Mental Mind’s Eye

Visionaries often possess the ability to see things with their mind’s eye often long before
others. This might include certain observations that unlock the secret to understanding the
natural world, trends that are still in their infancy stage (or that haven’t even begun yet), or the
possibilities of new inventions, discoveries, products, or even new social or historical
movements.

Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders are highly sensitive

A common quality of Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders is that they are usually sensitivity.
This quality of sensitivity can manifest itself as “quirkiness” or even in certain cases as
mental illness. Think for example about Van Gogh, Howard Hughes, or John Nash.However,
this sensitivity results in extra information being accessible to visionaries that others to not
have access to. Thus, the mark of a true visionary is that they can often see what others
cannot.In some senses, Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders seem to “see” the future. With
the exception of ancient and modern prophets, most Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders
don’t actually see the future.What Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders do, however, is to
build an accurate conceptual model of the future based on their keen understanding of the
present. And then successful Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders bring that model into
reality, creating the future.

Thus, the Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders key ability is not their prophetic sight, but
rather the gift to predict accurately from the present into the future. When accurate prediction
is combined with executive ability to carry out the vision, visionaries literally creates the
future. While there is some difference between predicting and influencing the future,
possessing the former skill is helpful (and the first step) to developing the later skill.

Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders have a vivid imagination

Another quality of Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders is that they often have a vivid
imagination. Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders take great care to nurture their imagination
and mind’s eye carefully.Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders spend their lives following
their dreams and seeking to bring them into reality. In contrast, the masses turn off their
imaginations as they mature, feeling that imagination is akin to child’s play.Visionary leader/
long sighted leaders often reside in two worlds – the external world, the other being a rich
internal world of ideas, pictures, and thought. The reason why Visionary leader/ long sighted
leaders are so driven to carry out their dreams is because their dreams are so real and vivid (in
their mind’s eye) to the visionary. Thus, clarity of imagination leads to a compelling desire to
carry out the vision.

Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders have the quality of strong conviction

Once a visionary has a worthwhile vision, they must have strong conviction if the vision
stands a chance at being brought into reality. Certain visions are extraordinarily difficult to
carry out and thus require an extraordinary strong belief in the vision and the visionary’s
ability to carry it out.Several specific traits support the development of the quality of
conviction in a Visionary leader/ long sighted leader. One such trait is the willingness to take
calculated risks. In order to form conviction, a Visionary leader/ long sighted leader must be
willing to lay it all on the line for a worthy cause.Similarly, a certain amount of discontent
with the status quo is necessary for one to be willing to lay things on the line. In addition, an
unconventional nature is somewhat helpful in that it tends to make one immune to negative
social pressures that are experienced as naysayers constantly doubt the vision and the
visionary.
Finally, Visionary Leader/ long Sighted Leaders Often Possess a Sense of personal destiny.

If you asked them and they were honest, they would admit that they always believed that they were
destined to accomplish great things, even though they might not have known the details of how it
was going to happen. In some sense, this is necessary because the visionary needs to have a strong
belief that they have the ability to carry out.

Visionary Leader/ long Sighted Leaders have the Quality of Persistence

One specific challenge unique to visionary leader/ long sighted leaders is best expressed by the
warning label on a driver’s mirror, “objects in mirror are [further] than they appear.” Because of the
vividness of their visions, visionaries often underestimate the difficulty in bringing the vision into
reality or the “distance” between the present and envisioned outcome (as the vision seems so close
and obtainable to them). The other challenge faced by Visionary leader/ long sighted leaders is that
they tend to have dreams that are larger and more difficult than average persons, and thus an
extraordinary degree of persistence is required.

Visionary leader/long sighted leaders must possess the quality or attribute of persistence. Unabashed
persistence allows the visionary to push through all difficulties, including the opposition of others,
bad fortune, insufficient resources, or dead-ends.In the end, the difference between a successful and
unsuccessful visionary often comes down to drive and persistence.

Optimism and Enthusiasm

Optimism Enthusiasm and Integrity – Leaders must have it

Optimistic:

Great leaders should also be optimistic. Few pessimists are real leaders even though they may have
the title. Great leaders are committed to the future and so any pessimism or negativity in what the
future holds will undoubtedly be felt by their team.

Furthermore, all leadership actions and behaviours must be carried out with absolute integrity and so
when leaders are genuinely enthusiastic, positive, energetic and confident, they will be able to
harness the energy that is already within their team to achieve success.

Optimism in leadership is one essential quality you must have toward life. An optimistic person is
excited about his future and there is certain energy about his life. He is not fearful of the
uncertainties that life brings, but he looks forward in anticipation, knowing that life will only get
better and better. Attitude is everything. Optimism is one of the many attitudes you should adopt,
especially as a leader. It is only when you are optimistic about your future that you can be a
progressive person; someone who continually improves and moves toward the future. A pessimistic
person, on the other hand, is afraid of the future. He is afraid of the failures, anxieties, problems that
the future will bring. A pessimistic person is fearful about the future. That is why optimism is the
foundation of courage.

What is the difference between empathy and sympathy? Although the words are similar, they are, in
fact, mutually exclusive. According to Norman Paul, in sympathy the subject is principally absorbed
in his or her own feelings as they are projected into the object and has little concern for the reality
and validity of the object's special experience. Empathy, on the other hand, presupposes the
existence of the object as a separate individual, entitled to his or her own feelings, ideas and
emotional history (Paul, 1970). As one student so eloquently put it, "It's nice when a project
leader acknowledges that we all have a life outside of work."

However, many people like to dismiss optimism as wishful thinking. “They’re just daydreaming”,
they would say. Oliver Pell even once said,” Optimism is a psychological disorder exhibited by those
out of touch with reality.” What a strong statement to make of the positive people in our world today.
But the truth is, these people say these things because deep inside their hearts, they’re envious of the
kind of life these optimistic people lead; happy, joyous, and hopeful. They have been disappointed
by life before and they don’t want to hope again, in case they get hurt by disappointment again. The
reality is this: You create your reality. It is your attitude today that determines your future. Asking
people to be realistic is one thing, but asking them not to live like there’s a great future ahead of
them is another. As a leader, don’t ever listen to another person who tells you to be ‘realistic’ when
you share a dream or a vision with him. Remember that the world is changed by people whom were
called out-of-touch, weird dreamers. As a leader, you have to know the difference between
optimism in leadership and just simply being out of this world.

Leadership Skills:

Here are some of the actions that the team leader should consistently carry out:

 Build trust between team members.

 Inspire and motivate teamwork for achieving goals.
 Influence valuable changes.
 Be open to new ideas coming from team members.
 Consult frequently with key team members.
 Establish an open discussion for decision-making.
 Distinguish the team from others – create an identity for the team.
 Encourage and support independent thinking.
 Recognize the skills of key team members and utilize their strengths to the benefit of the
team.
 Define and state expectations and objectives with the team members. Ensure that all
members understand the missions ahead.
 Eliminate disagreements between members – be the mediator. Set a behavioral code if
necessary.
 Consider giving incentives to boost results.
 Evaluate results in a timely fashion.
Question No. 4 Discuss change management in detail and also Elaborate the concept of changing
agentry in detail?

What is Change Management?

When your organization undertakes projects or initiatives to improve performance, seize

opportunities or address key issues, they often require changes; changes to processes, job rules,
organizational structures and types and use of technology. However, it is actually the employees of
your organization who have to ultimately change how they do their jobs. If these individuals are
unsuccessful in their personal transitions, if they don’t embrace and learn a new way of working, the
initiative will fail. If employees embrace and adopt changes required by the initiative, it will deliver
the expected results.

Change management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and support individuals to
successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes.

While all changes are unique and all individuals are unique, decades of research shows there are
actions we can take to influence people in their individual transitions. Change management provides
a structured approach for supporting the individuals in your organization to move from their own
current states to their own future states.

Change management has typically been defined as a process involving unfreezing, moving, and
refreezing values, practices, and procedures within organizations. Unfreezing refers to the creation
of a perceived discrepancy between the existing and ideal state of an organization that generates a
desire for change and lowers people’s resistance to change. Moving refers to the various processes
such as training, education, and restructuring that lead to the development of new behaviors,
attitudes, and beliefs. Refreezing regards reestablishing a new state of equilibrium within the
organization by stabilizing the new patterns through a variety of support mechanisms.

Change is often resisted by organizational members. The primary reason for resistance is that change
requires employees to alter their existing individual and organizational identities. Changing one’s
identity can be anxiety provoking and it is common for employees to use strategies such as
denial, rationalization, idealization, fantasy, and symbolization to resist change.

Question No. 5 Write note on the following:

i Use of traditional media

ii Technological communication

Use of Traditional Media

Media in its most traditional as well as latest form has always been a very helpful tool to convey
message to the larger population or masses. We use one to one or small group interactions for
targeted and smaller number of people. For larger populations, when an educational leader wishes to
convey a message to all then he/she will go more towards using mass media.

Newsletters

It has been a tradition since first half of twentieth century that institutions began to publish
their own newsletters, weekly, monthly, quarterly or after six months. To create your newsletter, you
will need content contributors, and someone to serve in the role of editor, and you will also need
someone in charge of production. Ideally, all of these people need to be in close communication with
each other. Often the editing and production roles can be combined into a single position with just
one person responsible for both tasks, depending on the size of your newsletter and the capability
of the person or people involved. The overall challenge of creating, producing and distributing a
newsletter can be greatly enhanced and made much more efficient if a set of production guidelines
are established and followed.
Electronic Media

In the second half of twentieth century more and more institutions began to use electronic media for
education, advertising, campaigning and communicating. The first and foremost form of electronic
media which broadcasted their message to larger population was definitely radio and then came the
TV as another source. We still watch specific institutional programs and video lectures on TV
serving the purpose of different levels of educational institutions. By the end of twentieth century
FM became more popular than the older AM radio frequencies. These local FM channels
broadcasted more and more specified and cultural specific programs. Institutions tend to use these
channels more than any other to campaign and communicate with local community. Similarly Web
TV emerged in the beginning of twenty first century and now many educational institutions have
their own Web TV channels to serve their targeted population without any hindrance of specific
time and place.

Use of Social Media

Today the leader of the institution, the principal (or head of school) needs to be involved in the social
media platforms of choice for their school. Part of the role of the principal is relationship building .
By leaving the social media experience up to their marketing departments or other leadership persons
in the school, today’s school principal misses out on an incredible opportunity to connect with
members of their community (and beyond) that they normally might not be able to. Majority of
school heads are unaware of this opportunity now, see its importance, and some of them who are
becoming more involved find it extremely useful as they can connect to a larger community easily.

Facebook

Founded in 2004 and with about 1.4 billion active users worldwide, Facebook is the dominant social
media platform and it is also free to use. Founder of this amazing social network Mark Zukerberg
describes Facebook as a company which “hopes to strengthen how people relate to each other” and
he emphasises that “even if our mission sounds big, it starts small — with the relationship between
two people”. He goes on to say that “personal relationships are the fundamental unit of our society”
and “relationships are how we discover new ideas, understand our world and ultimately derive long-
term happiness”. No doubt this small beginning has become a world trend within less than two
decades. To use Facebook it is necessary to setup a personal account and become familiar with
privacy settings.

Many organisations and companies have Facebook Pages which “fans” can “like” and the content
from these pages then become part of the news feed into their own page. As this is a public page,
the content on it is also accessible to be viewed by anyone, including those not logged in to
Facebook. The main purpose of Facebook page is to connect with stakeholders which include
students, teachers, parents and other educational institutions, as well as volunteers and other
organisations and to share information and ideas. Organizational pages are big source of advertising,
campaigning and advocacy. Facebook also enables users to setup private groups which provide an
easy mechanism to share information in a very controlled manner to a selected number of people.
The key to making this work is to ensure that there are very clear guidelines on what can be posted –

i.e. these groups apply the same principles as the middle routine of a meeting where personal issues
are not up for discussion.

Twitter

Twitter has come a long way for educators, and now include many hashtags specific not just to
education, but to administrators as well. By joining Twitter, you’ll be able to follow individuals of
your professional interest as well as groups such as #edchat, #cpchat (connected principals),
#edadmin (school administrators), #edtech, #commoncore and many other groups. By following
specific groups, you’ll be able to keep in touch with colleagues, meet and share ideas with other
administrators, and find new ideas and solutions for your workday challenges.

Technological Communication

Communication technology is evolving quickly, offering us more and more options than ever before.
Technologies tend to evolve in favor of convenience. Making a phone call from a dedicated landline
was once the most convenient means of communication available--you could connect across the
country in an instant! Today, you can send text messages, initiate calls, or even transmit video
messages all on a single, mobile, handheld device. Here we shall explore some of the most
commonly used technological resources by the institutional leaders.

Telephone

There has been phenomenal growth in communication technology in the past 50 years and this
has impacted all our lives. Telephone was one of the earliest technological communication resource
and has grown into the most sophisticated and useful technology in the form of smart phones. The
key to using technology to our advantage is to control how we use it and not let it control us. Since
the emergence of mobile phones the organizations have found it as the most feasible resource to
provide to the employees and maintain the contact even after work hours. Telephonic
communication helps in short and quick conversation to resolve every day issues and minor
challenges of work. Telephonic communication has certainly helped institutional leaders to stay in
contact with large teams and professionals as well as stake holders across the institutional boundaries

Text Messaging

Mobile phones and hand held devices made it possible in the world of communication to connect to
someone even if s/he is not available to talk to. Through text messaging quick response and at the
same time saving of communication record was made possible. An additional advantage is that same
text message can be “broadcasted” to a number of people at the same time, e.g. to tell everyone in
the group about an upcoming meeting.

Similarly now the text message alerts are becoming popular. However, for this to work effectively
the organizations select very carefully who is sending the texts. Clients, stake holders and officials’
lists of names and numbers are to be inclusive an exhaustive for ensuring the dissemination of
information through messaging. When sending such group texts it is important to keep the contact
list up to date and also routinely provide a way for people to opt out. Text messaging is short and
less expensive. Smart phones using online messaging services have now brought multiple
innovations to it. Such as unlimited packages, instant messaging and MMS became free of cost.

Email

According to google counts it is estimated that there are about 4 billion email accounts worldwide
with close on 200 billion emails sent/received daily. These statistics are not surprising given that
anyone can setup any number of (free) email accounts, provided they have internet access.
Current trends indicate that whilst email traffic in the business sector is increasing, it is decreasing
for individuals who are moving more towards social media and instant messaging (IM) forms of
communication. Although personal email accounts are free to setup, most organizations do not
use free email services as they prefer to have email accounts with their domain name (i.e.
grow.ie) and managed centrally. Prior to the availability of email, organizations would have had to
rely on printed or written post for all communications so the advent of a “free” delivery mechanism
such as email has had a major positive financial impact. School leaders use emails to continually stay
connected to the parents. Schools’ newsletter and other intimations which are to be delivered to
almost many people at distance it is the cheapest mode to send it out via email.

Video Chat

Online chatting as a source of communication began as early as the year 2000 but then Skype was
founded in 2003 and is basically a mechanism to use the internet for voice calls and video chat. Then
many other video chatting messengers were launched but the challenge with all of them is that a
good internet connection is required along with a suitable device (laptop or smartphone). Skype is
yet the most frequently used video chat messenger service. Like email and Facebook, Skype is also
free to use if making calls to other Skype users, but that is limited to one to one call. For group
calls it is not free. There is also a mechanism to apply credit to a Skype account and then use it to
make inexpensive calls to landlines or mobiles, if there is a need to contact someone who is not
available on Skype. Like Facebook, Skype also provides a simple instant messaging mechanism
which is useful if the line quality is poor and if the other party is not on-line, and then they will see
the message next time they log in.

Tele Commuting

When the organizations expand and have huge networks nationally or internationally, they need
to have a service that may keep them connected from distance. Telecommuting is a service that
maintains connection 24/7 if all end users remain online. They can send and receive calls and
messages instantly. There are many benefits to telecommuting. Telecommuting allows a worker
greater freedom regarding his or her work hours and work location. This gives the employee more
flexibility to balance work and personal obligations. It is believed in certain kind of jobs that
working from home can actually make you more productive, because you do not have the
distractions of an office space. There are also many benefits to employers. Allowing workers to
telecommute often makes them more productive, which benefits the company. Telecommuters are
also likely to be happier in their jobs and are therefore more likely to stay with the company.
Telecommuting even saves companies money in office expenses.

Teleconferencing and Video Conferencing

A teleconference is a telephone meeting among two or more participants involving technology more
sophisticated than a simple two-way phone connection. At its simplest, a teleconference can be an
audio conference with one or both ends of the conference sharing a speaker phone. Today's audio
teleconferences are sometimes arranged over dial-up phone lines using bridging services that provide
the necessary equipment for the call. With considerably more equipment and special arrangements, a
teleconference can be a conference, called a video conference, in which the participants can see still
or motion video images of each other. Video conferencing (or video conference) means to conduct a
conference between two or more participants at different sites by using computer networks
to transmit audio and video data. Each participant has a video camera, microphone, and speakers
mounted on his or her computer. As the two participants speak to one another, their voices are
carried over the network and delivered to the other’s speakers, and whatever images appear in front
of the video camera appear in a window on the other participant’s monitor. Multipoint video
conferencing allows three or more participants to sit in a virtual conference room and communicate
as if they were sitting right next to each other. Until the mid 90s, the hardware costs made video
conferencing prohibitively expensive for most organizations, but that situation is changing rapidly.
Many analysts believe that video conferencing will be one of the fastest-growing segments of the
computer industry in the latter half of the decade. Because of the high bandwidth of video and the
opportunity for larger and multiple display screens, a video conference requires special arrangements
and a special room at each end.