Business communication is a part of the management studies curriculum, and this paper gives an account of the teaching-learning process adopted for a batch of postgraduate management students who were from a rural background. Managerial Skill Development is a subject included in the final year MBA curriculum with the aim of enabling students to build their management and communication skills. For these students, who studied in a Tamil medium school till class twelve, with minimal exposure to English during their undergraduate course, conversing in English, let alone business etiquettes and soft skills, was an alien concept. However, communication skills had never been more inevitable and essential for the acquisition of employability as they are today. Business communication empowers the students to be competent in their learning as well as work environment. As future managers, they ought to have the confidence and a grasp over the language to be able to communicate their ideas effectively. An effective approach towards the subject from the faculty and the right attitude from students could definitely make a difference.

Teaching business communication to students from rural background is a different experience and involves many challenges. The students were a diverse mix, mostly of rural background and have seldom come across an English-speaking environment during their school or college days. During the initial classes, the students were very reserved and hesitated to communicate, and the main reasons for this were their mindset that English is a foreign language and they can never speak the language fluently, aversion towards the language due to the difficulties in learning during their earlier years, and the inherent fear that they may speak wrongly and eventually fail in the learning process.

Soft Skills Journal, Glue People, Practical Implications, Organizational Challenges, Temporary Organizations, Matrix Organizations, Multinational Construction Company, Product Development, Production Process, Project Controller, Organizational Goals, Construction Industry.