Abstract

Abstract Check List:

Is the abstract a two-page overview of the entire Senior Project?

Is the abstract length within the two-page maximum? 

                                                                       Sample Abstract:

The purpose of the project was to design, implement, and evaluate an interpersonal relations training

program for telephone sales agents at the XYZ Company. In analyzing the reasons for the low sales

conversions, it appeared that a major contributing cause was inadequate interpersonal relations skills,

particularly in dealing with problem customers. Agents lacked skills in responding to the emotional

content of customer messages, tended to be either defensive or aggressive when handling problems,

and occasionally were discourteous to the customers. Based on the problem analysis, two objectives

were established: to increase the percentage of calls converted into sales and to increase the ratio of

positive to negative interpersonal behaviors, both within two months after training. A one-week training

intervention program was proposed consisting of a lecture covering the basic concepts of transactional

analysis, videotapes of effective and ineffective interpersonal behaviors, and sixteen hours of practice

on active listening and problem-solving behaviors. To test the impact of the training program, a

randomized pretest/posttest control group design will be used. One month pre- and two months’ post-

training sales data will be obtained from company sales reports. The data on interpersonal behaviors

will be obtained by analyzing taped sales calls. The results should show the trained agents to be

significantly higher on both performance variables.