Business Communication

Task 1:

CB Ltd Company

To: General Manager

From: Agnes A. Corsanes (Junior Manager)

Date: 17th January 2014

Subject: The Business Communication and the main forms of communication

Message:

“Effective communication is important both within an organisation and externally. Effective communication improves business efficiency.” (BBC, GCSE Bitesize)

The main forms of communication

There are two types of communication that organisation use in business society. These are: Internal and External Communication.

Internal Communication: is one way to share information or give ideas within an organisation for business purposes. For example: internal communication within a company can take via, telephone, face-to-face, e-mail, memos, etc.

External Communication:  are used when an organisation needs to interact with other organizations or individuals (Hannagan, T, 2008).

Formal and Informal Communication

There are 2 main categories of communication in Business Society these are:


-Formal Communication: a formal communication include: formal letters/reports, presentation and meeting. It is important to always remember to avoid slang words use standard English language instead whenever you interact/share information to others and make sure that your points/ideas are clearly laid out because when we are using them we have specific formats and rules to follow.

-Informal Communication: a informal communication is by using slang words, no specific formats  and some points/ideas are mixed to another.


Both of them have their own time and place but business people should be aware of formal communication that used in business and the rules about how they are used.

There are also other methods of communication can be use and these are Written and Oral Communication, Electronic Mail and Hard Copy.

Written Communication: involves any type of interaction that makes use of the written words. Nowadays most of people in business communicate extensively with their colleagues or other organisations by writing e-mails, memos, reports, letters, etc. This could be through internet, paper, catalogues, etc.

Advantages:

-Easy to preserve:  Written communication are easy to preserve. If it is needed, important information can be collected from the preserved documents.

-Effective communication: Written communication helps to make communication effective. It is more dependable and effective than those of other forms of communication.

-Permanent record: all the messages that have been sent and received will automatically be saved.

-Maintaining image: Written communication helps to maintain the images of both the person and the organization. It also protects the images of the company or organisation.

Disadvantages:

-Expensive: Written communication could be expensive. For this communication paper, pen, computer and a large number of employees are needed.

-Time consuming: It takes time to communicate with others. It is a time consuming media. It costs the valuable time of both the writer and the reader.

-Lack of flexibility: Since writing documents cannot be changed easily at any time. Lack of flexibility is one of the most important limitations of written communication.

-Privacy: It is hard to maintain its privacy.

-Delay in decision making: It takes time to communicate with all the parties concerned. So the decision maker cannot take decisions quickly.

Oral  Communication: involves any type of interaction that makes use of the spoken words.Verbal communication takes place through face-to-face conversations, group discussions, interview, etc.

Advantages:

-More powerful: Speech is a more powerful means of persuasion and control. Therefore, in business society they  prefer to transmit messages orally.

-Effectiveness: With the help of variations in the tone, pitch and intensity of voice, the speaker can convey shades of meaning. This factor also contributes to the effectiveness of oral communication.

-Flexibility: By the demand of the situations oral instructions can be changed easily.

-More suitable: The employees felt more suitable when the message transmits in orally. They get an opportunity for feedback and clarification.

Disadvantages:

-No record: In oral communication, messages are difficult to record. So it is impossible to preserve the message for future.

-Less important: In oral communication, meaningless speech can mislead the main effects of the communication. But when the information comes out in written, we take it more serious.

-Creates misunderstanding: Other person might take what you said out of context and misunderstand you and the point of what you are trying to communicate.

Electronic Mail: The purpose of electronic mail is exchange messages (sending and receiving messages from others). Nowadays communicating through email is very popular everywhere especially in business society because it is quick and free.

Advantages:

-You can access to you email account and type your email message anytime and anywhere you want, save it for later use and send it at any time without having to worry about envelopes, stamps and tariffs.

-You can attach any file on your computer to an email message easily, regardless of its type and, mostly, size.

-Safe for the fee you pay for accessing the internet, sending and receiving emails is typically free.

-Emails typically arrive within seconds or minutes anywhere in the world.

Disadvantages:

-The recipient needs access to the Internet to receive email.

-No guarantee the mail will be read until the user logs on and checks their email.

-Viruses are easily spread via email attachments (most email providers scan emails for viruses on your behalf).

Hard Copy: Hard copies are much reliable as through these copies the information can be retained even after a longer period of time and hence are used for many different purposes.

One of the advantages of using hard copy is that; it can be read by the person at any time he wants to go through it and mainly in hard copy all the information is contained which the person in fact is unable to deliver it to the people. 

One of the disadvantages of using hard copy is that; if it needs to be transported from one place to another then it needs to be physically carried and this results in taking a lot of time depending upon the distance to be travelled.

Task 2:

Barriers to effective communication

A balance needs to be struck in communication between management and staff. Insufficient communication leaves staff 'in the dark' and is demotivating. However, excessive communication leads to information overload, eg when staff find hundreds of messages arriving in their intray each day.

Communications fail when a message is unclear or the receiver does not understand. Messages may never be received if they are sent at the wrong time or to a junk email folder.

The result is inefficiency and higher costs, as more resources are needed to achieve the same result.

Training staff to select an appropriate and accurate way, thorough messages will improve the quality of communications, especially if there is an opportunity for feedback. (BBC, GCSE Bitsize, Business Studies)

-Organisational Barriers:

This type of barrier is often occurs in an organisation when there is communication between team members of the organisation. One of the major barrier in an organizational barriers is that prescribing the company policies (rules and regulations/procedures).

In the organisational rules and regulations, prescribing other sub-matter along formal communication may restrict the flow of messages in the communication process which means that sometimes, it happens that important messages are manipulated/omitted which cause delay of delivering messages to employees and discouragement to employee in conveying their innovative ideas. Therefore, the rules and regulations should be flexible to everyone and listen to the ideas that they come up. In this way you will make them fell encouraged and motivated.

-Emotional Barrier:

Our emotions can be a barrier to communication. Everyone has their own way to communicate to people. Therefore it is not easy to control somebody’s feelings/temper, but understanding each person’s situation is an important way to keep your workplace communication effective and barrier-free. If possible, ask one of your colleagues or employees how are they today. (Bevan,J and Couple-Smith,H, 2010)

-Physical Barrier:

The distance between the sender and receiver of the message is an important barrier to communication. Noise and environmental factors can block communication; environment factors cannot be controlled by anyone, but the noise can be controlled by the management.

Noise could be any disturbance that reduces the clarity and effectiveness of communication. This could be physical or psychological, written or visual. It distracts the people communicating and acts barrier to communication. Loud noise affects the listening and understanding process of the people who's communicating (physical noise).

Similarly inattentiveness of the listener/receiver make communication ineffective (psychological noise). Bad handwriting and incorrect spelling irritates the reader/receiver (written noise). The late arrival of employee can catch superior’s attention (visual noise).

Importance of Effective Communication in an Organisation

Communication makes a big impact on business efficiency. Effective communication means:

            -Customers should enjoy a good relationship with the business. For example:

            complaints are dealt with quickly and effectively.

           

            -Staff should understand their roles and responsibilities, eg tasks and deadlines are understood and met.

           

            -Staff motivation improves when, for instance, managers listen and respond to suggestions.

           

This means that effective communication in the workplace supports employees with understanding of what is expected from them and what they should do. For organisations, successful communication creates effective performance of the staff and increases customers’ profit and generally, to the company. (Bevan,J and Couple-Smith,H, 2010)

Keys to Successful Communication in an Organisation

Communication is the process by which we exchange information between individuals or groups of people. It is a process where we try as clearly and accurately as we can, to convey our thoughts, intentions and objectives. Communication is successful only when both the sender and the receiver understand the same information.These will help the company to build a good working relationship between managers and staff members.

By developing a network or trying to become with people in different departments within your company and looking for experiences or interest you have in common you will achieve success. (Nutall, J, 2000)

Task 3:

17th January 2014

Notice of meeting

There will be an emergency meeting regarding the high amount of complaints received about our customer service. All the head managers from the HR, Sales & Marketing, Finance and Customer Service department must attend the meeting. Any other issues will be discussed.

Emergency Meeting: Staff Training (Product Knowledge)

Date: Monday, 20th January 2014

Time: 10:30 am - 12:00 noon

Where: Nimbus Room (CB LTD Headquarters)

Agenda

1. Minutes of the last meeting

2. Customer Service: Complaints

3. Sales: Product have been returned

4. HR: Trainings

5. Finance: Cost of trainings

6. Conclusion

7. Any other issues

8. Date of next meeting

Agnes A. Corsanes/HR Manager

Minutes for the Management Department Meeting of CB Ltd Company will be held on Monday, 20th January 2014 at 10:30 am at Nimbus Room, CB Ltd Company conference room.

Attendees Present:

            -Silvana Perez / Sales Manager

            -Haggai Afriyie / Finance Manager

            -Ilham Ahmed / Customer Service Manager

            -Agnes A.  Corsanes / HR Manager

            -Zahra Mohammed / General Manager

The General Manager started the meeting at 10.30 am and she welcomed all the team members that have attended the meeting.

1. 1. Minutes From The Last Meeting:

2. The minutes from last meeting was read out by the HR Manager, Agnes A. Corsanes and no adjustment was made. The minutes was approved and signed off by the General Manager, Zahra Mohammed.

3.  

1. 2. Customer Services: Complaint

The complaint report was read out by the Customer Service Manager, Ilham Ahmed. Customers have been complaining about our sales staff that they are lack of product knowledge. A day ago when a customer came back to the store to return the product because that was not the product he was looking for, an electric drill and he was also asked me for the refund and kindly, told me that one of our staffs are lack of product knowledge and need to be trained properly.

3. Sales: Product have been returned

Silvana made a presentation and she showed us the chart of our recent activity that has been occurred during the first 24 hours.

Units made                                                   1,400,000

Units pull back                                              180,000

Units sold                                                     1,285,000

Units Returned                                                     34

Units in good condition                                115,000

4. HR: Trainings

HR Manager, Agnes A. Corsanes was read out that all the sales staffs will have a weekly product trainings with their supervisors/managers, so they will gain enough information about the products that they are selling.

5. Finance: Cost of trainings

Finance Manager, Haggai Afriyie estimated the total amount that they may spend on trainings is £10,750.00. She also included the other expenses/profit of the company.

Product Sold                                                £2,230,000.00

Product returned                                        £320,000.00

New Equipment                                           £230,000.00

Advertising                                                   £100,000.00

Training                                                         £10,750.00

6. Conclusion

The General Manager starts the conclusion by thanking everyone for attending the meeting. Agnes continues to talk about the next step of action:

-All departments will have a weekly meeting with their staffs (to inform the staffs what is going on in the business and to deliver information about the products).

-Try to be more organised and avoid that kind of incident will never happen again.

7. Any other issues

No other issues were addressed at the meeting. It was adjourned at 12.00 noon by the General Manager.

8. Date of the next meeting

Meeting was adjourned at 12 noon by The General Manager (Zahra Mohammed) and he announced that the next meeting will be on 20th of February 2014 at 11:00 am - 1:12pm at Cirrus Room, CB Ltd. Company. 

Task 4:

The Management Report of the use of Communication in Business

1. Abstract

Generally, the report is about the different types of communication that used in the meeting that was conducted on the 17th of January 2014. I will evaluate how successful these methods regarding in an emergency meeting. The context of this report will check at the barriers with communication and which part will be overcome these barriers. We are hoping to get  the most accurate type of communication that we may use in business. Lastly, we will also make an appropriate guidelines in order to improve the communication at work.

2. Terms of Reference

-The purpose of this report is to identify and explain the different types of communication.

-Evaluating the different type of methods that communication has.

- Identifying and explaining some barriers to communication.

3. Procedure

 We used different type of methods of research to be able to conduct this report. These are:

-Internet, Books, etc.

-Primary research is also part of getting ideas and information.

-We used the ideas/information that we got from primary research and we applied.

4. Findings

After researching all the information that we need for this report; the differences and similarities and what method is the accurate and appropriate to use in a working environment.

-Electronic mail is very popular everywhere especially in business society because it is quick and free.

-Oral and written communication have got a lot of similarities.

-To avoid the barriers in communication the sender must deliver the message clearly and understandable to the receiver. On the other hand receiver must pay attention and must be focus too.

5. Discussion

According to my research and findings, I found the explanation how communication is very important in an organisation/company. The findings are very useful, it helps you to understand every point of the scenario.

6. Conclusion

As a conclusion employees and employers must be more focus in order to run the business accurately. Having a good relation and having an open communication between employees and management could save time. However, both side should use the appropriate form to communicate to each other. This could be through formal, informal, written or oral.

7. Recommendation

 According to what we discussed throughout the report has lead me to make the following guidelines that company should do:

-Avoid the barriers in communication between the employees and the management.

-Team managers and members should be more attentive and focus for the daily duties.

-Employees should be trained and informed in advance if they are any changes in the company.