Effectiveness of the Business Communication System - Research Paper Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Internal Business Communication System Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Transmittal Memorandum 4 1.0 Introduction 5 2.0 Effectiveness of the Business Communication System 5 2.1 Literature Review 5 2.2 Staff Consultation 6 2.3 Issues for the Organisation 9 3.0 Intercultural Business Communication and Development of Staff Competency 10 3.1 Literature Review 10 3.2 Issues for the Organisation 11 4.0 Conclusions. 11 5.0 Recommendations 12 5.1 Changes to Improve Communication in the Organization 12 5.2 Development of Staff Competency in Intercultural Communication 12 6.0 Attachments 13 6.1 Bibliography 13 6.2 Titles of staff consulted 15 Executive summary This long business report is on the results of the staff consultation plan which was carried out among the staff members to review the effectiveness of the internal communication of an organization. It is organized into well labelled chapters with different subtopics under each for clarity. The introduction of the whole article provides a rough idea of its contents. The information about the significance of a well established business communication and the effects it can have on the concern organization is clearly explained. There is also well elaborated data on the Intercultural Business Communication and Development of Staff Competency. This explains the present system of communication in the organization and what can be done to improve it and the competence of the workers. There also exists a conclusion and a section that contains my opinions on what I think the management can do to improve or implement a better communicating system. Materials which were used to guide the research process and the individuals consulted as samples to provide data is listed in the last chapter. Transmittal Memorandum Date: May 2010 To: The business’s Senior Executive Team of Senior Partners From: Graduate Assistant Officer RE: THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE ORGANISATION’S INTERNAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM Enclosed is the report on the effectiveness of the organization’s internal business communication system. I have also included my recommendation that adapt a better system that is convenient to every staff member. Please call if any clarification based on the information provided is necessary. The success of the whole process was enhanced by the Senior Executive Officer. Thank you for that opportunity and am looking forward for another chance to conduct such an activity in future. Enclosure: Report 1.0 Introduction For any organization to achieve its goals and objectives there is the need to have a well organized communication network so as to bring or unite the workers to communally work as one body. Every shareholder should be informed of the present performance of the organization and the future expectations (goals). This also facilitates the sense of belonging and enhances hard work to meet the set objectives. 2.0 Effectiveness of the Business Communication System 2.1 Literature Review Our organization is multinational because it is off-shored hence dispersed in eight nations. Although its main management point is in the central office in Australia, there are other sub-management based on the various offices of management, for example, there are: five Offices in Australia: Central Office with 25 staff members, North Office has 20 staff, South Office with 21 members, East Office 42 workers and West Office 17 staff members. There are other two International Offices one based in Asia Pacific and has 20 workers and another one in Middle East with 30 staff members, then there some other 30 virtual workers who are off sited. All the different centres have their own styles of doing things and some do not even know the aim or the main objective the organization as a whole but have come up with their own goals. This is as a result of the poor communication between different branches and the central management (Kaul, 2004). Rodriques (2002) argues that the hard copied messages that the other workers receive from the central management does not give them a clear picture of the organization hence they do not understand some of the business issues. Some of them are formatted in very formal manners that the receiver only fear and respect them but does not know the best action to take against them (Murphy et al, 2000). Good communication creates some sense of belonging to the organization. For example, if the management can avail itself to meet and discuss issues with their junior, they will portray a greater level of concern and the juniors will feel to be part of the ownership hence work to their best (Sundararajan, 2005). Brown & Griffin (2000) add that this can also built a good rapport between the staff and the workers hence give freedom to make decisions or give wise ideas on the operation of the organization. 2.2 Staff Consultation According to the report on the staff consultation plan to review the communication system, the respondents gave some of the information which can be useful formulating a good communication network. So as to get the most relevant information some questions were given and answered by the targeted respondents. During the analysis process the answers to these questions were summarised using the Likert Scale of 1 to 5, 1 being poor and 5 excellent. The questions used were: Q.1 “Do the organisation’s written documents/messages provide you with the direction and support you feel you need to achieve your workplace goals?” Analysis: 30 =1; 40=2; 60=3; 15=4; 5=5; Q.2 “How effective are the business messages in assisting your understanding the business issues?” Analysis: 60=1; 40=2; 30=3; 12=4; 8=5; Q.3 “Are they written in an informative manner that aids your understanding?” Analysis: 55=1; 45=2; 30=3, 14=4; 6=5 Q.4 “Is the layout/language/wording used reader friendly?” Analysis: 65=1; 35=2; 25=3; 16=4; 9=5 Q.5 “What are your preferred communicated “channels” to Receive the business’s key corporate messages?” 20/150 written communication 30/150 verbal communication 100/150 prefer both channels Q.6 “Who is the person or persons you would like to be the provider (encoder) of the business’s key corporate messages to you?” Q.7 “Does the organisation’s structure assist effective Communication of the business’s key corporate messages to you?” 40=1; 50=2; 35=3; 15=4; 10=5 Qn. 5. Fig. 2. A bar graph representing the response of the preferred channels of communication Excellent Very good Good Fair Poor Total Likert Scale 5 4 3 2 1 Q1 5 15 60 40 30 150 Q2 8 12 30 40 60 150 Q3 6 14 30 45 55 150 Q4 9 16 25 35 65 150 Q7 10 15 35 50 40 150 Fig.1. the response of workers to the research questions According to the analysis from the qualitative data, the respondents gave many different comments concerning the forms of communicating and the best language to be used to effectively communicate to them. The language used to communicate the them should be easier to understand and choose the most effective mode of communicating like face to face or other person to person means, for example, the electronic means like the internet accounts which connects people. The central management should always show efforts of being concern about what is going on in the other branches by regularly meeting with all the staffs or holding live conversations. Te staff also claim that the hard copied messages mostly reach them when they are late and are directed to their senior officers who sometimes distort the information when delivering it. 2.3 Issues for the Organisation The fact that our organization is wide and has undeveloped communication system is reflected in the analysis of the consultation findings. There is no communication network which strongly connects the different branches of to be one thing. Each branch is independent under its immediate management and has unique ways of doing things hence the organization has difficulties meeting the common goals and objectives. The management should come up with a better form of communication and that which favours the needs and views of the staff members and especially those that they raised in the report of the research carried out. The general management should also build a good rapport with the management and the workers in other centres so as to enhance teamwork hence easily achieve the set objectives. They should adapt the system of regularly holding annual and general meetings for every shareholder to have a chance of sharing their views and decisions concerning the organization and also familiarize with each other as family by knowing the abilities and disabilities of each other and come up with the ways of boosting the performance of each other. 3.0 Intercultural Business Communication and Development of Staff Competency 3.1 Literature Review As much as the management tries to formulate new and effective ways of general system of communication among the members there are some challenges which they are likely to encounter especially because of the diverse cultures, workforce and the competence of the workers from different countries (Snodgrass, 2002). Some of the facilities to enhance some forms of communication may not be available in some of the nation’s especially the electronics. In some of the developing countries may not have facilities like the fax machine, computers and so on which can support the electronic communication and if there are they may be sparsely distributed hence not available in all parts (Logan, 2008). In other places people may lack the knowledge to use these services, the technological knowhow hence even if these forms are used they may have difficulties accessing the information or the forms are not effective at all (Gallagher et al, 2005). Ramesh (2001) argues that different cultures have different practices and believe, for example, there are some which have specified ways on how an elderly can communicate with his or her junior or a man can communicate to his counterpart. This is why most of the management prefer so formal communicating systems so go against these believes and hurt those that hold them. (Vance et al, 2006). 3.2 Issues for the Organisation The management of the organization should look into a good communication system which is convenient to all the staff members and not that which favours the interests of the management team. They should look into the challenges and work to overcome some like ensuring that the communicating facilities like the fax machines and the computers not forgetting the internet are available in all the centres. They can also organize conferences and training programs to train their staff members on the ways of using these machines and also keep them technologically up dated. 4.0 Conclusions. So as to overcome the problem of poor communication in the organization, the management should come up with a system which is effective to all the staff members. This system should support the togetherness or the teamwork so as to easily reach the objective set and make sure that every member feels to be part of the organization hence feels free to share in decision making. General meetings should be highly considered so as to give the members to contribute in the decision making and share their ideas concerning the organization. When formulating these new communicating methods they should think of the challenges which they are likely to encounter and come up with the ways of overcoming them. For example, unavailability of communicating machines can be easily be solved by making these machines available and training the workers on how to use them. However, there are other challenges which are not easy to overcome like cultural believes; the management should consider adapting them so as not to go against them. 5.0 Recommendations I wish to recommend the Senior Executive Team of Senior Partners to go through the report of the staff consultation plan and consider formulating a better communicating system being guided by the responses of the interviewed members. 5.1 Changes to Improve Communication in the Organization A communication system should be formulated which brings the members of the organization together and faster to update them on the recent happenings or expectations in the organization. The language used to communicate should have less bureaucratic wording but clear and concise for easier understanding, most preferable should online versions with links to other sites and documents. The channels should include both written and verbal communication styles with regular videos to link up the news concerning the organization. Because the office is off-shore the central management should plan to be regularly visiting the other centres to discuss the key issues and for the juniors’ to raise their ideas or problems to them face to face. 5.2 Development of Staff Competency in Intercultural Communication The competence of the staff members can be improved by training them on the new technology and providing the facilities needed. 6.0 Attachments 6.1 Bibliography Kaul, A., 2004, Effective Business Communication, Business Communication Journal, 3(5) 23-27. Murphy T., Hildebrandt, W. & Powel J., 2000, Effective Business Communication, Business Writing Journal, 7(2) 27-34. Sundararajan, N., 2005, Effective Business Communication, Communication journal, 4(1) 250-255. Rodriques, M., 2002, Effective Business Communication, Effective Business, 2(3) 45-67. Brown C. & Griffin E., 2000, Effective business communication, Business Article, 5(2) 123-134. Snodgrass C, 2002, Managing the Human Side of Information Technology: Challenges and Solutions, Effective Communication, 6(3) 222-243. Logan S., 2008, Asian communication handbook 2008, Asian communication handbook 2008, 7(1) 23-45. Vance M., Vance C. & Paik Y., 2006, Managing a global workforce, challenges and opportunities in international human resource management, 3(6)24-28. Gallagher P., Low P., & Stoler A., 2005, Managing the challenges of WTO participation: 45 case studies, WTO Internal Only Series, 2(2) 546-567. Ramesh, 2001, Managing Global Software Projects, New Technology, 3(2) 12-15. 6.2 Titles of staff consulted Returns by the offices and respondents included: Central Office: 10 administrators, 5 managers and 5 general officers. North Office: 6 administrators, 6 technitians, 3 general and 3 managers. South Office: 5 administrators, 3 technical officers and 5 general workers. East Office: 11 administrators, 8 technicians, 8 general officers and 2 managers West Office: 4 administrators, 6 technicians, 1 general officer and 1 manager. Asian Pacific Office: 4 adminstrators, 7 technicians, 2 general officers and 2 managers Middle East Office: 6 administrators, 10 technicians,5 general officers and 3 managers. 20 virtual workers and all were technicians Read More