Higher Diploma in Business Management

Managing Communications

Student Name: W.M Isuru Surangi Warnakulasooriya

Registration Number: 2019/B1/BSC/BM/005
E-mail:[email protected]
Name of College: Metropolitan College, Dehiwala
Year: Final Year
Word Count: 2909
Assignment Submission Date: 01 January 2020

Table of Content

Context.............................................................................................................................................3
Task 01.............................................................................................................................................3

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 An Analysis of Key information and knowledge requirements for a range of stakeholders in
different organisations.................................................................................................................4
An explanation of the system used for communicating this information and knowledge...........5
An explanation of potential (and real) barriers to effective workplace communication.............6
An explanation of how technology can be used to benefit as well as hinder the communication
process.........................................................................................................................................7
An explanation of how policies and procedures can impact on the communication process......9
Task 02.............................................................................................................................................9
Provide the findings from your own communications audit.......................................................9
Apply theories of organisational communication......................................................................10
Create a plan which can be used to improve communications within the organisation............11
Identify measures to evaluate the success of the plan to improve workplace Communications
...................................................................................................................................................11
Task 03...........................................................................................................................................12
Evaluate the effectiveness of own communication skills..........................................................12
Apply theories of interpersonal communication to yourself.....................................................13
Request feedback from others...................................................................................................13
Plan own personal development to improve communication skills based on this feedback.....14
References......................................................................................................................................15

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Context

You work for a training organisation. They are reviewing their range of “training packages” and
have asked you to help. One of their popular courses is “Managing Workplace Communication”.
The existing training package is out of date and you have been asked to rewrite it.

You will plan all materials for the training package. You will include a presentation with
accompanying notes and have appropriate hand- outs and exemplar materials.

This training package will:

 Apply theory to practice

 Draw on your experiences of communication with organisation, and/ or use case studies
as appropriate to exemplify practices.
 Show delegates how to review communication within an organisation, using your own
exemplar material.

At the end of the process you will also

 Reflect on own interpersonal communication skills

Task 01

The first part of the training will deal how information and knowledge is communicated
supported by examples, either from your own experiences or from case study material. Prepare a
clear and informative presentation to enable delegates to understand how communication and
knowledge is communicated within organisations and those factors that impact on workplace
communication.

Presentation materials should be supported by notes as well as information sheets/ hand- outs as
appropriate

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You must cover following topics.

An Analysis of Key information and knowledge requirements for a range of

stakeholders in different organisations.

Stakeholders are the people who are affecting or be affected by the company’s actions,
objectives and policies. These stakeholders can be identified in the terms of their power within
the organisation and the interest towards the company. Stakeholders can be both internal and
external parties such as creditors, directors, employees, government and agencies, shareholders
or the owners of the organisation, suppliers, trade and employee unions, management and the
community that the business operations are conducted.

It is very important to keep satisfied the stakeholders in the organisation through understand the
shareholder needs and the requirements.

Owners

Owners are the investors of the organisation therefore they are interest on the growth of the
organisation, return on investment (ROI), earnings per share (EPS) etc. Having invested their
income in the firm, the main attention of owners in financial statements is to measure the returns
on their investment and how wealthy do they appear for the future. Owners usually have access
to all financial records and files.

Management

Managers are the agents of the company who manage the company assets towards the
expectations of the owners or the founders of the company. The management of a business
required to recognize the profitability, liquidity, and cash flows of the association, so that it can
make operational and financing decisions about the business. Management will also have right of
entry to all records.

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Competitors

A competitor refers to the rival companies that produce substitutes for the products and services.
Business will try to get the information of rival companies to evaluate their current position in
the market.

Customers

Customers are the once who experience the products and services of the company therefore they
are always interest on the company’s current position, history, quality standards acquired etc.

Government

Government is concern whether the company is paying right amount of taxes and adhere to the
rules and regulations etc.

Creditors

Creditors may interest on the financial position of the company in order to estimate the ability of
the borrower to pay back all loaned funds and related interest charges.

Suppliers

Suppliers will require financial statements in order to decide whether it is safe to extend credit to
a company.

An explanation of the system used for communicating this information and

knowledge.

It is important to have a proper system of communicating the knowledge and information with
their stakeholders. Effective communication will save time, remove obstacles etc. There are
some effective communication methods.

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 1. Oral Media: this is the spoken word - face to face communication. It is maybe the most
common method that businesses use to communicate, especially within the business. This
has the advantage of being able to make a point directly, the audience can see the face
and body language of the sender and feedback is often immediate

2. Electronic Media: Electronic means of communication have become ever more important
in business. They include a wide range of different methods including e-mail, fax, the
telephone, video, podcasts, teleconferencing and webcasts and webinars. The advantage
of many electronic methods is that they are quick and can enable the sender to get
feedback almost immediately.

3. Telephone: The telephone is still an important part of communications in any business.

The nature of telephone communications has changed, however. The use of landlines is
still important, but the development of mobile phone technology means that businesses
have a far greater opportunity to be able to contact customers and suppliers quickly and at
a time convenient for them.

4. Paper Based Communication: In reality, paper-based methods of communication are still

seen as being very important. Formal letters to customers, shareholders, suppliers and
employees are still widely used

An explanation of potential (and real) barriers to effective workplace

communication.

It is important to have effective communication method to satisfy the stakeholders of the

company. But it can occur some barriers to the effective communication.

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 Common Barriers to Effective Communication

 The use of Jargon

 Emotional Barriers and Taboos: In some cases, people may feel difficulties to
express the inner feelings of emotions. This may limit the effectiveness of the
communication.
 Lack of Attention, Interest, Distractions or Irrelevance to the receiver
 Difference in perception and viewpoint
 Physical disabilities such as hearing problems or speech difficulties
 Physical barriers to nonverbal communication: In nonverbal communication it the
two parties will not be able to see the nonverbal cues, gestures, posture and general
body language.
 Language differences and the difficulty in understanding unfamiliar accents
 Expectations and prejudices which may lead to artificial assumptions or
stereotyping. An evaluation of how communication is influenced by values and
cultural factors.
 Cultural differences: People behaviour is highly depending on the culture that they
are living. It can occur difficulties in communications among people in two
different cultures due to the differences in social setting.

An explanation of how technology can be used to benefit as well as hinder the

communication process.

Today the society is highly on technology-based products and services. In this technology
driven society people use new techniques for the communication process as well.
However, this technology has both positive and negative sides.

Advantages of technology for communication process.

 Speeds the sending of data and information

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  Improves organisational communication
 Speeds the decision making in an organisation
 Increases the participation in organisational process
 Influences the way people interact in organisations
 Structures organisational life
 Supports open discussions
 Eliminates stereotypical classifications
 Provides a voice to those who normally would not speak up in groups
 more efficient
 faster method of communication during emergencies
 able to communicate from anywhere in the world
 long distance communication is easier
 communication made easier

Ways that technology hinders the communication process/ disadvantages

 Poor substitute for face-to-face (ftf) communication

 Difficulty Training Employees:
 Expensive
 Not Safe
 Unemployment
 Privacy
 Lack of job security
 harder to use for people of older generations
 cyber-bullying and cyber-skyping made possible
 not always reliable
 makes communication less personal
 not always sure who you are communicating with

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 An explanation of how policies and procedures can impact on the
communication process.

Every organisation has policies and procedures for the organisational functioning. This
policies and procedures refer to understand the individual and team responsibilities saving
time and resources. Organisational communication is the method or platform of
communicating and exchanging massages within the organisational environment. This can
be identified as the process we take to a successfully communication. This process includes
sender, encoding of the massage, selecting the communication channel, receipt of massage
to the receiver and the decoding of massage, noise can be identified as the barriers to the
communication. Every organisation put policies and procedures for the proper functioning
of the organisation, these are the set of rules and procedures that are set within the
organisational context to govern and control their employee practices.

Task 02

Delegate from the training should now be in a position to review communication within their
own organisations. To enable them to do this you will need to provide exemplar material of a
communication review/ audit that you have carried out yourself within an organisation.
Delegates will be able to use this as a template and model of good practice.

Produce a formal report in which you:

Provide the findings from your own communications audit

Communication is an important skill that people should have to express the ideas or the
massages to the people. Everyone in the work environment including the top management to the
bottom. A performance review or a performance appraisal/ evaluation can be identified as a
formal assessment in which managers evaluate or assess the work performance of the employees
and identify the strengths and weaknesses and set goals for future expectations.

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When conducting the communication review the performance appraisal knowledge is used and
identified the following problem areas as follows.

 Needs improvement in replying emails promptly. Company procedures are mainly

communicated through emails. When evaluating I noticed that this emailed
communication are not functioning properly due to law respondents.

 The notices and the other formal notices are used by company management using the
technical jargons which the people who are referring those can’t get the right massage.

 There are people from different cultures, therefore the language that they use to
communicate is different. In the company they face this problem as the people who are in
the minority group feed difficulties in communicating the knowledge with others.

Apply theories of organisational communication

There are some theories that can be relate to the organisational communication

Fredrick Taylor’s Scientific Management theory talks about that there should be a proper
planning to conduct and manage a company. Taylor’s talks that the communication should
be done in a clear-cut manner and the employees are not needed to provide input, the just
need to know how to execute their jobs.

The Hawthorne Effect Hawthorne effect is an experiment or a theory that can be used to
refreshed the working environment. Managers should effectively manage their workforce.
Therefore, it is important to manage the organisational workforce effectively.

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Create a plan which can be used to improve communications within the
organisation

A communication plan is used to provide information that the communicated to specific set
of people. Also, this communication indicates that the people who have the authorities, the
method of communicating (emails, websites, printed reports etc)

Therefore, as the planning the company activity can identify the current pass. Company
employees should give a training in an appropriate method. Company is conducting
Company should plan for the human resource and. After deciding that is going to have
diary. In the same time the responsible people who are involve in the decision-making
process should be identified.

Management should use a proper method of communicating. The displacing notices and
the boards should not contain the appropriate level. Management of the company should
understand the plan for the work and display the notices with appropriate methods.

The language problem can be solved by using a common language to all, when people feel
difficulties. When a language problem is issuing, the experts are waiting to know about
Dianella,

Identify measures to evaluate the success of the plan to improve workplace

Communications

When we identify a problem in the workplace it is very important to find it and work for
solutions. And it is also important t know whether the plans that are implemented are
worked in an appropriate manner or not.

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 In the first case there was a problem of not responding to emails drop by the other
employees or the company administration. As a solution for this company give a training
session for the employees and discuss about the positive impact of new trends and the
importance of communication. Company management can evaluate solutions to these
problems through calculating the email responding rates etc.

Also, there was a problem in usage of technical words for the communications. Due to this
earlier the employee participation to the common works were in a lower level as people
can’t get the write massage. As a solution for this company management start to use new
communication style and which is simpler. This can be evaluated by analysing the old and
new employee participation rates.

Task 03
You are aware that the ability to communicate effectively is a very important skill. You
understand that promoting effective interpersonal communication is important in all aspects of
life including the workplace. You decide to carry out your own personal audit.

You decide to:

Evaluate the effectiveness of own communication skills

Communication is very much important to every organisation and to every individual. The
effective communication is a long process and it doesn’t happen in overnight. There are
some characteristics of effective communication

Active Listening- active listening refers to the care full listening to the speaker,
here during the audit I always try to listen to others experience and knowledge
than talking about my own self.

Non-Verbal Communication- Nonverbal communication refers to the body

language. Usage of this aspect is a lower level.

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 Asking problems/ questions- This refers and shows that asking of questions and
look their problems. This is practically done during the audit period.
Being Clear and Succinct
Clarifying and summarising
Being empathetic
Providing Feedback
Developing Trust and report
Being Present

Apply theories of interpersonal communication to yourself

There are some theories to understand the interpersonal communication to yourself such as
Self Disclosure, Uncertainty reduction theory, Relational Dialectics etc.

Self-Disclosure: Self-disclosure is sharing with someone information which helps him or

her understand you. Self-disclosure is most revealing when the sharing is in the present and
least revealing when the sharing is about the past. These will

Uncertainty Reduction Theory.

 Presumes that “the beginning of personal relationships are fraught with uncertainties”
This involve by identifying the time, place and information appropriate, Can you trust the
other person(s) to maintain confidentiality if necessary, Do you feel comfortable self-
disclosing in the situation you are in, What impact will your self-disclosure have on the
other person?

Request feedback from others

At the end of the evaluation process I request feedbacks from the all participants to give
their ideas. For this first we should show that we are interested to know about the other

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 party and pay attention to non-verbal, ask for feedback from others, voice defensiveness,
Own your mistakes.

Plan own personal development to improve communication skills based on this

feedback.

It is very important to have effective communication skills to all the employees within the
organisation. Everyone should know what they are needed to know and what they are
speaking and also, we can’t predict the perception or the attitude of the other person.
Therefore, as the evaluator understand that it is important to improve the following skills
communication development.

 Speak convincingly so that the other person understands what you intend to
communicate:
The style or the ascent of speaking can make the different sense on the other
persons minds. Therefore, the style of speaking has a tremendous impact on the
personality and personality development. Speaking slowly always helps as it
allows you to find appropriate words and also reflects thoughtfulness. Emphasize
important and relevant words for the other person to realize the importance.

 Be very particular about the pronunciation of words:

Correct body language exudes self-confidence which help perfects an individual’s

behaviour.

 It is important to be a good and patient listener for effective communication

skills

If you are not very sure of how to pronounce a particular word, prevent the similar
in your speech. Pronouncing words incorrectly generates a bad feeling on others.

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References

Mikkola, L., & Valo, M. Workplace communication.

Barriers to Effective Communication. Retrieved 2019, from
http://effectivecommunicationadvice.com/barriers
Twain, M. (2015). Life on the Mississippi. Open Road Media.
Barriers to Communication – Communication Studies. Retrieved 2019, from
http://www.communicationstudies.com/barriers-to-communication
Barriers to Effective Communication | SkillsYouNeed. Retrieved 2019, from
https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/barriers-communication.html
Effective Communication in the Workplace. Retrieved 2019, from
https://www.skillbuilderlms.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Communication-in-the-
Workplace-Reference-Guide.pdf
Ettinger, B., Perfetto, E., & Ettinger, B. (2008). Business English. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Pearson Prentice Hall.
6 Communication Barriers and How You Can Avoid Them. Retrieved 2019, from
http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/6-communication-barriers/
20 Ways to Communicate Effectively in the Workplace ... Retrieved 2019, from
https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/11/20-ways-to-communicate-effectively-in-the-
workplace.html
Learn Effective Communication Strategies in the Workplace. Retrieved 2019, from
https://csuglobal.edu/blog/make-indispensable-5-workplace-communication-strategies
Main Components of Communication in the Workplace. Retrieved 2019, from
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/communication-in-the-workplace-1918089

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