7.2 Business Communication

Business Communication
- What is effective communication?

- Importance of feedback
- Communication methods
- Barriers to communication
- Communication networks
Keywords
 Effective communication – the exchange of information between people or groups, with feedback
 Communication media – the methods used to communicate a message
 Information overload – so much information that the most important ones cannot be easily identified and
quickly acted on.
 Formal communication networks: the official communication channels and routes used within an
organisation.
 Informal communication: unofficial channels of communication that exist between informal groups within
an organisation.
Effective communication
 Key features of effective communication:

 Sender of the message
 Clear message
 Appropriate medium (the way in which the message is sent)
 Receiver
 Feedback to confirm receipt and understanding
 Communication can be external (e.g. with suppliers, government, shareholders etc.) and internal.
When thinking about communication…
 It is important to consider:
 The messages that the business is sending to the stakeholder e.g. what messages would the business be sending to its
customers?
 The messages that the business is asking the stakeholder e.g. what messages would the business be asking its
customers?
 The messages that the stakeholder is asking the business
 Activity: thinking about the different stakeholders in an organisation, consider these situations and write
down questions the messages/communication that might arise in these situations
 E.g. What messages might the business be sending to it’s customers and through what communication
medium? What messages might the business be asking to it’s customers and through what communication
medium? What messages might the customer ask to the business and through what communication medium?
Then repeat for as many stakeholders as you can.
The benefits of effective communication with
stakeholders
Why is effective communication important?
(specifically Internal Communication)
 Increased participation through group discussion motivates staff and increases labour productivity.
 Creates ideas and assists with problem solving  especially helpful when trying to implement change or
implement continuous improvement.
 Speeds up decision making to achieve corporate objectives
 Speeds up response to market changes – decreases the time of the information flow from customers (due to
change in tastes) to the decision makers at the head of the organisation, to allow for adaptability.
 Reduces risk of errors
 Builds effective co-ordination between departments
Communication methods
 Oral communication: phone conversations, meetings (one-to-one conversations; group meetings; team
briefings), presentations, interviews.
 Written communication: letters; memos/emails; reports; minutes of meetings.
 Electronic communication: email, websites (to communicate with stakeholders about new products, to
collect research data, to achieve sales, to provide after sales service), text messages, web chats and chat bots,
cloud based chat apps (e.g. MS teams); intranet video conferencing, social media (business
facebook/Instagram pages).
 Visual communication: diagrams and charts represented on projectors, interactive white boards etc.
Communication methods
Method Strength Weaknesses
Oral - Direct - No permanent accurate record
- Easy to understand - Can be forgotten
- Can be questioned quickly
Written - Permanent record - Message identical to each receiver
- More structured - No body language
- Cannot be varied - Costly and time consuming
Visual - More interactive - Needs close attention

- Easier to remember - Interpretations by receivers can vary
- Creates greater interest
Electronic - Great speed - Expensive in hardware
- Interactive and encourages response - Security issues e.g. hacking
- Overcomes global boundaries - Diminishes interpersonal contact
- Can lead to information overload
The method of communication depends on…
 The cost of communication e.g. responding by email to a customer vs setting up a chat bot (the time taken to
set it up by a person + potential subscription fees)
 The speed and quality of communication
 Target audience e.g. shareholders, potential new customers, employees etc.
When dealing with case studies, it is a good point to make that business’ performance
can be improved through improvements in communication
Barriers to effective communication
 Failure in one of the stages of the communication process:

 Incorrect medium chosen e.g. communication via phone when communicating a complex problem
 If the receiver forgot part of the message
 A misleading or incomplete message
 Excessive use of technical language or jargon
 Too much information
 Channel of communication is too long i.e. too many layers of hierarchy
Barriers to effective communication (cont.)
 Poor attitudes of either the sender or the receiver:

 Sender is not trusted due to previous misleading messages
 Unmotivated workers make poor receivers
 Intermediaries (middle men on the communication channel) may alter the message
 Poor opinion or perception of receiver causing sender to neglect whether the message was understood
 Physical reasons:
 Poor quality of external environment e.g. noisy factories
 Geographical distance (although video-conferencing has fixed this).
Reducing communication barriers
1) Ensure the message is clear and precise

2) Keep the communication channel as short as possible
3) Make sure the channels of communication are clear to all involved
4) Build in feedback to the communication process, so that problems can be fixed quickly
5) Establish trust between senders and receivers – works well when the company culture assumes that all staff
have a valuable contribution to make
6) Ensure that physical conditions are appropriate for messages to be heard or received in other ways.
Reducing communication barriers (cont.)
7) Train employees in communication skills  employees often don’t have the skills these days to
communicate a message properly
8) Avoid generating too much information – technology can make it easy to send multiple emails with over-
messaging or details in the messages that are repeated and over-complicated
9) Recognise that cultural and linguistic differences exist – the way messages are put across and received can
be misconstrued to others.
One-way or two-way communication
 Two-way communication is essential for democratic leadership styles to operate. It creates effective
conditions for staff motivation and immediate feedback.
 However, it is time consuming.
 It allows for the receiver to question the message, to ask for further explanation or to discuss it with the
sender.
Horizontal communication
 Vertical communication is when people from different levels of the organisation communicate with each
other.
 Usually seen in traditional organisational structures.
 Horizontal communication done along the organisational chart between people that have approximately the
same status but different responsibility.
 Usually seen in matrix structures.
 Common problems of horizontal communication:
 Different departments may not understand the culture or objectives e.g. finance department not understanding
marketing’s need to spend money constantly.
 The culture/outlook or objective may cause conflict for different departments
Informal communication
Advantages of informal communication Disadvantages of informal communication

- Creates feelings of belonging and social cohesion - Wastes time
 improves job satisfaction - Spreads gossip/rumours/misinformation
- Management can use the grapevine to “test out” - May result in informal groups banding together to
new ideas and see what the unofficial reaction resist management decisions
might be
- Helps to clarify official messages by talking them
over with colleagues.
CIA’s playbook on
sabotaging
organisations when
undercover – 1944 –
how to make
meetings longer,
more boring and
more confusing.

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Business Communication

- What is effective communication?

 Key features of effective communication:

Visual - More interactive - Needs close attention

 Failure in one of the stages of the communication process:

 Poor attitudes of either the sender or the receiver:

1) Ensure the message is clear and precise

Advantages of informal communication Disadvantages of informal communication

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