Executive summary
Success of any company be it financial or just a mere charitable organization is to a large extent affected by the mode of communication that takes place within its departments as well as the relationship that the company has with all its stakeholders. For a long time, many companies have been found to have poor business communication strategies, which has affected the companies’ performance because sending and receiving of messages to a large extent affects performance as well as productivity and coordination. For this reason therefore, this assignment seeks to carry out a critical study concerning business communication, the strategies involved, those applied and the much companies are doing to ensure that their communication strategies are up to date, and consequently that information can be sent from one source to the required destination without any problems.
In this research study, a number of factors will be considered on how to implement effective business communication, and some of the sectors that should be fully looked into and improved to ensure effective communication include staff management and coordination, as well as effective Information Technology, which is one of the aspects that determine whether or not the correct measures are taken and the most effective technology applied to ensure that communication takes place effectively. It will also be important to look at the effects that poor communication strategies might have on a company, and the practical areas affected by lack of effective communication strategies. Finally, this research will draw the way forward to ensure proper communication is applied in business settings, as well as the principles and protocols to follow in such a case (Baltzan, 2011, p. 157). This paper will also focus on some of the problems that affect customers and clients at work places which might require different communication methods within the business premises, and in this case the paper will major on accidents and emergency cases that seek urgent medical attention.
Introduction
The twentieth and the twenty first centuries are some of the eras whereby communication has been realized and emphasized on as an important area as well as a part and parcel of any performing business entity. This is because with the current aspects such as globalization, fast and efficient communication means is one of the most important building blocks for the success of any business enterprise, because receiving of information for example concerning the newest products, competitors or technology in the market for any enterprise to adopt or look out for is entirely based on the success and effectiveness of the communication strategies to be applied by the company.
Important to note, communication does not only involve sending and receiving of messages, but understanding these messages and acting upon them is the only quantifying way of determining how effective communication is within a given communication network. In every case not only in the business settings, every bit of information communicated from a source to a recipient has a purpose and is goal oriented, and there is the ultimate purpose why it has been sent from the source to the recipient. In the business settings and from a financial perspective, communication has a financial goal and these are some of the roles of communication that this paper is going to consider as well as critically look at (Baltzan, 2011, p. 199). This paper will look at how different people in different organizations respond to emergency calls and messages, and the protocol followed to ensuring that the necessary information reaches the concerned people.
Communication in business settings
For communication to be termed efficient in any business settings, a couple of factors must be considered, and the most important ones being the mode through which messages will be relayed from the source to the recipient or desired destinations, as well as the time taken for the message to move from the source to the recipient as well as the time taken by the recipient to act on the received information. In business settings for example, it is important to not that communication management involves a number of roles, more or less the same roles that management takes in any other business setting, which include planning, controlling, marketing, directing, organizing and overseeing on the overall. In this case therefore, communication is based on these basic management roles, and this is one of the reasons why this task is assigned to the Information and technology department in almost every formally organized business institution (Loewy, 2010, p. 192).
Types of business communication
According to research carried out in formally organized companies, specifically Barclays bank and Coca Cola Company, the type of communication used determines the speed through which information will be received and also the formality of the information being communicated. In any business settings, communication takes two defined ways, and it is based on either oral communication or written communication. These are the two types of communication that have been used in business settings interchangeably and for different purposes.
1. Oral communication
Oral communication in business settings is where information is passed from a source to a destination through the word of mouth. This form of communication is used for different purposes, and can be used for both formal and informal purposes. In instances whereby written communication might be tasking or take a lot of time for example in cases of emergency, oral communication is usually used. Oral communication can range from as informal as greetings upon reporting to office to as formal as addressing a congregation through a speech or when conducting an interview.
Using a practical example, in a busy company setting, if a person (worker or even client) get involved in an accident within the company setting, it would not be logical to inform the emergency or first aid department of the accident through typing a formal letter concerning the accident. Rather, a simple phone call is ideal to have the victim picked by an ambulance or first aid team from the scene of the accident and rushed to the hospital. Other working staff or customers are also alerted about the accident through oral communication and requested to keep off the accident scene. Oral communication is therefore used in cases where written communication means may prove ineffective or cumbersome especially in cases of urgent communication.
2. Written communication
This is the second form of communication that is used in any business setting and serves various purposes within any given business setting. Written communication is the form of communication whereby the information to be relayed from the source to the recipient is transferred via print form. In cases where the information to be sent cannot reach the desired recipient through oral means for example through a conversation or a phone call, written communication is used, and the means used may be either electronic (which include sending of fax, emails etc) or manual which includes sending of handwritten or typed messages which are then delivered to the recipient through hand delivery or hanging of the messages at the company’s notice board (Baltzan, 2011, p. 116).
Written communication is usually used in formal cases whereby evidence might be required in future or act as a source of reference. These include factors such as application and employment letters, legal factors such as an employee’s terms of employment, annual reports which will act as sources of reference to the company in the next fiscal or financial year as well as company’s agendas, mission, vision and goals (Loewy, 2010, p. 199).
One important thing to note about these two forms of communication are important and are in fact intertwined and used together to achieve one common goals. For example in the earlier example used, if a person (staff member or otherwise) is involved in an accident within the working setting, oral communication will be used to get the victim to the hospital. Latter on written communication will be used to inform the staff member of the hospital bill or any important information that needs to be sent to him for reference. Secondly, in annual meetings, the stakeholders are informed and invited to the conference via written communication, and upon arrival, they are addressed orally through the speeches made by the management team in the company.
Information Technology and Business communication
As earlier stated, communication should be based on effective communication means to ensure that the desired information reaches the desired recipient in time so that the recipient might have ample time to act on it. For this reason therefore, every serious company has a serious information technology desk or department that ensures that communication is efficient and that the messages reach the desired recipients in time. For this reason therefore, information and technology is an important building block to the communication means applied in any company (Rainer & Turban, 2006, p. 46). Companies like the Coca Cola Company have a database whereby they put to record all the medical records that take place with their clients and staff in the line of duty, and this assists for reference, budgeting as well as prediction of future expenses.
In many business organizations, Information and Technology department is responsible for communication management, and they work hand in hand with the management team in the company to ensure that they are updated with every event that takes place within the management team. This is because they are responsible for organizing information in a sensible manner and later sending it to the desired recipients. Information and technology is one of the most important aspects to employ in any business settings, and in the twenty first century, a lot of changes and developments have been made in this field which include computer networking, whereby many recipients can receive information at the same time as well as have a forum to communicate with each other online without having to type information from one source to a given destination (Loewy, 2010, p. 57).
Videoconferencing is among the newest technologies that have been used in many business settings to ensure that information is passed on from the source to the recipient without any exaggeration or distorting. This is one of the concepts that have been adopted from the PowerPoint presentation in the 20th century whereby one person presents information in the front while the audience listens and watches from their sitting positions. In videoconferencing on the other hand, webcams are adopted and people can actually view the person addressing them from the position they are regardless of the distance between the two. The difference between these two forms of business communication is the fact that PowerPoint presentation is written communication while videoconferencing is oral (Info Tech Employment, 2007, p. 198).
Conclusion and recommendations
REFERENCES
Baltzan, P. (2011). Business Driven Information Systems. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Info Tech Employment. (2007). Computer Jobs with IT Staffing Firms: The Growing Information Technology Professional Services Sector. New York: Oxford University Press.
Loewy, D. (2010). Business Communication: Process and Product (Book Only). New York: South Western College Publication.
Locker, K. (2010). Business Communication: Building Critical Skills. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Rainer, R. & Turban, E. (2006). Introduction to Information Systems: Supporting and Transforming Business. New Jersey: Wiley.
