Effective Business Communication

Introduction

Effective business communication contributes to ensure proper workflow which results in better progress of the company

The communication barriers faced by Sports Love and the strategies to resolve it is to be discussed along with the way culture influences communication is also to be mentioned in the presentation

The establishment of effective communication in business is essential because it leads to development of positive relationship, lower conflict, sharing of creative information and develop effective decision with the involvement of employees and managers ensuring better workflow. This results in promoting better progress of the organisation in the industry of their operation. However, in case of Sport Love, it is seen that barriers are faced in communication which has resulted employees to work in an inappropriate manner that is hindering the success of the organisation. In this presentation, the barrier in communication and way to resolve it are to be discussed for Sport Love so that its better progress in the industry can be ensured. Further, the way culture influences communication is also to be discussed.

Barriers in communication

Incorrect timing (Eyre, 2016)

Inadequate communication skill (Yuningsih and Mulyana, 2017)

The scenario of Sport Love informs that the meetings between employees and management are organised only at 7 am even though the employees work in three different shifts for 18 hours for the company. This informs that no proper timing is maintained to arrange the meeting so that all the employees are present at the same time. It is evident as the employees who are starting and ending their shift at 7 am may be present during the meeting but the employees who have later shift to attend are not able to be present within the meeting. The inappropriate timing of business meeting does not allow all the employees to interact with the management to receive feedback and coordination as well as information regarding the way they are to work efficiently to deliver effective customer services for the progress of the company (Eyre, 2016). Thus, inappropriate timing acts as a potential communication barrier for the employees of Sport Love to understand the way they are to work which is hindering their way of delivering proper customer services.

In Sport Love, it is mentioned that the employees come to the office and work but has little communication or contact with the management. As mentioned by Yuningsih and Mulyana (2017), inadequate communication skill leads individuals to face hindrance in interacting with one another. This is because they do not understand the way to establish communication making them avoid interacting. In relation to this, the employee’s lack of proper communication skill may be acting as barrier to make them avoid establishing proper interacting with the management at work. This is evident as it was seen that no communication skill training is mentioned to be offered to the employees or the manager at the Sport Love.

Inappropriate management (Coombs, 2015)

Inappropriate language use (Tenzer et al. 2017)

The inappropriate management within the organisation acts as a barrier in communication because it results employees to be unable to interact with one another or the manager (Coombs, 2015). In Sport love, it is seen that there is lack of proper management within the organisation that has raised the barrier in communication making employees to work inappropriately resulting them to provide hindered customer services. It is evident as there is not set intranet facility or any initiative from the management is seen so that the employees can remain in contact with them. Moreover, their improper management is ensured from the fact that no communication process to provide feedback to the employees are present so that they can understand the aspects to be improved to provide better customer services.

The language used to communicate may act as a barrier because the information communicated could not be understood by other individuals (Tenzer et al. 2017). In case of Sport Love, it was seen that most of the employees were multi-national who belongs from different parts of the world and all of them do not have fluency in English. Since the company is located in London where the official language is English, the employees require having knowledge regard it. This is because most of the customers who are living at the place visiting the shop for buying products are perceived to understand English better than other languages. Thus, the lack of proper fluency among employees of Sport Love regarding English may have made them incapable to solve the queries by the customers in English which lead the customer face lack of proper services avoiding them to renew their membership with the company due to dissatisfaction.

Strategies to overcome barriers in communication

Creating an open and two-way communication environment (Hamrin et al. 2016)

Arranging communication skill training (Brink and Costigan, 2015)

The initial strategy to be implemented to resolve the barrier in communication is creating an open and two-way communication environment within Sport Love. As mentioned by Hamrin et al. (2016), open communication can be established when the employees and management are free to share information, feedback and others regarding one another without hindrance or any nature of fear. This is important so that free flow of information and effective interact can be easily established between individuals. The management of the Sport Love to establish open communication environment require arranging circumstances and rules where free flow of feedback from the management to the employees and vice-versa is allowed. Further, in this respect, the management of Sport Love require to ensure that the employees without any fear share the information so that messages are not distorted. The establishment of this strategy is going to lead the management as well as employees of Sport Love understand the changes to be made personally and at work so that effective customer services are provided to ensure better progress of the organisation.

The employees, as well as the staffs at the management level in Sport Love, are to be provided compulsory communication training. As asserted by Brink and Costigan (2015), proper communication training helps individuals to use effective interacting skill to establish meaningful and informative communication. This is because communication training helps the individuals to improve their skills that are previously weak or are not presently required for establishing meaningful interaction. Therefore, Sport Love need to provide communication training to the employees and staffs at the management level so that each of them has adequate skills to establish effective communication at work with one another to improve customer services in a collaborative manner. Moreover, Sport Love require to make it compulsory that all the staffs know fluent English so that they can provide better customers services through interaction at the store within and surrounding London.

Establishing multiple channels to communicate (Sánchez, 2015; Gaffney et al. 2018; Boeva et al. 2018; Mark et al. 2014; Bonaccio et al. 2016; Taylor and Lounsbury, 2016)

Right timings of meeting when all the employees are present

The establishment of multiple channels for communication within the organisation is required so that the employees have scope of using more than one mode to establish effective communication at work. The presence of email and intranet facility is to be made compulsory at the Sport Love so that proper communication can be established within the organisation. This is because communication through email is faster, cheaper in process and helps to keep record of communication to access required information from the interaction whenever required (Sánchez, 2015; Gaffney et al. 2018). However, the disadvantage of email communication is that they can be hindered due to virus infection (Boeva et al. 2018). The intranet facility is effective for Sport Love as it would allow all the employees to reach any level of management to communicate their needs and clarify doubts required in provided effective customer services, in turn, helping to establish open communication within the organisation at all level. The face-to-face communication channel is to be established at Sport Love to ensure better flow of information through interaction. The importance of face-to-face communication is that it is always two- way and direct feedback, as well as proper understanding of the messages or information, is achieved. However, they are time-consuming and may be misinterpreted at times (Mark et al. 2014; Bonaccio et al. 2016). The training videos are to be used by Sport Love for the employees to help them understand in a clarified manner to establish effective communication. The advantage of this is that it is provides easier learning method but it may be specific to one person and so all the employees may not be equally improved to be able to establish effective communication (Taylor and Lounsbury, 2016). Thus, using these multiple channels of communication is going to help the management, as well as employees, establish effective communication by using the mode of communication as per their preference and suitability.

Ways in which culture influences communication

Different communication mode

Language

Body posture

The way communication is established is seen to be different among cultures. This is evident as western culture present in the UK, Germany, Canada and others are seen to prefer communicating through use of technology rather than in a face-to-face manner (Bull, 2015). Since Sport Love is situated in London, therefore they are to communicate to the customers before and after their purchase to receive feedback through use of technology and offer extended customer services if needed even after purchase. Moreover, they are required to arrange meetings However, in Japan and other Asian counties, it is seen that the culture support face-to-face communication (Donnellan and Rydblom, 2015). This is because in this culture it is perceived that the true meaning of information can be delivered or understood while communicating in person only.

In western culture, it is seen that English is the most preferable language used to communicate with one another (Schuckert et al. 2015). This is because it is usually their mother tongue which they have learned from very early age. Since Sport Love is located at London, thus they are to ensure that the employees have good knowledge about English in a compulsory manner so that they can solve the queries and assist customers effectively to help them buy best products, in turn, creating effective customer services and customer satisfaction. In Asian culture, it is seen that people are usually multi-lingual (Tsui and Tollefson, 2017). This is because there are wide ranges of languages being spoken among them. Thus, Sport Love to operates in countries with Asian culture require to make the employees efficient to be multi-lingual to offer effective customer services through interaction.

The body posture and tone of voice used in establishing communication is seen to be different among cultures. For instance, in western culture, smiling while communicating with elderly individuals is regarded as a proper gesture that the person is listening attentively. However, in Asian culture, smiling while communicating with elderly individuals are regarded that the person listening is making fun of the individual (Choi et al. 2016). Thus, employees at Sport Love are to be trained regarding the way they are communicate with individuals as per their culture so that effective communication can be established without conflict.

Conclusion

The above discussion informs that communication barriers at Sport Love are incorrect timings of arranging meetings, inappropriate language use and management, inadequate communication skill of employees and others.

In order to resolve the barriers, the strategies such as proper arranging of meetings at right timings, establishment of multiple communication channels, communication and language skill training to employees and others are to be used.

The employees at Sport Love are required to maintain proper body language, use proper communication mode and others to tackle cultural differences that influence communication.

References

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