- Competing environment: Interference from other activities going on in the business at the same time as the message received, and concentration cannot be maintained by receiver.
- Channels of communication: The people chosen or method of passing on the message may not be an efficient way of doing so and will therefore effect they way in which it is received.
- Cultural differences: The interpretation of a message could be distorted if the personal background of the transmitter and receiver are incompatible.
- Steps in the message: If the message contains too much information to be taken on board at one point in time then the receiver may not be able to cope with all the information written down, and will not fully understand the tasks.
There are 2 types of communication in a business referred to as internal and external communication. Internal communication takes place within the organisation; examples would be team briefing and memos. External communication takes place between a business and other organisations and the outside world; examples would be conferencing with other companies and through websites.
Kellogg’s uses both internal and external communication. The internal communication within Kellogg’s is done via email to international branches of the business, and face-to-face meetings are often held between the board of directors to discuss the progress. This is effective as all of the company members have the chance to give input into the business.
There is a problem with Kellogg’s being such a large company because it would be a lot easier for the communication process to break down, and due to the messages being passes over continents between people with different cultural backgrounds their may be a lot of noise causing problems decoding information.
The use of external communication within Kellogg’s is the use of a company website; Kellogg’s also recently bought into another company Keebler which was done via conferences between the board of directors and management within the business. Shareholders are also communicated with externally, and Kellogg’s holds annual conferences so that they understand how the business will be run the following year and explain about the previous business year. Kellogg’s must also produce annual reports so that the government can decide about the tax Kellogg’s must pay and to make sure the business is being run legally. Kellogg’s also communicates with the customers through the use of a customer services department which can be written to, emailed and telephoned.
Information Communication Technology:
Information Communication Technology has completely changed the way in which business are now run. There are many advantages of this method which include:
- Communication between distances is now faster and more efficient. This saves business postage costs, and time which also saves capital.
- Old fashioned filing systems have been replaced by databases which allow information to be found faster, and are not easily lost, storage space is also kept to a minimum.
- The business can be advertised internationally through the internet. This can be a lot cheaper than old advertising methods and can also attract a larger range of customers.
- Computers in industry can also replace people, which means that the workers are more efficient as they can work long hours with no break. They also work out cheaper in the long run as one machine in many cases can do the work of 5 people. This saves the company 5 peoples wages.
There are however a number of disadvantages to the use of information communication within a business including:
- They are initially expensive to install, and will regularly need to be updated which will also cost quite a lot of capital.
- Machines can make a lot of people redundant, and therefore can increase the unemployment rates in many locations.
- Computers and the internet have opportunities for hacking into company files, which in a large company could be devastating.
- There are many legal requirements for use of ICT and these must be maintained by companies.
Kellogg’s uses the internet to advertise its products, and the company in general. This is a really good way of allowing people from all over the world to recognise the product and maintain Kellogg’s good reputation as a cereal manufacturing company. Kellogg’s also uses ICT to communicated between branches of its companies over seas, this is effective because it can be received within a short time frame and would be a lot cheaper than sending reports in the post.
Kellogg’s also uses ICT internally between the board of directors who are all situated in the USA. They use visual conferences over the internet which allows them to keep on top of the objectives, this saves travel costs and allows them to keep up-to date. The only problems with this type of communication are that if for some reason the computer network was down or there was a power cut the meetings would be cancelled and need to be rescheduled which would waste a lot of time.
