Communications Report

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Harriet Blair                Centre No: 51323

Candidate 3005

Communications
Report

Harriet Blair
Candidate No. 3005
Centre No. 51323


ACTION PLAN

Brief

You have been appointed as a consultant to a medium sized manufacturing company employing 120 people. Part of the company organisation chart appears below:

Board of Directors

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Managing Director

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|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|

Finance Director   Managing Director  Production Director      HR Director     Admin Director

Until this year production and administration had been located in central London. The purchase of a new production site 50 miles from London has led to a reorganisation of the company and its personnel. The Board Of Directors, Managing Director, Finance Director and Administration Director will now work from the London Head Office. The Marketing Director, Production Director and Human Resources Director will be based and the company’s new manufacturing facility 50 miles outside London. You are required to identify the problems of communication between the two locations and suggest how they could be resolved. You should consider:

  1. the needs and importance of good business communication
  2. the range of communication methods available, e.g. people, paper, electronic.

What I expect

I expect that in most businesses, telephones and mobile phones will be the most widely used form of communication. Almost everybody has at least one and, as mobiles are portable, people can be contacted anywhere at any time.

However, I do not think that many methods such as letters will be used as these are quite time consuming and very formal, not providing feedback for some time. Instead I think email will be more popular as feedback is easier and emails take very little time to write and send.

The Need for Communication in Business

There are several definitions for the verb ‘to communicate’. The online Cambridge Dictionary (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/) has a definition of it as “to share information with others by speaking, writing, moving your body or using other signals.” The textbook puts this more simply and plainly describes it as “the transferring of a message from the sender to the receiver”. These are the definitions which I am going to work from as they clearly describe the way in which the companies would need to keep themselves running by making sure that the right people have the right information at the right time.

To have good communication is essential for a business. Good communication is shown by having everything happens on time and works as efficiently as possible with no information lost along the way and aids decision making by being as simple and as clear as possible. This is helpful to the business as when their efficiency improves then they can increase their output and this can increase their profits if it leads to higher revenue. It can also provide feedback which allows the company to make changes so that everything works at an optimum level and can increase the quality of the product, therefore increasing sales. To keep communication good it must keep the correct audience in mind, keep information simple and only include important details and it must be accurate and correct.

There are several different types of communication within a business. In any communication there needs to be a sender and a receiver. If possible there should also be feedback which is communication to the sender from the receiver.

The three main types of communication are:

  • Downwards
    From higher level employees to those who are lower within a company hierarchy. These can be instructions or notices. Generally do not require feedback unless making a complaint about it.
  • Sideways (Lateral)
    Between employees on the same level within an organisational hierarchy. Plans and discussions take place on this level as well as much of the actual working within the business on a team level.
  • Upwards
    These messages are from those lower down in the company to those who are higher up within the hierarchy. This could be to describe work done so far or submit figures. Feedback is expected but not always acquired.

Business Objectives

To optimise the communications system for the business we must first look at what they want to achieve overall. To do this I will discuss the probable objectives of this business and how communication will affect them.

  • Expansion
    As the business is opening a new site it tells us that they are looking to expand. Expansion is an objective which requires high levels of communication to co-ordinate new projects and initiatives.

  • Increasing Market Share
    An aim which ties in with maximising profit is the idea of increasing the company’s market share and competing effectively. The company are likely to want to do this as it will increase their potential profits and income. This can be done in several ways, for example gaining a good public image by ensuring quality products are produced or by spending on a large marketing campaign to make people aware of the goods. Either way, effective communication is required to put together such a strategy and the communication must be accurate to keep the image of the business at a good standard.
  • Maximise Profit
    One of the most important aims of the business, as it is in the private sector, is probably to maximise the amount of profit. This can only be achieved if the business is being run as efficiently as possible as well as through marketing and so both internal and external communication need to be of high standards. For example if employees did not know how to use a piece of equipment properly and wastage was particularly high then if they can communicate this problem to their supervisors appropriate measures can be taken, for example training, to make the process more efficient. Communication therefore must be fast as to not waste time.

Research

To discover what communications media would be the best for the manufacturing company given in the brief it is necessary to research the methods already used within companies. To do this information must be drawn from several sources of information. I plan to use questionnaires, an interview and book and internet research to come to my recommendations as I believe that this is a wide range of different sources from which I can get a balanced view. In this way I will be doing both field (questionnaires and interview) and desk (books and internet) research both of which are useful in different ways. Questionnaires and the interview will give me an insight into people’s personal opinions and allow me to not only get some facts from them but also how they feel about them and gives them the flexibility to answer questions in a more open way. From books and the internet I can get more hard facts and can use these with the opinions to come to informed decisions which take both sides into account.

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Questionnaires

The first research I did was a questionnaire which I gave to seven people who I knew who are involved in businesses in which communication is a vital part of their running. I decided that I would ask not only what types of communication they use but also in which context (internal, between branches and external) as I believed that this would give me more insight into what each medium is useful for. I also decided that I would ask which communications media were the most useful and also how they felt that their communication within the business ...

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