BUSM2909 Managing Workplace Communication

Workplace communication is the method of exchanging the information with external and internal stakeholders of the organisation. The workplace communication is associated with the verbal and non-verbal communication and these types of communication may lead to the communication gap between stakeholders of the organisation which may lead to the waste of time, confusion and reduces the productivity. As stated by McKenzie and Van Winkelen (2003), workplace communication is significant to the organisations as it allows employees to be more productive and operate effectively. In this study, training and development package of the University of Bolton in Ras Alkhaimah is developed. This study will review the range of training packages and existing training package of the university is out of date. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to redesign the training package for the University of Bolton. There are altogether three parts; in the first part, clear and informative information and knowledge are shared. In the second part of the assignment, communication is reviewed. In the third part, effective interpersonal communication is promoted.

Stakeholders of the University of Bolton are the staff, students, faculty and administrators. The University of Bolton manages the key requirements of knowledge of the stakeholders for the stakeholders. The students within the University of Bolton require mostly knowledge and unity of analysis. Knowledge is important for the training sessions as trainers have great knowledge regarding the work process and internal work issues than the external work. Training provides the knowledge to the students as it defines the high performing work which provides degree than knowledge for the internal factors (Scandelius and Cohen 2016). In addition, faculties need the training sessions as a unit of analysis optimises the individual talent. This is mainly focused on removing the impact of the external macro environment which determines the success or failure of the organisation.

Aldar Properties is a real estate development organisation, headquartered in Abu Dhabi. Aldar Properties have two types of stakeholders, external stakeholders and internal stakeholders. Internal stakeholders of Aldar Properties are the employees, owners and managers of the organisations, while the external stakeholders are the suppliers, society, creditors, government and customers (Stults et al. 2015). Aldar Properties of External stakeholders, suppliers have their own expectations as HR department created internally based self-fulfilling prophecy. External stakeholders will be given training so that they can understand the internal operations as HR should focus on senior leaders. In addition, internal stakeholders like employees have their own skill set which is most important for the organisation. The training sessions will be given to improving the skill set of the employees including communication, leadership and time-management skills.  

Stakeholder communication process is complex and the University of Bolton needs to understand the four-fold process of stakeholder communication. Stakeholder communication starts with stakeholder analysis and the second step is to develop the communication plan. In the following step, the management needs to implement the communication plan. In the fourth step, the University of Bolton needs to evaluate the communication activities. As stated by Cheng et al. (2017), business communication has different types of users and types of information are various.

Meetings and briefings: the University of Bolton can set formal meetings for the external stakeholders like Government and suppliers so that the management can discuss the different types of expectations. Meetings do not discuss just the internal communication, external plans can be discussed in the meetings. The meetings can be discussed both upward and downward communication. The suppliers and investors can get direction from the briefing.

Emails and letters: Emails, as well as letters, are written for both internal and external communication to be made effectively. Internal emails and memos are to be used for the managers and for the employees (Silverman et al. 2016). External letters and emails are for expressing managerial information to send upward and downward of employees.

Manual and notices: the University of Bolton can use manual and notices for the students as it is the internal communication. Students are informed about the university and the students get to know about the responsibilities, duties, regulations and rules through notices and the manuals. Manuals are helpful for the operational works of the university.  

Presentation and training: These are both visual and verbal communication used in the University of Bolton. In the presentation, the presenter can use visual cues. The presentation is a practices method used for communication. Training is always a downward method for the organisation and through the training, employees, faculties; staff get special information about the operation and organisational work (Arnold and Boggs 2016).

The main objective of the communication within the business is to transfer the information.

Clarity of message: Sometimes, the management sends a written message to the students and the stakeholders. Clarity is important in written communication as lack of clarity may lead to the hamper of effective communication. The management must not use any jargon, technical words or bias responses.

Barriers in verbal communication: Verbal communication is used for both formal and informal way. Effective communication is mainly depended on the clarity, top selection of words, focus and active listening skills. If the verbal communication is made in an informal way without the proper words; it may lead to the barrier. In verbal communication, tonal quality is very important (Muldoon et al. 2015).

Technological barriers: In workplace communication, technologies like intranet, social media, email, telephone and Skype can be used to improve the appropriate use of technology.

Interpersonal relationship: Sometimes, the employees do not have a proper idea about interpersonal communication as the personal conflict in workplace communication may lead to the barrier as well (Boissy et al. 2016).

In the University of Bolton, there are different types of students and staffs come who are from diverse background and ethnic groups. In a university, it is quite natural that students may come from the different ethnic group. As stated by Fujjimori et al. (2014), cultural values should be respected within the society; ethnicity and religion can be a top priority in the university. For instance, a Muslim student at the university must get the same treatment as a Christian student and the Muslim student must get halal meat at the university canteen. Strong values, as well as beliefs, should be there in the university. According to Stokoe (2014), values means the core beliefs of the persons and values refer to the decisions of the people in the workplace. Culture and communication in the workplace cannot be separated and staffs and students learn about culture through communication. Within the University of Bolton, the organisation must share the interpretation of the cultural difference. Value of the staffs and the students are based on mainly sense-making, decision and perception.

 Language can shape the communication and language reflects the culture as well as values. The language of the staffs and students should be in line with the conventional rules. In cultural communication, language has a key factor and language is enough to create misunderstanding among the groups (Baran and Baran 2014). The faculties must be free of bias and they should not be orthodox in nature. The faculties’ culture and values provide satisfaction to the student.  

In the University of Bolton; the management uses the digital technology to communicate with the external and internal stakeholders. The technologies which are widely used are email, intranet, university protocol, video conference and social networking sites. According to Silverman et al. (2016), technology can provide an advantage or it can create hinder the communication business.

Information Communication technology in the workplace provides speed and efficiency in the communication. Using technology can bring definite operational efficiency in the communication process (Muldoon et al. 2014).

In addition, the organisation can have the cost efficiency in the operation process and employees can get direction with their duties at the lowest possible cost.  

Use of technology in the communication can reinforce the written communication as it is used to remind and ensure the written papers.

Technological communication helps to provide additional information as it used to give the visual information. Additional information can be provided through power point presentation.

Hindrance of technology mainly comes from using inappropriate technology as it can create the communication barrier. Inappropriate choices provide distort information and overuse of the technology can lead to creating the information overload. The University of Bolton needs to maintain the network that does not lead to the important direction.  

Using technology can increase the chance of corruption as information can be hacked. Misinterpretation of the technology can lead to the fraudulent activity (Guffey and Loewy 2016).

 Over-reliance on the technology may result in the ineffectiveness of the communication.  

The University of Bolton sets the purpose, rules and principles which guides the organisational policy. This policy is the basic principle organisation guides the stakeholders.

Social Media policy of the University of Bolton applies to the staffs and this policy covers all social media activities which directly or indirectly discusses the University and staffs as well as students. The social media policy applies to personal and professional social media communication. The purpose of the social media policy refers to the dissemination of the information and it is associated with the images, text, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube. The University of Bolton acknowledges the use of social media and social media can be used for the communication. The staffs need to represent the university in a fair and accurate manner. Social media policy states that the university embraces the opportunities of social media and university encourages and innovates the use of social media. The university recognises the use of social media in the form of professional communication. The staffs, students and managers must ensure the use of social media is carried out in the line with the relevant guidance and policies.  

Communication audit helps the managers to review the communication within the workplace. It also helps in understanding if any change has occurred in the management and how it can affect the organization. I will conduct the communication audit of the University of Bolton. There are two different types of communication – Internal and external communication (Drori and Honig, 2013).

• The first step I will fix in which area of the communication I will make this audit. I will make the audit of the internal communication of University of Bolton (University of Bolton 2018).
• In the next step, I will define how the way of the communication audit will be carried out. For the auditing of the internal Communication University of Bolton I will make a range of survey questionnaire for all the employee of the University of Bolton.
• For gathering necessary information to help the process of audit I will analyse the previous communication records of the University of Bolton. This will help me to identify the communication issues that the organization may face in the future.
• In the next stage the responses of the customer’s about the communication process of the employee will be evaluated.
• The next stage is determining the standard of evaluating the communication performance. This will help in providing the scale for measuring the performance of the internal communication.
• Now all the feedbacks and the records will be assessed to get the information about the performance of university of Bolton’s internal communication.
• The system of internal communication will also be assessed now.
• At this particular stage the analysed and the aggregate information of the internal communication performance will be critically analysed and compare with the desired results and standards.  
• Based on this analysis the strength, weakness, opportunity and threats will be calculated and documented (Thomas et al. 2014).

Communication is the process in which people are linked to achieve a common goal or objective by transferring data or information from one individual to another individual. It does not mean to transfer the communication but also to understand the message which is delivered.

There are many theories that will explain the communication in more detailed manner and how to implement effective communication in the organization. The theories of organizational communication and their usefulness are:

The communication process of the organization is highly based on the workplace culture of that particular organization. In this theory it is stated that the communication skill of the employee develops in the organization depending on the psychology of the individual.

Application: To implement the effective practices of communication, communication planning and system will be made according to the employee’s psychological preference.

This theory explains that the communication in the workplace is highly dependent on how the management of the organization treated its employees, the attitude towards their employees (Van de Ven, Ganco and Hinings 2013). Tesco the leading brand in the global market uses this theory of communication.

Application: University of Bolton can use this communication theory, in which they have to first identify how the employees are willing to be communicate. Based on the findings the communication plan should be made.

According to this theory to build proper communication, the organization needs to develop an effective communication first based on the group thinking of the workers or the employees.

Application: University of Bolton will consider understanding the group preference first and based on that they should make the communication system.   

An organization should continuously evaluate their communication and find ways to improve their communication in the workplace. An effective communication helps in improving the workplace. There is no organization that can carry on their operation without inter-organizational or interpersonal interaction. Individuals will share opinions, values, direction, and plans etc to carry out the organizational tasks. The interaction between the various members of the organization builds relationship and it ultimately builds the structure of the organization. Employee oriented environment improves the organization’s performance to a great extent (Barber and Santuzzi 2015). Some of the steps that can be taken to improve the workplace communication are:

Planning: The most important step is planning the whole communication process as based on the framework of communication the procedure and the policy will be determined. Managers of the organization should emphasize on creating an open communication network. Effective upward and downward communication increases the effectiveness of the operation and helps in achieving the overall goals of the organization.

Survey and consensus: Survey and consensus needs to be conducted on a regular basis for collecting information about the needs, conflict and demands of the employee. The managers can take decisions based on the information that is collected. Frequent communication between the managers and the employee will help in making effective operational decisions.

Feedback: Feedback of the direction can help to inform about the effectiveness of the communication process. So the feedback must be conducted in the organization in regular manner. Feedback will help to bring down the misunderstanding and the misinterpretation between the employee and the management (Magnuson et al. 2018).

Open communication channel: The leader or the manager of the organization must ensure that the workplace follows an open communication to make harmony in the workplace. Participation of the employee in the operational decision making can improve the motivation among them. Managers must track that all the employees and the members actively participate in the communication process (Men 2014).

Any organization requires its managers to have the skills of effective personal communication in order to achieve success in the organization. As an employee of the training and development unit of the University of Bolton in Ras Alkhaimah, it is essential for me to possess the ability to work with different teams and students. The ability of effective communication is the key ability that is required for my job responsibility. The following are my effective communication skills:

Contribution to meetings: An effective communication skill requires active participation in the company meetings. I have the effectiveness to skilfully communicate my ideas and innovativeness to company meetings and provide solutions for problems.

Body language: A proper communication skill can be judged by the effective use of body language. Body language can effectively communicate the ideas even if they are not verbally spoken. However, I lack the display of effective body language in company activities.

Written communication: The ability to write is the most formal way to communicate in company activities. As an employee of the training and development unit of the University of Bolton, it is particularly essential for me to communicate effectively through written communication. I am skilful to write and develop ideas accordingly and convey them effectively.

Use of information and communication technology: In an advanced technological age, use of computers and software as tools of communication is regarded as effective. I know the proper use of technology and am quite skilful in conveying ideas using effective technological tools.

Interpersonal communication is the most important aspect that anyone must possess to succeed in any organization. As an employee of the University of Bolton, it is very effective to possess such qualities for conveying ideas. These qualities of communication however, can be described in different theories.

One of the important theories of effective communication is Attribution theory. Personal attributes are the key to the understanding of the internal and external traits of the individuals when they communicate with others. This theory helps in the understanding of the achievements and failures of effective communication, and highlights the other key aspects of effective communication such as the stigmatization of the communication, or if it needs any help, if there is the presence of aggressiveness, or other intentional or uncontrollable acts (Korn et al. 2016). This factors helps to analyse how to develop the effective communication skills and appeal to the listeners to draw attention or sympathy.

Another theory of interpersonal communication is the uncertain reduction theory. This theory analyses the factors that helps in the reduction of the uncertainty between individuals to reduce the barrier of ineffective communication. This theory identifies that new relationships increase uncertainties between individuals (Kramer 2014). However, effective communication leads to the proper understanding of each other and this dissolves the communication barrier between the individuals. Acquiring knowledge about each other plays a key role in this theory to develop effective communication strategies.

Thirdly, Expectancy value is considered to be another important interpersonal communication theory. This theory helps in the analysis of the attitude of the communication and the complex and the interactive nature of it. The theory highlights the key factors which establishes the relation between the objective of the communication and the perceptive attitude towards it (Magidson et al. 2014). This theory helps in the identification of the social influence on the attitude of the communication skills.

Acquiring feedback is one of the key factors of effective communication. The feedbacks are essential for the evaluation of the communication skills and its effectiveness. It helps the communicators understand whether their purpose of the communication has been served and they have been able to effectively communicate their message to the other members (Hargie 2016). The feedback system hence, forms the key part of the communication tool of any business organization.

Written feedback: This feedback system is based on the application of written documents. In a meeting, if I act as a chairman, I can request the feedback from the other members in a written form.

Oral: The gaining feedback using verbal methods which can be used for the evaluation of the communication skills is considered as the oral feedback system.

Formal: The formal methods which are used by the organizations for the systematic collection of data and feedback after the communication of certain ideas.

Informal: These are the casual methods of obtaining feedback after a communication. These methods are considered to be the informal methods of feedback collection.

Proper fluency in communication is the key to develop personal communication skills. There are different strategies which the individuals can take to evaluate and develop personal skills. I have prepared the following chart which can help in the development of my personal communication skills.

Table: PDP plan

(Source: Self-developed)

Communication management is one of the key tools of effective business management. It essential to understand the key factors of effective communication to understand the different problems that are faced by the organization and be able to address them. Moreover, this communication requires an able approach which can face the problems with an effective confidence. There are several models which can help in the identification of the requirements of the effective communicating tools and it requires expertise to imply them on the basis of the requirements. Effective communication provides a clear insight into the problems and conveys the effective message to the other members of the team to tackle the situation and develop strategies for the evaluation and solution. It is often seen that the key element of the organizational success lies in the effective communication skills of the leaders. If the leaders are clear about what they want to convey or how to approach the solution, half of the problems are solved. Hence, it can be concluded from the above discussion that the development of personal communication skills by setting goals and using different key theories is very effective for the building personal communication strategies and helps the managers to concentrate on the external and internal factors of the organizational problems.

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