Political Communication Accommodation Theory: Introduction, Results, And Conclusion

Discuss about the Political Communication Accommodation Theory.

ComfortDelGro Corporation is a well renowned intercontinental transport organization of Singapore. The foundation brick of Comfort was laid in the year 2003 when the amalgamation of the two famous conveyance companies of DelGro Corporation and Comfort took place. (Yew, 2012). In the past years, Comfort has enjoyed good dominance in the Singaporean taxi market. However, all is not well for Comfort in the future market vision. This unfortunate factor in the business plan of Comfort can be attributed to the rapid popularization of the modern age sharing economy among the passengers. (Frenken, 2017).

• The drastic high cab rental fee is the cause of the primary challenge faced by Comfort and the taxi industry in Singapore. Therefore, the primary business goal for Comfort to curb this challenge is to reduce the cab rental fee and make it pocket friendly (Kaushal, 2017).
• The second challenge faced by Comfort and the Singaporean taxi industry is the non-availability of clarity in the summation of the booking cost. Therefore, to make Comfort more rider friendly, the second business goal for Comfort would be to make the booking fee more intelligible.
• Comfort and the Singaporean taxi industry have a real peculiar rule to charge higher fees based on the congestion and distance of certain pick up points. This rule is rather ridiculous and impractical since Singapore is a small city and easily accessible. Therefore, the third business goal is to make the pick up fee consistent and precise (Zeng et al., 2014).
• Comfort charges extra prices during midnight ride requests. The hike in prices can vary from 50% to a whopping 80%. This makes the riders wary of pressing the request ride option on their smart phones at midnight. Therefore, the fourth business goal of Comfort would be to revise the high pricing request at midnight.

• The primary organization training need analysis would be re-modifying the rental fee structure of Comfort. The organization should train the drivers to transport the customers nonchalantly at the same upfront rental charge shown in advance, irrespective of the traffic congestion and the distance required to reach the destination. (Litman, 2015).
• Adequate training must be provided to the managers to calculate the booking fee accurately on the current market ride price per kilometer. Other minimal charges such as air-conditioner service; free wifi can be included in the booking cost. However, nothing extravagant must be charged.
• Singapore has one of the most perfectly managed traffic road systems in the world. Still, occasional delays happen at time, which is inevitable (Gaididei et al., 2013). The drivers must be trained to be always ready to pick up customers and not to cancel the request unless it is absolutely necessary.
• The final most important organizational needs analysis required to be undertaken by Comfort is to increase the availability of drivers at midnights by providing extra-added incentives. Doing this, Comfort can ensure its loyal and interested riders that there would not be any unreasonable hike in pricing at midnight (Agarwal et al., 2013).

Expected outcomes at this stage can be improvement in the drivers’ performance, clarity in the pricing structure and quick availability of Comfort Cabs at reasonable charges.

An ideal task (functional) analysis to determine the observable actions and tacit cognitive functions of Comfort needed for proficiency in the identified job tasks would be to measure by its financial performance and customer satisfaction rate (Artz, Homburg & Rajab, 2012).

• Comfort must duly maintain a monthly financial assessment chart of their operations and services for all locations in Singapore. The management team of Comfort would then compare the financial assessment charts from month to month.
• Similarly, a rating system must be implemented in the company’s portfolio, where the customers, after the ride, can rate the overall service in stars.

Expected outcomes at this stage are the clear display of the monthly profit earned ratio and the customer satisfaction rate of Comfort.

• The individual learning need of Communication must be provided to the drivers of Comfort. Drivers must be able to listen and understand clearly, what the riders want and must also be to communicate his thoughts lucidly to the riders. It would be beneficial if the drivers were provided a bilingual course as because Singapore is regarded to be one of the best multicultural cities in the world (Gallois & Giles, 2015).
• The individual learning need of superior driving skills must be provided to the drivers. The drivers must be efficiently guided with the knowledge of all the accessible routes and lanes of the city to transport the rider to his destination point in the shortest possible time and with less traffic stoppage (Markoff, 2012).
• The individual learning need of advance technological skill must be provided to both the drivers and the managers. The drivers must be able to access the GPS or road tracker system while on the road such as checking the online maps for alternative routes other than the shown route to cut time and cost. (Yuan et al., 2013).
• The individual learning need of attitude and positive conduct must be given to the drivers. Drivers must be taught to be always on time and courteous with the riders. Drivers must try not to give an excuse to the customers to give a low rating or file a complaint against alleged misconduct or unacceptable behavior.

Transportation firms are service based industries. In a service industry, there are two operations, the back stage operations and the front stage operations. The efficiency of the front stage staff matters the most in the service industry. The drivers are the front stage staff of Comfort (Agarwal et al., 2015). Therefore, the company Comfort must take adequate time and spend resources to train and develop the drivers in the most productive manner.

Expected outcomes at this stage are the enhancement of the navigable, technological, and behavioral skills of the driver.

In the completion of all the above analysis, it is evident that certain learning outcomes have emerged from the discussion. They are-

• The taxi industry is very competitive. The learning outcome, which can be acquired from here to be designed in Assignment 3, is that Comfort must practice innovation at all levels to beat out the intense competition.
• Cab rental charges play a major role in the customer’s preference of the cab organization. The learning outcome, which can be acquired from here to be designed in Assignment 3, is that Comfort must practice reasonable pricing strategies to be more attractive to the riders.
• Riders really prefer abundance in the availability of cabs at odd hours of the day, such as midnight or early dawn, due to business or personal reasons. The learning outcome, which can be acquired from here to be designed in Assignment 3, is that Comfort must make moderate number of drivers available on the road to cater to the ride requests of the customers.
• The drivers and the management personnel must be sufficiently trained to make the riding experiences of the customers enjoyable. The learning outcome, which can be designed in Assignment 3, is that Comfort must continue to train and develop the individual learning needs of the employees on a constant basis.

Conclusion

In the conclusion, it can be said that the taxi industry of Singapore has the potential to revive and regain its previous stature in the Singaporean economy. The foreign cab organizations have been successful in enticing customers with their uniform pricing system and convenience and ease in accessibility. To beat this cut throat competition, Comfort make immediately take the initiative to implement and modify changes in the organizational set up and activities.

References

Agarwal, S., Diao, M., Pan, J., & Sing, T. F. (2013). Labor Supply Decisions of Singaporean Cab Drivers. Unpublished manuscript.

Agarwal, S., Diao, M., Pan, J., & Sing, T. F. (2015). Are Singaporean Cabdrivers Target Earners?.

Artz, M., Homburg, C., & Rajab, T. (2012). Performance-measurement system design and functional strategic decision influence: The role of performance-measure properties. Accounting, organizations and society, 37(7), 445-460.

Frenken, K. (2017). Political economies and environmental futures for the sharing economy. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 375(2095), 20160367.

Gaididei, Y. B., Gorria, C., Berkemer, R., Kawamoto, A., Shiga, T., Christiansen, P. L., ... & Starke, J. (2013). Controlling traffic jams by time modulating the safety distance. Physical Review E, 88(4), 042803.

Gallois, C., & Giles, H. (2015). Communication accommodation theory. The international encyclopedia of language and social interaction.

Kaushal, L. A. (2017). The Rise in the Sharing Economy. Global Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation in the Sharing Economy, 113.

Litman, T. (2015). Evaluating public transit benefits and costs. Victoria Transport Policy Institute.

Markoff, J. (2012). Incentives for drivers who avoid traffic jams. New York Times, 06-11.

Yew, L. K. (2012). From third world to first: The Singapore story, 1965-2000 (Vol. 2). Marshall Cavendish International Asia Pte Ltd.

Yuan, J., Zheng, Y., Xie, X., & Sun, G. (2013). T-drive: Enhancing driving directions with taxi drivers' intelligence. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 25(1), 220-232.

Zeng, W., Fu, C. W., Arisona, S. M., Erath, A., & Qu, H. (2014). Visualizing mobility of public transportation system. IEEE transactions on visualization and computer graphics, 20(12), 1833-1842.