200817 Business Communication Skills:Communication Tool Assessment Answers

Case study

You are the new communications officer hired by a well-known accounting firm.

You are the new communications officer hired by a well-known accounting firm. The firm was established in 1885 and has a very good name in the field, but recently it has started to lose its reputation for providing excellent service. The firm has 5000 employees and operates across several managerial levels.

Your job description is to improve communication within the company as well as improve the company’s communication with its stakeholders. During your first two weeks in the position you notice that lower-ranking staff members are often kept in the dark about the organization’s new goals and that there is very little communication between management and the rest of staff. This creates a situation in which staff members often give conflicting answers to prospective and existing clients. Lower-ranking staff members who try to make middle managers aware of this situation either do not receive any response or are penalized in some way. Memos from top management seldom remain in their original state by the time they reach even the middle managers. As a result, many staff members are demoralized and are constantly gossiping, creating more unrest and an unproductive work atmosphere.

Task:

What plan (again, use professional communication studies terminology when responding) would you prepare in order to solve the firm’s communication problems?The best way to approach this task is to divide your plan in two: one for internal and one for external communication, then elaborate on the exact communication tools you would use to address any issues.

The internal communication tool is mainly used for communicating with the internal stakeholders, mostly the associated staffs or employees. The case study reflects that this renowned accounting firm includes 5000 employees and operates within different managerial level. It is necessary for the associated staffs to gather the necessary information related to the organisational functionalities, goals, and objectives. The use of the social media platform would be helpful for developing the communicational transparency among the internal staffs and associates. One of these social media communication tool is Private, Group Messaging and Chat tool, which is much helpful in developing the internal communication (Huang, Baptista and Galliers 2013). With the help of this tool, the associated employees can communicate with the managers from all levels in a personal chats. The managers would take the active participation in communicating the necessary information with the associates. Especially, when proposing new ideas or introducing any new technologies, the managers can gather the staffs in this social media platform. The firms, which have the huge number of employee strength, can use this tool much effectively. However, it is even essential to keep the record and inform the employees to convey the messages.

External Communication Tool

The telephonic communication is one of the most useful traditional methods that have been widely used by the business communicators. It is noticed that the firms deal with the external market in order to gather the supports from the consumers from the external world. The consumers often seek information when they are interested about any particular service or goods. With the help of landline telephone services, the business executives can communicate much efficiently with the external consumers (Nah and Saxton 2013). In fact, in time of crisis scenario, the communication is much important for the business marketers. When the consumers can communicate through the telephone calls, it generates the sense of reliability. The establishment of trust would help the company to develop the competitive position for long run. It is thus important to treat the telephone as one of the most effective business communication tool. Recording a voice mail would also help the service executives to get back to the customer as per their needs. Resolving queries through telephonic calls would ensure the business sustainability for the long run (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra 2014). Accordingly, the renowned accounting firm can re-establish the competitive position by providing the effective service and building the communicational transparency with the external world.

References

Huang, J., Baptista, J. and Galliers, R.D., 2013. Reconceptualizing rhetorical practices in organizations: The impact of social media on internal communications. Information & Management, 50(2), pp.112-124.

Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2), pp.183-202.

Nah, S. and Saxton, G.D., 2013. Modeling the adoption and use of social media by nonprofit organizations. New Media & Society, 15(2), pp.294-313.

Rutsaert, P., Pieniak, Z., Regan, Á., McConnon, Á., Kuttschreuter, M., Lores, M., Lozano, N., Guzzon, A., Santare, D. and Verbeke, W., 2014. Social media as a useful tool in food risk and benefit communication? A strategic orientation approach. Food policy, 46, pp.84-93.