The Importance of Communication in Business

The Importance of Communication in Business Communication is the lifeblood of a business organization; no organization can succeed or progress, without effective communication. We can build good relationship within or outside the organization, build organizational image etc, through effective communication In any business, the communication of information is an essential part of three key business activities: Management decision-making (without relevant, timely and accurate information, decision-making at any level becomes quite tricky!) Co-ordination of departments, teams and groups e.g. making sure that marketing, production and administration know what each other is doing, when and why Motivation of individuals A program that focuses on general communication processes and dynamics within organizations. Includes instruction in the development and maintenance of interpersonal group relations within organizations; decision-making and conflict management; the use of symbols to create and maintain organizational images, missions, and values; power and politics within organizations; human interaction with computer technology; and how communications socializes and supports employees and team members. (Source: U. S. Department of Education) Process: Communication is a dialogue, not a monologue. In fact, communication is more concerned with a dual listening process. For communication to be effective, the message must mean the same thing to both the sender and the receiver. Directions: Horizontal/Literal Diagonal Vertical Horizontal/Literal Communication: Horizontal communication normally involves coordinating information, and allows people with the same or similar rank in an organization to cooperate or collaborate. Communication among employees at the same level is crucial for the accomplishment of work. Horizontal Communication is essential for: Solving problems Accomplishing tasks Improving teamwork Building goodwill Boosting efficiency Diagonal Communication: Less common; this involves interdepartmental communication by people at different levels. A good example would be a project team drawn from different grades and departments Vertical Communication: In a organization, vertical communication is communication between those who are on different levels of authority within the company. Examples are: manager to employee, general manager to managers, foreman to machine operator, head of the department to cashiers, etc. It includes Top-Down and Bottom-Up communications. Top-Down Bottom-Up Top-Down Bottom-Up TOP-Down Communication: A flow of communication from higher management to the lower level in the form of Orders, Instructions, and Plans. Information flowing from the top of the organizational management hierarchy and telling people in the organization what is important (mission) and what is valued (policies). Downward communication generally provides enabling information à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ which allows a subordinate to do something e.g.: Instructions on how to do a task. This type of communication is needed in an organization to: Transmit vital information Give instructions Encourage 2-way discussion Announce decisions Seek cooperation Provide motivation Boost morale Increase efficiency Obtain feedback Bottom-Up Communication: A flow of communication from the lower level to high level in the form of suggestions, feedback, and information. Upward communication is the flow of information from subordinates to superiors, or from employees to management. Without upward communication, management works in a vacuum, not knowing if messages have been received properly, or if other problems exist in the organization. By definition, communication is a two-way affair. Yet for effective two-way organizational communication to occur, it must begin from the bottom. Upward Communication is a mean for staff to: Exchange information Offer ideas Express enthusiasm Achieve job satisfaction Provide feedback Top-Down Vs. Bottom-Up: External Communication External communication covers how a provider interacts with those outside their own organization. This may be with the public, employers, community organizations, local authorities, job centres, careers offices, funding bodies, specialist agencies and other training providers. External communication is equally important as internal communication to provide a link between the employees and the shareholders and other third parties. As a matter of fact, external communication is considered as lifeblood of the modern business. External communication can be arranged by oral or verbal communication as well as through written media. Television Telex Telephone Tele printer Transmitters NWD ISD and other modern sophisticated communication technologies can be used for external communication. Written media like letters, circulars, Jl1emos, notices, legal notices, newspapers, magazines, manuals, periodical reports, pamphlets etc., are also used towards external communication. External correspondence is mostly in written form except in extraordinary circumstances resorting to telecommunication services. Internal/Organizational Communication Internal communication involves the communication that exists within a company and can take many forms. Key to the success of an organization is communication from within. In order to effectively engage in two-way symmetrical relations, (the goal of public relations practitioners), communication is essential internally. With increased use of e-mail, managers substitute face-to-face communication with email. Medium of internal Communication Employeesà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Handbook House Magazines and Newspapers Memos/Letters Reports Bulletin board notices Posters Computers/e-mail/Fax Functions of Internal and External Communications. Technology has rapidly expanded the types of internal and external communication available to organizations. The diagram illustrates the vast array of internal and external communication available. Combined together internal and external types of communications allow various sectors of the local, national and international community to interact, liaise and conduct business. Communication Policy Communication policy defines and controls the process of communicating information in order to make relation with other institutions, professional bodies and within organization. It also helps in making relation with the public through internet, publications and events. It gives us guidelines and restrict us in order to share information. Communication policy defines controls the process of communicating information Relations with other institutions, professional bodies, and within organization Relations with the public through Internet, publications and events; and Relations with the media. Protecting Sensitive Information: Information technology (IT) security is indispensable to an organizationà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s ability to conduct business and achieve its objectives Security requirements affect almost every business process and system, and successful security measures help protect a businessà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ brand value, stakeholder confidence, risk management strategies, and compliance status. Requirements vary among industries, geographies, and regions, but the need to protect privacy, retain important data, and facilitate e-discovery are common to all For example: Once we initiative the activity in our office. We feel as we are not having Privacy Data confidentiality must also include intellectual property and other company-sensitive data to protect stakeholder interests and brand reputation. Data Retention Requirements Data retention requirements are mandated in support of right-to-information acts or in securities trades, which may be investigated years after the fact Data retention laws vary across geographies but have the common theme of specifying that certain types of data be stored for specific periods of time Privacy Pervades e-Discovery and Data Retention Requirements Tamperproof with an audit trail (data integrity) Only viewable by authorized parties (access control) Protected from viewing by unauthorized parties (confidentiality through encryption) Conclusion Developing a communication strategy and its implementation in an efficient and effective manner is quite beneficial for an organization. You need to be transparent about your goals and values. Consistency has to be maintained. You need to adopt comprehensive persuasive methods for that. All this needs a long term focus. The importance of communication in business The importance of communication in business In our daily life, communication is a tool that uses to maintain the relationship in between people surrounded us, and there will be no different in business environment. Business firm used communication tools or channel to start or maintain a good relationship with their shareholder and stakeholder. From the separate understanding, business is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦any goods and services that sent into the market for purpose of exchanging benefits or profits (Dictionary.com). Communication is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦a process that involves exchange of information, thought, idea and emotion from sender to receiver through one or two way deliveringà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Buzzle.com). So business communication can be defined as a process or tools that helps business to show, promote and present their companys latest products/ services, current promotion, their market positioning, and situation. For example, Digi telecommunication will compare their product is better that others in their promotion catalog. Source: DiGi Prepaid Campus Plan Rate, 2010. By having a good communication system, it will lead the business to success. Business communication is divided in to two types that are internal and external. Internal communications is the communication system that used inside the company and it has function of building up a good relationship in between the company and their staff and it give the opportunity for employees and employer to develop strategy for improvement and setting goals together. Internal communication is also a fundamental element for maintaining an organization, improving employees morale value, promoting a vivid message and reducing errors in communication. In the other side, external communication is functioned form outside of the company. It involved goods and services production, advertising of the company, public relation, and the business negotiation. External communication is important because it exchanged the information or messages in between the organization with other firms, groups, which linked to pro fit making. Besides that, external communication main task is to make the organization cooperate smoothly with the public/stakeholder such as suppliers, investors and stockholders and also to promote a bright image on their goods or services to current and new potential customers. Business communication is an important tool for the company which will help every company to improve and also develop themselves. Context There are certain channels of communication that helps business to promote them, which are Internet, Print (Publication) Radio, Television, Ambient Media, Outdoor and words of mouth. Internet First of all, as the technology is kept on innovating, Internet has become a common tool to communicate and information transfer. By using Internet, people can communicate easily and efficiently, thought internet people can communicate with their friend and family around the world at anytime. From this perceptive, Internet has attracted people to do business through it. When goods and services sell through online, the market is global wide means thats the goods or services can be purchase by the people around the world. The internal business communication system in Internet is thats the employees can communicate and deliver important notice through email to their superior or subordinate. There are many company have their own email system for prevent their important file or data spread to the outside world and also to make their employees work more easily. For example; Eastern Oxygen Industries Sdn Bhd has their own email system for their employees to keep update on the situation of t he production and also let them done their works easily when they are not in the office. Image from: http://mymail.eox.com.my/mail/index.html. In other side, the external influences of business communication tools are usage of the internet advertising and promotion to attract the attention of potential customers. Normally, marketers/firms will choose the high hits website to invest in, such as YouTube, Amazon, Lelong.my, EBay, and etc. By putting their advertisement banner at the website, the firm can save time and costs. Because consumers can come across the product randomly at anytime that they are convenient as long as they surf the Internet. Another advantage of promoting through Internet is it does not require any specific product and consumer groups. All products can be promoted regardless of the type of product and the targeted consumer groups. Resource from: Amazon.com Besides promoting through website banner, marketer will also keep updated with their consumer by sending them the latest promotion or deals through email. Marketer will use their existed data base to create the business opportunity. This method is often used by software firms such as Megaupload, cyberlink, brothersoft and others to ensure that their customers are aware on their promotion and allowing them to purchase cheaper software product than other consumers. This will make the customers feel prioritized and appreciated by the firm. The image: Cyberlink Promotion through e-mail. Publication Print (Publications) Publications are another tool that business used to communicate with public. Its included all the product of books or other written material thats available in the market to anyone who interested through distribution or offer for the purpose of selling or other monetary exchange. (Thefreedictionary.com) Publications involve all information that is made to public through printing distribution such as newspaper, brochures and magazines. Advertising in newspaper is one of the most common forms and effective way to promote products because people will read the newspaper every day. Normally newspapers have two types of advertisement. First is text advertisement, it normally used as vacancy and small retail advertisement. It is a communication tools that help the company to sending massages to the external environment of the company and help them to find new members. For example, when a company advertise a hiring advertisement in newspapers, people that had read this advertisement will know this company is lacking of employees and they will intro their friend that are qualified to have a try on that position. Another type of newspaper advertising is display advertisement, these advertisement are normally use by commercial firm. It helps the firm to promote their goods and services, and also help them to attract new customer group. Magazines are another type of publication thats used by marketer to promote products. There are different types of magazines such as business magazines, mobile magazines, schools magazines, and etc. The advertisement are made depends on the target market of the goods and service. For example; Ring tone supply firm will do their advertisement in Mobile phone magazines such as e-ring, Sogi and others. Besides advertising on the companys goods and services in magazine, business magazines are also important to the business for seeking new investor to the company. These business magazines will interview the high potential company and analyze the company future movement for the reader. Sometimes business firm will also announce their company new project or upcoming plan to the magazine, and reader will able to know the company current and follow this information to do invest. Example of business magazines are Forbes, Times magazines, Business Week, The Edge TM and others. Radio Radio is another channel of business communication that helps business to communicate or deliver information to customer or stakeholder. Radio advertisements are only transmitted orally but it can reach a wide range of consumers because we normally use car or others transport to our destination and when we had stuck in the traffic jam we will turn on the radio. From this perspective, the radio advertising is targeted on the driver so the advertisement needs to be very specific and full of sense of humors. There are some disadvantage on advertising through radio thats are the advertisements does not have any visual or text, so it might fail attracting youngster especially students and young adults because they like visual stimulus more than oral stimulus. Television Television advertisement is an effective way to promote product and attract customers to purchases the product. The factor of television advertisement is different and more success than radio advertisement is because of it contains vivid motion and picture to promote the product. Besides that, it has interesting description and creative presentation that gave the products or services the chances to gain audiences attention and make them got the desire to buy or own the products. There are also some factors that firms need to consider when promoting their product through television. First, the advertisements fees of television are very costly; the firm needs to consider the time, way and contents to be broadcast. A research done by eHow.com, said that the estimated average cost of producing a 30-second commercial advertisement in the Super Bowl are coasted around $2.4 million, so the business need to fully utilized the costs to reach the targeted consumer group. The second factors that need to be considered are related to the demographic of the target market. Marketer need to follow the demographic of their potential consumers to fix in the broadcast time of their advertisement. For example, toys products advertisements need to broadcast on the time that kids were watching cartoon. By following these ways, business firm will be able to spend more efficiently on attracting their targeted consumer groups. Words of mouth The last business communication channel is word of mouth. Word-of-Mouth is the most efficient communication tools but it also a high risk utility. Word-of-Mouth is the informal communication between consumers of particular goods and services (Neal et al, 2004). If the firm used word of mouth as the tools to promote their product, they need explain the product clearly to ensure that the listener can fully understanding about the information because the listener might spread the false or blur information about the product to their friends or relatives if they didnt understand clearly, and this will cause the business to have a bad images/reputation on their product although it is a good product. Normally, the people who run the Word-of-Mouth tools are the opinion leader of any group. Opinion leader is defined as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦an individual who has a greater long-term involvement with a product category than the non-opinion leaders in his or her groupà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Neal et al, 2004) The characteristic of an opinion leader are they can interpersonal communicate with their follower and observe the followers consume behaviors, have the similar demographic characteristics with the follower and have involvement with a product category than the non-opinion leaders in his or her group. So marketer will targeted these opinion leaders when they are using Word-of-Mouth as the business communication tools to promote or attract to purchase their goods and service. Examples of opinion leader are CEO, parents, and etc. For example, when the parents are using Maxis as the telecommunication tool, then their children will follow them. Conclusion As a conclusion, business communication is the key to success as the business wont succeed without communication. The reason of business communication is a fundamental element to business is because it helps the company to communicate with their employees and help them to motive, satisfy, and fulfill their employees need and wants. In another side, it also helps the employees to understand the company target goals, future achievement, the company policies and authority, and etc. Besides that, business communication tools also help the business to promote their goods and services to the public through all kind of advertising path. But advertisements are very costly for the business so the types of advertisement are the main issue that the company needs to consider. The company needs to follow their products and target market to choose their advertising tools. For example, if the company is selling toys and their target market are kids so they need to do advertisement in television on cartoons channels. Besides that, business communication tools also help the company to communicate with the public. For example, the vacancy advertisement in newspaper has sent the information to the public thats the company is lack of employees so those who want to find job can go this company for an interview. However, business communication has also disadvantages but it depends how the business utilize it. APA Referencing Consumer behavior: implication for marketing strategy, Neal, Quester and Hawkins, 2004, Australia: McGraw-hill Australia Pty Limited. Dictionary.com, 20 march 2011 1312 hours, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/business Buzzle.com, 21 march 2011 1520 hours, http://www.buzzle.com/articles/communications/ Ehow, Fenell, 22 March 2011 1436 hours, http://www.ehow.com/about_5448301_average-cost-tv-commercial.html Thefreedictionary, Farlex, 30 March 2011 1444 hours, http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Print+publication