maths

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Communication Skills

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Table of Contents

The process of communication (AC 1.1) ……………………………………………………………………. 3

Why communication within organisations is sometimes not effective (AC1.3) …………………. 4

Outline modes of communication used at for various purposes. Please support this with an

assessment of what other organisations do and examples of that could apply to SHDE (AC

1.2). …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6

How organisations portray themselves through their communication. What image does SHDE

Holdings currently have? Give an assessment of other organisations and the images they

portray through their communications (AC 2.3). …………………………………………………………. 7

Explain formal communications systems that should be used to communicate with customers.

Please evaluate different systems. (AC 2.1) ………………………………………………………………… 8

Conduct an analysis of the effectiveness of social media to communicate with customers.

Please use current examples (AC 2.2) ………………………………………………………………………… 9

An assessment of the impact of personal relationships on communications (AC 3.1) …………. 9

An assessment of impact of non-verbal communication on oral communications (AC 3.2) .. 12

Assess the effectiveness of your oral presentation skills (AC 4.4) …………………………………. 12

Review your written communication (AC 5.4) including the conventions you have used (AC

3.4) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 13

Assess the impact of technology on oral and written communication (3.3) …………………….. 14

Following our discussions I wish you to produce written documentation from this meeting

(AC 5.2) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 15

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The process of communication (AC 1.1)

Communication is a process conveying intended meanings to a desired person. An effective

communication comprises of four crucial elements, which include sender, receiver, media

and message. The Sender is a person who has an idea that he or she plans conveying to other

person. The receiver is the person who is intended to receive the message which was sent by

the sender. The media refer to the channel that transfers message from the sender to receiver.

Finally, message refers to the information or idea that the sender wants to convey. Once the

receiver gets the message, he or she immediately gets back to sender through the same media

or some other media. The process of giving response is, sometimes, called as feedback to the

original message. The purpose of the communication is not served if the receiver does not

understand the meaning of the message in the same way that the sender wants.

Example-1: A personal interview conducted by business manager with a job seeker is a best

example for a communication process.

Example-2: The negotiation meeting that takes place between a sales executive and customer

in a conference room is also considered as an example for communication process.

Schramm Model of Communication

The major purpose of the communication is to provide information to somebody or to gain

information from somebody. Communication would also play an important among teams to

generate ideas, develop team cohesion and inspire team members to contribute to the

organizational goals. The communication structures can be classified into several types which

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include Vertical Communication and Horizontal Communication. The vertical

communication structure emphasizes on message travelling towards downward direction

from top or upward direction from bottom. The communication is also classified into internal

communication and external communication. The internal communication refers to the

communication which takes place within the organizational settings. On the other hand,

external communication refers to the communication that takes place between organization

and its external stakeholders such as customers, investors, creditors, suppliers and

government.

Why communication within organisations is sometimes not effective (AC1.3)

Lack of Clarity in Communication: The clarity of communication would be missed due to

factors such as differences in languages and poor writing skills. For example, the difference

in native languages between the team leader and team members can act as a major

communication barrier at the workplace. The team leader is expected to communicate the

organizational aim to the team members on regular basis to keep them motivated. If the team

leader does not know the language in which the team members are comfortable, he would not

be able to interact with the team members comfortably and thus fail to motivate them (Wright

and Noe, 1995).

Interpersonal Relationships- Personal conflict which develops prejudice among people is

one of the important aspects in the personal relationships. Since organizations are recruiting

people from difference races, religions, backgrounds and regions, the scope for prejudice

among employees that belonged to one race on other employees that belonged to other races

has been increased. Since the prejudice makes an individual to think negatively about the

other individual, the possibility of communication gaps within the teams would be increased.

Technology and Technical Knowledge – Technical knowledge is another important factor

that acts as major communication barrier at the workplace. In organizations, employees are

habituated to use technical jargons while carrying-out day-to- day activities. The new

employees who don’t have technical knowledge might fail to receive communication that

contains the technical jargon and thus struggle to perform in an expected manner. In

approriate usage of the technology also acts as barrier to the communication.

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Non-Verbal Communication – Poor integration of the verbal and non-verbal

communication can also become make communication least effective. If the speaker does not

use approriate facial expressions and hand signals that reinforce the verbal communication,

there is a high possibility that the listeners get confused.

Reasons for ineffective communication at SHDE Holdings

1. SHDE has been suffering from ineffective communication majorly because of poor

communication protocols at the workplace. Due to poor protocols, the service

executives are facing problems in responding to the customers over phone. This

clearly shows that external communication procedures are not good at SHDE

Holdings.

2. SHDE has employees people of different age groups and made them work together.

Whilst the younger professionals are trying to use latest technologies for

communication, the older professionals are facing problems in using these

technologies. For example, the text messages sent by the younger professional about

delivery timings to older professionals are not received properly because the latter are

not used to texting.

3. The interpersonal skills play an important role in increasing the efficiency of

communication at the workplace. The poor interpersonal skills of executives of SHDE

Holdings are making the communication ineffective at the workplace.

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Outline modes of communication used at for various purposes. Please support this with

an assessment of what other organisations do and examples of that could apply to

SHDE (AC 1.2).

Oral Communication – It is a method of communication where in the sender tries to

communicate the message by speaking. The business manager interacting with the team

members and top management of the organization presenting the organizational goals to the

employees are best examples for verbal communication (Riel and Fombrun, 2007). This is

called team meetings. The meeting that human resource managers hold with employees in

order appraise their performance is also considered as one of the types of oral/face-to-face

meetings. Similarly, interview which emphasizes on business heads of the organization

meeting the job seekers face-to-face, would also fall under the category of the oral

communication. Likewise, oral communication is used at organizations while sales

executives hold face-to-face meetings with potential customers and top management conducts

annual general meeting with shareholders. The oral communication is extensively used at the

workplace of SHDE Holdings in areas such as Team Briefings, Business Conferences,

Interviews, Performance Appraisals and Sales Meetings.

The foremost advantage of the oral communication is that it is easy and quicker way of

communication. The impact of the oral communication is very in methods such as face-to-

face communication or team meetings because they give an opportunity for the listener to

under the emotions of the speaker. However, the oral communication is criticized for

confusing the listeners and giving scope for omitting main subject.

Written Communication – It is a method of communication where in the sender tries to

communicate the message through words. The written communication at organizations takes

place through newsletters, bulletins, business letters and noticeboards. Newsletters carry the

piece of written information about the latest happenings at the workplace. Business letters are

used at the workplace for formal communication. If the business manager wants to offer an

employment to the job seeker, he would send a written letter inviting him onboard.

Noticeboard clips which carry written information would appear on the walls of the

organization to convey about the important deadlines and milestones to the employees.

SHDE Holdings can make use of all four above mentioned written communication tools to

facilitate the internal and external communication at the workplace. It can use newsletters to

let employees know about the latest recruitments or latest technological procurements.

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Similarly, SHDE can use noticeboards to give notices about the changes in working

structures or work culture.

The major advantage of the written communication is that it ensures the main subject is

communicated to the listeners without any omissions. However, it is considered as an

expensive process which does not give any scope for listeners to gain an understanding on

emotions of the source. An efficient written communication is possible only when the

vocabulary of the source is perfect.

Electronic Communication: Electronic communication is a widely used communication

methods which gives an opportunity to send videos, audio and text to other people by making

internet as a media. Organizations have been using emails, Facebook, Twitter and blog

effectively to carry out the e-communication. Emails are personalized electronic mails

through which an individual can send information another individual. Facebook and Twitter

are widely used social networking platforms extensively used by organizations to interact

with the customers. SHDE is one of many companies using email system, Facebook and

Twitter to interact with both internal and external stakeholders.

Though the electronic communication quick and easy to use, it is highly expensive.

Moreover, one needs to under a bit of training in order to make use of electronic

communication.

How organisations portray themselves through their communication. What image does

SHDE Holdings currently have? Give an assessment of other organisations and the

images they portray through their communications (AC 2.3).

Communication has played vital role in the development of image building of an

organization. Corporate image refers to the perception and inferences about the organization

as a stakeholder of organization be it customer, suppliers or the employees of company.

A communication system of an organization provides all the stakeholders an opportunity to

interact with one another in the sense of exchanging views and ideas, complaining about

something, for whistle blowing and for telling the targeted goals and objectives that are set by

top management. Organizations use open communication channels with the external

stakeholders i.e. customers, community, shareholders and government through the vision and

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mission statement, memorandum of association, articles of association. Organizations

manage company’s image through trademark, branding, advertising, public relations and

customer service.

Apple Inc. is world’s best Technology Company as it sells prestigious iPhone, iPod and Mac

books. The vision and mission statement revolves around the products and services offered

by the company but it the communication department and public relations department that

maintains this image of company. This is concerned with portraying the positive image of

company by reflecting upon the customers’ feedback, suppliers’ complaint and resolving the

issues faced by them. All these activities help to maintain “tech & innovative image” of

Apple Inc.

As far as the SHDE holding is concerned, the image of company is being negatively affected

by the ineffective communication system. The complaints of customers and suppliers fall on

deaf ears along with plethora of spelling mistakes in written emails and letters. Moreover, the

telephone calls in this regard are not being handled appropriately

Explain formal communications systems that should be used to communicate with

customers. Please evaluate different systems. (AC 2.1)

Website: Website is a bunch of web pages that carry a wide-range of information about the

organization. Through website, the organization can communicate about its history, guiding

values, top management, experience, case studies of existing customers, services, products

and contact information. The foremost benefit of website is that it is a single stop-shop to get

the information about the organization. On flip side, it rarely facilitates two-way

communication. An example for a website is provided below.

Social Media: Technology is integrated with organizations. Today, social media has become

a communication tool for most of the organizations irrespective of their operational size. The

mediums such as Facebook and Twitter, which have millions of monthly user base, would be

able to convey the message sent by the organization to thousands of people with single mouse

click. The best part of the social media is that it facilitates two-way communication and

engages customers in discussion. On flip side, the excessive use of social media triggers

addiction behavior among employees.

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Brochure: Brochure is pool of papers pinned together for the purpose of distributing

information about the organization to customers in physical or electronic form. The brochure

comprises of graphs, figures and pictures that give information about services and products

offered by the organization. The organization would not get immediate response by

communicating information through brochure. Moreover, it could be a costly affair for

SMEs.

Face-to-Face Communication: Organizations can use face-to-face communication while

interacting with any of the stakeholders. For example, the sales executives can personally

meet the customers and explain them about the products and services offered organization.

The human resource executives can use this communication while interacting with employees

to understand their concerns. One of the important benefits of face-to-face communication is

that it helps the speaker and receiver to understand the emotions of the opposite person. On

flip side, the face-to-face communication is highly time-consuming process.

Conduct an analysis of the effectiveness of social media to communicate with customers.

Please use current examples (AC 2.2)

There is no doubt that the social media taken a special place at the workplace. The social

networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are extensively used by organizations to

promote their products to customers. The usage of the social media is very cost-effective for

the organization. It is estimated that the cost of social media is just 10% of what the

organization normally spends on the traditional marketing. The second benefit of the social

media is that it helps in reaching wider-section of audience. Since internet has no

geographical boundaries, the social media which makes internet as medium would help the

organization to reach global customers. However, the reaching ability of the message posted

on the Facebook page of a particular organization depends on the number of followers it has.

For example, the official Facebook Page of Google comprises 200 million followers; this

indicates every message posted on Google’s Facebook page would be reached to all these 200

million people within no time.

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The social media has received great appreciation because it facilitates two-way

communication between organization and customers. This feature has been helping

organizations to increase interaction with customers and engage them into a discussion. The

customer engagement is significantly helping organizations to collect feedback from the

customers. The customer engagement would also give an opportunity for marketing teams to

influence the minds of customers and develop positive perception among them towards the

organization. If the organization has qualified services or products, the social media helps in

creating positive word of mouth in the target market. An example of the customer interaction

is provided in the form of a screenshot below.

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An assessment of the impact of personal relationships on communications (AC 3.1)

Personal relationship refers to a close and emotional relationship between any of two persons.

The attributes such as personal conflicts, cohesion, favoritism and job

satisfaction/dissatisfaction are expected to influence the communication between two persons

or two entities. Personal conflict arises majorly because of the differences in interests,

principles and responsibilities between two people. The personal conflicts can grow to an

extent that one individual completely hates another individual. Apparently, the hate and

dislike on the individual to whom communication is targeted reduces the sincerity in

communication. The low sincerity leads to communication gaps.

Cohesion refers to the strength of bond between two or more people. When a group of people

is working together as a team, it is the cohesion that enhances the coordination and

communication flow among team members. If cohesion is reduced, the coordination levels

within the team would be reduced. The coordination within the team starts with the

communication. If the coordination is not good within the team, it is a clear indication that

the communication is not good among team members.

Favoritism is expected to play a major role in communication. When favoritism is existed, it

is a clearly indication that the individual hates a group of people. When the individual is

made to interact with people, whom he does not favor, he would not convey the message

wholeheartedly. Since favoritism negatively influences the sincerity in the communication,

the communication gaps would pop-up.

Job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction discloses the relationship that the organization has

with employees. If employees have higher job satisfaction levels, they would be morally

enthused to put more efforts when speaking to their peers and sharing ideas. On the other

hand, dissatisfied employees don’t have same enthusiasm and zeal to interact with peers and

share information. Thus, it can be concluded that the job satisfaction/dissatisfaction could

also influence the communication levels at workplace.

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An assessment of the impact of non-verbal communication on oral communications (AC

3.2)

Non-verbal communication is a type of communication which makes use of body language,

facial expressions, hand signals, tone of voice and eye contact to convey a message. The oral

and nonverbal communication should go hand in hand to ensure that the message is conveyed

properly. If non-verbal communication does not sync with the oral communication, the

confusion among listeners would be increased significantly. The best example of how a

senior business manager could confuse employees of the organization during a conference if

there is no sync between the nonverbal and oral communication.

For example, the organization has generated 4% increase in its sales from the previous

quarter. To convey this message to the employees, the senior manager during the conference

should spell it out (oral communication applied) and show four fingers to reinforce what he is

speaking. If this happens, the message would be registered in the minds of employees. If the

senior manager raises three fingers or five fingers and spell out 4% orally, the confusion

would start among the employees.

The body language of the speaker would also impact his oral communication. If the body

language of the speaker is lethargic, the listeners would also become lethargic while receiving

the message. If the speaker has poor body language, there is a high possibility that the

listeners get bored very quickly at the conference room. Eye contact, one of the important

nonverbal attributes, reinforces the oral presentation. If the speaker maintains eye contact

with the listeners, he would be in a position to control the group of listeners. The good eye

contact of the listeners motivates speaker further and makes him to give better explanation on

the topic that he has been explaining. The sitting posture of the listeners is also expected to

influence the oral communication of the speaker. The alertness and interest levels of the

listener can be seen in his or her sitting posture. If the listener is sitting very stiffly, the

speaker considers it as an indication for active listening and gets motivated to give

explanation better.

Assess the effectiveness of your oral presentation skills (AC 4.4)

I got an opportunity to assess my oral presentation skills through the presentation that I have

given to the staff of SHDE. Through this presentation, the staff of SHDE has got the

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opportunity to gain the knowledge about the importance of the formal presentation systems,

and effectiveness of face-to-face communication. The presentation was last for about 30

minutes. At the end of the presentation, I have also given information about how personal

relationships such as favoritism, personal conflicts and job satisfaction could influence the

communication.

To assess my oral presentation skills, I have collected feedback from more than half of the

people who have attended presentation. The feedback was collected on areas such as

“Knowledge Transfer”, “Communication Skills” and “Body Language”.

The staff of SHDE has clearly indicated that they have gained much clarity on the formal

communication systems, impact of the personal relationships on the communication and

effectiveness of usage of the face-to-face communication. Most of the staff of SHDE has said

that they are going to use the technique that I have explained in day-to-day workplace. When

asked to rate my ability to knowledge transfer, nearly 90% of the staff has rated me

“Excellent”.

The communication skills play a major role in oral communication. If the communication

skills of the speaker are not perfect, he would not be position to properly convey the message

to listeners. This is the major reason why, I have collected feedback on my communication

skills. When asked to rate my communication skills, more than 80% of the staff of SHDE

have rated me “Good to Excellent’.

I have also got the feedback on my body language too because it impacts my oral

communication skills significantly. When asked about my body language, nearly 90% of the

staff has said that I was a bit lethargic on the podium. However, I have maintained good eye

contact and used appropriate facial expressions and hand signals to reinforce the oral

communication.

Review your written communication (AC 5.4) including the conventions you have used

(AC 3.4)

The speaker notes or presentation notes were also developed along with the presentation

slides. The presentation notes have been distributed to the staff of SHDE during the middle

stages of the presentation. The presentation notes comprise of the detailed information on the

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concepts presented to the staff through the presentation slides. The presentation notes are

given to the staff of SHDE only to let them have, what is being explained during the

presentation, in the written form. This written speaker notes help them when they want to

recollect has been listened during the presentation. However, more than 70% of the people

who have participated in the feedback have said that my vocabulary in written

communication is very poor and I should learn what kind of vocabulary should be used at

what time.

The feedback has been collected from the staff of the SHDE on my written communication

skills. While collecting the feedback, the emphasis was given to factors such as “Correct

Grammar”, “Punctuations” and “Simple Language”. The feedback suggests that I scored

more than 90% of the positive opinions on all these three areas. The staff members of SHDE

have personally informed that the presentation notes are really helpful for them when they are

recollecting the concepts. The presentation notes seem to be helping people who did not

attend the presentation too.

The writing conventions that I have used while developing the speaker notes helped me a lot

to get the positive feedback from the staff of SHDE. I have used two important conventions

while developing the speaker notes. They are Spell Check and Punctuation. Through the spell

check convention, I have ensured that content, of both the presentation slides and

presentation notes, is free from spelling mistakes. Similarly, the usage of the punctuation

convention has helped me that the speaker notes have proper English language that could be

understood by anybody. The spell check and punctuation conventions were run for multiple

times to get better results.

Assess the impact of technology on oral and written communication (3.3)

The implementation of latest technologies is expected to influence the oral and written

communication in both positive and negative manner.

Positive Impacts

Enhance clarity of information: Business managers try to communicate complicated and

complex information about the patterns related to sales figures, revenue, expenditure. At this

point, the message can be communicated in a better if used the technology such as

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PowerPoint Presentation where the sales figures or revenue are shown in the form of graph or

table.

Helps reinforce messages: A message need to be reinforced through various forms to help

the listener to remember it for longer-period of time. There is a high possibility that the

listener forgets the message that he or she receives through oral and written communication.

If the same message is received from a medium which is not used before, the impact would

be very high.

Help those with different learning styles: Not every listener or individual has same learning

style. Some people prefer oral communication and others prefer written communication. In

this technology driven world, there are people who prefer electronic communication. The

usage of the technology helps people that prefer visual learning style which emphasizes on

conveying message through images, graphs, and pictures.

Negative Impacts

Reliance on technology at meetings/presentations: The technology is something to which

people get addicted to. If an individual starts using a technology, he would rely completely on

it without bothering about the consequences. The higher dependence on the technology

develops an attitude of ignoring the essentials of the oral and written communication during

the meetings and presentations. If technology does not support during the meeting for

unknown reason, the individual would fail to complete the presentation.

Stress: As already mentioned, technology is a bit addictive in nature. The addiction leads to

stress if the technology does not work for the individual in a desired way which often

happens due to lack of connectivity and sudden failure of the network.

Following our discussions I wish you to produce written documentation from this

meeting (AC 5.2)

Agenda

Objective: The core objective of the written communication is to transfer knowledge on

topics such as oral communication and written communication to staff of SHDE.

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Method: the evaluation has been conducted with the help of Self-Evaluation and Feedback

Collection.

Minutes of Meeting

1. Helped staff of SHDE to gain knowledge on the written and oral communication.

2. I have used appropriate body language during the presentation.

3. I have distributed to well-written speaker notes to the staff of SHDE.

Documentation

It was evident from my self-evaluation and feedback that I have collected from the audience

that my oral and written communication skills are really great. Through self-evaluation, I

came to know that I did one of the best presentations in my life. The body language that I

have used and the clarity of thought that I have on the concept helped the employees of

SHDE to gain knowledge on a wide-range of concepts related to oral, written and nonverbal

communication. Since I was using appropriate body language and relevant technology

throughout the presentation, I was highly successful in reinforcing the message

communicated. The high rating that I have received from the employees of SHDE tells how

successful I was in transferring knowledge to them through my presentation. On a whole, it

was a successful oral presentation that its objective of transferring knowledge to the

employees of SHDE.

My written communication has also helped the employees of SHDE to gain in-depth

understanding on the factors that influence the communication. Since I have ensured that the

presentation notes which comprise of tables, pictures and graphs are given to the people who

have attended the presentation. My written communication was very good because I have

followed writing conventions such as Spell Check and Punctuation perfectly. The written

communication was error free because of the conventions that I have used. The technology

such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Projector has helped me to reinforce the

message that I have communicated to the employees of SHDE.

Please deliver your presentation to staff at SHDE Holdings represented by XXX (AC

4.2)

A PowerPoint Presentation delivered to staff of SHDE Holdings is attached with this paper.

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Design an oral presentation (using presentation software) with supporting notes for the

customer facing staff at SHDE Holdings (AC 4.1, 4.3).

A PowerPoint Presentation delivered to staff of SHDE Holdings is attached with this paper.

References

Argenti, P.A., 2009. Corporate Communication. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Burnett, M.J. and Dollar, A., 1989. Business Communication: Strategies for Success.

Houston, Texas: Dane.

Gibson, J.W. and Hodgetts, R.M., 1990. Business Communication: Skills and Strategies.

New York: Harper & Row.

Riel, C. B. M. and Fombrun, C., 2007. Essentials of Corporate Communication. Abingdon:

Routledge.

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