Executive Summary

The purpose of this report is to find out Buddong Systems’ communication problems, report the

result of the investigation and make recommendation to the Board of Directors so that they can

implement plans and improve the business communication and environment. It examined the

critical issue of business communication that included communication competence and

communication climate which both of them have big impact on achieving an effective

communication. Also the using of right languages and communication channel are elements that

will contribute to a good communication. Last, the morality of one is essential. This report found

out the new CEO Ken Young, although he is educated very well, he is lack of communicating skills. It

is suggested that he should hire a personal assistant or secretary to help him in communicate within

the company, also company should provide some communication courses as to increase the

awareness of communication since it could benefit the company runs more effectively.

Introduction

An effective communication within the company is essential in allowing the message being sent to

the receiver precisely. Ken Young was appointed to be the new CEO of Buddong Systems, before

and during the staff meeting there were some business communication issues occurred with the

Vice president & General Manager – Krik Johansen and managers that would cause the organization

to failure. This report is to discuss the problems have arise based on the current situation in the

company with relevant communication theories. Firstly, in terms of the organizational

communication, communication competence was not shown during the staff meeting. Furthermore,

Young’s choice of language and communication channel to convey message was not appropriate. In

order to increase in sales, there is a morale issue on Young asking the managers to promise and say

whatever the customer wants. At the end of the report, recommendation will be provided based on

the issues in this case in order to improve future communication and achieve an effective

communication.

Organizational Communication – Communication Climate

During the staff meeting, one of the managers Philip Wang has questioned about the possibility of

pushing their sales by 10% in the next quarter, Young has given an angry glare to him and answered

him in a furious tone even after Wang has corrected the words of asking him to a less direct way.

This might cause to a defensive communication climate that staff may find it hard to express their

real thoughts and lead to a low level of trust and morale. According to Smeltzer, Leonard & Hynes

continuous of critical errors occur in the communication, no matter how much trust both sides had

before, they may quickly change to a distrust and closed communication (Smeltzer, Leonard & Hynes,

2002). Thus that would make future communication more difficult, since a trusting and open

climate is critical to a positive communication climate, compare to Johansen has a more mature

approach to communicate with others manager.

Communication Competence

Communication competence is the ability to interact well with others (Spitzberg 1988, cited in Lane

2000). On an individual level, Young has a low communication competence because he did not

provide clear instruction to Johansen how the team can increase 10% of sale in next quarter, and

before he did not try to understand and listen to them why would that happen but just asked

Johansen and the managers to take action, he did not consider the team confidence is already low

and there has been resignation. In a group level, when Johansen asked the formed group from

different department to work together why the sales has keep dropping for the past two quarters,

however they could not find the reason because they all did not work as a group, those managers

only did their own thinking and not willing to communicate with each other, as a result they could

come up with a solution.

Communication Channel

Young chose to use email to communicate with Johansen about the poor sales performance, since

organizational culture will also affect how managers communicate. In this case, young’s

communication value was to use email to inform or request task to managers, where as, here using

oral communication is the norm. Hence Johansen has formed a project group of nine staff from

different functional departments to address the problem of slumping sales, he held a meeting to

gather them with a view to find out the reason behind the poor sales, his use of tone was

appropriate to the business situation and the request was clear to the receiver. Again when

Johansen asked for the updated with the team leader he chose face-to-face communication. In

using a oral communication, sender can get the feedback directly and also this is a richer form of

communication than written communication because the process in conveying message will have

tone, pitch, pace and rhythm that both parties can encode the message more correctly (Crossman,

Bordia & Mills, 2010, cited in MBC, 2011).

Choice of language - Informal

Johansen has shown an effective communication in interacting with others manager, which he used

a suitable tone, provided clear purpose, and received the instant feedback from them although the

result was not ideal. However Young has used informal language and racist language both in the

emails and in the staff meeting. First in the emails he sent to Johansen and his managers, he has

used slang in the emails such as heads will roll, tick tock and shape up or ship out. This is not a

suitable language to business communication with fellow mangers since informal language

sometimes may be rude or even offensive (Crossman, Bordia & Mills, 2010, cited in MBC, 2011). It

is suggested that in writing business communication require rather dignified and formal tone, at the

same time choosing of word should be given consideration, no expression that seem beneath the

dignity and try to write simple (Little, 1970).

Moreover, Young has been acting racist to the other 50 technical workers in the company. They

were not invited to the meeting because Young did not want to meet the technicians that most of

them are Asian immigrants and on a working visa, he explained that he found difficulties when

talking to them since when he asked them a questions, they would just smile and say nothing that he

found them sneaky. Young may have been stereotyping on the Asian technicians, since he did not

interact with another culture frequently which he may feel vulnerable due to uncertainty (Overton,

2008). Thus he may fail to account for real experience, individual variation and formed the basis

prejudice.

Morale

Young has sent email to Johansen and his division manager to increase in sales by promising and

telling the customers anything if they sign a contract, he even said he did not care how they do it, he

just want to see the 10% improvement. However, that was against morale and Johansen since he

has been instructed his team to be honest with the customers even after he said in the staff meeting

that the company came to represent fairness, honesty and integrity to the customers and employees

which is totally contradicted to what he did after he became the new CEO of Buddong Systems.

Conclusion

In conclusion, several communication issues have been addressed. Firstly, the sales team and Young

were low in communication competence, they only sent out the message that they want to convey

but did not try to communicate with each other. Also, his attitude towards manager’s question has

scared them and this could result in a low communication climate. Young has used informal

languages included slang in his email to the fellow manager, this may cause unsatisfactory to the

staff since they may find it rude and offensive. Moreover, he has been racist on those Asian

technicians that now they didn’t know what happened in the meeting and so no information will be

received but they are actually important to the company and their opinions are crucial to the

company.

Recommendation

According to the findings above, it is suggested that the new CEO Young should hire a personal

assistant or secretary to help him in daily communication perhaps he has a strong educational

background but he is lack of communication experience. Young should seen communication climate

as an important issue because if he wants others managers to give feedback and follow what he

requested, he should create an equally atmosphere for everyone to air out their opinion included

the technicians. And at the same time, company should provide some effective communication talk

or courses for the employees so that they can apply to their job. Also culture lesson should be

provided to everyone, let them understand each culture and maybe company could hire translator

so even Asian technicians can express their view directly to the CEO. In addition, staff should find

out why the sales performance is declining and in order to do that, they can start addressing

customer needs and expectations by giving them surveys (Dwyer, 2009). As a result, customer

feedback will be gathered and they can tackle the problems and implement solutions.