Buss Comm - Final
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Transcript of Buss Comm - Final
NTRODUCTION
Communication is a “two way” process of transferring information from one entity
to another. Communication is also a process of exchanging information, usually via
common system of symbols. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in
intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking,
questioning, analyzing and evaluating. The process of communication is what allows
us to interact with other people, without it, we would be unable to share knowledge or
experiences with anything outside of ourselves.
The process of communication can be broadly classified as verbal
communication and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication is further
divided into written and oral communication. The oral communication refers to the
spoken words. Oral communication can either be face-to-face communication or a
conversation over the telephone or on the voice chat over the internet. Spoken
conversations are influenced by voice modulation, pitch, volume and even the speed
and clarity of speaking. The other type of verbal communication is written
communication. Written communication can either via snail mail or e-mail. The
effectiveness of written communication depends on the stage of writing, vocabulary
used, grammar, clarity and precision of the language.
Non-verbal communication includes the overall body language of the person
who is speaking, which will includes the body pastures, the hand gestures and
overall body movements. The facial expressions also plays a major role while
communicating since the expressions on a person’s face say a lot about his / her
mood. On the other hand, gestures like a handshake, a smile or a hug in the form of
pictorial representations, signboards or even photographs, sketches and paintings.
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If messages were not communicated effectively, problem in communication
occurs. For me to identify the types of problem in communication, I have conducted
interview with three different managers within the same organization but from
different department. So, I have selected VADS Business Process, my current
working place, as my main source to gather the required information.
VADS Business Process Sdn Bhd is a subsidiary of VADS Berhad. VADS is
one of Malaysia’s leading Managed ICT Services provider. Growing from our heritage
as a joint venture between IBM Global Network Services and Telekom Malaysia
Berhad, today VADS Berhad are a public listed company serving more than 500
medium to large enterprises across various industries.
In an effort to empower companies with Managed ICT Services , VADS has 4
wholly owned subsidiaries:
VADS Solutions Sdn. Bhd. which focuses on Systems Integration Services.
VADS e-Services Sdn. Bhd. which focuses on Contact Centre Services.
VADS Professional Services Sdn. Bhd.
● VADS Contact Centre Services Sdn Bhd.
The VADS Call Centre in Penang started operation around April 2006 answering
calls for Fault Management Contact Centre (100). This call center is located at Level
58, KOMTAR. VADS Business Process, Penang Contact Centre was officially
launched on 22nd May 2007 by Penang Chief Minister, Datuk Dr Koh Tsu Koon.
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For me to accomplish this assignment, I have selected three managers, Mr Santh
Meera Bin Nagoor, Ms Usharani A/P Sunderajoo and Mr Nithanandan A/L
Kathamuthu.
Mr Santh Meera is an Operational Manager for the Fault Reporting
Department in VADS Call Centre since 15th July 2007. He had completed his studies
in BSc in Computer Studies from Bolton University in 2004. Either than this, he also
did his studies in Information Processing & Computer Programming from City &
Guilds of London and Diploma in NCC. Before he joined VADS, he was working as a
Operation Manager in Jaring Communication Sdn Bhd for 3 years. Prior to this, he
was working in Dell Sdn Bhd for 10 years. He joined Dell as a Computer Customer
Service Representative until promoted as a Technical Accounting Manager.
As a Operation Manager in VADS, Mr Santh Meera need to manage 76 staffs on
day to day operation for fault reporting services. He also needs to sustain and
maintain the performance of his services based on service level, Key Performance
Index (KPI), adherence, occupancy and utilization of all the system.
The second person that I’ve interviewed was Ms Usharani A/P Sunderajoo. She
is the Assistant Manager for the Training Department. She joined VADS Business
Process on 2nd February 2007 as a Training Executive and was promoted to her
current position on 1st October 2009. Ms Usharani had successfully completed her
studies until Sijil Pelajaran Tinggi Malaysia (SPTM) and currently pursuing her
studies in completing the degree in Business Administration in one of the local
university. Prior to this, she was attached to SRG Outsource company for Astro and
Maxis projects as a Team Leader for two years. Later on, she joined Celcom as a
Team Manager.
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As an Assistant Manager for the Training Department, Ms Usharani’s job
description is to manage her team to conduct training for new recruit and existing
staffs. She also needs to ensure all the trainees trained are well-verse in product and
system and able to answer call efficiently.
The third manager involved in my interview session was Mr Nithanandan A/L
Kathamuthu. Mr Nithanandan was a TM staff before he joined VADS Sdn Bhd. Mr
Nithanandan joined TM in 1981 as a technician and later on climb the ladder until he
was promoted as Marketing Manager. He joined VADS on 1st August 2006 as QA
Executive and on 1st October 2009 he was promoted to QA Assistant Manager.
Mr Nithanandan is a four diplomas holder in Training and Development,
Counselling from University Putra Malaysia, Marketing Management and Sports
Science. According to Mr Nithanandan, as an Assistant Manager for QA department
he needs to maintain quality standard of answering calls in call centre. He also needs
to take corrective action for point of failure in call transaction. He also will need to
identify and give compliment for high achievers and investigate complaint received
both internally and externally.
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TYPES OF COMMUNICATION PROBLEM
As a first point of type of communication problem is complex organization.
Complexity in organization structure is also a serious problem in the smooth flow of
communication. The organizational structure has an important influence on the
capacity of the members to communicate. Complexity involves many layers of
supervision, long distances, more lines, communicating gaps, organizational
distances between the workers and the top management. According to Mr Santh
Meera, in our call centre, we have many layers for the message to flow down from
the top management to the subordinate. By the time the message reached to the
subordinate, it will be either too late or the message got distorted.
Another type of communication problem faced in organization is language.
According to Mr Santh Meera, it has been a current practise that VADS is recruiting
more top level management from Philippines and due to this there will be some
problem faced in the usage of language. For an example, this Philippines staff might
be using a different language, vocabulary, accent, dialect and slang while interacting
with us which we might not or find it difficult to understand. Once, we face difficulty in
understanding them, there occurs communication problem where the message
conveyed by them was not full absorbed. So, when the languages are different, and
translation has to be used to communicate, the potential for misunderstandings
increases.
Cultural is also another type of communication problem in an organizational.
According to Mr Santh Meera, age, education, gender, social status, economic
position, cultural background, temperament, health, religion, political belief, ethics,
values, assumptions, aspirations, rules and regulations and priorities can separate
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one person from another and create a problem in an organization. When individuals
from different cultures run into each other's values and beliefs, cross-cultural
misunderstandings and miscommunication take place.
Ms Usharani highlighted that misinterpretation of message as a one of the
problem in communication in our organization. According to her, how the message is
sent, many additional factors determine how the message is interpreted by the
receiver. All new information we learn is compared with the knowledge we already
have. If it confirms what we already know, we will likely receive the new information
accurately, though we may pay little attention to it. If it disputes our previous
assumptions or interpretation of the situation, we may distort it in our mind so that it is
made to fit our world view, or we may dismiss the information as deceptive,
misguided, or simply wrong. She also added that when people are angry with each
other, the likelihood of misinterpreting communication is greatly increased to the point
where it is almost inevitable.
Assumption also is another problem in communication that was highlighted by
Ms Usharani. According to Ms Usharani, there is a quote stating “Assumptions are
the communication killer”. Assumptions can really derail a conversation. When
discussing an issue or solving a problem, people often jump to conclusions before
they spend time talking about what the problem is or what data they have at hand.
Once they have their own assumption, there is a tendency to assume the opponent's
motives are malign, even when they are not.
Ms Usharani also pointed out that manipulation of information as a problem in
communication. According to her, manipulation can be defined as "managing or
controlling artfully or by shrewd use of influence, often in an unfair or fraudulent way;
to alter or falsify for one's own purpose". And usually this manipulation will be done
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by an influenced people in the organization. Opinion of leaders are quite influential in
getting people to change their mind, opinion and behaviour. When the information is
manipulation before delivering it to the next level of the receiver, the receiver might
not be able to get the real meaning of the information and this will lead to a problem
where information were not effectively communicated.
While interviewing Mr Nithanandan on the problems in communication, he
highlighted that secrecy and deception as another factor in communication problem.
According to Mr Nithanandan, sometimes information which is critical to the accurate
understanding of a situation is not available to all parties. This frequently occurs in
business conflicts, when companies try to keep details about products and processes
secret. This can happen in interpersonal conflicts as well when people simply choose
to keep particular facts to themselves. Poor communication also arise when a party
attempts to strengthen its position by deliberately providing opponents and other
parties with misleading or inaccurate information.
Lack of information is also another problem in communication that was
highlighted by Mr Nithanandan. According to him, information is very important in an
organization and every day operation in call centre are fully based on information that
were received. If after all, we did not receive sufficient information pertaining certain
matter or issues, the it will directly, distort the operation of the organization. So it is,
vital for an organization to have all relevant and sufficient information to move on.
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Mr Nithanandan also highlighted that lack of personal touch is factor that
contributes to problem in communication. He informed that in this age of electronic
communication, far too many managers use email as a substitute for personal
interaction. However, the same managers who know that personal contact is key to
interpreting a person’s character and reactions and establishing commonality often
choose to “manage by email” even when workers are in offices a few steps away.
While we should never seek to discuss sensitive or delicate matters electronically,
even everyday business is better handled through personal contact when possible.
More direct contact will help create better rapport and trust.
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BARRIERS IN COMMUNICATION
Based on the interview conducted with Operation Manager for Fault
Reporting department, Mr Santh Meera Bin Nagoor on the barriers of
communication, he had pointed out three major barriers that he had encountered
while communicating with other personals either from the same department or other
departments.
The first point, pointed out by Mr Santh Meera is language barrier. According
to Mr Santh Meera, language is an arbitrary code that depends on shared definitions,
but there’s a limit on how completely any of us share the same meaning for a given
word. This language barrier exist because of words can be interpreted in more than
one way by others. At a time, using bombastic language or inappropriate words also
can lead to miscommunication. When a person uses inappropriate words while
conversing or writing, it could lead to misunderstanding between the sender and the
receiver. For an example, Mr Santh Meera explained that when he communicate with
his staffs using sophisticated words or language, they will not get the true and real
meanings of the information passed to them.
Poor listening is the second barrier highlighted by Mr Santh Meera. According
to him, listening effectively is not easy. He also said that we usually let our minds
wander now and then, regardless of how hard we try to concentrate. Mr Santh Meera
also informed that people are essentially likely to drift off when they are forced to
listen to information that is difficult to understand on that has little direct bearing on
their own lives. He also added that people only listen to what they wanted to listen,
information that only benefits and important to them. When he tried to communicate
with others from other department, he would be facing difficulty in transferring or
delivering all the information to the receiver. He also added that he himself won’t be
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sure whether all the information passed to the staffs, will be 100% listened by the
receiver.
Lastly, Mr Santh Meera highlighted that differing in status also another factor
that leads to barrier in communication. Mr Santh Meera further explained this point
that employees of low status may be overly cautions when sending messages to
managers and may talk only about subjects they think they manager is interested in.
Similarly, higher status people may distort messages by refusing to discuss anything
that would tend to undermine their authority in the organization. Moreover, belonging
to a particular department or being responsible for a particular task can narrow the
point of view so that it differs from the attitudes, values and expectations of people
who belong to other departments or who are responsible for other tasks.
After successfully completed the first interview session with Mr Santh Meera, I
proceed to interview Ms Usharani A/P Sunderajoo, Assistant Manager for Training
Department.
Ms Usharani highlighted that inadequate communication structure as one of
the factor that leads to barrier in communication. According to Ms. Usharani,
organizational communication is effected by formal restrictions on who may
communicate with whom and who is authorized to make decisions. Designing too few
formal channels also blocks effective communication. Ms Usharani added that VADS
Business Process, strongly centralized organization, especially with a high degree of
formalization, reduce communication capacity and they decrease the tendency to
communicate horizontally thus limiting the ability to co-ordinate activities and
decisions. She also informed that tall organizations tend to provide too many vertical
communication links, so messages become distorted as they move through the
organization’s level.
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As a second factor that contribute towards barriers in communication that was
highlighted by Ms Usharani is physical distractions. According to Ms Usharani,
communication barriers are often physical such as bad connections, poor acoustics
and illegible copy. Although noise or this sort seems trivial, it can completely block an
otherwise effective message. She also added that receiver might also be distracted
by an uncomfortable chair, poor lighting, or some other irritating condition. In some
cases, the barrier may be related to the receiver's health. Hearing or visual
impairment or even a headache can interfere with reception of a message. These
annoyances don't generally block communication entirely, but they may reduce the
receiver's concentration which lead to communication barrier.
Information overload also being highlighted by Ms Usharani as one of the
factor that lead to barrier in communication. According to Ms Usharani, too much
information is as bad as too little because it reduces the audiences ability to
concentrate effectively on the most important messages. People facing information
overload sometimes try to cope by ignoring some of the messages, by delaying
responses to messages they deem unimportant, by answering only parts of some
messages, by responding inaccurately to certain messages, by taking less time with
each message, or by reacting only superficially to all messages. For an example, Ms
Usharani informed that in call center working environment, the staff receives too
many information on the latest product and promotion at the same time which unable
them to absorb or understand the information effectively.
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As a third person, I have interviewed Mr Nithanandan A/L Kathamuthu,
Assistant Manager for QA Department to get his point of view on the factors that
leads towards communication barriers.
The first point that he highlighted as a barrier for communication is incorrect
choice of medium. He informed that if we choose an inappropriate communication
medium, the message the sent can be distorted so that the intended meaning is
blocked. For an example, he said that telephones and other interactive electronic
media aren’t as rich, although they allow immediate feedback, they don’t provide
visual non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, eye contact and body movement.
He also said that written media can be personalized through addressed memos,
letters and reports but they lack the immediate feedback. Mr Nithanandan said that
the communication failure or a partial failure could occur if the media that being
selected for transmittal of a message is inappropriate and necessary feedback is not
received.
Mr Nithanandan also pointed out that filtering is also another barrier in
effective communication. According to Mr Nithanandan, filtering is screening out
before a message is passed on to someone else. The purpose of filtering is usually
to block the irrelevant information, clear information from redundancy, that is, make it
shorter easier to remember and understand. He added that there are many different
filters in an organization such as secretaries, assistants, receptionists, answering
machines and so on. Unfortunately those gatekeepers may eliminate important
messages as irrelevant, delay messages as not very important, translate ideas and
may respond before passing anything to the correct receiver. All this filtering of the
messages, may lead to miscommunication.
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Mr. Nithanandan highlighted that emotional as one of the barriers of
communication. According to him, it is comprised mainly of fear, mistrust and
suspicion and it will be hard to communicate with a very emotional person. He also
added that disorders of emotional communication include problems expressing one's
own feelings and misunderstanding the feelings of others. Emotion is communicated
in facial expressions, body movements, body language, tone of one's voice, pace of
words, and intensity. So when, the receiver is in emotional stage, the message that
was delivered to him/hr might either be interpreted wrongly and the information did
reached the receiver.
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TACTICS OF OVERCOME THE PROBLEM
As a tactics to overcome the barrier in poor listening, the manager said that
he will usually ensure that the listener will have an eye contact with him. By
establishing an eye contact, he will know that the receiver is paying attention to what
is being conveyed to him / her. If after all, if he noticed that the receiver is not paying
attention or the mind wonders around, he will stop talking and ask the receiver to
repeat back what he /she understands for far.
On my point of view, I would suggest that in order to overcome this poor
listening barrier, the receiver need to be send for a training to improve the listening
skills and how to focus and pay attention on what is being delivered by the sender.
According to the manager, the tactics that he/she used to overcome language
barriers, are by using the most specific and accurate words possible. He/She always
try to use words that the audience will understand. They also will increase the
accuracy of their messages by using language that describes rather than evaluates
and by presenting observable facts, events, and circumstances.
But in my point of view, in order to overcome barriers in language, the both
parties involved in receiving and transmitting message can take initiative in learning
the each other language. The management also can send them to attend language
course, either to learn new language or to further enhance and improve their
language skills. Either than that, the sender also can frequently check the
understanding of the receiver and also speak clearly and slowly.
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In order to overcome the filtering barrier in communication, the management
tactics are to establish more than one communication channel. They also have taken
steps in eliminating as many intermediaries as possible and decrease distortion by
condensing message information to the bare essentials. According to the manager,
the tactic that they use to improve filtering really works especially when the eliminate
intermediaries and directly communicate to the intended person.
Here, I also would like to suggest that in order to overcome filtering barrier in
organization, we could avoid distortions by making our messages shorter and
condensing to bare essentials. Either than that, we also can use formalizing and
ritualizing. By making the messages short and compress, the receive would be able
to understand the context of the message easily and without confusion.
The current tactics used by managers to overcome the emotional barriers
faced by the employees are through sending them for a counseling sessions with a
qualified and appointed counselor. According to the manager, the employees are not
allowed to interact with the customer if they are in some kind of emotional. This is
due to, the management is worried that the particular staff might provide wrong
information to the customer. This is why, before a staff join duty, the supervisor will
ensure that they are not emotionally disturbed.
As for me, I suggest that, staffs facing emotional disturbance should be send
for a motivational course or training after attending the counseling session. I would
suggest this because, even though counseling is important, but from the long run
perspective, training on motivation is also important. Once they attend seminar or
training on motivation, the staffs actually can learn on method how to overcome their
emotion problem and handle their stress at the same time.
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One of the tactics used by the managers to overcome the barrier of overload
information is by identifying the irrelevant information contained in a message and
also make the necessary information easily available. According to them, in call
centre working environment, daily they will be receiving hundreds of information and
as being a responsible manager, they just can’t simply download all the information
to everybody and if they do it, they are actually burdening the staff with overload and
unnecessary information. So, the managers said that only important and relevant
information should be passed to the correct staffs.
Here, I would suggest a tactic that can be used to overcome the information
overload barrier where the management can set up a website, blog or a homepage
for the staffs to go and browse for the latest information or updates. In this website,
all the information or messages that needed to be informed can be uploaded here
and the staffs easily can utilize this system to search for the information. This will
indirectly lessen the burden of the staffs to remember all the information. By using
this, we are not only reducing the overload of information, we are also actually
helping the staff to work in a stress free environment.
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CONCLUSION
Based on the interview conducted with the three managers from
different department but within the same organization, I found that all three of
them have the common similarity problem in delivering the message
effectively which is due to the complex organization structure where the
message flows down to many levels has being misinterpreted and
manipulated by the receiver their level without having a personal touch
directly from the receiver to the sender.
From this studies, I have learned that effective communication depends
on both the receiver and the sender themselves. Whereby, the sender must
select the correct communication mode to transmit the message to the
receiver. Whereas the receiver must be ever ready to receive the message as
it is with a right attitude and positive mindset. By properly planning and
implementing this, communication will ensure that everyone understands
what’s the sender’s goal and what are the receiver’s part in achieving the
message so that everybody will achieve their goal.
As quoted by Jim Rohn, the world's leading motivational speaker, philosopher &
entrepreneur “If you just communicate you can get by. But if you skillfully
communicate, you can work miracles”.
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References
1) Mehrabian, Albert and Morton Wiener, 1967, "Decoding of inconsistent
communications," J o u r n a l o f P e r s o n a l i t y a n d S o c i a l P s y c h o l o g y
6:109-114
2) Lee, M. (2009, September 9). Effective Communication Strategies in the Workplace - 3 Ways to Get Your Point Across.
3) Busey, B. (2009, October 17). Communication - "Communic8 Essentials".
4) Casey, A. Q. (2009, September 21). Workplace Communication - 5 Keys to Getting Your Message Heard and Avoiding Misunderstandings.
5) Oberoi, R. (2009, October 21). Workplace Communication Skills - How to Develop?.
6) Morreale, S.P., Osborn, M.M. & Pearson, J.C. (January, 2000) Why communication is important: A rationale for the centrality of the study of communication. Journal of the Association for Communication Administration, 29(1), 1-25
7) Fernanda Diaz, (2008), Type of Communication, Free Article Tutorial
8) Shawn Smith, July 8, 2002, Removing workplace communication barriers, Fairfield County Business Journal, Westfair Communications, Inc.
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9) Schick, A. G., Gordon, L. A., & Haka, S. (1990). Information overload: A temporal approach. Accounting, Organizations, and Society, 15, 199–220
10) Stiebel, David, June 22, 1997, Resolving problems when communication fails. (problem-solving for workplace issues), Canadian Manager
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