Business Communication And Conflict Management: An Analysis Of Coit’s Outback Adventures

Effective Team Communication

Discuss about the Business Communication for Conflict Management.

This study has highlighted business communication of Coit’s Outback Adventures. The company conducts a number of different activities, including tours of the outback. The company’s main clients are international tourists, particularly Chinese.

Coit’s Outback Adventures operates from Melbourne, Australia. This report analyses the concept of effective team communication and conflict management in this context.

As per the case study, it can be mentioned that this study has highlighted the importance of the interpersonal skills. In this connection, the importance of the development of effective listening and non verbal communication has developed.

According to Ali (2014), teammates must develop trust, since it is not automatic. Accordingly, members must communicate more openly than they normally would in everyday life. There must be honesty on all ends of the team, since withholding the truth could damage the team’s integrity. Team members should always share information and feelings between each other. This allows for total trust between the team members. In order to make a business successful, it is necessary to make a good collaboration among the employees and the executives. Therefore, the staffs of the organisation can efficiently give answers to the clients. As it can be seen that their major clients are Chinese, therefore, the staffs require to communicate fluently with the clients (Aslani et al., 2013).

Research has found that three or more people working together on a project are much more effective than a single person spending all of his time doing the same thing. However, without communication, the three-plus team members can be as useless as if the project went untouched. On the contrary, Baillien et al., (2014) argued that due to the lack of communication, the performance of the organisation would be decreased. Teams that fail to communicate effectively wind up wasting time and energy doing busy work and other work that is not required because of a lack of understanding of what needs to be done. These team members also misunderstand each other and their personalities. This often leads to conflict within the group and a lack of trust between group members. Team members in groups that fail to communicate effectively wind up not understanding what makes them more efficient, because they fail to get feedback from everyone else in the group, and there is no one else that they can compare their work to (Gross et al., 2016).

Conflict Management

There is nothing more important to a company and a project’s success than effective and clear communication among team members. Good communication provides benefits to the company and to the team members that practice it. When you have effective team communication, as Aristotle said, “The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” Skillful team communication creates awareness and understanding that promotes proficiency as team members complete their tasks. The elements of good team communication help a company to achieve and sustain profit (Leon-Perez, Notelaers & Leon-Rubio, 2016).

In order to develop an effective team management to make the business successful, it can be mentioned that there are five approaches, which are discussed in the following:

• Be Clear. When members of a team are unclear on the goals of the team and their individual responsibilities, team motivation and morale can suffer. The expectation must be set that if any team member is not clear; they have an obligation to ask. One simple trick to help team leaders overcome this barrier is to check for understanding at the end of each meeting (Masuda & Kostopoulos, 2016).
• Be Present. When team members communicate with one another, each team member must make a commitment to really listen, seek to understand one another, use appropriate body language and ask clarifying questions.
• Be Courteous. Probably one of the most overlooked B’s to effective team communication is the lack of good old fashion politeness. Not being courteous in communication can result in hard feelings towards team members and the potential for individuals on the team to put up walls. Cutting people off when they are talking, not saying “thank you” “excuse me” and “please,” personally attacking team members and being condescending are all examples of poor team manners that can result in poor work communication on teams (McCauley, 2015).
• Be Flexible. There are going to be times when not everyone on the team is going to agree with an opinion or on a decision that has been made. Team members need to be flexible enough to support decisions contrary to their own desires, given that their opinions have been shared and adequately heard. Supporting the decision doesn’t mean that everyone has to agree, but they must be willing to help make whatever has been decided a success (Mohammadnezamy, Mahdieh & Fatemi, 2014).
• Be Team members must be careful to never talk bad about each other. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. Or, if you aren’t willing to address a problem with the person there, then don’t. Refrain from gossip, it erodes the trust of those you are gossiping to and takes big chunks out of team morale.

As per the statement of Prenzel & Vanclay (2014), a conflict arises when individuals have varied interests, opinions and thought processes and is just not willing to compromise with each other. It is always wise to adjust to some extent and try to find a solution to the problem rather than cribbing and fighting. Conflicts and disagreements only lead to negativity and things never reach a conclusion. It only adds on to the tensions and makes life hell. It actually leaves you drained and spoils your reputation. Every individual should try his level best to avoid conflict at the first place rather than resolving it later. Precautions must be taken at the right time to avoid a conflict.

In the words of Roberson et al., (2015), it can be mentioned that conflict management goes a long way in strengthening the bond among the employees and half of the problems automatically disappear. Individuals must feel motivated at work and find every single day exciting and challenging. Before implementing any idea, it must be discussed with everyone and no one should ever feel ignored or left out. This way, every employee feels indispensable for the office and he strives hard to live up to the expectations of his fellow workers and in a way contributing to the organization in his best possible way. Conflict management avoids conflicts to a great extent and thus also reduces the stress and tensions of the employees. No one likes to carry his tensions back home and if the manager of the tourism organisation fight with the colleagues and other people, then the managers are bound to feel uncomfortable and restless even at home (Schlaerth, Ensari & Christian, 2013).

Conclusion

Therefore, conflict management also plays an important role in our personal lives. Tussles and fights spoil relationships and only increase our list of enemies. Everyone needs friends who will stand by us when we need them. Conflict must be avoided at homes as it spoils the ambience and spreads negativity. Individuals tend to disrespect others as a result of conflicts. Conflict management prevents fall out between family members, friends, relatives and makes life peaceful and stress free. Blame game never helps anyone, instead it makes life miserable. No idea can ever be implemented if the individuals fight among themselves (Wolff & Yakinthou, 2013).

Conflict management helps to find a middle way, an alternative to any problem and successful implementation of the idea. Problems must be addressed at the right time to prevent conflict and its adverse effects at a later stage. Through conflict management skills, an individual explores all the possible reasons to worry which might later lead to a big problem and tries to resolve it as soon as possible. Conflict Management is very important because it is always wise to prevent a fight at the first place rather than facing its negative consequences. Stress disappears, people feel motivated, happy and the world definitely becomes a much better place to stay as a result of conflict management.

Conclusion

This report shows the business communication of Coit’s Outback Adventure. This organisation usually conducted tours of the outback. The clients of the organisation are mainly Chinese. In this connection, this study has aimed to the importance of the development of interpersonal skills. The organisation also requires to communicate with the Chinese clients, therefore, the organisation requires to follow non verbal communication. This can make a successful relationship between the management and the employees. On the other hand, conflict management is required to follow by the organisation. This is the process of limiting the negative aspects of conflict while increasing the positive aspects of conflict. The aim of conflict management is to enhance learning and group outcomes, including effectiveness or performance in organizational setting.

In order to improve the performance of an organisation, it can be recommended that the organisation requires to aim to the importance of effective team communication and the conflict management. There are five types of conflict managements, which can be followed by the organisation. The five styles are such as Competing, Compromising, Collaborating, Avoiding, and Accommodating. Conflict management minimizes the negative outcomes of conflict and promotes the positive outcomes of conflict with the goal of improving learning in an organization.

References

Ali, S. (2014). Post-disaster conflict management: crowd sourced governance at the local level. In nnual Conference of the International Association for Conflict Management, IACM 2014.

Aslani, S., Ramirez-Marin, J., Semnani-Azad, Z., Brett, J. M., & Tinsley, C. (2013). 10. Dignity, Face, and Honor cultures: implications for negotiation and conflict management. Handbook of research on negotiation, 249.

Baillien, E., Bollen, K., Euwema, M., & De Witte, H. (2014). Conflicts and conflict management styles as precursors of workplace bullying: A two-wave longitudinal study. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 23(4), 511-524.

Gross, M., Wallace, M., Adair, W., Neuman, E., Aarts, N., Ayoko, O., … & Amsler, L. B. (2016). Negotiation and Conflict Management Research.

Leon-Perez, J. M., Notelaers, G., & Leon-Rubio, J. M. (2016). Assessing the effectiveness of conflict management training in a health sector organization: evidence from subjective and objective indicators. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 25(1), 1-12.

Masuda, A. D., & Kostopoulos, K. C. (2016). Performance in Teams: The Role of Conflict-Management Styles, Team and Leadership Identity. Rethinking Innovation: Global Perspectives, 238.

McCauley, C. (2015). What are students’ perspectives on the quality of the Conflict Management Program?.

Mohammadnezamy, E., Mahdieh, O., & Fatemi, A. (2014). The relationship between conflict management and the acquisition and sharing of knowledge. Arth prabandh: A Journal of Economics and Management, 3(3), 9-29.

Prenzel, P. V., & Vanclay, F. (2014). How social impact assessment can contribute to conflict management. Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 45, 30-37.

Roberson, P. N., Fish, J. N., Olmstead, S. B., & Fincham, F. D. (2015). College Adjustment, Relationship Satisfaction, and Conflict Management A Cross-Lag Assessment of Developmental “Spillover”. Emerging adulthood, 2167696815570710.

Schlaerth, A., Ensari, N., & Christian, J. (2013). A meta-analytical review of the relationship between emotional intelligence and leaders’ constructive conflict management. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 16(1), 126-136.

Wolff, S., & Yakinthou, C. (Eds.). (2013). Conflict management in divided societies: theories and practice. Routledge.