Effective Business Communications For Systematic Direction: A Case Study Of Retail Food Group Limited

Diagnosis and Reflection

Effective business communication is an imperative way that helps organization in gathering the set of important information for all the employees who are being employed in that organization. This signifies that having business communication as effective will definitely help and support the organization in being more sustainable (Stacks & Salwen, 2014).When the information is flowed in a systematic manner in an effective way within the organization, then the organization develops the effective system of business communication. With the help of this, the work procedure of the organization is also enhanced. When the communication process is completed within the time, this makes sure that the organization will sustain in the competing market. This will help the organization to grow. This essay has been put in order to learn the effective way of business communication that will help the organization in having a systematic direction to proceed further and will help in developing the areas which lack effectiveness of communication. So as to maintain the internal communication, it is important for the organization to perform effectively in such a competitive business environment. In this essay I choose RETAIL FOOD GROUP LIMITED so as to explain its internal communication with respect to its communication and coordination with the other working staff members of the organization (West& Turner, 2013).

Retail food group limited is delivering across 610 stores in Australia. Retail food group isa worldwide pizza delivery corporation that is set up at different locations in Australia. It has it exclusive master franchise reserve networks in New Zealand, Australia, Belgium and France. As per the Future Foundation report (2003), this is the largest gourmet pizza group of Australia, which has a delivery of more than ten million pizzas in a year (Mazzei, 2014).

In such large organization, it is important to maintain the effectiveness of communication that ensures the systematic working by the employees in the organization. This is totally based on the flow of information that is being provided to the employees working in it. In retail food group it has been noticed that they followed a proper system of internal communication that takes place from placing an order to delivering it to the customers (Carnmarata,  McArthur, & Steeb, 2014). Here in this case effective communication needs to be there so that it could be decided that when the order is placed by the customer then the next step is to receive the order and circulate the rest of the information to the kitchen area so that the order can be prepared. This is how the communication procedure is followed. Despite of everything being based online, the system continues by the manner of direct communication that is practically being followed in the stores by the employees working in it. For gathering the practical information in context of witnessing effective communication, I have visited retail food group. It has been noticed that there are certain principles and tools of effective communication that has been put to use in the organization by the employees working in it (Cornelissen, 2014). These are the tools that definitely result in practicing an effective communication practice at the workplace. Also, I have evaluated some of the limitation in the internal communication management of the organization (Dainton & Zelley, 2014).

Literature Review

 Firstly, the diagnostic tools such as Communication style questionnaire, interview method, assertive questionnaire, Johari window model and feedback from the employees working in the organization is being done by at the retail food group limited. These are such tools that help in setting the direction of gathering information needed and with the communication limitation that are being faced by the company and needs to be developed so that the communication issues could be resolved and hence internal communication in the workplace could take place (Dainton, M., & Zelley, E. D. (2014).

Johari window is the model that is used in order to enhance the communication with others. This is the tools that are based on two key ideas that is trust, that could make other reveal information about you and another is taking measures so that the learning could be made from getting the feedback that is given by other members at the workplace. These also help in knowing the facts and are kept in the open arena or area. Also, the facts that are not known to the person himself/ herself is kept in the blind spot. Moreover, the facts that are not known to others are kept under the section of hidden area or let us say facet. The fourth window is for the facts that are neither known by one self nor by other people, hence remain unknown (Heath & Bryant, 2013). For instance, on the basis of the verbal tone the judgment based on the emotions is done in the professional interactions. These skills are needed to be developed for boosting up the confidence level of the employees in an organization.

Another tool is communication style questionnaire that had helped in getting the information. It is related to the communication style that is mostly preferred by the employees working in the organization. This helps in maintain the sustainability and the effectiveness of communication with other employees working at the workplace also. I have scored a rating as 10 out of 15 in the communication style questionnaire that had identified me as a dominant employee in the organization. Dominant is also referred as being amiable who is totally dependent, supportive, agreeableness and respectful. This is the main reason that has made me frustrated and hence unable for effective interpersonal skills of communication during the time of presentation and professional interviews. These questionnaires will help in development and understanding the mindset of the employees. Also, these will help in knowing the perception of the employees regarding the communication system and in getting the appropriate important information that is required by the employees in the organization.

Next diagnostic tool that can be used for checking the effective business communication skills is the assertive questionnaire method. I have got a score of 6 on 10 in the test of aptitude. This test has helped me with defending my problems with verbal communication. This is the reason behind having a fear and hesitation at the time of confrontation with the senior professionals in the organization.

The other diagnostic tool that is taken in use is the interpersonal communication competence that helps in checking the way of communication with one another in an organization. This a self-assessment tool that helps in knowing about one self. I have scored 70 on 80 points that indicates a higher level of competence in the communication skills. This reflects my communication skills to be effective. The major development that has to be done is in the way to make the interaction more mature enough. This can be improved by getting a training session and learning other ways for it.

The next diagnostic tools that is used for evaluating the effective business communication and other verbal interpersonal skills is the interview skills checklist. This has efficiently helped me in fighting for the interviews and in identifying apt communication skills that are needed by an individual at the time of the interviews. By doing self-assessment with the help of this tool has helped me in identifying my weaknesses that are I get anxious and feel hesitation at the time of interview sessions even if a lot of preparation for it has been already done. Another weakness that has been identified is that I could not make an eye contact with the interviewee which is needed the most to flaunt the confidence level of an individual. These are the weaknesses that I could identify in myself at the time of professional interactions in the past six months which are actually lacking in me and needs to be developed.

Two key communication issues that are there in Retail food group are:

1. The right information is not being sent to right people.
2. Functional areas of the organization are not collaborative with other departments of the organization (Wenger, 2014).

Communication is one of the most effective ways of transmitting the messages and other important information. It is therefore the way of developing and understanding the original message with the receiver. Hence, there needs to be an effective way to do communication in the business. As per the views of Yudkowsky, et al, 2006 it s reflected that essence of the management system are Planning, organizing, directing, staffing and controlling which cannot be managed effectively with effective communication. Effective business communication inculcates the flow of information to be constant. Also, feedback is one of the important parts of the communication system that is followed in the organization. The structure of organizations being complex and larger, it gets difficult for management to manage such organizations. This could only be done by the help of effective business communication. This enhances the growth and development of the organization

As stated by Koprowska, 2014 it is divulged that with the help of such diagnostic tools, there are some of the issues and limitations that are identified in the retail food group limited are evaluated. Therefore it is evaluated that retail food group, Australia needs to work so that these communication issues are resolved in an appropriate manner. This diagnosis has helped in getting know the perception of employees and somehow analyzing various tactics so that these limitations are turned out in developing and hence help the organization to grown in better way (Reilly and Hynan, 2014).

The first issue that was identified by diagnosing the communication system is gathering the right information to the right people. It is the critical information such as the market data was not shared by other stakeholders. Also, the top management of the organization is not so efficient in engaging more number of employees in the organization that actually interacts verbally with customers, in order to comply important decisions of the organization. Moreover, when the diagnosis was conducted it is identified that this limitation has resulted in such a way so that the employees for who to receive this information is utmost importance do not receive such information to management. With the help of reflective tools it was analyzed that the employees are not being trained properly due to which they fail to understand the communication process of the organization with the top level management. Also, this is the major reason for why the employees lack in the development of the other interpersonal skills such as face to face communications, interview, feedback and verbal communication(Shehada, 2016).

In the retail food group limited with the help of diagnostic tools another issue that is identified is related to the communication issues among employees. Employees do not make communication properly at all the functional levels and as a result the functional areas do not have proper collaboration with other departments of the organization. This issue is faced by the organization, because other departments of organization do not share the whole information that could be of use to other departments of the organization such that the common goals could be accomplished by the organization as a whole (Gutteling, John Wiley & Sons, 2015). In the era of competition and achieving targets by particular departments, each department of the organization becomes competitive rather than being collaborative and growing together (Simpson, 2015).

These issues is faced by the retail food group, Australia limits or let us say that it lowers the capability of the whole organization. With the support of diagnosis it was being identified that the reason behind this limiting factor or retail food group is that there are no meeting organized so that the interaction of different departments could take place by verbal communication and hence the required important information could be put to use by respective departments of the organization (DeVito, 2007). Also, by arranging meeting the roles, responsibilities of the employees who are being employed in the organization are able to manage their own work at the workplace effective by the way of having an effective communication with all the departments or units of the organization (Vangelisti, 2016).

When the diagnosis of set of limiting factors was conducted, based on such diagnosis various strategies are adopted by retail food group, Australia so that the problems faced with the lack of communication could be lowered or let us say overcome. However, it will directly affect the perception of customers of gourmet pizzas. The strategies that are adopted by Retail food group, Australia in order to resolve such issues are as follows (Kurtz, Silverman, and Draper, x 2016).

Training: this is such a strategy that helps in developing the interpersonal skills of the employees in the organization in the most effective way. It is required by the employees so that the training would let them know who the right person to share the information and not only this but training the employees would let them know about how the communication cycle in the organization works likes. This training session will boost up the employees and help them in developing the employees so the queries of the stakeholders and top level management could be resolved in appropriate manner (Curtieset al. 2013)

Daily meeting with different departments: arranging the meeting session with the employees will resolve the communication issues that are there because of the information that is not collaborated by the other departments of retail food group. In the meeting it would discussed about the progress and the areas in which the origination has excelled.  This would turn out to be a healthy discussion that will help in the development of the employees and development of their interpersonal skills in appropriate manner (Cornelissen, 2014).

Teambuilding activities: This is another aspect that is taken as a step to develop so that the employees working in retail food group should have a good interaction session with each other in an informal manner. It is beneficial in having a good team that will collaborate their work and should divide their works such that organization could lead to success.

Building effective communication system: having fun activities in the organization and throwing official parties would let the employees build effective relationship with each of the members of the organization. Also, this would support to resolve the issues with the lacking effective communication system (Fujimori, et al 2014)

Therefore, it is necessary to maintain and develop internal communication of the organization in an effective way. Developing an efficient business communication should be the priority of organization so that the employees of the organization serve the customer in an appropriate manner. Also, the interpersonal skills are needed to be developed so that it helps in treating the customers effectively (Stokoe, 12014).

S.NO	Activity to be executed	Total days	Initialize date	Completion date	Action which is to be planned
1	Managing effective business communication at retail food group, Australia.	180 Days	1 May 17	30 Nov 17	During this time period the short term subject related courses are to be given to the employees so that efficiency level of the employees becomes effective in the communication skills. During this program: · 5 days effective training is given by the Queensland Management. · 2 days professional session is given on the enhancement of the interpersonal skills and their development as well. · 1 day course managed at CQU universityof management, which will make them learn about the ways to comply personal message and hence their interpretation.
2	Development of interpersonal skills	31 Days	1 May 2017	31 May 2017	This activity was executed for a month so that the employees can develop their interpersonal skills so that it will help them in boosting the confidence level along with knowing the right way to treat and serve their customers by way of effective communication at the workplace.
2.1	Free discussion with the employees at the work place.	16 Days	1 May 2017	16 May 2017	There would be open discussion done with the employees so that the there would be no fear in the employees to interact and hence the important information could also be collected. This activity would gradually help the organization to grow and excel.
2,2	Taking feedback with the help of assertive questionnaires and hence diagnosing them.	15 Days	16 May 2017	31 May 2017	A questionnaire of assertive nature would be filled up by the employees in the way of feedback so that the areas which lack the effective communication and other leading factors would be identified and worked upon by the employees of the organization.
3.	Evaluation of feedback and analyzing the main strategies.	30 Days	1 June 2017	30 June 2017	The next activity that would be executed will be of analyzing the feedback or responses and hence the analyzed responses would be communicated with the other levels of organization so that summarization of the major issues could be done and hence as a result the strategies in order to resolve the lacking areas will be executed in a successful manner by this activity.
4.	Training and development session	91 Days	1 July 2017	31 July 2017	Training activities and sessions would be provided to the employees for the period of three months so that they can gather the knowledge about the right person with whom the information is being shared and hence learning the techniques to guide the employees as per the requirements and the areas which are lacked on. This will help in having the appropriate guidance to the employees so that they can deal with more efficiency with the customers and handle them accordingly.
5.	Conducting different activities at the work place.	31 Days	1 Aug 2017	31 Aug 2017	There would be a whole month in which different activities would be taking place so that it will help the employees in boosting up their self confidence level and hence this will be decided that the employees would be given a party on a day particularly agreed by the all the employees of the organization. This activities include fun activities, theme based attire and different quiz competitions that are organized within the organization.
6.	Conducting Meetings on daily basis.	183 Days	1 May 2017	31 Aug 2017	There would be daily meeting session so that the employees can interact and bifurcate their work accordingly.

References

Arnold, R.M., Back, A.L., Barnato, A.E., Prendergast, T.J., Emlet, L.L., Karpov, I., White, P.H. & Nelson, J.E., (2015). The critical care communication project: improving fellows’ communication skills. Journal of critical care, 30(2), pp.250-254.

Curtis, J.R., Back, A.L., Ford, D.W., Downey, L., Shannon, S.E., Doorenbos, A.Z., Kross, E.K., Reinke, L.F., Feemster, L.C., Edlund, B. &Arnold, R.W., (2013). Effect of communication skills training for residents and nurse practitioners on quality of communication with patients with serious illness: a randomized trial. Jama, 310(21), pp.2271-2281.

DeVito, J.A., (2007). Interpersonal Communication Book, The, 13/E. New York, NY: Pearson International.

Fujimori, M., Shirai, Y., Asai, M., Kubota, K., Katsumata, N. & Uchitomi, Y., (2014) Effect of communication skills training program for oncologists based on patient preferences for communication when receiving bad news: a randomized controlled trial. Journal of clinical oncology, 32(20), pp.2166-2172.

Koprowska, J., (2014). Communication and interpersonal skills in social work. Learning Matters.

Kurtz, S., Silverman, J. &Draper, J., (2016). Teaching and learning communication skills in medicine. CRC press.

Psycho-Geometrics – https://www.drsusan.net  – a somewhat off-beat but interesting self-assessment tool. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the I.T. Serve button to start test.

Reilly, A.H.& Hynan, K.A., (2014). Corporate communication, sustainability, and social media: It’s not easy (really) being green. Business horizons, 57(6), pp.747-758.

Rosenstein, Linda L. (2010), “Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace – report of a program at ALA Midwinter 2000,” Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services 24, no.4 (Winter), 502-503.

Shehada, B.A.R.,(2016) Phase-Based Speech Enhancement (Doctoral dissertation, Islamic University, Gaza, Palestine).

Simpson, C., (2015). Science of coercion: Communication research & psychological warfare, 1945–1960. Open Road Media.

Stokoe, E. (2014). The Conversation Analytic Role-play Method (CARM): A method for training communication skills as an alternative to simulated role-play. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 47(3), 255-265.

Vangelisti, A.L., (2016). On the importance of communication research. Communication Education, 65(4), pp.501-504.

Yudkowsky, R., Downing, S.M. & Sandlow, L.J., (2007). Developing an institution-based assessment of resident communication and interpersonal skills. Academic Medicine, 81(12), pp.1115-1122.

Cornelissen, J. (2014). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage.

Carnmarata, S., McArthur, D., & Steeb, R. (2014). STRATEGIES OF COOPERATION IN DISTRIBUTED PROBLEM SOLVING!. Readings in Distributed Artificial Intelligence, 102.

Mazzei, A., (2014). Internal communication for employee enablement: Strategies in American and Italian companies. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 19(1), pp.82-95.

Gutteling, Jan M. Risk communication. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., (2015).

Cornelissen, J. (2014). Corporate communication: A guide to theory and practice. Sage.

Wenger, E. (2014). Artificial intelligence and tutoring systems: computational and cognitive approaches to the communication of knowledge. Morgan Kaufmann.

Stacks, D. W., & Salwen, M. B. (Eds.). (2014). An integrated approach to communication theory and research. Routledge.

West, R., & Turner, L. H. (2013). Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application (2013 Ed.).

Dainton, M., & Zelley, E. D. (2014). Applying communication theory for professional life: A practical introduction. Sage publications.

Heath, R. L., & Bryant, J. (2013). Human communication theory and research: Concepts, contexts, and challenges. Routledge.