PENYERAHAN DAN PENILAIAN TUGASANASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION AND ASSESSMENT

_________________________________________________________________________BBKN3103

BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONJANUARY 2012

_________________________________________________________________________

ARAHAN KEPADA PELAJAR / INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS

1. Tugasan ini mengandungi SATU (1) soalan sahaja yang disediakan dalam bahasa modul bercetak kursus ini. / This assignment contains only ONE (1) question that is set in the language of the printed module for the course.

2. Jawab dalam Bahasa Melayu atau Bahasa Inggeris. / Answer in Malay or English.

3. Muat turunkan templat tugasan versi bahasa yang berkenaan daripada MyVLE untuk penyediaan dan penyerahan tugasan anda. Tugasan anda hendaklah ditaip dengan menggunakan saiz fon 12 Times New Roman dan langkau baris 1.5. / Download the language version of the assignment template concerned from the MyVLE for preparation and submission of your assignment. Your assignment should be typed using 12 point Times New Roman font and 1.5 line spacing.

4. Tugasan anda hendaklah antara 2500 hingga 3000 patah perkataan tidak termasuk rujukan. Bilangan perkataan hendaklah ditunjukkan di hujung tugasan anda. Jangan menyalin soalan dan arahan tugasan dalam jawapan anda. / Your assignment should be between 2500 to 3000 words excluding references. The number of words should be shown at the end of your assignment. Do not copy the assignment question and instructions to your answer.

5. Anda dikehendaki menghantar tugasan SECARA ON-LINE melalui MyVLE. Sila rujuk kepada portal untuk arahan mengenai prosedur menghantar tugasan anda secara on-line. Anda dinasihatkan menyimpan senaskah tugasan yang diserahkan untuk rujukan sendiri. / You must submit your assignment ON-LINE via the MyVLE. Refer to the portal for instructions on the procedures to submit your assignment on-line. You are advised to keep a copy of your submitted assignment for personal reference.

6. Anda hanya boleh menghantar tugasan SEKALI sahaja dalam SATU fail. / You can submit your assignment ONCE only in a SINGLE file.

7. Tugasan anda hendaklah diserahkan antara 6hb Mac 2012 hingga 18hb Mac 2012. Serahan selepas 18hb Mac 2012 TIDAK akan diterima. / Your assignment must be submitted between 6th Mac 2012 until 18th Mac 2011. Submission after 18th Mac 2012 will NOT be accepted.

8. Tugasan hendaklah disiapkan secara individu. Anda dilarang meniru tugasan orang lain. Anda juga dilarang sama sekali memplagiat kerja orang lain sebagai kerja sendiri. /Your assignment should be prepared individually. You should not copy another person’s assignment. You should also not plagiarise another person’s work as your own.

PENILAIAN / EVALUATION

Tugasan ini menyumbang sehingga 30% daripada jumlah markah kursus berkenaan dan akan dinilai berdasarkan kepada Rubrik yang dilampirkan. / This assignment accounts for 30% of the total marks for the course and shall be assessed based on the Rubrics attached .

Anda akan diberikan maklum balas tentang tugasan ini sebelum Peperiksaan Akhir Semester bermula / You would be given feedback on the assignment before the Final Semester Examination commences.

PLAGIARISME: POTONGAN MARKAH / PLAGIARISM: MARKS DEDUCTION

Amaran: Tugasan yang diserahkan, secara automatik, akan disemak untuk menentukan kadar pertindihan. Jika plagiarisme dikesan, markah akan dipotong seperti berikut: / Warning : The submitted assignment will automatically undergo a similarity check. If plagiarism is detected, marks would be deducted as follows:

Tugasan dengan pertindihan kandungan antara 10 - 30 % : potongan 20% daripada jumlah markah yang diperoleh.

Tugasan dengan pertindihan kandungan antara 31 - 50 % : potongan 40% daripada jumlah markah yang diperoleh.

Tugasan dengan pertindihan kandungan lebih daripada 50%: Markah sifar akan diberikan. Assignments with 10 - 30 % overlap with others: 20% deduction from the total marks scored. Assignments with 31 - 50 % overlap with others: 40% deduction from the total marks scored. Assignments with more than 50% overlap with others: Zero mark would be given.

ASSIGNMENT QUESTION

PURPOSE

The purpose of this assignment is to develop learners’ ability to analyse the importance of good

communication between groups in business organisations and to suggest relevant improvements.

REQUIREMENT

Using relevant literature, evaluate the importance of good communication between groups in a

business organisation. Recommend strategies that the groups can use to improve communication.

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MUKA SURAT TAMAT / END OF PAGE

ATTACHMENT

ASSIGNMENT RUBRICS

BBKN3103 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION / JANUARY 2012

Low Fair Above average Excellent

Criteria Weight 0 1 2 3 4Max

MarksIntroduction on good communication 0.5

No introduction or explanation on good communication

Very brief introduction on good communication was given

The introduction on good communication was fairly explained

The introduction on good communication was clearly explained

The introduction on good communication was very comprehensive and very clearly explained

2

Discussion on the forms of communication and the information network in business

2

No discussion on forms of communication and information network

Able to discuss briefly the forms of communication and the information network but the discussion was disorganised

Able to discuss some forms of communication and the information network. However, the discussion was very poor and disorganised.

Able to discuss clearly some forms of communication and the information network. However, no examples were given.

Able to discuss in detail all forms of communication and information network. Include relevant examples 8

Discussion on group and functions of group dynamics in business 1.5

No discussion on characteristics and elements of groups, and functions of group dynamics

Able to discuss briefly some of the characteristics and elements of groups, and some functions of group dynamics. However, the discussion was disorganised

Able to discuss clearly some of the characteristics and elements of groups, and some functions of dynamic groups.

Able to discuss clearly all the characteristics and elements of groups. The discussion on the functions of group dynamics was also very clear. However, no relevant examples were given.

Able to discuss in detail all the characteristics and elements of groups. The discussion on the functions of group dynamics was very clear and comprehensive. Relevant examples were given.

6

Discussion on the importance of good communication between groups in business

1.5

No explanation on the importance of good communication between groups was given

Explanation on the importance of good communication between groups was irrelevant

Explanation on the importance of good communication between groups was superficial

Explanation on the importance of good communication between groups was clear and accurate

Explanation on the importance of good communication between groups was very clear and accurate

6

Recommendations on how groups can improve communication 1.5

No recommendation was given

Recommendations given were irrelevant

ONE practical and well-justified recommendation was given

TWO practical and well-justified recommendations were given

THREE practical and well-justified recommendations were given 6

Conclusion0.5

No conclusion was given

The conclusion failed to summarise the key points related to the topic of

The conclusion summarised only a few key points related to the topic

The conclusion summarised most of the key points related to the

The conclusion summarised all the key points related to the topic of discussion.

2

discussion. of discussion. topic of discussion. Written in a precise and convincing manner.

Total points 7.5 30

1.1 Introduction on good communication

Managers have traditionally spent the majority of their time communicating in one

form or another such as face-to-face discussions, meetings, memos, letters, e-mails, reports,

etc. However, there are increasing number of employees find that an important part of their

work is communication nowadays, especially due to the service workers that outnumber

production workers and research as well as production processes emphasize greater

collaboration and teamwork among workers in different functional groups. Additionally, a

sea-change in communication technologies has encouraged the alteration of both work and

organizational structure. In consequences, communication practices and technologies have

become more significant in all organizations, but they are most important in knowledge-

intensive organizations and sectors, and to science organizations and also to public science

management.

Communication can be defined as two-way process of gaining mutual understanding,

where participants not only exchanging information but also create and share meaning. On

the other hand, business organization is a commercial or industrial enterprise, and the

people who comprise it; "he bought his brother's business"; "a small mom-and-pop

business"; "a racially integrated business concern". It can be concluded that communication

in organizations describes all the means, both formal and informal, by which information is

passed up, down, and across the network of managers and employees in a business. These

various modes of communication can disseminate official information between employees

and management, to exchange hearsay and rumors, etc. However, the challenge for

businesses is to channel these myriad communications so they can improve customer

relations, increase employee satisfaction, encourage knowledge-sharing throughout the

organization, and enhance competitiveness of the firm.

Business communication is an instrument that enables the organisation to develop the

performance of employees, improve the performance of the teams within the company, and

also the performance of the entire organization in order to implement the organization’s

strategy, and also to accomplish its mission and vision.

The literature on communication usually recognizes that the basic function of

communication is to concern receiver knowledge or behavior by informing, directing,

regulating, socializing, and persuading. According to Neher (1997), the key functions of

organizational communication includes compliance-gaining, leading, motivating and

influencing, sense-making, also problem solving and decision making, and also conflict

management, negotiating and bargaining.

Neher (1997) and Rogers and Rogers (1976) stress the social and organizational

functions of organizational communication as a total rather than focusing on the functions of

explicit communication exchanges. Thus they unite the functions of informing, directing, and

regulating into the broader group of behavioral fulfillment. They also focus on the role of

communication in organization threats to organizational order and control, spotting problem

solving and conflict management, negotiation, and bargaining as key functions of

organizational communication.

1.2 The forms of communication and the information network in business

Communication can also be exemplified as vertical, horizontal, or diagonal. Originally,

greater prominence was aimed at vertical organizational communication as evaluated to

lateral communication but that is no longer the case. Diagonal communication is even more

current emphasis in the organizational communication literature.

Vertical communication happens between hierarchically situated persons and can

engross both downward and upward communication flows. In fact, downward communication

is more common than upward communication. Larkin and Larkin (1994) propose that

downward communication is most effectual if top managers communicate directly with

immediate supervisors and immediate supervisors communicate with their staff.

Even a smaller amount is recognized about upward communication, there’s one

reliable finding is that employee satisfaction with upward communication been likely to be

lower than their satisfaction with downward communication. Larkin and Larkin (1994) found

low levels of satisfaction with all the strategies frequently used to improve upward

communication, for instance, employee surveys, suggestion programs, employee grievance

programs, and employee participation programs such as quality circles and team meetings.

Gibson and Hodgetts (1991) note several management-based reasons for this lack of

satisfaction, considering that these strategies frequently don’t engage two-way

communication, are not enclosed well, are defectively timed, and are appropriate to cause

defensiveness on the part of managers. In addition, McCelland (1988) found a number of

employee-based reasons why upward communication tends to be underprivileged, including

fear of reprisal where people are afraid to speak their minds, filters where employees feel

their ideas are modified as they get transmitted upward, and time, where managers give the

impression that they don’t have the time to listen to employees.

Lateral communication practices communication among persons who don’t stand in

hierarchical relation to one another. While current trends to compress organizations have

improved the importance of lateral communications, studies on lateral communication still

wrap behind those on vertical communication. One fairly partial study found rather high

levels of satisfaction with lateral communication among human resource managers but

lateral communication across managers of different functional divisions, while often quoted

as a main foundation of organization dysfunction, has not been subject matter to much

practical research. It has been unspecified that lateral communication at the worker level is

less difficult, at least within a functional area. Nevertheless, with the greater significance of

teams, more concentration is now being aimed at communication between team members.

Lateral communications between workers in diverse functional areas is also becoming a

bigger anxiety as more attention is being headed at raising the speed of production through

simultaneous, as disparate to sequential, work processes. And there is greater stress on

communication across dispersed workers and geographically separated work groups doing

similar kinds of work in an effort to endorse learning and the sharing of expertise, lessons

learned, and best practices.

Furthermore, diagonal communication refers to communication between managers

and workers situated in different functional divisions (Wilson 1992). Although both vertical

and horizontal communication continue to be important, these terms no longer sufficiently

detain communication needs and flows in most modern organizations. The diagonal

communication was introduced to detain the new communication challenges related with

new organizational forms, for instance matrix and project-based organizations. With the

increase of the network organization, both internally and externally oriented networks,

communication flows can no longer be limited to vertical, horizontal, and diagonal.

1.3 Group and functions of group dynamics in business

We can see the effectiveness of business communication based on the

implementation of communication within each level. In order to know whether the business is

effective or not, we can evaluate it through the levels of employee, team and the

organization. In the employee level, business communication allows them to make decisions,

provide feedback in an ongoing basis, make agreements, etc. At the team level, business

communication allows team to construct an open communication environment that assists

the creation of commitment, breakthrough ideas, trust, etc. On the other hand, at the

organizational level, business communication allows the organization to support the whole

company in order to perform its strategy, reach its vision, and fulfill its mission.

1.4 The importance of good communication between groups in business

The importance of good communication can be understood by considering what

things would be like in its absence. For example, if a company has no mechanism for

recording and transmitting special order requests from its customers, and the employees in

the sales and fulfillment areas only communicate minimally between each other, there's a

good chance that when it receives a special request the company will have difficulty

delivering what the customer wants. It may even lose the sale as employees grapple with an

unusual request the management hasn't prepared them for.

Let’s consider a company going through a merger. Top executives at the merged

entity proclaim that there will be many of layoffs to boost efficiency, but management is slow

to tell who will be affected, what the criteria are for deciding who is laid off, and what the

separation terms will be. It will be even worse when an unauthorized list of persons facing

the ax is rumored to be circulating, and specific names are bandied about as being on or off

the list. This situation continues for weeks before management comes forward with the full

details. It is hard to see how such a scenario could be anything but detrimental to employee

morale, and it might lead to valuable employees who were not slated to be let go jumping

ship because of the chaos and management's thoughtless tactics.

The other example of poor communication, imagine a business with a large, young

workforce that is highly trained. However, the company is very hierarchical and a premium is

placed on seniority over originality and other employee traits. A few younger employees have

approached management with a new business idea, but their immediate supervisors haven't

taken the proposal seriously and upper management is largely inaccessible to these

employees. Consequently, the small groups leave the company and start their own firm,

which grows quickly and proves to be more profitable.

If these situations seem rather predictable where some are based loosely on real

events, they serve to illustrate obvious communication gaps and missteps businesses must

surmount. It may lead to the dissatisfaction among employees or customers, but each

incident could lead to losses of monetary for the organisation. In short, communications, both

internally and externally must be open, timely, complete, and precise to keep a business

running smoothly and to increase the returns on its human capital.

There are many strategies the groups can use in order to improve communication.

These strategies may solve four of the most fundamental barriers of communication such as

lack of candor, closed communication environment, lack of everyday performance

conversations, and lack of feedback. In brief explanation, lack of candor means lack of

truthfulness, honesty, openness, frankness etc in delivering information or process of

communication.

The barriers of closed communication environment related with the employee’s own

behaviors that fostering this environment that can be a problem if the organization do not

break down these barriers.

The other barrier is lack of everyday performance conversations. Meaning to say, if

you have employees reporting directly to you, it is very likely that you hold day-to-day

performance conversations with them. However, if you don’t have a process to lead these

daily conversations with them, you are probably lost on the power, ease, and effectiveness of

a performance conversation process, where you might instinctively be generating barriers to

effective communication.

In addition, the other barrier is lack of feedback. Feedback is one of the best

apparatus to progress communication; yet, it is one of the most misused communication

skills. There are four types of feedback includes positive feedback, constructive feedback,

negative feedback and lack of feedback. Positive feedback provides to applaud and

strengthen your direct report’s desired behavior. If it is correctly done, positive feedback can

increases desired behavior. Constructive feedback educates your direct report about the

disparity between undesired behavior and desired behavior that simplifies what is needed to

achieve desired behavior. This constructive feedback is a teaching device. Constructive

feedback may decreases unwanted behavior and increases desired behavior if it is properly

done. Negative feedback doesn’t teach anything, but it can only identify undesired behavior.

Anywhere for the same reason, negative feedback comes across as a penalty. Negative

feedback doesn’t help your direct report to nurture. It is not only useless, but it is even

harmful. Additionally, lack of feedback is not giving feedback at all. It may result in a boost in

undesired behavior, or in a decrease in desired behavior. Managers always want to increase

desired behavior and decrease undesired behavior. However, negative feedback doesn’t aid

us to do that.

All forms of communication can have an impact. A stiffly worded, legalistic memo to

employees telling them not to talk to the press about impending litigation could be assumed

as admitting that the company did something wrong. In some cases, management's

repeated "no comments" to employees and the press on rumored merger talks, but this may

only fuel speculation about company suitors, how much the company will sell for, and how

many employees will be laid off.

Communication should be seen as a continuous and systematic process by which

interested parties within the company learn what they need or want to know. While not all

information is appropriate for all people to know, the more in general open and free

communications should be encouraged across all levels and divisions of the organisation.

Communication in organizations supposed to be easy and understandable.

Management terms and jargon or stiff or flowery language may lead to the impression

among employees that management is talking down to them, and this may simply loose their

interest and defeat the purpose.

In fact, management should get and analyze feedback about the state of

communications at their company. Managers may have misperceptions about the quality of

communications because they have failed to avail themselves to pertinent information from

others.

1.5 Recommendations on how groups can improve communication

In order to improve the effectiveness of communication, the cooperation between

each level of organization is needed. Myers and Myers (1982) combine similar functions into

a higher level common function and provide a particularly clear version of the functions of

organizational communication. They see communication as having three primary functions,

includes coordination and regulation of production activities, socialization, and innovation.

The function of coordination and regulation of production activities as the function of

communication has distorted the most over time. In traditional bureaucratic views of the

organization, prescription is clearly communicating behavioral outlook and the behavioral

consequences related with complying or not complying with these outlook and monitoring are

considered to be the foundation of organizational order and control. This function of

organizational communication was seen as connecting fairly have its own procedures, rule-

oriented, one-way, and top-down communication. Tasks in many organizations have become

more complex, less routine and repetitive, tightly coupled, and interactive (Perrow 1986) and,

as such, the traditional bureaucratic view of organizational communication is not adequate

anymore. Production activities of this nature need dynamic, reciprocal, lateral

communications between production workers and non-routinized, two-way, vertical

communications between production workers and managers.

The second function, socialization is stressed in the human relations viewpoint of

organizations which asserts that detaining the hearts and minds of organizational members

is essential to effectively systematize organizational action in the search of organizational

goals. Communication going to socializing organizational members focuses on articulating

and emphasizing organizational values and linking individual goals with organizational goals.

It is aimed at founding a suitable organizational culture and climate. This type of

communication cannot be one-way or top-down. It must transpire equally between

organizational leaders and organizational members.

In addition, the third function of communication, innovation explains that the

organizational communication literature is increasingly dealing with the importance of

communication in promoting innovation as well as control and coordination. Communication

to promote innovation is related with strong communication within and across the

organization.

This approach focuses on the functional goals of organizational communication, rather

than on the near-term outcomes of particular acts of communication, such as to make a

decision, to persuade, or to resolve a conflict. The more specific functions of specific acts of

communication or sets of communication exchange such as decision-making, informing,

persuading, negotiating, and problem-solving are includes into each of the three higher-level

functional objectives.

Nowadays, there has been a sea-change in communication technologies and a

equivalent sea-change in communication theory and research. The organizational

communication literature traditionally alerts on how variations in organizational

communication were affected by variations in the size, structure, and types of organization

and how dissimilar types of organizational cultures gave rise to diverse types of

organizational communication. The literature has now changed the causal ordering,

highlighting how new forms of organizational communication can bring about new

organizational structures, cultures, and the whole new organizational forms. These new

communication technologies and possibilities, shared with new challenges confronting

organizations, are encouraging a whole new approach to organizational communication that

challenges the very nature of organizations themselves. Thoroughly new communication-

enabled organizational forms are likely and are now promising. On a less pretentious scale,

new communication technologies enable almost every feature of organizational management

and effectiveness, including change management, knowledge management, participative

management, innovation, and organizational partnerships and alliances.

The most prominent advances in communication technology are groupware or

computer facilitated group communication technologies. Johansen (1984) differentiates

groupware in terms of temporal whether in the context of synchronous or asynchronous, and

spatial whether in distributed or co-located contexts. These communication technologies can

assist traditional organizational groups work together more efficiently. But, they help discrete

individuals work as a team. The development of collaboratories was designed to help

dispersed scientists to conduct collaborative research and development as if they were co-

located in a laboratory, may be one of the most exciting applications of the new

communication technologies and computer-enabled environments. By capitalizing on new

communication technologies, an organization can realize a competitive advantage in its

performance and in the marketplace.

Although communication technologies have opened up new opportunities, scholars

and practitioners identify that neither the theory nor the practice of organizational

communication has kept up with this fast changing situation. Organizational communication

“best practices,” to the extent that they subsist, are typically years out-of-date. The

introduction of new communication technologies has caused problems as well as

opportunities. Some communication technologies have led to communication overload. It is a

common misleading notion to assume that because communication is generally seen as a

good thing, the more communication the better. Communication overload is a real problem

as what is needed is better, not more, communication.

Reference

Websites

BusinessDictionary.com, 2012. Retrieved from

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/communication.html#ixzz1mAyYEXv1

Farlex: The Free Dictionary, 2012. Retrieved from

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/business+organization

Reference for Business, Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd ed: Communication in

Organization, 2012. Retrieved from :

http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Clo-Con/Communication-in-

Organizations.html

José Luis Romero, Definition of Business Communication, 2008 – 2012. Retrieved from

http://www.skills2lead.com/definition-of-business-communication.html

Barriers to effective communication, 2012, retrieved from

http://www.skills2lead.com/barriers-to-effective-communication.html

How to give negative feedback, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.skills2lead.com/how-to-

give-negative-feedback.html

Kathryn A. Baker, Chapter 13. Organizational Communication, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/doe/benchmark/ch13.pdf

Books

David, Werner. Managing Company-Wide Communicaton. London: Chapman & Hall, 1995.

Johnson, J. David. Organizational Communication Structure. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing,

1993.

Poertner, Shirley, and Karen Massetti Miller. The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback.

Amer Media, 1996.