Why business communication?
Overall betterment is the key objective of any business communication. Depending upon the specifications of different commercials specifications objectives can differ concerning different organizations. Communication is no doubt very essential in business, it is needed at every stage, there should be effective communication between each sector and within every sector for the welfare of organizations. Communication ensures the smooth conduct of work and proper collaboration.
- Why business communication?
- Intrusive information:
- Exclusive information:
- Competitive information:
- Information about the environment:
- Basis of the delivered information?
- Is all the collected or transmitted information much needed? Which kind of information is beneficiary?
- (B) Order
- Must have’s of an effectual order
- Steps involved in giving an order
- (C) To suggest something
- (D) To give Instructions
- (E) Persuasion
- (F) For Motivation:
- (G) For giving Advice
- (H) To Warn
- (I) To build up mental peace
- (J) To impart knowledge
Communication can be there in an organization due to any of the following purpose, there can be various other objectives as well:
(A) For exchange of information:
Sending, receiving, and processing information is readily required for fruitful output, peculiarly information should be correct complete and precise.
But you must be thinking, that why this information is needed?
All the information about the below-mentioned aspects is gathered from various sources and is used for planning, structuring the basic layout and then executing the plan, making an imagination a reality. ( smooth conduct of whole procedure is ensured by the effective communication through which meaningful information is interchanged)
Information can also be divided into two types concerning an organization:
Intrusive information:
- Vacancies, new recruits, and job assignments along with the administrative procedure: Employees and the general public must be provided with the information about the vacant posts and also administration should know about the number of new recruits to examine their work accordingly. Information regarding the future perspective of any employee’s job should be provided to them so that they always remain anxious to work. Telling workers about the method by which they are governed will bring transparency and worker as well as the administrator will feel more complacent to work with one another.
- Decision-making: Communication within the organization helps in making the right and beneficiary decisions. Authority of making decisions as per the designation of the officials should be displayed.
- Information about the policies and enterprise: If the workers are aware of the association’s activities and policies then they know about the working of their company helping them to plan better corresponding to the current, previous and future policies and activities.
Exclusive information:
- Products information: Information about the product should include whole information about the product, its usage, expense, sales and reviews of the consumers about the product, needed advancements and amendments in the product, etc.
- Information regarding the availability of funds: The available fund, the required credit, the manner of other financial bodies and there terms and conditions on which they support the particular organization.
- Information about the availability of raw material: It is the primary requirement. An organization should be aware of the availability and easy accessibility of the raw material, its quality, and quantity. Also whether there are any inexpensive as well as equally effective alternatives the required primal matter.
- Information about the legal rules and regulations: Changes in governmental rules and regulations affect the business, it affects the sales, manufacture of the products, policies of the association, and various other aspects of an organization that need to be looked at while legal issues related to the business are concerned.
- Information about the advertisement of the products: Publicizing the manufactured products is also imperative in this era to increase the sale and to maximize the profits. Information regarding the efficiency of different means of advertising the product such as newspapers, television, radio, online advertisement, etc should be known to the concerned department in an organization.
- Information about technological advancements: Science and technology play a very important role in every sphere of life today. By giving information to the employees about the latest technology its development, its usage in their work can make their work easy and convenient, parallelly the quantity and quality of yield can also be enhanced.
Competitive information:
Getting information about the opponents, their strengths, weaknesses, their plus points, their way of working, strategies are undertaken by them, their products, new launching products, its sales everything is of paramount importance. This will allow an organization to plan their events, other affairs accordingly. An organization can also modify their strategies and products in order to increase its profit based upon it’s rival’s approach.
Information about the environment:
Financial, social, political conditions affect a business, also the cultural information about the region where the trade is being done, climatic and geographic conditions should be known to the employees so that execution of the basic layout is also done properly.
All the above-mentioned information should be present in the files so that a record is maintained.
Basis of the delivered information?
Now, this must be clear to you that communication is done for exchanging the information, that is information is sent, received and understood, but what was the origin of this information, from where it came? Let’s have a look at the various sources from where information is gathered.
- Previous experience: Past experiences and lessons learned by them help to work attentively and carefully in the future, also we get to know about the follies that need to be corrected and tells about the scope of betterment.so, this kind of information can be easily accumulated from old files and primitive records of the company.
- Scrutinization: Observations can also provide very useful information, like reliability on a particular institution, quality of work of an employee, after-effects of certain policies on economic status.
- Mass-media an evergreen source of information: Newspaper, reporting, internet, advertising, radio, movies, magazines, documentaries, and journals related to the specific fields are always a source of information, accurately the latest information.
- Conferences and seminars: Every year various business seminars and conferences are held at regional, national and international levels. Where experts are invited to share their knowledge with the entrepreneurs so that they can also excel in their work. Apart from this big companies usually hold big meeting where you get an opportunity to meet very experienced people who eager to share whatever is there in their head, such meeting serves as a great platform to learn and also to share your issues and solutions come readily popping out of each member,s experience and knowledge in the meeting.
- Circulating Questionnaires: Making a list of all the possible and precise questions whose answers can provide all the required information about the product. These questionnaires are distributed among the general public and employees of the organization. This will help the managers to enlist the changes that they need to make in their product and also that what the public expects them to do, they will also get to know about the aspirations of their employees which will help them to exploit their potential to the best.
- Business tours, exhibitions, and fairs: Business tours are sponsored by various companies, which are not only amusing but also provide immense information about business-related issues. Exhibitions also enforce to think extraordinarily and find new ways to the challenges.
Is all the collected or transmitted information much needed? Which kind of information is beneficiary?
Before you work on any information, before digest it, accept it, seek the answers of following questions from yourself:
- Is this information dependable, is this information from an authentic, trusty source?
- Is this information complete, covering all the important points?
- Is the information precise and correct?
- Is this information current?
- What can be the estimated drawbacks and positives of working in this information?
(B) Order
Order is always given by an authority to the juniors, to work a certain way or to alter something in a particular manner, thus, it is an authoritative communication. It acts as a navigator to direct the employees, it is needed to maintain the decorum and discipline, to establish a kind of fear among the workers of the seniors to work accordingly. It is essentially required to regulate the descending flow if the information within an organization.
Types of Order:
- Written or oral order: Written orders are more effective than oral orders. The former ones increase the sense of responsibility, Moreover, the execution of written orders is also more obligatory and records are also easy to maintain. Whereas the latter one is more complex because it is disrupting and not at all convenient to issue orders ever time some task has to given or executed, such orders are usually given when either the task needs to be completed immediately or the task is not that important or the job is not demanding to maintain any accurate record or files.
- Specific and General orders: If several activities need to be done provided that all the tasks have some similarity then it is a general order. But if one particular task is considered in order then it is a specific order.
- Procedural and functional orders: Procedural orders are more general and involve the whole process that is to be adopted for the completion of work, however, Operational or functional orders focus on the task in hand, they just describe a single job, how it is to be performed.
- Obligatory and discretionary orders: Obligatory orders are mandatory to execute and are much more important as well. Discretionary ones are usually in a counseling tone and suggest the measures only, whether to make that order a reality this is the wish of the manager only.
Must have’s of an effectual order
- It should be complete and clear, should involve everything in a systematic order, the way it has to be carried out So that the receiver understands the order perfectly and it becomes easy for him to implement. Also, it should surely answer who, when, what, where, how, all these possible arising questions in the reader’s mind.
- its execution should be practically feasible. The receiver must have all the resources needed to complete the task moreover, if there are some hurdles to be overcome then methods to deal with them should also be provided, to ensure the smooth conduct of the given task in the order.
- It should be given in a complacent and friendly way so that both the sender and the receiver feel comfortable to work with one another and to assure there is no absolute sense of superiority or inferiority, but the authoritative power of the senior should be appropriately used.
Steps involved in giving an order
As per Paul Pigors seven steps on order-giving operation are as follows:
- Planning: Planning is paramount to make any order clear. Before giving any order the senior should be himself very clear about the following things: (a) What action is required (b) is it practical/achievable (c) who is going to perform the task (c) Tenure in which task has to be performed (d) Are there any obstacles need to cope up, are there any ways to solve those problems. (e) What type of order is to be given.
- Preparing the order-receiver: This should be surely considered for the satisfactory (as desired) completion of any order. Because if the order-receiver is foretold and mentally ready it helps the person to interpret information correctly and execute in a better way, thus, ensuring correct completion of work.
- Presenting the order: It is the stage at which the order is written and issued, it is being checked that the order is complete, firm, and in a formal tone.
- Verification of reception: After the order has been sent it is necessary to verify whether the order has been received perfectly or not, the giver should also know the reaction of the receiver.
- Action: After the successful completion of the above-mentioned steps, the receiver must obey the orders and act in a certain way with the correct spirit for the completion of the order.
- Follow-up: A proper follow of the given order is needed to check whether is being implemented correctly or are there any difficulties in between the execution that needs to be overcome, if proper information about whole conduct is then solutions to such problems can be easily found.
- Appraisal: When the given task has been completed then it needs to be assessed that whether the work has been done satisfactorily done or not there is something is wrong with its execution and implementation.
(C) To suggest something
A suggestion is a gentle and adroit form of communication. This is a fallacy among many people that productive suggestions come from higher officials or the managers only, rather I feel that highly constructive suggestions can be drawn from the one who is actually making a plan a reality, the one who is actually working on a task and knows all the strong and weak aspects clearly by himself. For a successful business, such the erroneous convictions should be kept aside so, that these do not arouse that egoistic sense in anyone to fell more self-important and forcing him/her not to accept the suggestion from a worker.
These days suggestion boxes are becoming common almost every organization in its office has at least one suggestion box, where it is the wish of the person who is suggesting to display his name or to keep it anonymous. Also, to lure more and more employees to think and get more positive suggestions rewards are given to the employees who come up with the best suggestions.
(D) To give Instructions
Instructions in a way are orders with directions to do a certain task. Instructions provide the guidelines, for example, if a manager asks his employees to alter their product certain way so that the audio becomes more clear, then this an order but if he provides the way to do so then it is an instruction. Thus, all instructions are indirect order but all orders may not be instructions.
(E) Persuasion
Persuasion refers to art to make the other person think the same way as you think. An important aspect of communication a tactic to sell the products. Buyers are often persuaded to purchase a certain product without the knowledge of the customer that he/she is being secretly persuaded. In offices also the lazy workers are persuaded to work more. It is human nature to come up with animosity if forced to something, so, instead of compelling a person to do work try implementing the art of persuasion there, it’ll surely make things easy. Some important points that need to be kept in mind while persuading anyone are as follows:
- Do not directly keep arguing with the buyer. Commence by giving the,m some indirect hints, suggestions, and converse with them in a good friendly manner.
- Slowly, establish links between what you are saying and what the buyer is thinking. Channelize your and let them reach the receiver.
- Try to think from the point of view of the customer, bring yourself at their level.
Steps for persuading someone:
- Examine the situation: Scrutinize the situation that why the other person needs to be persuaded, prepare yourself for that. Analyze the customer try to guess his opinion.
- Prepare your receiver: The person who is going to receive the message also needs to be made ready to accept the transmitted information. You can prepare the customer by praising him, complementing on qualities, looks, then start the conversation, the receiver must feel comfortable.
- Send the message: Never directly ask the receiver to do a certain way always embark on by giving indirect hints step by step.
- Inducing action: This the result of persuasion at this stage the receiver holds a different point of view.
(F) For Motivation:
To stay inspired is also important, there are various methods and reasons to stay motivated like listening to speeches having an idol, job satisfaction, respectable position. Here the communicator lingers in the background does not enjoy any upper edge, does not force his employees to work but motivates them to work willingly with their wish. Seminars and regular conferences can be organized to inspire the workers. this is known to all that most of us work for the monetary benefits, offering bonuses and promotion opportunities where salary may get increased is one of the best ways to motivate workers, however, in some situations financial conditions of an organization may not allow this.
(G) For giving Advice
There is a very slight difference between advice and suggestion. Advice always carries the information transmitted, it is always based upon some fact and has a clear purpose, intention. It depends on the receiver whether to act on the advice or not.
As trade is becoming more and more composite these days, it is required to deal with different aspects, sometimes those are not related to your department,you don’t have any information regarding that so, you seek advice of an expert, for example, if you need any advice related to banking, then you may consult a bank manager, a chartered, or any other expert in the particular field, if you need any legal advice then you may approach lawyer. The manager may need to advise the subordinates because managers usually have more experience and knowledge this is what differentiates them from others their advice provide direction to the employees and results in fruitful outcomes.
Points need to be understood while giving any advice:
- Advice should be specific and understandable. The adviser should first analyze the grasping level of the receiver then should then put forward the information accordingly.
- The adviser should not make feel the receiver inferior or suppressed because of the lack of knowledge.
- It should be given in a friendly manner, if delivered in the right manner it can lead to better communication and business relationships, leading to better functioning of the organization.
(H) To Warn
- Employees who do not follow rules and regulations of the organization like negligence, not maintaining proper records, mishandling, spreading rumors, being absent in working hours without leave, disturbing others, misguiding others, etc.
- No smoking, Do not gossip during working hours, No talking, Do not disturb, etc all are general and some common warning which does not hurt anyone’s feelings they do not target a specific person they are for all the employees.
- If only a single employee is violating the rules and disrupting the working environment, then that person only needs to be warned, this can also lead to felling of revenge, personal grudges, resentment, animosity. so, before warning anyone the whole truth should be known to the director and any possibility of the offense.
- Never warn anyone in front of others, as if you do so then the person feels discouraged and embarrassed and becomes least interested in working.
- The purpose of warning someone is betterment. If there are some regular menaces then managers should discuss the problem with the concerned person to find out suitable solutions.
(I) To build up mental peace
Raising morale is equally important as a mentally fit worker can work more productively, think creative, work better on more innovative ideas and can unleash new possibilities. Appreciating employees can act as a mental fuel, a soothing and complacent atmosphere can also add on to mental relaxation.
(J) To impart knowledge
Learning and teaching is a continuous process it, there is no specific age of learning even there are many things to learn while working, for example, an update about new technology, how to use it, other marketing experts as well. So, a communication or a communicative session imparting required knowledge to each person in an organization should be there like once a week class, evening classes or workshops can be organized. Educated management knows the correct way to work, at each stage time-to-time workers also need to be educated so that they are able to cope up with the cunning ever-growing world, educating customers is important this may seem weird but yes it is required they need to know about the newly launched product its pros and cons, substitutes, other similar products, why this only, its usage, precautions, etc.