Effective Communication Strategies for British Airways: Challenges and Recommendations

This report discusses the challenges faced by British Airways in communicating effectively with its stakeholders and provides recommendations to overcome communication barriers. It covers theories of organizational communication, barriers to effective communication, and strategies to improve communication.

Business
Communication for
Travel Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION...................................................................................................3
Theories of Organisational Communication..........................................................................3
Barriers and challenges to effective communication..............................................................4
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................1
Strategies to overcome communication barriers....................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business communication refers to the strategy of the organisation to communicate
effectively with its stakeholders (Edwards-Dashti, 2022). With the help of business
communication the company tries to communicate effectively its vision, objectives, ideas,
mission, strategies and other aspects about the organisation to its customers (Guffey and Loewy,
2021). Business communication is important because with the help of effective business
communication strategies a business can achieve integration of its goals, ideas, mission and
vision with the society and increase its presence. The following report will describe about the
various challenges that British Airlines faces for communicating effectively. British Airlines is
an international flag carrier of the UK. Which was established in the year 1974and is
headquartered at London, England. Moreover, it will discuss the strategies to overcome the
communication barriers by utilising suitable communication models to increase efficiency of the
organisation. Resolving the organisational barriers and challenges to communication is a very
difficult task but it can be corrected by intervening accordingly.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Theories of Organisational Communication
Deetz’s Managerial Theory:
The emergence of organizational structures, frameworks and models over the period has
developed ideas reflecting organizational dynamics and Stanley Deetz's management concept is
one such try to provide an explanation for how organizational/enterprise conversation and its
governance occur in organizations where antique ideas are replaced by means of acknowledging
political and financial interests and the need to symbolize and articulate the voices of the
organisation and its stakeholders (Alvesson and Deetz, 2020). What stands out on this view is
that Deetz is going beyond the rigid organizational ideals and, as alternative, units out the beliefs
of democratically elected institutions and power institutions within the enterprise. This mixture
of spotting the truth that that means lies in people and not their names and coming across the
pastimes of these definitions is honestly a step forward from Weber's nameless model and a extra
advanced Tompkins and Cheney manipulate concept.

Organisational Control Theory:
Theories of organisational control provide the processes in which an organisation tries to
control the communication ways within a given system. Organisational management includes
inherent communicative ways in which the words and actions are designed to overcome any
form of resistance and exercise authority and control over others. For instance the supervisors
depend upon the verbal instructions, written directives and peer stress to control their
subordinated within an organisation (Kindsiko, 2018). Collective effort cannot be achieved
without individuals relinquishing a few degree of autonomy in an effort to paintings in the
direction of a commonplace objective. Communication pupils have a look at organizational
management strategies to understand the techniques and sources organizational leaders
draw upon to persuade their individuals to work together. The technique of organizational
control is complex via the reality that managers and workers regularly have conflicting pursuits.
Managers typically want to maximise the productiveness of their subordinates at the fee of
minimizing organizational profits. In assessment, workers can find ways to maximise man or
woman rewards at the same time as minimizing man or woman effort. It creates, reproduces and
transforms organizational contexts wherein discern and child members have interaction as they
agree on unique pursuits.
Acceptance Theory of Authority
The assumptions of authority theory concept had been at
first evolved via Mary Parker Follett, however later popularized by Chester
Barnard (1886–1961) in his 1938 book the functions of the govt. This theory
of authority emphasizes the role of managers in preserving relationships
with subordinates to facilitate true communique and contain
subordinates' help in control selections. Bottom-up Authority
theory, additionally referred to as Acceptance theory, suggests that
authority definitely flows from the bottom up, rather than vice versa. In
this respect, the glide of authority is towards the needs of
the top management, and while the subordinates accept it,
the control absolutely sporting activities the authority.

Barriers and challenges to effective communication

Business Communication for British Airways
Barriers
Business Communication and overview of the organisation
Business communication refers to the strategy of the organisation to communicate effectively with its
stakeholders. The following leaflet will describe about the various challenges that British Airlines faces for
communicating effectively. British Airlines is an international flag carrier of the UK. Which was established
in the year 1974and is headquartered at London, England. Moreover, it will discuss the strategies to
overcome the communication barriers by utilising suitable communication strategies.
Physical barriers Emotional barriers
Organisational structure barriers
Information barriersCultural barriers
Effective communication with the stakeholders is one
of the most important parts for the organisation to
enhance its overall revenue. Understanding the
barriers to effective communication can be helpful
for an organisation to ensure that its message is
louder and clearer to be understood by its
stakeholders. With the help of effective
communication the company can improve its
performance at all the levels and the organisational
effectiveness and efficiency will also rise. Drupal has
developed a free guide that was named as the seven
barriers to communication which provides
obstruction in communication processes of the
organisation. The common barriers to effective
communication of British Airways are as follows:

 Physical barriers: It refers to the barriers that are due to the presence of physical
challenges that may be faced by the stakeholders’ world journeying with the company
and availing its services. Due to the consistent rise of pandemic conditions across the
globe, it has become one of the physical constraints that have worried the people for their
safety while journeying with the company. The people are feared and traumatic due to the
COVID-19 situations that may lead to decline of their health and may ruin their health.
With the utilisation of new technology and digital media the company can avoid these
barriers and can carry their operations smoothly.
 Emotional barriers: The lack of interest among the people to travel across the borders
has also made it difficult for the company to communicate with them and prepare them
for traveling with them (Varma, 2021). Emotional intelligence is a very important skill
but in the current situation of pandemic the people have lost their confidence over
travelling across the borders due to the lack of trust on the companies to prevent them
from vivid situations. The distrust of people on the tourism companies and travel
organisations like British Airways has developed emotional weakness due to changing
policies and people fear to travel internationally.
 Organisational structure: The organisational structure plays a very important role for
communicating effectively with its clients and creating higher organisational
performance. The people are worried about the changing policies and guidelines of the
government regarding COVID-19 pandemic that made it unclear for the British Airways
to communicate effectively with the people and reduce their tensions on travelling
beyond borders. British Airways has seen changes in its organisational management and
functioning due to regulations of the government regarding the pandemic.
 Information barriers: The communication with people who do not have full information
about travelling across the borders is very ineffective for the company. In order to
communicate with the people in effective and efficient manners they should have little
insight about travelling at foreign locations (Amsdell and Kulkarni, 2020). People are
unaware about their reason for travel, the requirements for travelling during the
pandemic, travel policies etc. that make it difficult for British Airways to communicate
with the people.
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 Cultural barriers: It is among the most common barriers in the globalised economy
where people from different cultures with different preferences reside together. If the
business communicates its ideas, views, objectives etc. it may happen that they may not
be able to communicate effectively with the people from different backgrounds and
cultures which reduces their efficiency for communicating effectively. It is among the
most common barriers to communication, and companies should understand the cultural
sensitivities of their stakeholders and value their beliefs and practices for improving their
communication practices with them.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Strategies to overcome communication barriers
It involves a strategic analysis of the situation and applying guidance to communicate
effectively with the customers (Güven, 2022). Some of the strategies that can help British
Airways to communicate effectively with the customers are as follows:
 Customer communication management or CCM can be elaborated as a strategy that is
utilised by the companies to improve the quality of their outbound communications. This
can be done by utilising customer oriented software that provides the customer
communication at the most dominant places to ensure coverage of maximum area. It
ensures that all the functions within the company like marketing, advertisement,
promotion, selling and customer service are monitored closely for improving the
customer interaction (Lutzky, 2021).
 Conveying accurate information is very important for communicating effectively and
eliminating the barriers to communication. The company must provide complete
knowledge because providing incomplete knowledge may create classes among the
customer thoughts and may reduce their chances to travel with British Airways. For
instance, if a customer contacts the company regarding the requirements they have to
fulfil for travelling across the border and, if the company misses to tell about the PCR test
then the customer may not be able to travel and company may need to face a reduction in
client loyalty. It is the responsibility of the organisation to ensure that every stakeholder
has the same amount of information that is correct and clear so that their experience can
be enhanced.
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 Practicing proactive customer communication: The customers always demand for
more and they may not be completely satisfied with the services that are offered in the
first attempt. The customers make calls again and again to resolve their issues and it may
take more time to fulfil the customers’ expectations by understanding their needs. In such
a scenario the company must utilize a proactive response for the customers to
communicate effectively and give clear information about the processing of data and their
query resolution. The company can utilize the help desk software for providing automatic
support to the customers and encourage productive self-services by utilising artificial
intelligence, chat-bots and FAQ for enhancing customer experience and communicating
effectively by eliminating the barriers.
 Avoiding interrupting activities like not listening to the customer feedback and
complaints about the products or services that disappoint them (Edwards-Dashti, 2022).
The company should listen to its customers very seriously and handle their complaints
wisely so that the barriers of knowledge can be removed. The company should utilize
artificial intelligence and digital platforms for providing useful information to the
customers about travelling across the borders and reduce their unfamiliarity with
international tourism. British Airways should not interrupt the customers unnecessarily
and they should contact them for resolving their problems and issues. The company can
ask their customers to wait or stop their trip plans if the company does not have clear
ideas about the circumstances in travelling across the borders.
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Strategies
Resolving the organisational barriers and challenges
to communication is a very difficult task but it can be
corrected by intervening accordingly. Customers are
the life blood of business and it is very important for
an organisation to communicate effectively with
them in order to develop better relations with them
and improve their experience. It has to create higher
profits for the organisation and develop its brand
image in front of the customers so that maximum
revenue generation can occur. British Airways can
utilise the strategies that are mentioned for enhancing
their interaction with the customers and encourage
the travelling of the shareholders across the nations.
 Customer communication management or
CCM
 Conveying accurate information and
showing honesty
 Practicing proactive customer
communication for Avoiding interrupting
activities
 Personalizing the interaction by knowing
the products or services inside out
 Understanding what the business mistakes
Various strategies for overcoming challenges and problems involve a strategic analysis of the situation and
applying guidance to communicate effectively with the customers. It has been obtained from the above
leaflet that effective communication activities of an organisation with its stakeholders is very important for
improving the overall performance and revenue generation of the company. Moreover, it has been
discovering certain barriers and challenges like physical barriers, emotional barriers, organisational
structure barriers, information barriers and cultural barriers that video says the communication activities of
the company with its stakeholders. Finally, it describes certain strategies for overcoming the
communication barriers like improving the accuracy of communication, practicing proactive customer
communication, not interrupting the customers, enhancing knowledge etc.

Knowing the products or services inside out can help the company to provide better
communication to the customers and eliminate the organisational structure barriers (Santana,
Valle and Galan, 2019). The company should describe its products and services effectively and
efficiently so that customers can be provided with the knowledge about the products and services
offered and can improve the quality experience of the customers. The company should provide
information about the advancements and new services of products for sharing knowledge with
the customers and improving the communication by eliminating the organisational structure
barriers.
 Honesty is the best policy and companies should practice it in providing information to
the customers which enhances the loyalty of customers towards the business. British
Airways must provide correct information about the current situations of pandemic across
the global market and the overall consequences that the customers may face due to
international travel. The customers must not be provided wrong information when the
company is out of the answers for their questions because it may reduce the antiquity of
the organisation in the views of its customers.
 Personalizing the interaction with the customers by communicating in the ways they
want can help to eliminate the language barriers for communicating effectively with the
customers. The cultural and linguistic barriers are among the most common barriers while
communicating with the customers with different backgrounds. Personalizing the
interaction by utilising different technology like translation tools can help to
communicate effectively with the customers from different backgrounds and enhance
their experience. It will be helpful in communicating the correct information to the
customers as per their preferences and provide useful data so that the company can
enhance their overall experience and provide services by understanding the customer
needs and disclosing all the facts for travelling across the borders.
 Understanding what the business mistakes are in communicating to the customers
can also be helpful to communicate effectively with the customers (Popescu, 2020).
British Airways can understand the barriers and challenges to communication for
improving the communication activities of the organisation. This will also help to reduce
the problems related to effective communication with the customers and improve
interaction with them with the help of relevant customer data on a continuous basis. By
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understanding the communication gaps of the organisation it can eliminate the future
problems and enhance its interaction with its stakeholders.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that effective communication activities of an
organisation with its stakeholders is very important for improving the overall performance and
revenue generation of the company. Moreover, it has been discovering certain barriers and
challenges like physical barriers, emotional barriers, organisational structure barriers,
information barriers and cultural barriers that video says the communication activities of the
company with its stakeholders. Finally, it describes certain strategies for overcoming the
communication barriers like improving the accuracy of communication, practicing proactive
customer communication, not interrupting the customers, enhancing knowledge etc. It has been
obtained that effective communication is very important for an organisation to interact with its
stakeholders and provide best services to them.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Amsdell, A. and Kulkarni, N., 2020. American Airlines Group, Inc.: A Return to Profitability
Amid a Pandemic. The Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication,
Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame.
Edwards-Dashti, N., 2022. Change: Technology, Transformation, and Communication.
In FinTech Women Walk the Talk (pp. 47-53). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Guffey, M. E. and Loewy, D., 2021. Business communication: Process & product. Cengage
Learning.
Güven, E., 2022. Digital Evolution in Brand Communication. In Impact of Digital
Transformation on the Development of New Business Models and Consumer
Experience (pp. 231-252). IGI Global.
Lutzky, U., 2021. “You keep saying you are sorry”. Exploring the use of sorry in customer
communication on Twitter. Discourse, Context & Media, 39. p.100463.
O’Rourke, J. S., 2019. Management communication: A case analysis approach. Routledge.
Popescu, C.A., 2020. Chatbots as Marketing Communication Tool. FAIMA Business &
Management Journal, 8(3). pp.62-75.
Santana, M., Valle, R. and Galan, J. L., 2019. How national institutions limit turnaround
strategies and human resource management: a comparative study in the airline
industry. European Management Review, 16(4). pp.923-935.
Varma, T. M., 2021. Responsible leadership and reputation management during a crisis: The
cases of Delta and United Airlines. Journal of Business Ethics, 173(1). pp.29-45.
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