Business Communication: A Case Study of Glenmore Hotel

This report analyzes the communication skills present in Glenmore Hotel, identifies the cultural and communication factors causing communication breakdown, and suggests actions that managers need to take to improve communication in the team.

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Business communication: A case study of Glenmore Hotel
Name
Institution
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Executive Summary
The main focus of the report was to identify and explain communication skills which are
present among the team, identify the cultural and communication factors causing communication
breakdown and identifying and justifying actions that managers need to take in order to improve
communication in the team. The communication skills present in the Glenmore hotel include
active listening, speaking with confidence, empathy and effective email and report writing skills.
The causes of communication breakdown include power distance, attitudes towards gender,
racism, stereotypes, prejudices and misunderstanding. For successful business communication,
managers should offer training to employees to ensure that listening is proficient in their
organizations. Training will also ensure that employees learn how to conduct themselves and
relate to each other in the workplace.

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Contents
Executive Summary.......................................................................................................................2
1.0 Background..............................................................................................................................3
2.0 Good Practice in Communication..........................................................................................4
2.1 Analysis of the Causes of the Communication Breakdown.................................................6
2.3 Managing improvements.........................................................................................................8
2.4 Conclusions...............................................................................................................................9
2.5 Recommendations..................................................................................................................10

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1.0 Background
Glenmore hotel receives a significant number of customers from different races, cultures,
ethnicity and religions. In addition, the staff employed in the organization also comes from
different cultures and therefore sometimes it becomes hard for directors to manage the staff. The
communication skills that exist between the staff determines the degree to which the staff
coordinates and become more productive. Recently, ideological differences between the diverse
staff from dynamic groups have resulted in workforce conflicts leading to the breakdown of
communication that has tampered with the employee-to-employee relationship. Therefore, the
paper seeks to identify and analyze good communication practice present among the team,
causes of the communication breakdown, actions managers need to take to improve
communication and recommendation for how managers can reduce or eliminate future similar
workforce conflicts.
2.0 Good Practice in Communication
Active listening is one of the good communication practice exercised by the staffs of
Glenmore hotel. Bodie (2011 p.1) defined “active listening” as a process in which a speaker is
given a maximum attention with the aim of understanding and learning new information.
Furthermore, active listening requires the listener to understand, concentrate, respond and be in
the position of remembering the speaker’s remarks. From the Glenmore case study, all the staffs
listen to one another complaints before responding and therefore they end up minimizing the
possibility of misinformation or interruptions. For example, Max (Chef) always have a pen and
pencil to take notes which helps him to record essential information for future reference and
satisfaction of customer’s wants. The active listening in the hotel is a way of showing respect to
the person who is speaking and keenly understands or hear their point of view.

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Listening with empathy is also a good communication skill practiced by Glenmore staffs.
Aragno (2008 p.713) defined empathetic speaking as a type of listening which focus on
understanding the speaker. In addition, through the effective empathy speaking, one is able to
understand what others are going through and connect with them. A good description of how
listening with empathy communication is practiced in the Glenmore hotel is when Vivian tries to
understand her coworkers. In addition, to avoid the workforce conflicts Vivian also understands
that the Chinese do not like blacks and she is not good then jasmine.
Effective report writing is another good communication skills practiced by staffs of
Glenmore hotel. According to Sampson, Enderle, Grooms and Witte (2013 p.643) reports writing
skills are an essential communication tool as they make readers to find the information they need
easily and promote effective communication in the workplace. Further research by Thomas,
Zolin and Hartman (2009 p.302) shows that business reports should contain the main points and
should omit any unnecessary information or description. From the Glenmore case study, it is
clear the effective reporting skills are practiced when Helen states that “the first thing I learned
when I was trained to write a report is that each point is made very clear at the beginning of a
sentence”.
Glenmore hotel also has effective email communication practice. Effective email writing
involves indicating clearly the topic in the subject line and restricting each email to the topic.
Effective email writing is associated with consistent communication. From the Glenmore hotel
case study, effective email writing is experienced when Helen emphasizes that email should
begin with the salutation “hi” and paragraphs clear flow of ideas and topics.
Speaking with confidence is also another communication skill practiced by Glenmore
staffs. Speaking with a high level of confidence shows that staff members believe in what they

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are saying. Furthermore, when speaking with confidence that staffs need to consider not
sounding arrogant or aggressive. From the Glenmore case study, speaking with confidence is
experienced when Jed states that “because we have conflicts, does not mean there is a problem”.
In addition, Vivien also speaks with confidence when he emphasizes that she does not see the
point of talking to Jasmine who is a Chinese as there is a stereotype in the hotel that Chinese are
better than Africans.
2.1 Analysis of the Causes of the Communication Breakdown
Stereotypes are one of the communication breakdown causes among the staffs in the
Glenmore Hotel. According to McKown and Strambler (2009 p.1643) stereotype is
overgeneralized belief for a particular group of people. From the Glenmore case study, it is clear
that Chinese people have a belief that blacks cannot produce the best staff or be more productive
in the hotel than the Chinese. Furthermore, the stereotypes have restricted Vivien from talking to
Jasmine about the reason why she is always late for meetings.
Misunderstanding is also another cause of communication breakdown in Glenmore hotel.
According to Daim et al. (2012 p.208) misunderstanding is lack of understanding something
correctly. From the Glenmore case study, Jed and max fail to understand the nature of Vivien
duties and responsibilities of prioritizing client first and they end up being angry because she
fails to attend a meeting on right time.
Another cause of communication breakdown in Glenmore hotel is prejudices and racism.
Prejudices are unfair and unreasonable feeling formed without enough knowledge Sapp and
Zhang (2009 p.279) while racism is the belief that a particular race is superior to the other thus
resulting in prejudice and discrimination towards people on the basis of their ethnicity or race. In
the case study, Vivien cannot understand anything being said by the Chinese people hence

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doesn’t want to talk to Jasmine who is Chinese. In addition, she believes that Chinese people
hate black people.
Power distance is also a cause of communication breakdown in Glenmore hotel. Power
distance is the inequality in power in the skills and ability of employees (Meredith, 2012 p.92).
Therefore, unequal distribution of power is the major cause in the communication breakdown.
For example, Jed believes that she cannot make decisions about food without talking to the chef.
Research by Palttala, Boano, Lund and Vos (2012 p.6) shows that context sensitivity is
the ability of a person to focus on the formality of a particular situation. To build communication
in workplace employees should ensure that they understand the importance of formality in
business communication. A good example is whereby when writing emails, Vivien does not
write “hi” and does not include paragraphs which makes it hard for the reader to understand the
exact points. Helen also feels that some staff do not have the skills and expertise required of
them due to poor report writing and formatting.
Attitudes towards gender is another cause of communication breakdown in Glenmore
hotel. When employees have a bad attitude towards a particular gender, they tend to have a bad
working relationship with specific colleagues (Derwing and Munro, 2009 p.480). The aspect
leads to the creation of a hostile environment thus resulting in poor performance at work.
Although Max does not want to admit that he has a bad attitude towards his female colleagues, it
is clear that he is not treating Vivien well. For example, Max believes that Vivien likes changing
things and told the client they could have a specialized menu.
In addition, space is a factor that has resulted in communication breakdown in Glenmore
hotel. According to Aerts and Cormier (2009 p.7) space means that employees want their
personal space and do not want to make efforts in assisting other employees to achieve their

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targets. For example, Helen is focused on her own responsibilities and strengths and does not
want to assist Vivien in writing a good report. Therefore, focusing on personal space by Helen
will result in more poor reports in the future from Vivien thus being a major contributor in the
communication breakdown.
2.3 Managing improvements
Glenmore hotel managers have various methods they can use to improve the
communication challenges in the workplace. Firstly, Glenmore hotel managers should make an
identification of the weaknesses in business communication at the hotel. Research by Moreno
(2010 p.101) suggests that managers can brainstorm where business communication challenges
can be identified. The challenges can be obtained through the review of the daily activities of the
staff so as to understand the level of satisfaction of each employee and why they feel
demotivated. For example, managers may need to inquire from Helen why she feels that it’s not
her responsibility to assist Vivien in improving her report writing skills so as to improve
communication in the business.
A study conducted by Budescu, Broomell and Por (2009 p.303) shows that after
identifying all the factors inhibiting proper communication in organizations, managers should
prioritize the most troublesome issue and which needs immediate address. Glenmore hotel
managers should develop constructive and proactive communication skills among the employees
so as to tackle the communication challenges systematically. The aspect will be of importance in
dealing with the issues of a poor attitude towards a particular gender, space and stereotypes and
prejudices.

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Further research by Conrad and Newberry (2012 p.116) shows that for successful
business communication, managers should offer training to employees to ensure that listening is
proficient in their organizations. Employees should be able to listen carefully to instructions
given in regards to job specifications and requirements so as to always keep the clients delighted.
For example, when clients need specialized meals, it’s upon the chef to change their schedule
and offer what the client needs. According to Louhiala-Salminen and Kankaanranta (2011 p.246)
employees should allow colleagues to present their ideas on solving different problems since
giving of opinions has been proven to be a contributor to business communication success.
Furthermore, a study conducted by Garnett, Marlowe and Pandey (2008 p.273) illustrates
that employees should be ready and able to take notes on a various issue which need a reference
at a later time. For example, different schedules may be hard to remember so writing them down
will assist in quickly moving forward and defining the goals. Employees at Glenmore hotel
should also be taught the importance of a diverse workplace and why they should respect people
from other cultures irrespective of language, color or race. When employees are united, they are
able to move swiftly in the achievement of given goals and objectives thus resulting in an
improvement in the organizational effectiveness.
Moreover, to eliminate the power distance in Glenmore hotel, managers should ensure
that employees who are associated with a particular department have the skills and knowledge
required to ensure the consistent flow of company activities even in the absence of particular
employees. For example, Jed should be in a position to make effective decisions about food in
the absence of Max who is the chef. Prompt decision making and elimination of the power
distance results to continuous operational effectiveness even in the absence of a particular

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employee which ensures that the organization is a position to discharge its services to customers
in a consistent basis.
2.4 Conclusions
Communication involves receiving and sending messages, listening and speaking.
Employees and managers need to listen carefully by holding back their judgment and allowing
opinion to come from outside. Effective business communication is important for the success of
any business. For effective business communication, employees should ensure that they embrace
a good relationship with their colleagues since they interact with their daily activities. Ideological
differences are a key threat to threat to effective communication skills. Different communication
skills like empathy, active listening, email communication, writing reports and confidence are
core business communication skills possessed by Glenmore staffs. Despite, the cultural
differences within the hotel, the communication skills has been a key tool in running the
business.
2.5 Recommendations
The organization should consider having a clear duty and responsibility for each staff.
Furthermore, more training should also be provided to the staff. For example, if Vivien is not
good in wring emails he/she should be trained in that field. The spirit of teamwork should also be
established in the organization and all the staff be encouraged to work toward a common goal.
Managers should understand the weaknesses leading to challenges in business communication
and address these challenges so as to create room for improvement

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