Challenges of Business Communication during Covid-19 Pandemic

This presentation discusses the challenges faced by businesses in communication during the Covid-19 pandemic, including the lack of human interaction and the limits of online tools. It also provides solutions to overcome these challenges, such as adopting a messaging platform and clarifying communication expectations. The presentation links the issues to relevant theories of business communication and cites examples of real companies that have managed these issues.

BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
Communicating during a global pandemic and the
potential issues

TABLE OF CONTENTS
 INTRODUCTION
 Contemporary Challenges or Issues faced by business
 A detailed explanation of the problem/ challenge/ issue
 Link to theories
 Example solutions to the issue from real companies
 Own solution to the issue
 Conclusion
 Q & A
 Reflection

INTRODUCTION
 Communication during a global pandemic like the one that is,
Covid – 19 pandemics has been identified as a biggest
challenge for business organization.
 The reasons for which the issues arise in communication
during pandemic involves the choice of medium, irresponsible
communication practices or methods and lack of leadership
and feedback.
 These causes of communication issues results in
misinterpretation and misleading transfer of information and
accordingly, causes several issues in carrying out business
operation virtually (required by Covid – 19 pandemic).
 This presentation will highlight certain issues associated with
communication during global pandemic and the same would
be linked to several theories of business communication.
 Further, the solutions to these issues will be presented by
taking example of real companies and more solution will be
presented on the basis of theoretical analysis.

A detailed explanation of the problem/
challenge/ issue
 Business communication during Covid-19 pandemic:
 During the pandemic remote work became the new normal and all the work and
communication went online. Everything has changed whether it is communication with
the team at work or with the clients. Now, naturally the lack of human interaction along
with the limits of online tools has created a lot of challenges for businesses. No more
face-to-face meetings and casual talks. This has limited the space very much for
building relationships at workplace, leaving many employees to feel lonely and
isolated. This also has an impact on the morale of the employees. They do not have the
benefits of quick sharing of information and decision making that naturally occur
during informal talks in the office.
 Workers in remote work set up also suffer from FOMO since the lack of effective
communication channels leaves them unaware of many opportunities which otherwise
they would have come to know while being in a circle.

Link to theories
 Here it would be pertinent to discuss the importance of open system theory. An open system is a one
which interacts with the other systems through free flow of information. An organisation operating
on an open system interacts freely with its environment through the exchange of information and
resources; in contrast to the closed system where the interactions occur only within the specific
system. That is to say, the closed system is shut off from the outside environment, and the workers
hardly communicate with the units that are outside this system.
 Thus the open system helps in inter-departmental coordination and better collaboration among
different units in the organisation.

Example solutions to the issue from real
companies
 I would like to cite some examples of how the
Organisations have managed these issues. Reinhard
Stonbeck, R&D director at Tesa says the company
faced challenges in keeping up momentum of work
and team spirit without physical meetings. So the
company strived for extra communication through
virtual team meetings, lunch meetings and more and
more virtual seminars and trainings.
 Deniz Bolukbasi, the director at OrganiK Kimya says
that in remote work settings, bringing everybody on
the same page is the greatest challenge. There are great
differences in how individuals with different characters
cope with these situations. There were huge gaps in
productivity among the people. Such varied levels of
productivity placed huge stress on the organisation.

Own solution to the issue
 To address the gaps in communication, I would recommend that the Organisations adopt a messaging platform
where everyone can talk in real time about issues as they come up. Along with that I would suggest that a time
block is designated every day or at least weekly, where the members can have “water cooler” chats.
 Then the communication expectations should be clarified right from the beginning. A clear policy should be
formulated specifying whom to contact in which cases, the communication channels to be used in various
situations, times for various types of communication and when the feedback is given or received on what
topics.
 Frequent video calls instead of audio calls will help solve the problem of lack of non-verbal communication.

CONCLUSION
 From this presentation it has been concluded that effective communication within the
business organization during the time of global pandemic like Covid – 19 was just a
nightmare. This is because no physical presence or face to communication and
everything conducted through virtual means found to be ineffective in terms of
communication.
 Here several challenges have been evaluated with reference to business communication
during the time of pandemic Covid – 19 along with several theories and solutions
adopted to overcome the issue of business communication. At last, own solution to the
issue of business communication has been given on the basis of research performed and
theories evaluated.

Q & A
 Q. Did the communication effective at workplace during global pandemic of Covid-19?
 Q. What else challenges can be stated with reference to business communication during
global pandemic?
 Q. Is there any other example of effective solution to communication adopted by real
companies during pandemic?
 Q. Who is responsible for establishing effective communication during such pandemic
era?

REFLECTION

What went well in presentation and why?
 When I got this assignment of creating PowerPoint presentation, I was quite nervous
initially because I have poor presentation skills. Due to this I found this task quite time
consuming because this is the first time, I am preparing for the PowerPoint
presentation.
 Being the first - time experience, I have taken a lot of time in creating presentation
through PowerPoint tool because I am not sure about how formatting could be done
and how to make an attractive presentation to ensure better understanding of the
subject.
 The thing that go well during the presentation is the use of use authentic sources for
gathering relevant information for the research topic chosen. This was happened
because of my good research and referencing skills which I have developed as a result
of carrying out several research on global pandemic prior to this presentation.
 Accordingly, I got good feedback comments from my lecturer for the quality of the
work as a result of choosing authentic and relevant sources for the information.

What improvements is required as per the feedback?
 With reference feedback comments, the presentation was lacking on the ground of
creativity and critical evaluation. This is because I have utilized a lot of time in
understanding how presentation could be made through PowerPoint tool and then
complete my assignment by just including contents on slide. Therefore, my lecturer
asks for making it creative by inserting pictures and charts on every slide and
formatting the headings and sub-headings to ensure attractiveness of presentation.
 At first hand, I get sad that I have not done my work as required and will get poor
remarks. However, due to the support extended by my friends and even lecturer
himself, I was able to make modifications in the required manner and made the final
submission of the presentation.

What actions will be taken for the suggested improvements?
 I will undertake the tutorials meant for learning how presentation could be made in an
understandable and attractive manner.
 Also, I will take on more projects based on PowerPoint Presentation to enhance my
presentation and creative skills.
 Also, to make improvements in the current project, I will take guidance from my
seniors, friends and tutor who are well experienced in this area to ensure the
completion and modifications are as per the requirements.
 At last, for improving the project in terms of critical evaluation throughout the
presentation, several literature and theories given by authors will be referred in order to
ensure critical evaluation of the subject matter both for the issue and solution to the
given business communication issue during the global pandemic era.

REFERENCES
Walwema, J., 2021. The WHO health alert: Communicating a global pandemic with
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Sharma, P., and et.al., 2020. Managing uncertainty during a global pandemic: An international
business perspective. Journal of business research, 116, pp.188-192.
McGuire, D., and et.al., 2020. Beating the virus: an examination of the crisis communication
approach taken by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the Covid-19
pandemic. Human Resource Development International, 23(4), pp.361-379.
Kang, J., Diao, Z. and Zanini, M. T., 2020. Business-to-business marketing responses to
COVID-19 crisis: a business process perspective. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.
Nguyen, M. H., and et.al., 2020. <? covid19?> Changes in Digital Communication During the
COVID-19 Global Pandemic: Implications for Digital Inequality and Future
Research. Social Media+ Society, 6(3), p.2056305120948255.
Ratzan, S. C., Sommarivac, S. and Rauh, L., 2020. Enhancing global health communication
during a crisis: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pollett, S. and Rivers, C., 2020. Social media and the new world of scientific communication
during the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 71(16), pp.2184-2186.

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