Enhancing Business Communication Skills

The assignment discusses the importance of effective business communication in an organization, highlighting the role of the HR department in maintaining healthy customer relationships. It emphasizes the need for participants in meetings to be good speakers and listeners, and suggests that HR Directors should continuously evaluate themselves to enhance their communication skills and encourage healthy practices within the organization.

BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Business communication refers to a process to ensure a flow of communication within
the organization. The following report is based on 45 Park Lane, a hotel situated in London,
United Kingdom. The agenda of this report is to formulate communication strategy of the firm
with an aim to enhance its customer relationships. The report briefly discusses the principles and
purpose the HR Director needs to consider while formulating communication strategy within the
firm. It was found that HR Director must ensure clarity, regular flow of information and
integration towards company's objectives to enhance the communication within the organization.
The report discusses the characteristics the participants of meetings require to be efficient
speakers and effective listeners. Lastly, self evaluation of one's strengths and weaknesses can
enable HR Directors to effectively encourage healthy communication practices within the
company which is required to drive out competition and expand the customer base.
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Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1..........................................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Analysis of principles and purpose HR director would need to consider in a communication
strategy....................................................................................................................................................4
1.2 General characteristics that participants at meetings must have to be good listeners and good
speakers...................................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................................7
2.1 Evaluation of own strengths and weaknesses in terms of communicating, both orally and in writing
.................................................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Business communication is a term for sharing of information within and outside an
organisation. It is essential for managing a company to ensure healthy flow of information from
managers to employees and vice versa (Cardon, 2014). Effective way of communication within
the company ensures its success in the market. The below assignment is based on 45 Park Lane,
one of the finest hotels situated in London, United Kingdom. It covers the principles and
purposes of HR director in implementing communication strategies within the firm,
characteristics of good communicators and evaluation of own strengths and weaknesses in terms
of communication.
TASK 1
1.1 Analysis of principles and purpose HR director would need to consider in a communication
strategy
It is very important for an organization to establish effective communication within the
company. In hospitality, effective communication plays a prominent role in the quest of a
company to achieve success (Bargiela-Chiappini and Nickerson, 2014). As per the scenario, the
firm is being inefficient due to ineffective communication within the company. There is a serious
need to implement a stronger communication strategy in order to improve customer experience
and enhance the effectiveness of the firm. In communication strategy, the principles and
purposes of HR director are as follows:
Principles of HR Director:
There are certain principles that must be followed by HR Director of 45 Park Lane which are
mentioned below: Clarity: The staff members and employees of 45 Park Lane are multinational. With such
diverse workforce, it is necessary to establish communication which could give them
clear idea of their roles and responsibilities. The focus of the communicator must be on
providing precise information that could easily be understood by the employees. Consistency and Adequacy: HR Director of the firm must follow adequacy and
consistency while communicating with employees. Incomplete and inadequate
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information would lead to ambiguity due to which, employees’ performances could
hinder in the workplace.
 Integration: For an organization like 45 Park Lane, it is required that efforts of the
members must be integrated towards achieving the set objectives. HR Director must
focus on maintaining and encouraging such integration within the firm.
Purposes of HR Director:
Purposes of HR Director of 45 Park Lane in the firm’s communication strategy are as
follows: Flow of Information: The main purpose considered by the HR Director must be the
continuous flow of relevant information within the firm. Employees at all levels must be
informed about the objectives of the organizations (Brink and Costigan, 2015). Moreover,
it must be monitored that no misinformation is being circulated under any circumstances. Customer Relationship: In hospitality, it is crucial to develop healthy and long lasting
relationships with customers in order to increase the stature and popularity of the firm.
Communication in 45 Park Lane must be focused on establishing such relationship with
its customers. Spontaneous assistance and effective communication would help the firm
attract more customers for the firm.
 Competence: For growth of any business, it is necessary that the organization be
competent enough to sustain tough competition in the market. HR Director through
communication strategy must focus on driving the firm towards achieving competence
that gains the firm a competitive advantage.
1.2 General characteristics that participants at meetings must have to be good listeners and good
speakers
Meetings refer to gathering of stakeholders to address issues affecting the firm. Not all
meetings are driven towards discussing the flaws; there might be meetings to discuss strategies
or appraisals, etc (Mishra, Boynton and Mishra, 2014). For a firm like 45 Park Lane, meetings
play an essential role in developing effective strategies to strengthen the firm. However, it is
necessary for participants in the meeting to be effective listeners as well as effective speakers.
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There are certain characteristics participants must have to be good listeners and speakers in 45
Park Lane which are discussed below:
Characteristics of good listeners Understanding: For a person to be a good listener, the most important characteristic is to
understand what the speaker is trying to say. Whether a speaker is clear or not, it is
essential that an effort be made by the listener to understand the topic (Vernuccio, 2014). Attentive: It is required from participants in 45 Park Lane to channelize their attention
towards the speakers. Good listeners always pay attention to what is being said in a
meeting. They don’t make assumptions even if they are familiar with the topic of
discussion (Characteristics of a Good Listener, 2017). They play close attention to
words with a motive to enhance their knowledge.
 Patience: It is normal in meetings that certain incorrect statements are made. These
statements can be about past records, or current state of the firm and so forth. Moreover,
sometimes listeners don’t agree with the speaker. A good listener always stay patient
during such times. They wait for the speaker to finish up with their course of action and
after their completion, respectfully raise the argument. Patience is essential for meetings
in 45 Park Lane as the employees belong to different cultures and sometimes it gets
difficult for them to present information consistently. In such case, patience is crucial to
boost their confidence.
Characteristics of good speakers Confidence: A good speaker must be confident enough to present their views in front of
others. It is imperative in meetings because sometimes it is necessary to be critical about
some specific operations of the firm. Being a confident speaker in 45 Park Lane would
allow the speakers to critically present their views on the company’s function and present
better and effective methods to enhance performance of the firm. Authenticity: Good speakers never convey incorrect or inauthentic information. They
focus on clarifying their facts first before presenting. Moreover, good speakers tend to
prepare arguments with evidence about specific information. Good speakers realize the
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consequences of being inauthentic in meetings and therefore focus on presenting correct
information to their listeners (Thomas and Stephens, 2015).
 Precision: Long and irrelevant speaking tends to divert the attention of listeners. Good
speakers possess this characteristic of being relevant and precise while presenting their
information. Their main focus is always on how best information could be delivered by
being precise.
TASK 2
2.1 Evaluation of own strengths and weaknesses in terms of communicating, both orally and in
writing
In order to achieve corporate objectives, it is crucial to establish ethical and effective
communication practice (Christensen, 2014). I happen to be an HR Director in 45 Park Lane. To
enhance my communication with my employees, I have evaluated my strengths and weaknesses
in both written and oral communication that would allow me to increase my capabilities while
communicating with people in the firm. These strengths and weaknesses are as follows:
STRENGTHS IN ORAL COMMUNICATION Confidence: I am confident when it comes to one to one oral communication. I present
my views clearly and confidently. I focus towards making a good and correct perception
of these views in the minds of my listeners.
 Connection: I am quite successful in connecting with my audience. I plan on developing
a personal relationship with each of my subordinate which helps me to understand them
even further. With my communication skills, I tend to grab their attention and establish a
strong connection throughout the conversation (Tang, Gallagher and Bie, 2015).
WEAKNESS IN ORAL COMMUNICATION Repetition: One of my weaknesses is that I repeat words and phrases too often in a single
conversation. Despite of being clear and confident, sometimes I involuntarily repeat
statements that cause distraction of my audience from me.
 Public speaking: I hesitate while speaking in front of a large audience. This is because I
keep making assumptions throughout my speeches about their perceptions. This
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hesitation is one of the biggest threats for my job as I am required to present staff reports
to internal as well as external stakeholders of the company on a monthly basis.
STRENGTHS IN WRITTEN COMMUNICATION Precision: All the written materials developed by me are precise and relevant. I aim
towards using only relevant and statistical information for communicating through
writing. Recommendations too are short and focused on the immediate issue that needs
formulation.
 Substance: I back up my arguments with statistical and numerical data. I use substance
which helps the reader to get a clear idea about what my report is trying to convey. I
focus my points on towards the subject of the reports and do not make use of any
irrelevant information.
WEAKNESS IN WRITTEN COMMUNICATION Irregular Flow: Reports developed by me lack the flow of information. I fail to give an
appropriate finish to the previous topic before starting another. This makes my reports
inefficient and sometimes confuses my readers.
 Overuse of Jargons: Reports and written information developed by me are read by
internal as well as external stakeholders. But I sometimes overuse jargons that creates
makes my reports ambiguous and difficult for external stakeholders to read.
RECOMMENDATION
To successfully enhance my role as an HR Director in 45 Park Lane, I must undergo
training sessions to enhance my public speaking skills. In addition to this, I must focus more on
regulating the flow of my reports. This way I could effectively guide my subordinates and could
ensure efficiency in communication of the organization.
CONCLUSION
It is thus concluded from the report that effective business communication is necessary in
an organization to maintain healthy customer relationships. The HR department of the company
plays prosperous role in ensuring regular flow of communication within the organization.
Participants of a meeting must be good speakers as well as effective listeners to formulate
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competent and appropriate strategies that could help the firm strengthen its business functions.
Lastly, HR Directors must continuously evaluate themselves in order to enhance their
communication skills and encourage healthy practices of communication within the organization.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cardon, P.W., 2014. Business Communication: Developing Leaders for a Networked World (3e).
McGraw-Hill.
Bargiela-Chiappini, F. and Nickerson, C.R., 2014. Writing business: Genres, media and
discourses. Routledge.
Brink, K.E. and Costigan, R.D., 2015. Oral communication skills: Are the priorities of the
workplace and AACSB-accredited business programs aligned?. Academy of
Management Learning & Education. 14(2). pp.205-221.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L. and Mishra, A., 2014. Driving employee engagement: The expanded
role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication.
51(2). pp.183-202.
Vernuccio, M., 2014. Communicating corporate brands through social media: An exploratory
study. International Journal of Business Communication. 51(3). pp.211-233.
Thomas, G.F. and Stephens, K.J., 2015. An introduction to strategic communication.
Christensen, M., 2014. Communication as a strategic tool in change processes. International
journal of business communication. 51(4). pp.359-385.
Tang, L., Gallagher, C.C. and Bie, B., 2015. Corporate social responsibility communication
through corporate websites: A comparison of leading corporations in the United States
and China. International Journal of Business Communication. 52(2). pp.205-227.
Online
Characteristics of a Good Listener. 2017. [Online] Available Through: <
https://jamesaltucher.com/2017/02/good-listener/>.
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