Evaluation of Organisational Communication in Sullivan Buses

This report evaluates the general theories of organisational communication, forms of written and oral communication, current communication practices, and barriers and challenges faced by Sullivan Buses. Recommendations are provided to overcome these challenges.

Business
Communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Evaluation of general theories of organisational communication................................................1
Analysis of forms of written and oral communication relevant to improve performance...........2
Evaluation of current communication practice between drivers and customers along with
drivers and senior management...................................................................................................3
Current barriers and challenges along with the recommendations to overcome them................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Business communication ca be defined as a procedure which is required to be focused by
all the business entities fort the purpose of sharing detailed information of proposed plans with
staff members. It is very important to manage it effectively so that employees and management
can interact properly for the purpose of attaining long term business goals (Bovée, Thill and
Raina, 2016). The organisation which is selected for this report is Sullivan Buses. It is one of the
small and private bus operators of South East England which is headquartered in South Mimms,
United Kingdom. This report covers various topics such as general theories of communication,
forms of written and oral communication, current practice of the enterprise in interaction etc.
Along with this current barriers and challenges with recommendations to overcome them are also
covered in this assignment.
MAIN BODY
Evaluation of general theories of organisational communication
Sullivan Buses is one of the small bus operators of South East England which is
operating its business successfully. Currently the enterprise is facing the problem of
understaffing which is resulting in increased work load existing employees as they have to work
for additional hours without any pay. Due to this they have became stressed and they are not able
to communicate with customers properly. Passengers are complaining about rude behaviour of
staff. For the purpose, of resolution of such types of problems the management of the
organisation can use following theories of organisational communication:
Communication accommodation theory: It is one of the common theories of
communication which is required to be focused by business entities such as Sullivan Buses
because it is mainly concerned with adjustment in the interaction style with others. There are two
main elements of it which are divergence and convergence. First one could be used to highlight
the group identity by touting differences of teams identified by them. The second element of this
theory is used by such individuals who are not having power for social approvals. According to
the situation of the bus company currently the employees are using convergence style in which
they are trying to work according to the top management (Theories of communication, 2020).
Constructivism theory: This theory states that the individuals who are highly
cognitively complex ca be more successful communicators. It is because they are posses with the
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ability of creating sophisticated and customized message which pursue different goals related to
communication. By using this theory managers in Sullivan Buses will be able to find the causes
of poor interaction of drivers with customers and then form effective strategy to deal with the
situation.
With the help of both the above described theories of organisational communication an
organisation such as Sullivan can analyse the factors which are resulting in poor interaction of
drivers with customers and senior management.
Analysis of forms of written and oral communication relevant to improve performance
As Sullivan Buses is facing the problem of poor communication of staff with customers
therefore it is very important for the senior management to use different forms of oral and written
communication so that performance of company could be improved (Brink and Costigan, 2015).
Various types of both the types of interaction are discussed below:
Oral communication: It can be defined as a verbal interaction which taken place
between two or more individuals. With the help of it managers in Sullivan Buses will be able to
discuss the issues with drivers properly. Different forms of it which could be used to improve
performance are as follows:
 Face to face conversation: By using this form of communication the senior managers in
Sullivan can interact with all the employees face to face and ask for their issues. It will be
beneficial to find quick resolution for all their problems so that performance of company
could be improved.
 Telephonic conversation: As there is a large number of staff members in the company
therefore it will be very difficult for senior managers to interact them face to face. In
order to deal with this situation they can call them and communicate personally so that
their problems could be resolved and organisational performance could be improved.
Written communication: It can be defined as the process of interacting with all the
employees in a formal manner. There are various forms of it which could be used by Sullivan
Buses to interact with employees. Description of all of them is as follows:
 Email: It is an official way of communication in which senior management of Sullivan
can provide the information of new policies to the employees. It can also be used to get
details of the problems which are faced by staff members so that all of them could be
resolved for effective execution of operations (Cardon and Marshall, 2015).
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 Letters: It is also a form of written communication which could be used by Sullivan's
managers to interact with employees and ask them to share their issues which are
resulting in poor interaction of them with customers. It can also help to improve
performance because the workforce will work productively if their problems are resolved
by senior management.
By using all the above described form of oral and written communication managers in
Sullivan Buses will be able to improve performance of the company because all of them can help
to find best suitable solution for the issues faced by employees.
Evaluation of current communication practice between drivers and customers along with drivers
and senior management
Communication practices can be defined as a framework which is focused by all the
organisations to interact with the employees. The current communication practices in Sullivan
Buses are weak because drivers are not able to interact with customers properly. Description of
them is as follows:
Communication practice between driver and customer: The drivers in Sullivan are
not able to interact with customers properly as they are frustrated because they have to visit all
the destinations in 12 hours shift and they do not get additional pay for over time. Another reason
for weak communication practice is that drivers are not able to speak other languages as they
know English only. It is also affecting the interaction with the passengers of bus (Kernbach,
Eppler and Bresciani, 2015).
Communication practice between driver and senior management: These practices are
also weak as management is not interacting with employees on regular basis and they have also
not proposed any plan for providing them benefits in monetary terms. The problem of
understaffing have increased work load for the existing staff which is resulting in frustrated
behaviour of them.
Current barriers and challenges along with the recommendations to overcome them
Sullivan is facing the problem of poor communication by of drivers with customers and
senior management. It is resulting due to different barriers which are as follows:
 The top level executives are not able to communicate with all the drivers so that their
level of frustration could be decreased.
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 One of the barriers which is affecting communication of drivers and customers is related
to language as they can only speak English and some of the passengers speak it as second
language.
 The main challenge which is faced by the organisation is poor performance due to weak
communication as rude behaviour of drivers is resulting in unsatisfied clients and lower
profits.
 Lower productivity is also a challenge which is faced by Sullivan Buses because if the
drivers will remain stressed out then it will directly impact their work quality (Mautner
and Rainer, 2017).
The senior management is recommended to pay attention towards following
recommendations so that the barriers and challenges could be resolved properly:
 The managers should pay attention towards hiring of new staff so that work load of
currently working drivers could be decreased.
 Another suggestion which is provided to the senior management is related to
communication in which they are recommended to interact with all the staff members
personally. It will help to get detailed information of the issues which are resulting in
poor performance of them.
 Language training sessions should be conducted by the enterprise as it can help the
drivers to speak other languages apart from English (Veltsos, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above project report it has been concluded that business communication is one
of the main element which is required to be focused by all the organisations as it can help them
to perform operations properly. There are different theories of interaction such as constructivism
and communication accommodation theory which could be used by senior management to
effectively communicate with employees. Different forms of oral and written communication
such as email, letter, face to face and telephonic interaction could be used to communicate with
employees. There are various barriers for conversation which includes language and emotional.
These are required to be dealt properly so that performance of company could be improved.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bovée, C. L., Thill, J. V. and Raina, R. L., 2016. Business communication today. Pearson
Education India.
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.
Cardon, P. W. and Marshall, B., 2015. The hype and reality of social media use for work
collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business
Communication. 52(3). pp.273-293.
Kernbach, S., Eppler, M. J. and Bresciani, S., 2015. The use of visualization in the
communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International
Journal of Business Communication. 52(2). pp.164-187.
Mautner, G. and Rainer, F. eds., 2017. Handbook of business communication: Linguistic
approaches (Vol. 13). Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
Veltsos, J. R., 2017. Gamification in the business communication course. Business and
Professional Communication Quarterly. 80(2). pp.194-216.
Online
Theories of communication. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.communicationstudies.com/communication-theories>
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