Business Communication: Weekly Journals

This assignment is based on the Unilever, which is a British-Dutch company dealing in consumer goods section. Unilever was founded in 1929 and headquartered in London, UK. This is a public company which is traded on numerous stock exchanges. The report holds weekly journals in which different aspects of business communications are addressed, skills which are required by a customer service executive are discussed.

Business
Communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
Weekly Journals...............................................................................................................................1
WEEK 1 Communication theories and skills..............................................................................1
WEEK 2 Learning theories and styles........................................................................................2
WEEK 3 Group collaboration.....................................................................................................2
WEEK 4 Decision making and meetings....................................................................................3
WEEK 5 Business ethics.............................................................................................................3
WEEK 6 Recommendation for Unilever customer service department.....................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Business communication is a process of sharing information from people to people within
and outside of the organisation. Effective business communication reflects how person
associated with company are interacting with one another such as employees to one another or
employees to managers or higher managers while addressing the whole workforce. This
assignment is based on the Unilever, which is a British-Dutch company dealing in consumer
goods section. Unilever was founded in 1929 and headquartered in London, UK. This is a public
company which is traded on numerous stock exchanges (Bovée, Thill and Raina, 2016). This
report holds, weekly journals in which different aspects of business communications are
addressed, skills which is required by a customer service executive are discussed. These journals
are developed in reflective tone, as it is about the personal skills, ethics and decision-making
power individual holds and needs while communicating with respective stakeholders.
Weekly Journals
WEEK 1 Communication theories and skills
I recently graduated from CU group and joined Unilever as customers service executive
in company's customer service department. In first week of my joining I conducted a self SWOT
analysis for determining my personal communication skills. Through this personal assistance I
got to know about my communication strengths and weaknesses which enable me to judge and
communicate effectively with our customers. I also, identified the learning opportunities which
are available for me in external environment and the potential threats. My strength as in the most
effective communication skill which I possess is conducting appropriate conversation face to
face by using one way and two way communication (Veltsos, 2017). This strength of mine
helped me in effectively communicating with customer’s, solving their queries and providing
them appropriate solutions for their problems. The learning opportunity which I have and by
which in can improve my communication skills is by understanding and adopting Osgood-
Schramm model of communication. Through this communication technique I can develop better
telephonic communication skills. This will enable me to help and resolve customers issues over
the phone in an effective manner. This practice will enhance my job performance and
productivity and make open new doors for me to conduct my duties and responsibilities in better
manner.
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WEEK 2 Learning theories and styles
VARK model is used by the individual for self analysis. This was given by Fleming and
mills in year 1992 and provide reflection of employees personality. Different companies use such
kind of method for there employees to improve the skill and efficiencies in order to compete in
the market. In the context of Unilever the manager of the company has to indulge in training and
use such model to identify the individual skills and it also aid management to assign the job as
per the requirement and capability of individual. Here are some method which involve in VIRK
model which are explain down below.
Visual: This consist of spider diagrams, charts and graph which help me to understand
things better. Here I can learn easily with the visual as it provide detail information regarding
each and every product. Hence this help me in my job role to provide visual content which
develop better understanding for the customer (Escobar-Rodríguez and Bonsón-Fernández,
2017).
Auditory: This method help me to provide aural explanation to customer as some people
have difficulty in understanding the visual graph. There are different method through which the I
can contact customer such as mobile phone and Emails.
Read/ write: Being able to write and read widely are attributes which sought by
employees effectively. This help me to prevent manuals, reports regarding the customers and
manage there quires effectively.
Kinesthetic: A preference for gathering information through experience and practice,
simulated or real, either through concrete personal experiences. This mainly help me to
understand the needs and wants of the customer and through demonstration I can able to promote
product and can manage needs and wants of the customer effectively.
WEEK 3 Group collaboration
In third week of my job role I gave a presentation in front my seniors where I addressed a
group of 10 higher management staff and my senior manager. For conducting this presentation
will my full capabilities and efficiency, I made use of my interpersonal skills. These skills
involves communication and collaborative skills, which helped me to work well with my other
team mates (Malyuga and Orlova, 2017). Communicate channels which is used for making this
presentation in collaboration with my team members are oral. This communication channels
helped me to develop conversation with my colleagues in relation with the presentation. While
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addressing my audience I was a little nervous as it was the first time I was presenting my
knowledge and work in front of my seniors (Peña-Acuña and del Henar Sánchez-Cobarro, 2017).
The presentation went really well, I represented and elaborated every topic thoroughly and they
way in planned to do. My audience was engaged with my and what is was communicating to
them, I gathered all of their attention and did not lose my pace which I think what was the best
quality in me while presenting my topics.
WEEK 4 Decision making and meetings
In fourth week of my job I get to attend few meetings with other partners and third parties
which belongs outside Unilever. There are number of topics and objectives are discussed in those
meetings which are essential for company. Numerous decisions are also taken and process are
undergone for reaching to appropriate decisions and outcomes. These meetings were very helpful
for me and for my personal and professional growth. By being an important part of meeting and
by participating in them I get to learn new and effective ways of conducting business
communication (Sherrow, Lang and Corbett, 2016). Another benefit I enjoyed was learning how
to make rapid decision while addressing queries of customer’s and employee's. Through this got
a n understanding of how to be more effective and render rapid solutions to problems of
stakeholder of Unilever that is specifically employees and potential buyers of organisation.
These rapid decision making skill enhanced by communication levels and expertise. Now I feel
more confident while I am having a conversation with my seniors as now I am well known about
how to develop effective communication with my superiors, my team mates and the consumers
approaching us for any resolutions.
WEEK 5 Business ethics
In next week that is my fifth week of work in Unilever I got to learn about business ethics
and making working decisions according to moral principles. Ethics refers to making decisions
morally, knowing what is rights and what is wrong. These ethics when collaborated with
business are known as business ethics, involving concepts such as corporate governance, insider
trading, bribery, discrimination, social responsibilities and many other. I have learned many
things with these ethics, one of the most considerate thing is I need to work ethically and make
my decisions morally in order to keep my performance level up and effectively working in
Unilever (Patrutiu-Baltes, 2016). The most important ethic which I needed to keep in mind
while working is about discrimination. I am not allowed ethically and professionally to
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discriminate amongst employee working under me or my team mates working at the same level
as mine. I can not discriminate amongst people on any basis such as according to their gender or
cast. This practice will hinder my job role, my duties and responsibilities I hold on behalf of my
company.
WEEK 6 Recommendation for Unilever customer service department
After working for five long week in sixth week of my job I have analysed many things
and areas where in need to improve my skills and abilities. It is required that I seek more
knowledge and understanding of my job role and practice I need to undertake for fulfilling my
duties. First and foremost skill I am required to develop is addressing a group in an informal
manner (Sanina and e. al., 2017). As I gave a presentation in front of my seniors but I lack an
ability to communicate informally with my colleagues and superiors. Also, the decision-making
skills are essential, who's importance was understood by me while I attended meetings. But in
order to gain more expertise, make rapid decisions which are correct and effective for given
scenario. These decision-making skills will enable me to work more appropriately, also assist me
to take decisions for resolving customers problems and queries.
CONCLUSION
The above report is a reflective assignment in which weekly journals are developed.
These journals are addressing numerous segments and areas of business communication which
are based on effective communication skills and business practices. These business
communication skill and abilities are entitled for the employee to acquire for performing their
job in an effective and efficient manner.
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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.
Escobar-Rodríguez, T. and Bonsón-Fernández, R., 2017. Facebook practices for business
communication among fashion retailers. Journal of Fashion Marketing and
Management: An International Journal.
Malyuga, E.N. and Orlova, S.N., 2017. Linguistic pragmatics of intercultural professional and
business communication. Springer.
Patrutiu-Baltes, L., 2016. The impact of digitalization on business communication. SEA–
Practical Application of Science. 4(11). pp.319-325.
Peña-Acuña, B. and del Henar Sánchez-Cobarro, P., 2017. Socio-emotional skills and business
Sanina, A and e. al., 2017. The effectiveness of communication channels in government and
business communication. Information Polity. 22(4). pp.251-266.
Sherrow, T., Lang, B. and Corbett, R., 2016. The flipped class: Experience in a university
business communication course. Business and Professional Communication
Quarterly. 79(2). pp.207-216.
Veltsos, J.R., 2017. Gamification in the business communication course. Business and
Professional Communication Quarterly. 80(2). pp.194-216.
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