Importance of Verbal and Written Communication in the Workplace

This article discusses the importance of verbal and written communication in the workplace, focusing on how it helps in resolving misunderstandings and conflicts. It also explores the use of different communication tools and methods by MacDonald's to ensure effective communication among employees. The article highlights the challenges and recommendations for improving workplace communication.

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Part 1
Verbal (In-Person) Communication
This form of communication is very useful as it helps in understanding the different kinds
of misunderstandings or the confusions that often prevail in the workplace. Workplace conflicts
can also arise due to the cultural difference or difference in the thought and the opinion of people
who are working together. MacDonald’s always makes ensure to work over those aspects that
can bring effective results in the organization. The main aspect of the company is to make sure
that all the employees are properly interacting with each other and resolving their issues. This
helps in understanding the viewpoint of the employees and also resolving the issues by
understanding the entire matter from their viewpoint.
Write form of communication
Iskandar et al. (2018) has stated that there are many important business decisions that
cannot be conveyed to the stakeholders via the means of oral or verbal communication. Thus in
such cases the company has to focus over the written form of communication. This can be done
by using the formal official communication mediums like emails, survey forms and others. This
helps in conveying all the important business decisions to the employees’. MacDonalds believes
that for the proper communication and interaction system there has to be a proper follow up
methods. Thus it is essential for the management to take the review from all the employees to
know if they have been able to comprehend the message. Thus taking the feedbacks from the
employees is of utmost importance. The company has also undertaken a collaborative or
partnership business with Summersault. The print MDUK, a bi-monthly magazine that is

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designed to excite, inform and inspire staff about the company. MDUK is a very important and
use friendly communication tool that is used by the company for enabling the employees to
communicate effectively. Boswell et al. (2016) is of the opinion that be implementing this
communication tool MacDonald had been able to keep up their pace with the young, dynamic
and the modern communication styles
Electronic and hard copy
Stich, Tarafdar and Cooper (2018) has suggested that keeping a pace with the hard copy
and also the electronic modes of communication is essential; in the workplace system. Electronic
modes of workplace communication like email, SMS, Chabot and other such mediums helps in
initiating a multi cultural or a diversified communication system. In order to connect to a large
number of employees working from the remote locations the organization has to use all the
electronic mediums for covering their message irrespective of the barriers, On the other hand
there can be some issue in the internet connection or issues of security breach. Thus in such
cases the company has to use the hard copies like letters’, files and other such hard copies for
covering the messages across all the stakeholders. For ensuring that there is effective
communication the company has to keep the record of them messages being transferred so that
they can be used for any future references.

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Part 2
There are many reasons that act as barrier in the workplace communication. They are-
Lack of confidence
This is one of the most crucial problems that might arise in the field of workplace
communication. Employees often feel hesitant and do not want to share about their concerns.
They also suffer from the fear that speaking to the senior authorities might get them into trouble.
Thus they restrain themselves from sharing their concerns to the senior authorities.
Being unclear
The company management has to realize that there must be proper clarity and reason in
the messages that they are conveying. The process of conveying any official message is not
considered to be efficient unless they the management is making proper feedback from the same.
The senders have to take proper feedback from the receivers or the desired clients in order to
know if the message conveyed has been properly comprehended by the receivers. The receivers
here are the employees (www.mcdonalds.com. 2019). The MacDonald’s management must
make sure that the message that they are conveying have reached to all the employees and they
have been able to understand the same. As there are many employees working in MacDonald’s,
there can be the problem of online trafficking or the attack of virus. This might often disrupt the
smooth sending of the message to so many employees at the same time. Some of the important
data may also get lost and the message being conveyed might not be properly comprehended by
the employees.

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Irregular conversations
There can be a kind of irregularity in the system of communicating. Hall (2016) has
stated that if thee I a lack of consistency then there will be several breaks in the path of
conveying the workplace communication. The management meetings might be conducted only
once every month; this might make the employees forget the important details of the meeting.
Recommendation
 Horizontal communication must be conducted so that all the employees working the
MacDonald Company are able to talk with each other and their seniors very smoothly.
 Managers must make sure that they are involving all the employees in the business
decisions. None of the business decisions must be carried on without undertaking any
proper discussion with the employees or the staffs of MacDonald. In particular the
mangers have to keep in mind that it is a food and beverage company thus they have to
take the opinion of all their employees in order to get the opinion from their entire
workforce.
 The meetings have to be carried on a regular basis so that employees do not forget what
they are learning in the meetings.
 The management has to conduct trainings for the fresh employees’ so that they learn the
importance of minutes of meetings. All the employees must be instructed to keep a
proper note so that all the important notes of the meetings can be kept stored.

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Part3
Importance of meeting Agenda
1. Notice of meeting- This serves as a prior notice or information for all the involved
stakeholders.
2. List of items/topics – MacDonald’ is a very big and famous food and beverage company.
Thus they have to focus over a large number of matters like employee concerns, customer
preferences, customer’s service in so many different branches and others. Thus preparing
the minute of meeting before hand is of utmost importance
3. Priorities meeting discussion – Employees must make a proper plan between the more
important and the less important topics as per the basis of their priorities.
4. Briefs meeting participants – A well planned agenda will be helping the employees to
prepare a list of some unique points or topics to be discussed with special time and care if
they are unfamiliar to the other stakeholders.
5. Limits discussion – A well planned agenda will be helping the employees and the
chairperson or the CEO to slot the time properly. This will help them to finish the
meeting within a short span of time without missing any details.
Importance of Minutes of Meeting
Minutes of meeting will be needed so that employees’ can retain the important aspects
that have been discussed in the meeting. As MacDonald’s is a large business setup that operates
in a large number of areas both locally and Globally, the employees have to remember a large

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amount of details that are being discussed in the meeting. Thus it is important for them to keep a
written record of all the information regarding topics being discussed at the meetings.
Recommendations
 Preparing the Agenda in the advance that is some days before the meeting will be very
useful. This will help the employees to stay prepared. Employees of MacDonald’s have
to carry on a huge research and envelopment in order to know the changing patterns in
the needs of the customer’s .Thus they have to carry on surveys with the targeted
customers and store all the important points with them. They must include all the details
important points to be discussed at the meeting. Thus preparing the minutes of meeting in
advance is always a good habit
 It is recommended that starting with simple details must be initiated. In the beginning
phase of them meeting, employees must start with the easy and the simple details like
taking data from the last few years, the liking of customers of a particular type of
products and others.
 Dividing the time is also a very essential tip. The employees might make a proper plan so
that they can allocate the time for discussing each and every detail within the given time
for an instance; they can keep 5minutes for the introduction, 10 minutes for the
presentation, 5 more minutes for explaining the diagrams or models and the last 5
minutes for summarising their conclusion. This will make their work much easy

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 It is recommended that all the employees focus over making proper minutes of the
meeting so that all the employees remember about the details that are being discussed in
the meeting sessions.
 All the employees must collaborate or consult with each other so that they can work over
the minutes of meeting or recording of all the important details.
 Employees must take out sometime after their meeting is over so that they can give
proper attention over the preparation of the minutes of the meeting.

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References
Boswell, W.R., Olson-Buchanan, J.B., Butts, M.M. and Becker, W.J., 2016. Managing" after
hours" electronic work communication. Organizational Dynamics, 45(4), pp.291-297.
Hall, A., 2016. Exploring the workplace communication preferences of millennials. Journal of
Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 20, p.35.
Iskandar, S.N.S., Rahim, A.M.A., Yussoff, A.N.S.M. and Bakar, F.H.A., 2018. GENDER
ISSUES: THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENCES IN INTERACTION STYLES BETWEEN
GENDERS AND ROLES ON WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION. International Journal of
Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics, 2(2).
Stich, J.F., Tarafdar, M. and Cooper, C.L., 2018. Electronic communication in the workplace:
boon or bane?. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 5(1), pp.98-
106.
www.mcdonalds.com. 2019. www.mcdonalds.com. [online] Available at:
https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb.html [Accessed 31 May 2019].