Communication Report

This report discusses the importance of communication in organizations and the challenges of intercultural communication. It includes findings from an interview with a departmental head of a grocery company and provides recommendations for improving communication in the workplace.

Running head: COMMUNICATION REPORT
COMMUNICATION REPORT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
Business communication can be considered to be an important domain of concern and any firm
which wants to attain success in the long run would be required to ensure that they are able to
manage intercultural communication within departments and groups and keep their barriers aside
to achieve the goals. Hence, the given report is based on the study of communication and its
importance. An interview with an employee of a store was conducted and the methodology
adopted has been described. The findings from the interview have been presented and an analysis
has been undertaken on the same. The recommendations and conclusion wraps the report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
About the company and interviewee...............................................................................................3
Methodology....................................................................................................................................4
Findings...........................................................................................................................................5
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Communication forms a crucial part of the firm and hence it becomes considerably
crucial for all the firms to ensure that they are successfully able to engage in the interpersonal
communication with the employees and abide by the norms and the regulations of their cultures
as well (Beebe, Beebe and Redmond 2000). Culture and religious values have a great role to play
in shaping the overall personality of an individual and when an intercultural communication
takes place then it becomes considerably important to ensure that, no one`s sentiments are hurt.
Hence, the primary objective of the report is to throw light on the overall communication
dynamics which exist in an organization and understand the manner in which the communication
is required to take place as this goes a long way in determining the overall working environment
of a firm.
About the company and interviewee
The interview was taken from the Departmental head of a grocery company names S
markets (Pseudonym). Moreover, the name of the interviewee was Ran (Name changed). Ran is
a female departmental head in the supermarket in the grocery department and has 14 employees
working under her. Ran could be considered to be an appropriate individual to conduct the
interview with because she has the experience of working with people belonging to different age
groups and different cultures which is the min scenario of all companies in today`s world. In the
interview, Ran discussed about the different problems and issues being faced by her in the
organization and the manner in which is successfully able to manage the business relations with
different types of individuals.

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Methodology
The data for the given report has been collected with the help of primary research. The
primary research which was conducted can be stated to be based on the interview which was
conducted from a senior employee present in S supermarkets. The employee has been the head of
the grocery department since a long period of time and hence, is aware of the different
interpersonal and intercultural communication issues which exist within the realms of an
organization and the manner in which these issues are required to be dealt with. The
methodology which was followed for the report can be stated to be quite simple as the
interviewee was selected on a random basis. Being a regular visitor of the store, the interviewee
was a regular person with whom the author of the people had been interacting with and with
respect to this, the permission of the interviewee was taken and a date and time was fixed to
conduct the same. The persuasion approach which was used to persuade the supervisor was the
technique of Credibility.
As the author was a regular customer at the store, a sense of trustworthiness existed
between the two individuals and this is how the manager agreed to conduct an interview under
the author for the purpose of the report. In addition to this, the author was also able to prepare a
brief which explained the employee about the scenario and assisted the author to conduct the
interview easily. In addition to this, the systematized approach of conducting the interviews was
adopted whereby the consent form of the interview was collected and the interviewee was
introduced to the topic before proceeding to the questions (Myers Briggs test). Topics on various
areas like Differences in culture, differences in age and differences in gender at the workplace
were discussed before proceeding to the point about the manner in which the different members

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of the organization can improve their overall communication. The findings of the report have
been presented in the following section.
Findings
The findings of the interview conducted have been summarized as follows:
 The organization had more than 40 employees and all of them belonged to the different
sections of the society including different castes, religions, backgrounds as well as
different genders.
 The team of the supervisor was the Grocery team whereby the gender distribution
comprised of 10 male employees and 5 female employees including the interviewee.
 The team was a mixture of Asia, African and Australian employees. This made it difficult
to cooperate with the different team members but the supervisor had a simple policy of
interacting firmly with all the employees and ensuring that, none of the employees were
hurt intentionally or unintentionally (Lesikar, Pettit and Flatley 1993).
 It was also found that very often the different employees as present in the organization
may be hurt due to certain comments but then if the other employees make it a point to
understand and apologize for the same then it becomes easier for the firm to carry out its
operations (Hofstede 2010).
 Moreover, irrespective of all the interpersonal and other barriers which may exist in an
organization, it is important to keep the overall goals as well as objectives of the firm in
mind before proceeding with the same in order to ensure that the organizational
objectives are achieved successfully.
 In addition to this, it can be considered to be important that there may exist age
differences as well with respect to the different employees and they are also required to

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be dealt with utmost care and patience in order to ensure that, all the employees can work
together as a team.
Analysis
Therefore, from the given findings it can be understood that the Interpersonal and
intercultural communication forms an integral part of the organization and any organization
which aims to attain success in the long run would be required to ensure that it is successfully
able to maintain peace and a constant chain of communication amongst the different employees
(Scollon, Scollon and Jones 2011).According to Gudykunst, Ting-Toomey and Chua (1988), the
values, language and other aspects like religion and aesthetic values form crucial part of any
organization and communication aspects hence must be respected throughout. From the given
research conducted it needs to be understood that, just like Ran managed the scenario and
focused on the achievement of the organizational goals all other managers are also required to
take steps to ensure the same.
In addition to this, it can also be understood that the age barriers also have a great role to
play in ensuring the success of the team as a whole (Trenholm and Jensen 2008). All the junior
as well as senior employees will be expected to cooperate with one another and work as a team
in order to enable the firm to achieve their overall objectives and goals (Dodd 1995). Moreover,
like mentioned by Ran it is important to conduct group meetings and discussions to indulge in
the active participation of all the employees and ensuring that employee engagement takes place.
Recommendations
Hence, it can be recommended for the stores like S and for the supervisors like Ran that,
in order to attain success in the future and ensure all the goals and objectives of the firm are me

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with, an organization should engage in active communication as well as discussion so as to be
successfully able to solve the different issues in the workplace (Wujec 2010). The
recommendations are as follows
 Conduct regular meetings amongst the employees
 Conduct regular outings with respect to the same.
 Ensure a mentor system to overcome the barriers between the junior and the senior
employees (Chen et al. 1998).
 Encourage active participation
 Impart personal and social training.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the given report it can be understood that the communication forms the
basis of any organization and in order to ensure long term success it can be considered to be
crucial by any firm to engage in the interpersonal and intercultural communication which would
assist the firm in achieving its overall objectives. The report followed a structured format with
respect to which the introduction explained the background and was followed by the
methodology adopted by the study. The latter section of the report discussed the findings and
analyzed the same thereby providing recommendations for improvement.

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References
Beebe, S.A., Beebe, S.J. and Redmond, M.V., 2000. Interpersonal communication. Scarborough,
Ont.: Prentice-Hall Canada.
Chen, G.M., Starosta, W.J., Lin, D. and You, Z., 1998. Foundations of intercultural
communication. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
Dodd, C.H., 1995. Dynamics of intercultural communication. Madison, WI: Brown &
Benchmark.
Gudykunst, W.B., Ting-Toomey, S. and Chua, E., 1988. Culture and interpersonal
communication. Sage Publications, Inc.
Hofstede, G., 2010. Geert hofstede. National cultural dimensions.
Lesikar, R.V., Pettit, J.D. and Flatley, M.E., 1993. Basic business communication. Irwin.
Myers Briggs test (Type Dynamics Indicator Form)http://scu.edu.au/students/index.php/129
Scollon, R., Scollon, S.W. and Jones, R.H., 2011. Intercultural communication: A discourse
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Trenholm, S. and Jensen, A., 2008. Interpersonal communication (pp. 10-12). New York:
Oxford University Press.
Wujec, T, 2010 ‘Build a tower, build a team ‘ (TED talk) available
http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html