Journal on Business Communication: Observations and Lessons Learned

This journal documents observations and lessons learned on various communication categories such as public relations, advertising, promotion/event, social media, internal communication, and communication breakdowns. It includes visits to business organizations, analysis of news articles, and role-play rehearsals. The journal emphasizes the importance of feedback, intercultural communication, and strong internal communication systems within organizations.

Running head: JOURNAL ON BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Name__________________________________________Date______Day #___1_____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
The research on business communication began with public relations in business
organizations focusing on journal articles on the issues and importance of public
relations. At first, it was difficult identifying the PR issues, as complete awareness about
the concept was lacking. However, with extensive research, much was revealed about the
concept and the articles helped better understanding.
2. Advertising:
This area of communication was not given much importance on the first day.
3. Promotion/Event:
No activities
4. Social Media:
The social media has always fascinated people as users and this task provided an
opportunity to learn more about this emerging form of communication. The initial
research focused on three social medial platforms. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – all
three of these social media platforms were filled with product ads of different products.
5. Internal Communication:
In order to understand internal communication, it was required that a visit some business
organizations had to make personally. As a start, a list was prepared naming the nearby
business organizations that could be visited. Out of the seven organizations that were
found nearby, two were shortlisted.

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6. Communication Breakdowns:
News and magazine articles were shortlisted for observing and understanding
communication breakdowns. Both print and electronic media were marked as important
sources for the news articles on the topic.
Lessons Learned:
The first day was spent identifying and gathering sources for observations on business
communication. However, much knowledge was gathered in terms of concepts like
public relations and the social media. Internal communication as an important part of the
business organization was also observed.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #___2_____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
The research on PR issues and importance continue. These include media analysts,
policymakers and influencers, shareholders and customers as well.
2. Advertising:
Advertising is a vital part of business and a lot depends on the way the business
advertises its products and services. Effective advertising influences sales and profit
remarkably. The 2012 P&G ad campaign “Thank You Mom” on the London Olympic
theme is a great example of successful advertising as found from the observation.
3. Promotion/Event:
A visit to a local football event organized for promoting a newly launched sportswear
company helped understand the concept of promotion.
4. Social Media:
The significance of Facebook as a tool for business communication is further researched.
Facebook groups used by employees of business organizations help reduce workload and
consumes less time.
5. Internal Communication:

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Two business companies – a bank and a supermarket – were visited for internal
communication observation purpose. Indirect observation was chosen as the method for
observation.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
No activities
Lessons Learned:
The visit to the two companies was fruitful because practical observations helped clarify
numerous concepts.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #___3_____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
No observations
2. Advertising:
Types of advertising like newspaper, magazine and television were observed. It was
noticed that advertising for the same product differed in different places.
3. Promotion/Event:
No observations
4. Social Media:
Business executives could directly interact with customers through Twitter and
Facebook. Many instances of such conversations were found on the net.
5. Internal Communication:
No observations
6. Communication Breakdowns:
The case of communication failure of General Motors provides an insight into the
communication breakdown concept. The company had failed to acknowledge the severity
of the ignition switch issue due to poor choice of words by committees investigating the
matter.
Lessons Learned:

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It was learned that companies use advertisement after much research on popular choice,
demands of the consumers in particular places, and then target them.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____4____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
PR could lead to amazing results for a company if used smartly. Many companies indulge
in activities such as planting trees, donating to charities or promoting products through
social messages. Google, one of the giants in business, created a website dedicated to
raise funds for Ebola victims.
2. Advertising:
No observations
3. Promotion/Event:
A recent news article on Beijing Olympic Park in China shows the effectiveness of events
increasing promotion. At an event celebrating the 500 millionth visitors to the park, the
organizers had stated that they aim to build a platform for enterprises where they could
strengthen relationships by deepening communication.
4. Social Media:
Twitter has been observed as the most used social media platform by businesses to
convey various ranges of messages. Customers as well as employees express their issues
in the Twitter handle of the specific businesses.
5. Internal Communication:
A magazine article mentions Thomson Reuters’ excellent internal communication
strategy. The article talks about the #daretodisrupt campaign by the company to re-
energize innovation.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
Lessons Learned:

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The most interesting lesson learned on this day was the significance of internal
communication and the methods used by companies to strengthen it. The observation also
helped learn the fact that business communication need not always follow conventions.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #___5_____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
The observations regarding PR was limited to observing business organizations using this
tool in the media to hide the actual truth. Companies use lobbyists who work behind
closed doors and influence government decisions on issues relating to PR.
2. Advertising:
Lack of knowledge regarding cultural and linguistic norms of other countries could cost
companies heavily. An article about the failure of the ad campaign by Tesco in London in
2015 was read. The company displayed Smokey Bacon Flavor chips posters wishing
Ramadan Mubarak to its Muslim customers not realizing that bacon is forbidden in their
culture.
3. Promotion/Event:
Associating with big events like soccer World Cup or other sporting and other events is
an effective way to promote brands. The recent FIFA World Cup 2018 saw gamut of
brands promoting through team jerseys or through on-field digital ad banners.
4. Social Media:
No observations
5. Internal Communication:
An analysis on internal communication of the two companies visited during the early
days was done. It was found that internal communication within the bank was poorer than
that of the supermarket.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
No observations

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Lessons Learned:
It was clearly evident from the day’s observation that in the age of globalization,
intercultural or cross-cultural communication is extremely important.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #_____6___
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
In Australia, one of the biggest cases of PR disasters was of the fast-food giant
McDonald’s during 2012-2013. It faced a huge PR crisis when its plan to set up a chain at
the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria was met with huge protest. Studying this case helped
in understanding the repercussions of poor PR campaigns.
2. Advertising:
No observations
3. Promotion/Event:
No observations
4. Social Media:
A recent human rights issue within Australia was researched in order to find out the
responses by various business companies using social media platforms. Famous brands
like Coca-Cola changed their cans and Facebook page to rainbow colors to celebrate
marriage equality in Australia.
5. Internal Communication:
Observations were made on workplace communication and the role of the Australian
government in ensuring smooth communication. The website covers broad areas of
workplace communication within Australia.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
News articles from earlier years specifically of 2013 were examined to understand
communication breakdowns in the Australian context.

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Lessons Learned:
An important lesson learned on the day was about the importance of including social
media communication as part of company strategy.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____7____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
No observations
2. Advertising:
No observations
3. Promotion/Event:
A visit was made to a recent event organized by a renowned hotel in the locality. The
event was done to raise funds for the education of 15 children from Aboriginal
community.
4. Social Media:
The observation on the day in this field was done to find whether social media use for
business communication has any negatives or not. It was found that communicating on
social media platforms could prove disastrous for companies. An Australian government
site dedicated to business reveals several cons of using social media for communication.
5. Internal Communication:
An observation regarding the awareness of leaders about internal communication was
studied. It was found that leaders with a strong sense of management are aware of the
significance of internal communications.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
An article on LinkedIn, a popular social media platform talked about the ways to avoid
communication breakdown within organizations. The article states that mere pleasantries
cannot be regarded as good communication and that communication breakdowns can be
avoided using proper communication methods.

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Lessons Learned:
The key lesson learnt on the day were the pros and cons associated with social media use
and the ways to avoid communication breakdowns. Communication breakdowns could be
avoided if a leader realizes that each employee has different way to understand.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #___8_____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
A role-play was organized on this day with the theme of PR communication within
business organizations in Australia. The role-play demonstrated the difference between
good and bad PR.
2. Advertising:
A task was undertaken to understand the basics of advertising. The task involved the
designing an ad campaign for a small business within the locality.
3. Promotion/Event:
No observations
4. Social Media:
The company, for which the ad campaign was being designed, also asked for creating a
Facebook and an Instagram page. The task was undertaken alongside the ad campaign
design as the campaign also involved social media platform.
5. Internal Communication:
This day was dedicated towards researching about the ways to develop effective internal
communication systems within organizations. It was revealed that a strong internal
communication system puts the said company on top over other rival companies.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
No observations
Lessons Learned:

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A very important lesson learnt from this day was the importance of constructing a strong
internal communication system within an organization to ensure an edge over other
companies.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____9____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
This day was mostly focused on identifying the various PR organizations within Australia
in order to understand the roles played by PR professionals and firms. The Public
Relations Institute of Australia is the national body of PR.
2. Advertising:
The different elements of advertising were researched and it was found that each element
is essential in ensuring a visually graphic advertisement. The copy of the ad, the visual,
the placement, the use of colors – all these elements have to be looked into carefully
before designing an ad campaign.
3. Promotion/Event:
A further research into promotion and events revealed that promotion is one of the most
important elements of the marketing mix. A news article while mentioning the promotion
strategy of Saatchi & Saatchi, a renowned fashion brand, states that hiring strong
promoting firms could be a good idea in improving sales figures.
4. Social Media:
Notes were taken while attending a seminar on the effectiveness of social media in
business communication.
5. Internal Communication:
No observations
6. Communication Breakdowns:
No observations
Lessons Learned:

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The day brought many new learning especially about the PR community in Australia.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____10____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
The role-play rehearsals were organized. Background research on PR community
was complete and the roles were assigned to each member.
2. Advertising:
No activities
3. Promotion/Event:
No activities
4. Social Media:
Facebook and Instagram page was created for the chosen company and a trial was done.
The pages in both platforms received minimum response. Analyzing the limitations
brought forth several important points about social media use.
5. Internal Communication:
Close observations on internal communication could be done through observing
communication within the team assigned to do the different tasks.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
It was also observed that weak internal communication often lead to communication
breakdowns.
Lessons Learned:

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By observing the limitations in the initiation of the Facebook and Instagram pages for
promoting the company, it was learned that there is need for deeper analysis of target
market.

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JOURNAL ON BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____11____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
The play was enacted after completing background research. Feedback from audiences
was positive.
2. Advertising:
No activities
3. Promotion/Event:
No activities
4. Social Media:
The different social media platforms especially Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn were
scrutinized separately. LinkedIn was found very useful for business executives especially
for hiring purposes. The communication is quite formal.
5. Internal Communication:
A good leader knows how to communicate with his or her employees.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
This day’s research was focused on repair strategies for communication breakdowns. A
study by Price et al. (2018) showed that communication breakdown within organizations
could be repaired by following the strategy mothers use with children with down
syndrome.
Lessons Learned:
The day’s most important lesson was realizing the vitality of feedbacks. It not only helps
in improving communication but also helps in achieving positive results.

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JOURNAL ON BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____12____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
The feedback given by audiences and teachers was analyzed on the day in order to
understand the causes of failures and success in PR.
2. Advertising:
Ad campaign for the company that involved creating social media pages was restarted.
This time the focus was on segmentation of the market rather than visual appeal of the
page.
3. Promotion/Event:
It was found through extensive research that promotional events are different in different
places within the same country. The reason was due to the variations in culture and
traditions especially in a country like Australia.
4. Social Media:
The recent cases of data leaks on Facebook were analyzed on the day. The observation
was done by conducting direct interviews of businesspersons and customers who use
social media.
5. Internal Communication:
No activities
6. Communication Breakdowns:
No activities
Lessons Learned:

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The day was very productive as many things could be learnt including the risks
associated with social media communication. The interview revealed that most people are
not even aware of their data being sold without their knowledge.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____13____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
No activities
2. Advertising:
No activities
3. Promotion/Event:
An event was organized for the promotion of the company chosen.
4. Social Media:
The study examining data leaks continued as it involved the security and safety of every
individual. The question of ethics came to the surface while researching on the issue.
5. Internal Communication:
The importance of internal communication was further examined by observing
communication in small places like cafes and so on.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
An observation on the causes of communication breakdown at the workplace was done.
First, some working individuals were asked and then the result was compared to the
studies online.
Lessons Learned:
It was learned that around 43% think that poor leadership was the main cause of
communication breakdown while 30% found vague goals to be the reason. The online

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study showed close to 34% opting for poor leadership to be the main reason for
communication breakdown.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #__14______
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
An article on Forbes titled “The Five Biggest Public Relations Disasters of 2017 and
What You Can Learn From Them” was noted (Forbes.com, 2018).
2. Advertising:
The focus of this day was to analyze the observations of the previous days. The analysis
revealed that the observations were mostly on the surface and deeper evaluation was
required.
3. Promotion/Event:
No activities
4. Social Media:
In this area as well, the main aim was to examine the activities that were undertaken in
the previous days. In addition, the Facebook and Instagram pages for promoting the
company was rectified and relaunched.
5. Internal Communication:
No activities
6. Communication Breakdowns:
Lessons Learned:
The activities undertaken on this day mostly reflected the observations and activities
performed in the last few days. An interesting revelation was made in the sense that all

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the six categories of communication are connected and success in one category depends
on the success of other category.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____15____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
Films based on or depicting journalism, business and public relations were watched in
order to further understand the concept. Wolf of Wall Street, Hancock and Phone Booth
were the three films that were viewed.
2. Advertising:
Visits to local ad agencies were made to observe the process and stages of advertising.
3. Promotion/Event:
4. Social Media:
Chatting on Facebook and conversation on Twitter was done on a current issue to observe
the reactions of people.
5. Internal Communication:
Students who had prepared PowerPoint presentations on the topic of internal
communication held communication session in class
6. Communication Breakdowns:
Lessons Learned:
Lesson was learned on how people use Facebook and Twitter platforms to communicate
their views.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____16____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
Important scenes from the three films watched were noted down where PR issues and
aspects were shown.
2. Advertising:
The visit to the ad agencies was repeated but this time it was to interview the employers
and employees.
3. Promotion/Event:
Promotional event organized by the local tribe was attended. It was observed that the
tribe followed traditional ways of promotion.
4. Social Media:
Researchers working on social media topics were interviewed. They provided better
insights into how the platform is utilized for manipulation by some.
5. Internal Communication:
6. Communication Breakdowns:
Lessons Learned:
The tribal community still uses traditional folk dances and songs to promote the culture
along with using modern technology. It was also learned that many businesses
manipulate information to lure customers through social media.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #____17____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
2. Advertising:
Ad campaigns by younger students were exhibited and judged.
3. Promotion/Event:
A cultural event was visited, which was held by a newly opened fast food chain that
provided free food to everyone and had artists from Aboriginal community that
performed.
4. Social Media:
The movie titled The Social Network was watched.
5. Internal Communication:
Observations done and notes taken during the initial days of, the journal was analyzed on
internal communication.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
Lessons Learned:
The movie had many information regarding the inception of Facebook, which is
important in understanding how social media functions.

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Name__________________________________________Date______Day #___18_____
COMMUNICATION CATEGORIES
1. Public Relation:
Overall analysis of the last 18 days was done.
2. Advertising:
3. Promotion/Event:
4. Social Media:
A page was created on Facebook with a fake company name to check the response of
users.
5. Internal Communication:
Importance of internal communication was realized through a seminar visited on the last
day.
6. Communication Breakdowns:
Communication breakdown was directly observed in a mall where a wrong information
was conveyed through announcement.
Lessons Learned:
There was not much to learn but the observation made at the mall helped understand
communication breakdown clearly. It also helped learn how to tackle such situations.

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References:
Forbes.com (2018). The Five Biggest Public Relations Disasters Of 2017 (And What You
Can Learn From Them). [online] Forbes.com. Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/12/19/the-five-biggest-public-
relations-disasters-of-2017-and-what-you-can-learn-from-them/#6e0eee973a5b
[Accessed 30 Jul. 2018].
Price, J.R., Vizoso, A., Ellerbee, T., Roberts, J.E. and Sideris, J., 2018. Communication
breakdowns and repair strategies of children with Down syndrome. Advances in
Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 2(1), pp.16-24.