Reflective Writing on Business Communication

Running head: BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Name of the University
Name of the student
Author Note

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Topic: REFLECTIVE WRITING ON BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
After understanding the journal tasks and participating in activities, I came to
understand about the concept of corporate social responsibility and crisis communication.
The two concepts were relatively new to me so I had to do some research to properly assess
the topics. According to me, corporate social responsibility is the organisational initiative that
does not involve the immediate benefit to the company. Instead it focuses on social and
environmental wellbeing. I was amazed to learn about this as I always assumed corporations
to be profit centric who does not care about anything else other than its financial benefits.
The next topic was crisis communication (Coombs, 2014). I understood that in some
situations, the business needs to tell its prospective clients and stockholders about an
impending threat that can harm the reputation of the company. In these situations, it is best to
share the situation through social media. But in certain cases, I think the business needs to
reach out to its investors to directly explain to them about the difficult situation and tell them
not to lose their trust on the company (Hamilton, 2013).
I can assume that the role of social media in promoting crisis communication is
significant. According to me, using social media for crisis communication can help the
business to stop the situation from escalating. However, this situation can have a negative
consequence if it is not handled properly. The rise of digital era has escalated the spread of
false information rapidly (Alexander, 2014). Recently, Facebook was hit with a privacy
lawsuit where millions of people’s data were wrongfully handed over to an external
organization. The event sparked an outrage among communities who posted Mark
Zuckerberg as the villain of the new digital world. Some false news also claimed that our
passwords and login IDs have been compromised as well (Wendling, Radisch & Jacobzone,
2013). In reality though, our Activity footprint was leaked which was a combination of our
likes, dislikes and recommendations. This is a serious concern for me. People who have a

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hatred towards a particular organization can wrongly publish false information to tarnish the
reputation of the company (Sellnow & Seeger, 2013). The effects of social media has been
both sided according to me. The media has some advantages as it facilitates the two way
communication of information during the event of a crisis helping to easily manage the
situation. Moreover, I think the social media has enabled people to release and access
information about a particular subject faster than other conventional methods (Ruggiero &
Vos, 2014). I can assume that this can affect the organisational reputation by preventing the
false news from getting worse during crisis communication.
I have always been a firm believer of team communication. Whenever the situation
asks for it, I have always been the first follower in team playing. I love to work in a team as it
is vital for the success of all the members present in the team helping them to elevate the
morale of the team. During the completion of these assignments, a top down intersection was
necessary for the completion of the tasks. Information needed to be shared and back and forth
discussion was necessary (Grunig, 2013). From a business perspective, engaging people in a
team helps to create happier employees and creates new opportunities for strong
performance. Moreover, to combat a challenge, team engagement can help in creating new
innovative ideas to mitigate the potential issue. I think the only downside to team
communication is the cultural and language barriers that exist in our society. Another
problem that I faced was complete participation from all the members of the team. If the
members are not coordinated the creation of new ideas and flaw identification method slows
down. From my experience, I also learnt that listening and respecting everyone is critical for
proper team communication. I generally play the role of team leader within a team as I like to
coordinate my fellow mates to particular tasks that they are strong at. Being a team leader, I
learnt that asking questions can be beneficial for the team as it sparks richer conversation
among the members helping them to tackle a single problem at a time. Proper communication

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can allow the voices of other members to be heard in the best interest helping them to
overcome misunderstandings and unfair expectations.
Through this experience, I learned that for proper team communication, the team
leader or other members of the team should learn to take ownership for the mistakes that they
have done. I understand the importance of anonymity and privacy in a team. Hence, to
understand the honest confessions of the team members, anonymous surveys need to be taken
from time to time as people tend to be more honest when they know that their opinions will
stay anonymous. As a team leader and being part of a team, it is my duty to point out
everyone’s strength and use them to their maximum potential accordingly. This sends a good
lesson to the team that their team leader understands them well and they get valued as part of
a team. I can assume that proper team communications helps to increase team productivity
and develop their understanding for each other (González-Romá & Hernández, 2014). The
work projects are completed faster when team members stays productive which finally
increases the revenue of the business. After researching, I found out that the for properly
communicating in a team certain elements are necessary such as feedback, language usage,
style, clarity, tone and organization. When I was in a team, I was taught by our team leader
that as an individual differently process information, sound communication is necessary in a
team so that each and every member of the team receives the same message properly. The
multicultural aspect is adopted by many corporations in their workforce. For running such a
diverse workforce, proper team communication is necessary according to me. I can conclude
that such team members need intricate communication skills to make their projects successful
and stay productive for the company in spite of their differences. Moreover, I can assume that
in a business, good communication in a team facilitates the business processes and
cooperation in the team allowing the team projects to be complied faster and efficient running