Business Communication Report: Flood Communication Crisis

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes communication failures during a flood.

Business Communication
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Situation Overview..........................................................................................................................4
Communication................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................8
Reference.........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Communication is a process of exchange of ideas and information from one person to another.
The process of communication can take place by various modes like oral, written or by some
other medium of exchange. Communication is the process of conveying messages to another
person (Cheung and Thadani, 2012). The process of communication is carried out between two
or more people. The assignment is associated with the communication of flood and the areas
that would be impacted by the disaster. The assignment will lay emphasis on the drawbacks in
the communication process by the City council of Brisbane. The assignment will also provide
some strategies by which the council can improve the communication processes.
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Situation Overview
The scenario given in the assignment is related to the communication barriers and the failure in
the communication process. The city council of Brisbane and the meteorology department
indicated that there are chances of the flood in the area if Brisbane and almost 40000 homes
might get affected by the disaster. It was the duty of the council of the city to intimate the
residents of the city about the flood so that they could get prepared in advance for the disaster.
The flood cured and three states were declared as the disaster zones. There were various
drawbacks in the communication process of the city council which resulted in the condition. The
council could not communicate effectively with the internal and external stakeholders. To avoid
such a condition in the future, the city council’s marketing and communication branch need to
implement some effective strategies in the organization which leads to an improvement in the
communication process.
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Communication
The situation of such a disastrous condition aroused because of the defects in the communication
process of the council’s marketing and communication branch. Marketing and communication
department o the city council is responsible for the situation. The normal residents of the city
were affected by the ineffective communication process of the council. The communication
process was not followed properly by the council. The elements of the complete and effective
communication process are described beneath:
Sender: The sender is the person who sends the message to another party.
Encoding: Encoding is done by the sender; the sender decides the message to be delivered to the
other person.
Message: A complete and understandable message is then decided by the sender which conveys
some useful and relevant information.
Channel: The channel of communication is very important to be decided on conveying the
message in an effective manner. There are various channels of communication and the sender
has to select the most suitable channel of communication for conveying the message.
Receiver: Receiver is the person to whom the message s being conveyed.
Decoding: Decoding of the message is done by the receiver of the message. The receiver
understands and decodes the message in the same sense as the message has been sent.
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(Fig: 1 Communication process) (Source: Toppr guides, 2018)
There were various barriers to the communication process faced by the council marketing and
communication branch which is discussed below:
Failure of the channel of communication: The first drawback which was faced by the council
communication department was the failure of the communication channel. The channel of
communication selected by them was not appropriate for the message. The council must have
used intensive marketing and communication strategies. The communication channel selected by
them was newspaper and television, which was not enough.
Isolation of the communities: There were some communities which could not be reached by the
council’s marketing and communication branch. The reason behind this was the lack of
technology in the areas of the isolated communities.
Communication media is the mean by which the message from one party is delivered to other
people. The sender selects the suitable media of communication so that the message is conveyed
effectively. The medium of communication which could be used by the council are enumerated
below:
Television: Television is the most commonly used medium of information exchange. Television
is used by almost all the people in the world. By this medium of communication, a larger number
of people can be reached and informed about a particular thing (Wang, et. al., 2016).
Social media: In today’s virtual world, everybody has access to the internet and uses social
media platforms. The social media is the means by which all the people can be informed at any
time. The information reaches the mass through social media. The council can make use of
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to communicate important information to the people of the
city.
Bill boars and sign boards: Billboard and signboards can also be used by the council to make
people aware about the area which is prone to disasters like floods. People can get ready in
advance and avoid going to such places.
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Conclusion
The assignment concludes that by the use of an effective communication process, important
messages can be conveyed to the interested parties. The city council’s marketing and
communication branch must take certain measures to improve the communication process in the
organization. This is important so that the residents of the city can be safe and secure. The
council must make use of effective communication strategies to inform all the residents of the
city about the upcoming disasters.
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Recommendation
For the improvement in the communication process of the city council, below are some
recommendations which can be used by the council. The strategies will help the council to
improve the way in which the messages are conveyed and interpreted. The recommendations are
given below:
Result oriented interaction procedure: It is important that the interaction procedure must be
result oriented. It is important for the council to also make sure that the communication process
provides the desired results. There must be proper monitoring of the communication process and
the results must also be measured (Howes, et. al., 2015).
Repeating important messages: It is known that whatever is repeated many times has a great
impact on the minds. This strategy can also be used by the council in the communication process.
The important messages must be repeated by the marketing and communication department so
that people can listen or look at it and get important information (Wise Step, 2015).
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Reference
 Cheung, C.M. and Thadani, D.R., 2012. The impact of electronic word-of-mouth
communication: A literature analysis and integrative model. Decision support
systems, 54(1), pp.461-470.
 Howes, M., Tangney, P., Reis, K., Grant-Smith, D., Heazle, M., Bosomworth, K. and
Burton, P., 2015. Towards networked governance: Improving interagency communication
and collaboration for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in
Australia. Journal of environmental planning and management, 58(5), pp.757-776.
 Toppr guides, 2018. Communications: Process, Importance, Types, Barriers with
Examples. [Online]. Toppr guides. Available at: https://www.toppr.com/guides/business-
studies/directing/communication/ [Accessed 4 Jan. 2019].
 Wang, W.Y., Pauleen, D.J. and Zhang, T., 2016. How social media applications affect B2B
communication and improve business performance in SMEs. Industrial Marketing
Management, 54, pp.4-14.
 Wise Step, 2015. 15 Strategies for Effective Communication in an Organization.
[Online]. Wise Step. Available at: https://content.wisestep.com/effective-communication-
in-organization/ [Accessed 4 Jan. 2019].
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