Business Communication: Strategies, Ethics, & Pandemic Analysis

This report examines various facets of business communication amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights the potential challenges faced during the crisis and explores communication strategies employed for significant company changes. The report also delves into business negotiations, particularly concerning international and cross-cultural deals, assessing their impact on organizations. Furthermore, it addresses ethical considerations in business communication, focusing on integrity, trust, and diversity issues, and recommends steps for ethical decision-making. The study concludes by emphasizing the importance of transparent and honest communication during times of crisis to maintain employee trust and ensure effective operations.

Business Communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK-1 ...........................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Business communication during a global pandemic and the potential issues.......................4
1.2 Communicating with employees about significant company changes.................................5
1.3 Negotiating an international and cross-cultural IT business deal.........................................5
1.4 Ethical issues in business communication............................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business communication is defined as the process which is related to the sharing of
information among the people that can be within the company or outside it. The business
communication is considered effective when interaction is made between employees and
management for the achievement of organizational goals. The more stronger will be the
communication strategy the more likely will be the employee engagement. The report will be
covering the way business communications were done during the global crisis and the issues or
obstacles faced by the company(Agarwal, 2021). The communications made to employees
regarding the important changes made to company and the negotiations of the business deal. The
report will also cover the ethical issues faced by the company.
TASK-1
1.1 Business communication during a global pandemic and the potential issues
The recent pandemic COVID-19 has changed the way in which companies communicate to its
customers. It has been observed that organisations at that time was making more use of
telemarketing via email, social media or third party functions like social media. In order to
communicate effectively,companies can adopt a business communication plan at the time of
crisis such as-
1. Developing the crisis management team- this will include members from different
department within the organisation like health, safety, environment, legal, sales,
operations, human resources and marketing(Chanana, 2021). This will help in making the
communication appropriate through making of representative that will represent many
teams once and will be the support for customers. This team will be responsible for
internal and external communication.
2. Monitoring of updates and communications from your industry association and
public health organisation- companies relies on reputable sources for the collection of
information on the status of COVID-19 as it offers more appropriate and up to date
information to the stakeholders and making the operational decisions.
3. Development of the plans for organisational functions- Company at this stage with the
help of crisis management team developed the procedure to prioritize the task, the

selection of the final decision maker, the person who is required to be informed an issue
that is associated with the situation.
4. Creation of the external communication plan for the customers and partners- the
time of pandemic was very crucial not from the business point of view but also people I
general(Dwyer and Hopwood, 2019). The foremost thing which is required it the
evaluation of the need of customer. Then the efforts were made about compliance,
practice and empowerment by delivering the information with the use of one consistent
channel.
5. Taking an active role in the community- by implementing this step, Businesses can
transparently communicate regarding the changes that was occurring in the company,
also in order to strengthen the credibility, the local media information was provided to the
local community.
1.2 Communicating with employees about significant company changes.
Employees are the asset to organisation and therefore it is important to keep them updated with
all the changes that is happening in the company. At the time of pandemic enormous companies
faced various significant changes that was required to be communicated to its employees. The
company in this context adopted certain strategy for communicating the change-
 the honest and clear communication- changes are to be communicated in exact same
terms in which they occur that means no sugar-coating. For the purpose of gaining the
trust of employees, the changes that occur needs to be confronted and the reason for it
need to be dictated. Employees when communications are made accurately and honestly
than respond well.
 Extra care when company change is communicated- employees are required to be
updated with the information that is considered important to him to know. It is required to
emphasize on the matters that is important to the employees rather than the
implementation of outcomes based well ness programs that forced the employees to make
the changes in lifestyle.
 Provide an overview to the employees for what is in the change for them-it will include
the significance of change and the expectations of the employee(Helmold, 2020).
Organisation believes that because of this strategy things will be different. This

prospective need to be acknowledged and along with this one thing more need to be
considered that changes will not be liked by everyone.
 Setting of the expectation that is associated with the communication of the change
management- this insures the employee to get on board quickly as they have the clear
picture with respect to what is going to happen. It is recommended to make use of the
graphics because the important changes can be explained well.
1.3 Negotiating an international and cross-cultural IT business deal
Negotiating the cross cultural business deal: the cross-cultural negotiations are generally in
context to the difference in culture. The effect of this will have direct connection with the issues
of communication and also the increase in possibilities of misunderstanding(Mahadevan and
Reichert, 2021). This negotiation is considered as the two way street where people involved from
both sides equally feel awkward. Companies face the challenge when dealing in different culture
is the nature of culture itself. The issues faced by companies when dealing with different culture
is protocol issues, body language issues, timing issues and the most important trust and
information issues.
Negotiating the international business deal: international business negotiation is referred to as the
intentional interactions of two or more social units that originated from different nations. It ha s
been observed that “negotiation is both an art and science”. From the perspective of science, it
identifies the strengths of bargaining that each party pursue with and the way third party
responds to the bargaining tactics. From the perspective of art,companies incorporates the
interpersonal skills in order to convince other and convince itself and it also involves the
understanding of impact of value system and national norms.
1.4 Ethical issues in business communication.
In complex business environment, various ethical issues are faced by the business in
communicating irrespective of its size or legal form. Some ethical issues faced-
1. Fundamental issues- this is associated with the issue of integrity and trust. Through
integrity issues, company face difficulty in conducting the business affairs in fair way and
honest way(Stone, Cox and Gavin, 2020). The trust issue will not arise as the
commitment made to the customers are fixed that helps in development of high level of
trust.

2. Diversity issues- workforce in the organisation is comprised of people that comes from
different background and culture, so this difference needs to be respected(Vahdat, 2021).
Companies face this issue by providing the equal opportunity in training programs and
existence of the respectable workplace, the contribution of employees get valued.
3. Decision making issues- to avoid this issue or to reduce its impact, it is recommended to
follow certain steps that begins with collection of facts, evaluation of alternative actions,
making of decision, testing of the fairness of decision and providing the reflection on
outcome.
CONCLUSION
The report prepared above has highlighted the various aspects of business communication at the
time of pandemic. The report has covered the potential issues that were faced at the time of
crisis. The communication of employees for the significant company changes that showcased
the various strategies in this context. The way in which business negotiations are done with
reference to international and cross cultural business deal is also covered and its impact on the
organisation was also viewed.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Agarwal, P., 2021. Shattered but smiling: Human resource management and the wellbeing of
hotel employees during COVID-19. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 93,
p.102765.
Chanana, N., 2021. Employee engagement practices during COVID‐19 lockdown. Journal of
public affairs, 21(4), p.e2508.
Dwyer, J. and Hopwood, N., 2019. The business communication handbook. Cengage AU.
Helmold, M., 2020. Best-in-Class Negotiations in the International Context. In Successful
International Negotiations (pp. 1-24). Springer, Cham.
Mahadevan, J. and Reichert, T., 2021. Cross-Cultural Strategizing for Successful Customer
Relationship Management. In International Business Development (pp. 247-266).
Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Stone, R.J., Cox, A. and Gavin, M., 2020. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.
Vahdat, S., 2021. The role of IT-based technologies on the management of human resources in
the COVID-19 era. Kybernetes.