Business Communication Challenges and Strategies: Sports Love Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of business communication within Sports Love, a sports and leisure business in London, UK. The assignment is divided into two assessments. The first assessment identifies communication barriers such as listening difficulties, technological issues, semantic, psychological, organizational, and personal barriers. It proposes strategies to overcome these barriers, including clear language, emotional stability, healthy organizational connections, and separating personal and professional life. It also examines the influence of corporate culture and organizational policies on communication. The second assessment includes a literature review, discussing principles for developing communication strategies like clarity, attention, and consistency, and the characteristics of effective listeners and speakers. The analysis and discussion section applies these principles to Sports Love, emphasizing the need for an effective communication strategy due to its diverse workforce and the importance of effective listening and speaking skills. The report concludes with a self-evaluation of the author's written and oral communication skills in a business context, highlighting strengths in written communication and areas for improvement in verbal communication.

BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
ASSESSMENT 1.............................................................................................................................3
1) Barriers and challenges to communication.............................................................................3
2) Strategies to overcome barriers...............................................................................................4
3) Ways in which culture influences communication.................................................................5
ASSESSMENT 2.............................................................................................................................6
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................6
1. Principles and purposes to be considered while developing communication strategy...........6
2. Characteristics for becoming effective listeners and speakers during meetings.....................6
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION...................................................................................................7
1. Effective principles and purposes behind organisational communications............................7
2. Characteristics for effective listening and speaking to enhance practice of communication.7
3. Evaluation of own written and oral communication skills in a business context...................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Communication refers to the process of sharing of ideas, views, thoughts, ideologies and
beliefs of an individual with another person or group. It is derived from the Latin word called
'communis' which means common (Chesher and Kaura, 2012). In this regard, business
communication refers to the process where information is shared amidst people prevailing within
and external to a company for the purpose of commercial benefit of an organisation. This report
is based on Sports Love which is an independent sports and leisure based business situated
within London, UK. This assignment is divided into two assessments. The first assessment
consists of challenges and barriers to communication, effective strategies to overcome barriers
and the ways in which communication is affected by culture. The second assessment consists of
literature review and analysis and discussion about the principles as well as purpose that need to
be considered by HR. Also, it includes characteristics of effective listeners and speakers.
ASSESSMENT 1
1) Barriers and challenges to communication
Communication is a process that involves exchange of ideas and perceptions to make it
common among people. It lays out foundation and is the key to success of a business.
Communication is a procedure which plays a crucial role while building relationship with
employees or while coming in direct contact with customers (Kotz, Kozubowski and Podgorski,
2012). With regards to this, Sports Love is a company which is highly concerned about the
ineffective communication that is taking place across the organisational premises owing to a
number of barriers and challenges that act as a hindrance to this formal and essential process.
The challenges associated with communication are described below:-
Listening: This is the prerequisite to effective communication within an organisation. At
times, the director of Sports Love become unable to find out time to give ears to the thoughts and
opinions of employees owing to stress and work pressure. This acts as a reason for poor
communication within the entity and hampers their overall performance.
Technology: Over years, technology has advanced and this assists in facilitating the
communication process in an organisation. However, in Sports Love, this may act as a challenge
owing to lack of technical skills and competence to make use of the new technology in the right
manner. This leads to disagreements within the company.

Barriers of Communication
Barriers may act as hindrances and hamper the process of communication with Sports
Love. In this regard, such barriers are explained below:-
Semantic Barriers: These are concerned with the barriers associated with the process of
encryption and decryption of a message which may take place owing to misuse of words.
Psychological Barriers: These are largely concerned with the behavioural characteristics
as well as emotions of the receiver and sender (Kwok and Yu, 2013).
Organisational Barriers: These type of barriers generally arise owing to issues in
organisation policies, structure, rules etc.
Personal Barriers: These are associated with the personal issues of sender or receiver
which may acts as a barrier in effective communication.
These barriers may affect the employees of Sports Love and thus the HR director has to
implement such strategies that may assist in reducing or overcoming these barriers.
2) Strategies to overcome barriers
As already discussed, there are a number of barriers which hinder communication in an
organisation. Thus, management of Sports Love should develop strategies to deal with each of
the communicational barriers, as described below:-
To overcome Semantic barriers: These barriers can be tackled by making use of a
language that is easily comprehensible and such that the meaning of words are clear and
common for all (Meimaris and Vafopoulos, 2013). Also, the sender can filter the message before
transmitting it to the receiver.
To overcome Physiological barriers: Emotional stability is the key to overcome these
barriers. When receiver as well as sender has control over their sentiments (such as anger, pride,
anxiety, sadness), they will be able to easily understand the other person's perceptions thereby
communicating effectively.
To overcome Organisational barriers: By building a healthy connect with employees
and customers, these barriers can be effectively tackled. Also, such barriers can be overcome by
making use of grapevine channel of communication within Sports Love. This will lead to an
orderly conduct with the organisation.
To overcome Personal barriers: One must keep the personal and professional life
separate so as not to let the personal barriers affect the corporate life of personnel.

3) Ways in which culture influences communication
In the rapidly changing and dynamic corporate era, culture of an organisation largely
impacts upon communication. The ways in which this influence can be seen are discussed
below:-
Corporate culture changes: As a company is a composite of varied types of individuals
who have diverse educational and cultural background, this tends to enhance the chances of
issues arising across the organisational premises (Aijaz and Aghvami, 2015). Owing to this,
employees may become unable to comprehend the language spoken by other people and reach at
wrong conclusions. Thus, taking into this account, the HR department of Sports Love should
provide training to workforce and enforce a language that is perceivable by everyone.
Revision of organisational policies: A company needs to devise and develop such
policies which are in accordance with the dynamic environment and culture of the enterprise. In
Sports Love, when director implement changes within policies, this may cause resistance within
employees. Some individuals restrict the change while others encourage it. This causes conflicts
amidst the workforce and at times, hamper the process of communication.

ASSESSMENT 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
1. Principles and purposes to be considered while developing communication strategy
According to the perspective of Nagle and Müller (2017), it is essential that an
organisation takes into account certain principles while devising a communication strategy.
These principles are, namely, clarity, attention, consistency, adequacy and informality. It has
been observed that effective communication is the key to success of a company as it lays down
the foundation for creating healthy relationships. Further, the communication strategy
implemented by a company should facilitate the exchange of ideas, beliefs, thoughts and
ideologies in a language that is perceivable by all the employees. The purpose of a
communication strategy within an organisation is to make sure that there is adequate and relevant
coordination as well as cooperation amidst the personnel (How to write an internal
communications plan and strategy, 2018). This assists in ensuring that there is no
miscommunication between management and workforce and thereby work is being carried out in
a specified manner. The strategy should be in accordance with the principle of consistency which
demonstrates that interaction within the confines of entity leads a clear and consistent message
formulated for everyone. On the contrary, according to the point of view of Berkenkotter and
Huckin (2016), major communication principles for an organisation are flexibility of the
channels, interaction taking place in a formal manner as well as the ability to transmit message
within the specified time limit.
2. Characteristics for becoming effective listeners and speakers during meetings
According to the point of view of Brownell (2015), an individual should possess an eye
contact and maintain right body posture in order to become an effective listener. Further, they
should make use of non verbal cues so as to indicate that they are active during the discussion
and listening properly to the speaker. Effective listeners keep on asking questions or take
initiatives to engage in discussion so as to ensure that they have perceived the right
understanding of agendas in the meeting. Further, as per the views of Baccarani and Bonfanti
(2015), it is essential that individuals do not try to interrupt other personnel while they are
expressing their opinions. In order to become an effective speaker, personnel should possess
confidence and passion to establish a right connect with other persons and to engage them in a

meaningful conversation. Further, it is essential that individuals listen and understand what the
other people in meeting are saying so as to grab the opportunity to express one's own opinions
and perceptions. A number of times, reflecting on what one gained out of the exchange of
information taken place within a meeting assists in demonstrating that someone is an effective
speaker.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Sport Love is an independent sports and leisure business running in London. It has been
analysed that the HR director of company is largely concerned about the poor communication
that is prevalent within the organisational premises. It is examined that this has been
continuously causing inefficiencies and imply an adverse impact on customer experience.
Working takes place in three shifts and business is staffed for 24 hours. The major issue noticed
is that the workforce as well as the management of Sport Love is multinational, thereby
possessing diversities. English is not the first language of many individuals which cause
inefficiencies in the communication process.
1. Effective principles and purposes behind organisational communications
Owing to ineffective communication prevailing within Sport Love, it is imperative that
the directors of this organisation devise and implement an optimum communication strategy
which provides assistance in facilitating faster and easier exchange of information. During this
process, a number of principles should be considered by the HR director of company to make
sure that post the execution of this strategy, employees are able to interact feasibly. Further,
owing to the presence of diverse workforce, the risk of linguistic barriers rise across the
organisational premises and tend to serve as a hindrance in effective communication. This gives
rise to the need for devising an optimum communication strategy. This will ensure that the
messages and necessary information is easily transferred between individuals and there is
consistency as well as flexibility of data. By abiding by principles of communication such as
clear description of data, accuracy and comprehensibility, entity can ensure a clear interaction
taking place between personnel and management.
2. Characteristics for effective listening and speaking to enhance practice of communication
It has been analysed that communication is the key to orderly conduct within a company.
There is inefficient communication prevailing in Sports Love which gives rise to the need of

gaining an understanding of the traits to become effective listener and speaker so as to enhance
practice of communication. In this regard, personnel within this company should pay attention to
the views and opinions of other individuals so as to increase their knowledge base. Also, they
should make use of non verbal cues like gestures, postures, eye contact, body movements, facial
expressions to execute effective exchange of information within the confines of organisation.
3. Evaluation of own written and oral communication skills in a business context
It has been evaluated by me that I am quite good at written communication, however, I
am always concerned about my verbal skills. Drawing upon the feedback given b my peers and
seniors in Sport Love, I have acknowledged that I clearly demonstrate my opinion in case of
descriptive communication. This owes to my high knowledge with regards to grammar, style of
writing and punctuation that should be used in a formal business document. The content penned
by me is easy to read and understand by my colleagues. Although I have excellent written
communication skills, I am not able to effectively present work in front of others in business
meetings verbally. I am often found hesitating while having a conversation with my business
associates and colleagues at the time of delivering business presentations. I am not able to make
use of voice modulations and verbal pauses while presenting my views in front of the Board.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it has been concluded that designing and formulating an
effective communication strategy is essential to enforce uniformity and consistency across
organisational premises. Also, it has been evaluated that effective communication channels must
be used by management to enable smooth exchange of information. In addition to this, it has
been comprehended that there are various principles which guide the development of
communication strategy such as transparency, consistency, clarity, adequacy etc. This facilitates
faster delivery of important messages within the organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Nagle, T. T. and Müller, G., 2017. The strategy and tactics of pricing: A guide to growing more
profitably. Routledge.
Berkenkotter, C. and Huckin, T. N., 2016. Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication:
Cognition/culture/power. Routledge.
Brownell, J., 2015. Listening: Attitudes, Principles, and Skills (Subscription). Routledge.
Baccarani, C. and Bonfanti, A., 2015. Effective public speaking: a conceptual framework in the
corporate-communication field. Corporate Communications: An International
Journal. 20(3). pp.375-390.
Chesher, M. and Kaura, R., 2012. Electronic commerce and business communications. Springer
Science & Business Media.
Kotz, S., Kozubowski, T. and Podgorski, K., 2012. The Laplace distribution and generalizations:
a revisit with applications to communications, economics, engineering, and finance.
Springer Science & Business Media.
Kwok, L. and Yu, B., 2013. Spreading social media messages on Facebook: An analysis of
restaurant business-to-consumer communications. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. 54(1).
pp.84-94.
Meimaris, M. and Vafopoulos, M., 2013. Knowledge-based semantification of business
communications in erp environments. In Web Information Systems Engineering–WISE
2011 and 2012 Workshops (pp. 159-172). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Aijaz, A. and Aghvami, A. H., 2015. Cognitive machine-to-machine communications for
Internet-of-Things: A protocol stack perspective. IEEE Internet of Things Journal. 2(2).
pp.103-112.
Online
How to write an internal communications plan and strategy. 2018. [Online]. Available
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