Pandemic Business Communication: Issues, Theories and Real Solutions

This report examines business communication during the global pandemic, focusing on the challenges faced by organizations and individuals. It discusses the importance of effective communication for maintaining coordination and productivity in remote work environments. The report explores relevant communication theories, such as the Shannon-Weaver model and Newcomb's model, and how they apply to the context of the pandemic. It also provides real-world examples of how companies like Mark & Spencer have adapted their communication strategies to address these challenges, including the use of video conferencing, messaging apps, and social media platforms. The report concludes by emphasizing the critical role of communication in navigating the complexities of the pandemic and offers recommendations for organizations to improve their communication practices.

Business Communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................4
Communicating during the global pandemic and the potential issues........................................4
Theories involved in business communication and how they are related to the topic ..............5
Example solution to the issue from real companies....................................................................6
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business communication refers to the process of sharing information between people
within and outside the organisation. Effective communication is that in which manner employees
and management interact in order to reach towards the goals. Communication in business is very
important because it basically conveys the strong and clear messages about the strategy,
customer service and branding as well(Aten and Thomas., 2016).The building of business of a
brand basically reflects about the consistent message which is tailored to its audience.
Communication at internal level basically builds the rapport among managers and employees and
also encourages towards the team work collaboration as well. In the present report, a topic is
taken into consideration which is named as “Communicating during the global pandemic and the
potential issues”. The present report will cover discussion about the discussion of topic and also
about the theories which are involved in business communication. In addition to this, the report
will cover analysis about the example solutions to the issue from real companies. Moreover, the
report will cover discussion about the own solution to the issue.
MAIN BODY
Communicating during the global pandemic and the potential issues
During the time period of pandemic, it has been observed that there are lots of problems
and challenges which has been faced by every kind of people whether it is from any background.
At the time of lock down situation, it becomes very challenging to communicate into smoother
manner, although in this technological world there are various ways of communication but also
there is requirement of face to face interaction as well. At the time of pandemic situation, people
can only effectively communicate through email, messages, phone calls, video calls and through
certain kind of apps as well (Buhmann., 2017). It has been observed that in this modern world,
as business people need not to have face problems for communication because there are various
ways of communication but they do have problems regarding the coordination of communication
for group video conferences. This situation has arise due to this reason that its not confirm that
everybody is available at the same time for group calls at the time of work from home situation.

So this is the main challenge for the organisation and coordinate themselves for purpose
of communication at business level. Even pandemic situation is very difficult for every kind of
people but it is very difficult for those who are conducting their business from the work from
home basis. There are certain potential issues at the time global pandemic situation which have
been faced by professional people which are defined into the following manner:
Communication becomes critical because as family members who are typical to able to
speak on the behalf of their loved ones which are often restricted from their bed sides. Having
the ability to communicate also reduced the level of risk of patient of experiencing an adverse
event in the hospital(Cenere and et.al., 2015). The pandemic situation is also becomes very
isolating and having the ability to communicate with loved ones over telephone and video chat
can improve the mental health and also enables the recovery as well. People who are suffering
from this critical disease and who are currently working so for them it becomes very difficult to
coordinate with their employer and make the communication very smooth and effective as well.
So in the overall manner, these are certain difficulties and challenges which have been faced by
the people at the professional and personal level as well.
Theories involved in business communication and how they are related to the topic
There are certain theories which are involved in business communication and these are
defined into the following manner:
In this pandemic situation, it has been observed that Shannon Weaver model of
communication can be implemented into positive manner at the organisational level in order to
have effective level of communication. The Shannon and Weaver model of communication
basically refers to the theory of communication which argues that communication of human can
be broken down into six key concepts which include sender, encoder, noise, channel, decoder
and receiver as well(Lam., 2015). According to this theory or model, the sender basically
encodes the message and send it to the receiver by the technological channel such as telegraph
and telephone. Within this model, there are five elements which basically include transmitter,
information source, channel, receiver and destination. The source of information is where the
information has been stored and to send the information the message is encoded into signals so
that it can travel to its destination.

At the time of pandemic situation, it has been observed that business people and
organisations have communicated through emails, messages, phone calls, video conferences,
zoom calls and other apps which supported for the business level of communication. So
according to this theory, this kind of communication involves all the parameters of this model
which include sender, encoder, noise, channel, decoder and receiver as well(Tayal and et.al.,
2021). There is one more theory which help in terms of business communication which include
New comb's model. This is a model which is also known as the ABX model of communication.
Newcomb's gives different approach to the model and the main purpose of this theory is that he
has introduced the role of communication in a social relationship and also to maintain social
equilibrium within the social system.
In this pandemic situation, it is very important to have strong social relationship which
help in terms of facing the challenging situation with positive approach and right kind of
decision making as well. At the organisational level when there is no social bonding then it is
very difficult to understand other employee situation even in this critical situation. So its very
important that to use this theory of communication within the business or at organisational level
as well.
Example solution to the issue from real companies
At the time of pandemic situation it becomes very difficult and challenging to
communicate with each other into result oriented manner. There are certain companies who have
to face these kind of. During the time period of pandemic situation, Mark & Spencer has to face
different problems during the time period of pandemic situation. In this pandemic situation, it
has been observed that it is difficult for the company to reach towards the employees because
mostly people are doing work from home so its very difficult to coordinate with them (Thesing.,
2016). For solving this problem, company has adopted the new method of communication
where majorly communication has been done through video conferences, calls, messages and
through different kinds of messaging apps as well. For dealing with this issue, they have tried to
do their work mostly on the online basis so that they can coordinate the work into effective
manner with result oriented actions. It has been observed that organisation also take support of
social media platforms and also functions through system of tele marketing or tele detailing as
well.

It has been also recommended that for making the coordination among team member for
purpose of communication it is very important that they have set particular time with support of
apps which keeps them informed that it is the time where they have to effectively communicate
with their professional team members(Zabolotskaya and et.al., 2019).So in this manner, they can
resolve the problem of business communication even in this pandemic situation as well. These
are the solutions which can be implemented by the organisation into realistic form at the
organisational level.
CONCLUSION
The above stated report concludes that business communication is very important at the
organisational level. It has been concluded that within the business without communication it is
difficult to manage the work into suitable manner because when information is not conveyed into
appropriate manner then it becomes difficult to maintain the coordination among team members
into positive manner. It has been determined that at the time of pandemic situation organisations
have to face lots of problems due to which it becomes challenging to run the business into
effective manner. It has been observed that there are certain theories which support the
organisation in terms of this critical situation and also guides how to take appropriate actions in
order to have out of box performance as well. There are certain organisations who have to face
lots of challenges at the time of pandemic situation so in order to resolve the problems there are
certain recommendations which support in terms of changing the situation into positive manner.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Aten, K. and Thomas, G. F., 2016. Crowdsourcing strategizing: Communication technology
affordances and the communicative constitution of organizational strategy. International
Journal of Business Communication, 53(2), pp.148-180.
Buhmann, K., 2017. Changing sustainability norms through communication processes: The
emergence of The business and human rights regime as transnational law. Edward Elgar
Publishing.
Cenere and et.al., 2015. Communication Skills for Business Professionals 7. Cambridge
University Press.
Lam, C., 2015. The role of communication and cohesion in reducing social loafing in group
projects. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 78(4), pp.454-475.
Tayal and et.al., 2021. Blockchain‐based efficient communication for food supply chain
industry: Transparency and traceability analysis for sustainable business. International
Journal of Communication Systems, 34(4), p.e4696.
Thesing, C., 2016. Intercultural communication in German-Dutch business contexts. Münster:
Waxmann.
Zabolotskaya and et.al., 2019. The importance of non-verbal communication in business
activities.