Business Communication Report: Types, Issues, and Evaluation

This report provides a detailed analysis of business communication, exploring various types of information including verbal, written, onscreen, multimedia, and web-based formats. It examines their sources, purposes, and applications within educational institutions and businesses. The report evaluates the appropriateness of business information in strategic decision-making, analyzes external corporate communications, and discusses legal, ethical, and operational issues related to information usage. Furthermore, it outlines electronic and non-electronic communication methods, assesses the effectiveness of business information, and provides examples to illustrate key concepts. The report utilizes case studies of educational institutions and businesses, such as Chepstow School and Mathern Day Nursery, to provide practical insights into the complexities of effective business communication.

Unit 4 Business Communication

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1 (P1).......................................................................................................................................1
Explaining different types of business information, including their sources and purposes........1
Task 2 (M1).....................................................................................................................................4
Analysing different types of information and their sources used by the school..........................4
Task 4 (D1)......................................................................................................................................4
Evaluating the appropriateness of business information used to make strategic decisions.........4
Task 5 (P4).......................................................................................................................................5
Evaluating the external corporate communications of an existing product or service................5
Task 6 (P3).......................................................................................................................................8
Covered in Poster.........................................................................................................................8
Task 7 (P5).......................................................................................................................................8
A. Explanation of legal and ethical issues in relation to use of business information................8
B. Explanation of how Marks and Spencer deals with legal and ethical issues..........................9
Task 8 (P6).......................................................................................................................................9
Explanation of Operational issues in relation to use of business information.............................9
Task 9 (M2)...................................................................................................................................11
Analysis of legal, ethical and operational issues in relation to use of business information.....11
Task 10 (P7)...................................................................................................................................12
Outlining of electronic and non-electrical methods of communication....................................12
Task 11 (D2)..................................................................................................................................14
Evaluation of effectiveness of business information and its communication............................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Business communication is a concept of exchanging information within a workplace for the
purpose of achieving organisational goals. It is important for every business to practice effective
communication at their workplace for the proper exchange direction. The main aim of this report
is to build an understanding about the significance and varied concepts of business
communication. For this purpose, in this report various scenarios of different educational
institutions and profit making organisations are considered. Using these scenarios, types of
business information are evaluated along with corporate communication. Apart from this, few
legal and ethical issues are also analysed along with appropriate examples. At last, effectiveness
of business information is also evaluated along with its contributors of success.
Task 1 (P1)
Explaining different types of business information, including their sources and purposes
Chepstow school is a comprehensive educational institution which was established in 1964
and is located in Wales, United Kingdom. This school is practicing various communication
practices and have varied types of business information which are analysed as follows including
their purposes and sources.
a) Types of business information
Verbal – When an individual shares information with their superiors, subordinates or
colleagues in the form of speech then that type of information is referred as verbal information
(Tate, 2018). In Chepstow school, the head teacher verbally communicates its orders to Deputy
heads regarding the Curriculum change.
Written – In this type of information, data is shared between professionals with the help
of emails, memos and letters. In Chepstow school, the head teacher emails wage notification to
every deputy head and teacher.
Onscreen – This type of information is shared with the help on a screen which can be in
the form of poster, PowerPoint presentation or a video. In the selected school, counsellor
presents benefits of comprehensive learning by using on-screen communication to the parents of
their students so that number of annual admissions can increase.
Multi media – This type of information is the combination of various medias such as
audio, visual and even animations. Chepstow school has a promotional video for their interactive
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learning which they share with their prospect student’s parents so that admissions in interactive
learning department can increase.
Web based – Such information is shared using web platforms and are accessible online. The
selected educational institution shares their admission brochure on their website from which
parents can register their child and school can gain registration fees online.
b) Purposes of business information
Updating knowledge – A business organisation shares information with its members for
updating their knowledge about organisational affairs (Ogiela and Ogiela, 2014). Such purpose is
fulfilled by using Verbal communication in Chepstow school as its head teacher updates the
knowledge of their deputy head by communicating changes in curriculum to them.
Informing about future developments – In an organisation such as Chepstow school,
written information is given to the staff members of the school for the purpose of communicating
the data about future developments in which infrastructure development and establishment of
facilities is included. For example: Management of Chepstow school emails information about
introduction of swimming classes to all staff members.
Strategic direction – Business information are shared so that individuals can understand
the information and can gain an insight about its pros and cons that will assist them for heading
towards the right direction. In Chepstow school, information about comprehensive learning is
provided to parents by using onscreen information so that a strategic direction can be provided to
them.
Offering competitive insight and communicating sales promotions – Business uses
different communication tools to enhance their sales by communicating sales promotions and
sharing benefits of their products and services (Stair and Reynolds, 2012). This purpose of
sharing information is to only beneficial for marketer but for consumer as well. In context of
Chepstow school, management uses Multimedia form of communication to develop and share an
animation video which states essentials of interactive learning and how Chepstow school
provides best interactive learning experience.
Inviting support for activities – Another purpose of sharing information is to invite
external parties to support in sustainable activities. For example: Chepstow school can invite
intellects and their student’s parents to support the tree planation activities conducted in their
school using their websites and emails.
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c) Sources of business information
Financial – Information such as business organisation’s revenues, losses and expenses are
sourced from financial departments of an organisation which is further shared with higher level
management and government. In Chepstow school, annual revenues and monthly expenses
information are sourced from financial department and then shared with head teacher.
Human resources – Information about recruitment of new teachers and their payroll is
sourced from HR department. This source is highly reliable as it is an internal source. For
example: head teacher of Chepstow school can source the information of absenteeism of every
teacher from this source.
Marketing – It is important for an organisation like Chepstow school to know the type of
facilities which are highly demanded by parents in present scenario. For such kind of
information, this institution contact to their marketing department which act as a source and
provide information about the recent queries from parents. Such information can be sourced in
form of verbal communication.
Purchasing – This source of information provides the data about the assets and utilities
which are purchased by the school management (Panadero and Jonsson, 2013). Head teacher of
Chepstow school source the monthly utilities purchased in the school and then develop a priority
report to decrease the expenses.
Administration – This source provides information in written form about the weekly
admission for the purpose of ensuring appropriate facilities for those students in the Chepstow
school.
Government - It is an externals source from which written information is sourced about
curriculum change for the purpose of effective followance of new curriculum policies.
Trade Groupings – This source is a group of educational institutions which create
common code of conduct from all the concerned organisations. These codes and regulations are
given in the form of web based information for the purpose of effective functioning.
Commercially provided information (databases) – This source provides virtual data for
commercial purposes. Chepstow school source list of curriculums in United Kingdom from this
source electronically (web based) for the purpose of authorised functioning.
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Task 2 (M1)
Analysing different types of information and their sources used by the school
Business information is the data which is shared in an organisation for the purpose of their
effective functioning. There are usually five types of data which are sourced from appropriate
sources. In Chepstow school, the verbal data is sourced using internal departments such as
financial and human resource from which data is procured for the purpose of updating the
knowledge. The second type of data is written data which is usually produced from external
sources such as government and trade groupings. Such data is sourced and is essential for the
regulatory conduct of business as change in educational policies and study curriculum is also a
part of information which can be gathered from this source (Mellah, Hassas and Drias, 2013).
Another source is onscreen which helps to effectively understand the data being shared as
this form includes sharing of data using both visual and audio dimensions. This type of
information is sourced from organisation internally which can be the marketing department. This
information is shared for the purpose of aware the management of Chepstow school about the
current trending facilities in educational sector and how these facilities can be engaged in this
school as well. Multimedia information is also a type of information which is beneficial for the
institution as it is the combination of various medias due to which it is easier to understand that
information. This type of data is sourced from internal sources such as purchasing department in
which information is shared regarding increasing expenses using graphs and chart tools.
Web based information is a type of data which is shared using websites. Such information
is usually sourced from external sources like trade groupings and commercial databases. Such
source and information is essential for Chepstow school to gain the insights about external
educational environment.
Task 4 (D1)
Evaluating the appropriateness of business information used to make strategic decisions
The aim behind using business information is to achieve the business objectives and make
strategic decisions (Lawless and Heymann, 2013). In case of Chepstow school, various strategic
decision such as staffing decisions are undertaken using business information. This information
is further evaluated as follows:
a)
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Strategic decisions are concerned with the functioning of whole organisation. For such
decisions, verbal information holds less viability and they are less appropriate as they do not
have any credibility or evidence (Carroll, 2014). Whereas other types of information such as
written, onscreen and web based are suitable for making strategic decisions in Chepstow school
as this information can be re viewed and analysed in case of any issue. Also, such information
holds credibility due to which these can be used to rely upon.
b)
Chepstow school uses the source of trade groupings to determine total number of primary
schools in their native area. After determination, they further use this data to transform it into
multimedia information using graphs and tables. From this data, results are gained about their
staffing level. As the total of number of primary schools in their area is low due to which they
have assumed that there is less number of primary students in their area as well due to which
they have decided to appointed three teachers only.
This use of the web based data is inappropriate as strategic decisions cannot be taken
upon single variable of data. Chepstow school should have used other sources and information as
well and then decide their staffing levels or then could have appointed one teacher over every 2
primary school students.
c)
Using the information sourced from interviews is suitable to take strategic decisions as
interviews can provide valid data. Interviews record the information gathered from various
individuals due to which chances of errors minimises as all the individuals usually cannot be
incorrect. Chepstow school have taken a smart move by conducting interviews for year 11 as
they are well aware with the BREC courses. By this, it can be said that this information is
suitable to take strategic decision.
Task 5 (P4)
Evaluating the external corporate communications of an existing product or service
The external corporate communication which is used is a webpage of Mathern Day Nursery.
This webpage acts as an advertisement poster for this educational institution as their prospect
clients overviews their website and make a decision (Kane, 2013). The webpage of this institute
is shown below:
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(Source: Mathern Day Nursery webpage, 2020)
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From the above external corporate communication, it can be seen that this institution is
aiming to promote their nursery services. In this, an overview about the nursery is given in which
historical information about the school is provided. This information is then followed by few
images from this school to provide an overview about the school infrastructure. These images are
then supported with a list of bullet points to highlight main features of these school. These
features focus upon the time slots in which school operates, food menus for students, play area
features and finally registration details. The above promotion content is well structured as
location and other contact details of the school are provided in a left block and all partner details
and information is provided at the end of the poster (Otuzoğlu and Karahan, 2014).
From the above external corporate communication document which is a webpage, it has
been analysed that there are few pros and cons in this web page which must be enhanced for
effective communication.
The use of images is an effective approach of this school as it will be leave an impressive
impression upon the minds of parents. The use of multiple colours mainly pink is also a benefit
for this webpage as the promoting service in this case is a nursery. But the issue with this
promotion is that there is no strap line. There must be strap line which can signifies aim of this
nursery and can align with format and colours of this document. Other effective approach used
by in this promotional effort is the use of bullet points to state features. Bullet list is considered
as appropriate for promotional documents as in this less effort is require to read and it also
highlights the information. The negative side of this list is the usage of green and grey colour
which is not highlighted in background format.
In the left side of the web page address of this school is provided which will help the parents
to locate it. This still have a drawback as there is no social media information provided in this
document (Martín and Crespo, 2013). In today’s scenario, it is important to have a registered
account on social media platforms which enhances the accessibility. In this left side, an
additional information is provided about opening hours, food menus and infrastructure which can
provide them benefit of detailed information.
Another effective marketing approach used by this educational institution is the use of logos
of partner institutes due to which a sense of reliability can be maintained due to which this
school can be considered as a viable institution.
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Task 6 (P3)
Covered in Poster
Task 7 (P5)
A. Explanation of legal and ethical issues in relation to use of business information
There are several legal and ethical issues, which an organisation faces in order to analyse
in order to ensure sharing of business information in an appropriate manner (Smith and Wong,
2016). Hence, below is an explanation of several issues undermining the use of business
information in context of Marks and Spencer:
Legal Issues: Data Protection Act, 1998: According to this act, organisations like Marks and Spencer
are required to organise the data stored in their computers in a way that it is easily
accessible and safe. Hence, if the organisation does not have a proper paper filing system,
then it might face an implication of data theft, which is a major issue for a firm like this. Freedom of Information Act, 2000: This act ensures public access to the information,
which the public authorities hold. Hence, non-compliance with this might result in severe
consequences for the organisation, as not providing right to access might subject the
company towards unwanted investigations and loss of public trust.
 Computer Misuse Act, 1990: This law safeguards the information stored within the
computer from any sort of modifications by individuals who are not authorised for the
same. Non-adherence of this legislation would present an outcome of severe misconduct,
which might be directed towards reduction of credibility of the organisation.
Ethical Issues: Codes of Practice: These refer to the principles and policies which an organisation
formulates to ensure safety and protection of stakeholders of the company, which might
be related to structure and authorisation of usage of e-mails and internet. Ineffectiveness
in these might be ethical violation of the industrial standards as issues such as
information theft and plagiarism might enhance due to inappropriate policies (Miller and
Blackler, 2017). Whistle Blowing: It is an activity of exposing secretive and sensitive information of an
organisation to unauthorised parties. This is a serious ethical issue, which might lead to
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the firm losing its competitive advantage or major plagiarising, which might be
disadvantageous for the firm.
 Organisational Policies: A company needs to formulate policies which protects the
information which the stakeholders have made the firm accountable to access and
manage. However, if firms like Marks and Spencer fail to formulate such policies, then
an ethical issue which arises on this front would be related to incapability of the company
towards managing the private and confidential information of stakeholders (Gelinas and
et. al., 2017).
B. Explanation of how Marks and Spencer deals with legal and ethical issues
There are several ways in which Marks and Spencer deals with the legal and ethical
issues. Some of these prominent aspects are discussed below in context of the company: Company's Codes of Ethics: One of the most appropriate ways in which Marks and
Spencer deals with the legal and ethical issues is through its codes of ethics. For instance,
while the company emphasises on the usage of Social media, which is done for
appropriately making the colleagues and customers aware about the firm's products and
services. However, there are strict obligation for the employees towards acting in the
firm's interests and do not write or post any information that would result in breaching the
firm’s confidentiality and trust amongst the external stakeholders (M&S: Code of Ethics,
2019).
 Employee Handbook: The firm has an appropriate handbook for each employee which is
associated with appropriate guidelines related to ethical and legal usage of information.
As an example, the firm has a structural process for individuals to report unethical
aspects like Whistle Blowing, where the process follows immediate reporting to the line
manager, senior manager, or access the same through confidential employee helpline.
This way, the firm develops a culture of a legally sound and ethical organisation in an
appropriate manner (M&S: Employees' Handbook, 2020).
Task 8 (P6)
Explanation of Operational issues in relation to use of business information
Apart from the legal and ethical issues, an organisation deals with operational issues as
well which is associated with the use of business information (Aithal, 2016). These issues are
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related towards how the firm works in context of securing the use of information and its flow,
within and outside of an organisation (Jajja and et. al., 2017). Hence, in context of Marks and
Spencer, some of these operational issues are reflected below: Security of Information: One of the major operational issues in context of Marks and
Spencer is related to the security of information. This issue operates on the notion that the
information could be stolen, as well as could be lost, which would lead to either breach or
loss of crucial data of the firm respectively. To deal with the same, Marks and Spencer
focuses on software which are password protected in order to ensure that information is
protected and is shared in an encrypted manner to the authorised personnel. Backups: Another operational issue is related to data backup. It is one of the most
evident issues which organisations like Marks and Spencer experiences, which relates
with loss of data due to inappropriate storage and untimely backups. To deal with this,
Marks and Spencer appropriately store their data using Cloud Storage to ensure safety
and security of the information available with the company.
 Health and Safety: There are certain health related issues that are related to information
management within the organisation. For instance, there are some valuable and necessary
information within the company available for workplace health and safety, mostly for
manufacturing operations. Hence, infringement or breach in this data could lead to more
danger towards health and safety of individuals. Hence, in this regard, the company uses
SureClould software where information breaching and infringement becomes very hard
due to its encrypted coding and management system (Olszak, 2016).
Despite such initiatives associated with dealing with operational issues, there are
additional things which the company could indulge into in order to appropriately and effectively
deal with the issues:
 Business Continuance Plans:
A prominent aspect with which the organisation could indulge in dealing with operational
issues is formulating a business continuance plan. This would allow the firm to include several
potential threats to the use of its business information that would enable the firm in safeguarding
the same through forming contingency plans to better deal with the same.
 Costs:
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