Analysis of Organizational Communication at Marks & Spencer (Report)

This report examines business communication within the context of Marks & Spencer, a global retail organization. It begins with an introduction to business communication and a literature review that explores the exchange of information within organizations. The analysis and discussion section delves into various forms of organizational communication, including formal, informal, downward, and horizontal communication, along with their purposes. It also highlights principles of effective communication, such as clarity, interest and acceptance, adequacy, and integrity. The report further discusses communication practices, emphasizing the use of appropriate communication tools, providing feedback channels, and encouraging collaboration. Recommendations are provided for improving communication within Marks & Spencer, such as providing training and creating a safe space for team members. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of effective business communication for organizational success. The report uses secondary sources like books and journals to analyze the communication strategies.

CONTEXT OF BUSINESS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................................3
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION...............................................................................................................3
RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business communication is explained as process of sharing the information among
people within and outside an organisation. It is related to how the management and staff
members interact to reach at organisational objectives (Bovée, Thill and Raina, 2016). Marks&
Spencer is retail organisation and this company is specialise in selling of clothing, home items
and food products at global level. It was founded in 1884 through Michael Marks and Thomas
Spencer in Leeds. In present report will be discussed about the purpose and principles of various
organisational communication forms. Different communication practices will be discussed here.
LITERATURE REVIEW
On the basis of Chuck Leddy (2020) Business communication refers to exchanging the
information to promote objectives and aim of company to enhance profit level. The
communication is process of transmitting the information and also understanding from one
person to other with view of getting desired response from receiver. In Marks & Spencer
Company, manager is responsible to develop and also maintain channels where they convey
thinking as well as policies to subordinates. There are some barriers faced by company regarding
communication at workplace such as emotional, semantic barriers etc. These barriers develop the
negative impact on employees and also organisational productivity. To overcome from the
communication issues, management of Marks & Spencer find effective ways such as Clarify
ideas before Communication, be Aware of language, ensure Proper Feedback and others. These
ways helps in develop the positive impact on employees and also maintaining the positive
communication at workplace.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Purpose and principles behind various forms of organisational communication
Organisational communication refers to exchange of ideas, views and information within
and also outside an Organisation. It is concerned with sending and receiving of the messages
between interrelated people with in specific environment to attain common objectives.
Organisational communication is helpful in accomplishing the task regarding particular roles and
responsibilities of production, service and sales. Its main focus is on developing the relationship
as well as interacting with internal organisation members and also external people. There are
different forms of organisation communication and its purpose is given below:
Formal communication- This is organised as regular channel of the work related
communication within an organisation where the staff members have to co-ordinate by proper
medium between themselves. The formal communication is related with formal organisation
structure of an organisation (Kiatsuranon and Suwunnamek, 2017). Main purpose of the formal

communication is to give the orders, fulfil objectives of company and convey the instruction by
some pre-determined regulations and rules.
Informal communication- This organisational communication form focuses on
developing the relationship and friendship at workplace. Miscommunication forms expression
may or may not be concerned with work or organisation. This kind of business communication
form can lead to beneficial inside, distorted information and misinterpreted. The main purpose of
information communication is to promote the social relationship between employees. This assists
in developing unity and integrity between them and also enhances their moral (Zerfass and
Viertmann, 2017).
Downward communication- This kind of organisational communication forms from
superior to the subordinate. It mainly takes orders form, policy directives to people, instruction to
the people at lower level in Mark and Spencer Company. In this organization downward
communication include the feedback on job performance as well as information regarding
policies of company (Kim and Kim, 2016).
Horizontal communication- This flows from the people which are on similar level of
company. This kind of directional communication enables the people to communicate videos
without including the people at the level in an organization.
Principles of effective communication to enhance practice
Every form of the communication needs interacting with other person or group of the
people. The business communications principles help in manage communication as exchange of
the messages among receiver and sender by medium of communication. It is necessary for Mark
and Spencer to consider some guidelines for making the communication effective at workplace.
Different principles of effective communication in order to increase practices are given below:
Clarity- In the communication process to serve purpose there should be assure it about clarity of
communication. Business communication is mainly possesses the clarity when this is expressed
in language and also transmit in a manner that will be comprehensive through receiver. The main
objective of business communication is to bring the two minds together and it can possible only
then what Centre means to understand through receiver in similar manner. So it is necessary that
communication should be simple and clear in understandable language (Pearson, 2017).
Interest and acceptance- Main purpose of business communication is to secure positive
response. Person communicated to must be interested in message and also accept it. In context to
this, downward communication is effective if motive is good and the upward communication
gets by when superior is a good listener. When applying this communication principle, Marks
and Spencer should be remembered that it can seldom be enforced.

Adequacy- Main aim of communication is to ensure optimum information flow. This is enough
for covering area for communication process that should be assure about all those messages
which can be required different people at workplace in context with effective roles of duty
should be follow up (Terziev and Nichev, 2017).
Integrity- This communication principle requires that organizational structure and goals should
be guided by business communication. Communication is medium and a method for securing
and sustaining the cooperation among superiors and subordinates required fulfilling the
objectives of the enterprise (Veltsos, 2017).
Communication practices of themselves and others
Effective communication at workplace can be difference among failure and success of
any business of organization. Effective business communication consists the customs and time
honored practices which can lean easily (Raina and Roebuck, 2016). Communication is main
workplace concerns. Creation and maintenance of a healthy work environment requires good
interaction in the workplace. Work environment contact is one of the main characteristics of a
high-performance culture. The sharing of knowledge and thoughts is called workplace
interaction within an organization. Effective communication thus happens when a message is
correctly sent and received. There are some communication practices given below:
Use right communication tools- For internal communication strategies to make effective,
there is a need to Marks & Spencer to assure that it tap in right avenues. It requires to be assuring
about use communication systems and software that helps the staff members at workplace.
Different tools which are useful at workplace are group chats, cloud technology etc.
Provide channels wherein feedback and ideas can be shared- Honest and the open
feedback is an important component to add internal communications strategies, this permit staff
members and company to reach at the set target within specific period of time (Pobegaylov,
Myasishchev and Gaybarian, 2016). It needs to keep in mind that better ideas or thought have no
value unless it is shared. It is necessary to assure that in meeting, management should give the
opportunities to employees to express themselves.
Encourage collaboration- Marks & Spencer encourage its staff members which work in
the various departments. It helps in develop the strong relationship among departments will be
better and they can able to communicate with each other in positive manner. In context to this,
adding collaboration among various departments as part of internal communication strategies
permit the staff members to learn something new from the each other (Solaja, Idowu and James,
2016).
RECOMMENDATIONS
There are some recommendations given below:

 It is necessary for Marks & Spencer to provide the training to employees and also
conduct a session so that they can able to interact with each other. Training helps in
enhancing the skills and core competencies of employees regarding communication.
 Company needs to give the undivided attention to its staff members. Management needs
to give the full importance to employees in a meeting and also consider their opinions.
 There is a need to develop safe space for team members to be communicated. Firm
require to development environment where the people feel safe and comfortable to
expressing their ideas and opinions.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above mention report that business communication is one
the effective way to develop he positive communication among the employees and management
at workplace. The conducting the literature review part, there has been secondary sources used
for an instance books, articles, journals and many other sources. Literature review has been
considered about the barriers arise in business communication and find out the effective ways to
overcome from the issues. In this present report has been discussed about the business
communication in detailed manner and its different forms such as formal communication,
horizontal communication, informal communication and downward communication. Interest and
acceptance, Clarity, Adequacy and Integrity are the different principles of business
communication which has been discussed in given report.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Bovée, C. L., Thill, J. V. and Raina, R. L., 2016. Business communication today. Pearson
Education India.
Kiatsuranon, K. and Suwunnamek, O., 2017. Determinants of Thai information and
communication technology organization performance: A structural equation model
analysis. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences.
Kim, M. J. and Kim, K. J., 2016. The influence of nurses' clinical career and communication
within organization on teamwork competency. Journal of Digital convergence. 14(2).
pp.333-344.
Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the
idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.
Pobegaylov, O. A., Myasishchev, G. I. and Gaybarian, O. E., 2016. Organization and
Management Efficiency Assessment in the Aspect of Linguistic Communication and
Professional Text. Procedia Engineering. 150. pp.2173-2177.
Raina, R. and Roebuck, D. B., 2016. Exploring cultural influence on managerial communication
in relationship to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and the employees’
propensity to leave in the insurance sector of India. International Journal of Business
Communication. 53(1). pp.97-130.
Solaja, M. O., Idowu, E. F. and James, E. A., 2016. Exploring the relationship between
leadership communication style, personality trait and organizational productivity. Serbian
Journal of Management. 11(1). pp.99-117.
Terziev, V. and Nichev, N., 2017, March. Research of the communication and organization
management competences of the cadets during their military professional training. In 3rd
international conference on advanced research in business and social sciences.
Veltsos, J. R., 2017. Gamification in the business communication course. Business and
Professional Communication Quarterly. 80(2). pp.194-216.
Zerfass, A. and Viertmann, C., 2017. Creating business value through corporate communication.
Journal of Communication Management.
Online

Leddy, C., 2020. EFFECTIVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: 8 STEPS TO A BETTER
CONVERSATION. [ONLINE]. Available through: <
https://www.middlemarketcenter.org/expert-perspectives/effective-business-
communication-8-steps-to-a-better-conversation>.