Report: Business Communication Analysis for Arcadia Group (2024)

This report provides an in-depth analysis of business communication within Arcadia Group, a multinational retailer. It begins by highlighting the significance of communication in achieving organizational goals, focusing on inter-departmental cooperation and its importance in fostering a productive work environment. The report classifies different types of communication based on organizational structure, direction, and expression, offering insights into formal, informal, downward, upward, horizontal, oral, and written communication methods. It then details the principles of effective business communication, including clarity, courtesy, and correctness. The main body of the report also identifies various barriers to communication, such as interpersonal, language, and emotional barriers, and proposes strategies to overcome these obstacles. These strategies include eliminating differences in perception, using simple language, active listening, and managing emotional states. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the role of effective communication in achieving sustainable profitability and competitive advantage. References to academic sources and online resources are provided to support the analysis.

Business
Communication

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Developing inter- departmental cooperation ..............................................................................1
Barriers of communication .........................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................4
REFERNCES ..................................................................................................................................5
.........................................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Communication is an essential aspect of business life as it help people at different level
of an organisation to build a healthy relationship in order to accomplish company's pre
determined goal in a productive manner within prescribed time period (Maiand
Hoffmannd ,2014). However, the communication which take place in an enterprise between its
employees and management team which lead them to attain high level of productivity is referred
as business communication. For this report, it considered Arcadia Group, one of the
multinational retailer in UK and it is commenced in the year of 1903. This study covers
importance and need of inter department communication, barriers of conversation as well as
ways to overcome those is also mentioned here.
MAIN BODY
Developing inter- departmental cooperation
According to Bruce Berger,copyright @ 2019, business communication is used to relay
information within company and promote services, products as well as deal with legal and other
similar issues for increasing high level of sales growth and attain profit margin. Moreover, one of
the most important section in communication is inter department conversation which help to
create a best working culture. Thus, it is process through which several business function send
and receive messages between themselves and it assist them to generate a vibrant and trusting
corporate culture. Apart from this, organisational conversation largely focuses on building
relationships and interacting with internal members and interested external public for obtaining
maximisation of profit. However, there are different kinds of communication which is classified
on various division in Arcadia Group that is described below:
Communication on the basis of organisational structure
Formal and Informal: It is regarded as official channel enable routine and standardised
information to pass without claiming much of managerial attention as it take place in the form of
departmental meetings, conference, telephone calls, company news etc. It is travel in Arcadia
Group through formal channel officially recognised position in an organisational chart (Steele
and Plenty, 2015). ON the other hand, informal conversation is one where there is nothing
official as well as there is no specific channel of exchanging message within business function.
On the basis of direction

Downward and Upward: Communication which flows from superior to subordinate is
referred as downward as in Arcadia Group's manager implies written memos, orders, job
description to convey with their employees (EMPLOYEE / ORGANIZATIONAL
COMMUNICATIONS, 2019). While, when conversation arise from low level management to top
level level it is known as upward communication as manpower provide their valuable
suggestions and proposal to employer in order to achieve business goal in an innovative manner.
Horizontal: It is relate with those communication which occurs between two or more
person who are employees of same level in Arcadia Group in order to reduce dispute or
confusion among personnel that will lead Arcadia to acquire high level of satisfaction (Jackson,
2014).
On the basis of expression
Oral and Written: These two communication are very familiar in Arcadia Group as they
adapts on the basis of situation and time. Along with this, oral conversation is exchanged through
face to face, lectures, interview etc. whereas written involves graphs, diagram, pictures for
transmitting the content in an accurate and appropriate. By these, Arcadia manager are enable to
decrease ambiguities among personnel and can easily strengthen firm's productivity without any
obstacle.
However, in order to make business communication more productive and impressive in
Arcadia working culture, they should keep some principles which helps them to generate a
effective relationship between inter departments. Some of the practices and principles are given
below:
Principles of clarity: The initial and foremost step is that superior should provide each
and every information in a very clear manner so that there will less occurrence of
miscommunication or misinterpretation which help them to build a impressive corporate culture.
Principles of courtesy: Under this, Arcadia leader should take initiative to identify issues
and requirements of its subordinates and based on that they make corrective course of action
without harming their morale. Due to this, personnel put their full contribution towards an
accomplishment of business task in an efficacious and efficient manner (Roth, 2014).
Principles of correctness: It is relate with transmitting and responding all messages at the
most appropriate time because outdated information is useless for company growth as it is a

wastage of time, money and energy. With the help of this, they can improve overall performance
of company as well as enhance company's brand image.
Hence, effective inter departmental communication makes manpower stay informed, they
always be ready to make changes and they feel comfortable in confronting issues when it arise
between departments. Moreover, they can overcome over chaos and can generate high level of
motivation so that Arcadia manpower can put their full effort and strengthen firm's profitability
ratio.
Barriers of communication
According to Carl R. Rogers copyright @2019, there are diverse form of obstacle which
impede whole communication process and it negatively impact over firm productivity and profit
margin. Therefore, it is responsibility of Arcadia manager to determine those barriers and make
suitable decisions in order to gain competitive advantage in an innovative and creative way (Aten
and Thomas, 2016). There are few barriers which Arcadia Group faces within their business
functions and operation and it is explained below:
Interpersonal barrier: It is relates with poor self esteem or an inability to make
connection with others which prohibits each manpower from actually communicating with
collogues. This challenge lead to withdrawal from business dynamic and restrict personnel to
exchanging their opinion or views with others employees and it fully disturb the ambiance of
Arcadia working environment as well as its proficiency (Barriers and Gateways to
Communication, 2019).
Language barrier: Being a multinational brand, it contains workforce with diverse
culture and region whose has various language. Due to this it create huge communication gap
between employer and employee and sometime it hold back both of them in transmitting teir
ideas regarding growth of Arcadia proficiency (Kankaanranta, Louhiala-Salminen and Karhunen,
2015).
Emotional barrier: Self confidence plays an enormous role in breaking down
physiological barrier. But, sometime emotions take over when communication with other
manpower and feelings such as anger, pride and anxiety can cloud judgement and prevent great
conversation among Arcadia's manager and employee. IN regard of Arcadia Group, strong
negative emotions can interfere with one or both of these aspects of conversation which lead

them to miscommunication, hurt feelings, morale which effect in terms of decreasing company's
productivity and increase labour turnover rate.
Measure to overcome barrier of communication
An effective or productive conversation help Arcadia Group to generate a positive
environment which lead them to obtain maximisation of profit with an optimum utilisation of
resources. However, there are few ways to tackle those obstacle and build a better working
culture which are explained below:
Eliminating differences in perception: Arcadia manager should ensure that it recruit right
individuals on job and assign them suitable roles and responsibilities based on their demand or
interest. By this, employees can feel motivate to put their full contribution for an achievement of
organisational goals within prescribed time limit (Lauring and Klitmøller, 2015).
Use of simple languages: During transmitting message to personnel, Arcadia leader
should focus on using clear and simple words in order to reduce confusions and misinterpretation
among business premises. With the help of this, firm can acquire increased level of profitability
ratio as well as can easily improve overall performance.
Active listening: In order to generate a healthy working environment, Arcadia manager
must take initiative to listen attentively and carefully which clarifies complex and big confusions
and both the parties can easily understand each other views as well as help them to generate
better working environment with good relationship among superior and subordinate.
Emotional state: During business conversation, Arcadia's manager should make
impressive use of body language so that entire workforce can boost their morale and can
generate positive perception towards company which bad value to subordinate as well as
enhance firm brand image (Ceschim, Dorofeeva and Sartori, 2014).
Therefore, by overcoming these barriers Arcadia Group can improve team building as
well as motivate firm to be more flexible to acquire innovation within their business premises in
order to gain competitive advantage in an impressive and productive way.
CONCLUSION
It has been sum up from the above report that business communication is an powerful
determinant within an organisation which help every personnel to build a positive attitude among
each other. Along with this, it assist company to reduce conflict of interest or dispute as well as
aid them to retain employees in company in order to acquire high level of satisfaction. Moreover,

there will be various kinds of barriers during conversation which sometime restrict manpower to
share their views and it generate huge problems towards firm proficiency. Thus, overcoming
those obstacle during transmitting information enable company to gain competitive edge and can
easily achieve sustainable profitability.

REFERNCES
Books and journals
Mai, R. and Hoffmann, S., 2014. Accents in Business Communication: An integrative model and
propositions for future research. Journal of consumer psychology. 24(1). pp.137-158.
Steele, G. A. and Plenty, D., 2015. Supervisor–subordinate communication competence and job
and communication satisfaction. International Journal of Business Communication.
52(3). pp.294-318.
Jackson, D., 2014. Business graduate performance in oral communication skills and strategies
for improvement. The International Journal of Management Education. 12(1). pp.22-34.
Roth, S., 2014. The things that go without saying: on performative differences between business
value communication and communication on business values. International Journal of
Business Performance Management. 15(3). pp.175-191.
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.
Lauring, J. and Klitmøller, A., 2015. Corporate language-based communication avoidance in
MNCs: A multi-sited ethnography approach. Journal of World Business. 50(1). pp.46-55.
Ceschi, A., Dorofeeva, K. and Sartori, R., 2014. Studying teamwork and team climate by using a
business simulation: how communication and innovation can improve group learning and
decision-making performance. European Journal of Training and Development. 38(3).
pp.211-230.
Kankaanranta, A., Louhiala-Salminen, L. and Karhunen, P., 2015. English in multinational
companies: implications for teaching “English” at an international business school.
Journal of English as a Lingua Franca. 4(1). pp.125-148.
Online
Barriers and Gateways to Communication, 2019 .[Online]. Available Through;
<https://hbr.org/1991/11/barriers-and-gateways-to-communication>
EMPLOYEE / ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS, 2019 .[Online]. Available Through;
<https://instituteforpr.org/employee-organizational-communications/>