Enhancing Workplace Communication: A Report on Soulfood Restaurant

This report investigates the impact of workplace communication on the success of Soulfood restaurant, focusing on how effective communication among employees and with customers can improve service quality and overall profitability. It explores key areas such as time management, shopping for seasonal produce, delivery and catering services, language and sociability, and the role of updated communication technology. The report also addresses workplace interruptions, competition, social media, and public relations. Recommendations are made to enhance communication strategies, including employee training, a well-functioning public relations team, and a focus on friendly customer interactions to maintain a positive brand image and ensure continued success in the competitive restaurant industry.

COMMUNICATION EFFECTIVENESS IN WORKPLACE

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Table of Content
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Scope:.........................................................................................................................................2
Analysis:.....................................................................................................................................2
Improvement in service:.........................................................................................................2
Time management and communication:................................................................................2
Communication effectiveness and shopping:.........................................................................3
Communication and Delivery Service:..................................................................................3
Communication and Catering Service:..................................................................................3
Language and sociability:......................................................................................................4
Workplace interruptions:........................................................................................................4
Updated Communication Technology:..................................................................................4
Competition in the industry, Social Media and Public Relations:.........................................4
Recommendations:.....................................................................................................................5
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................5
References:.................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction:
The motive of writing this report is to investigate and understand how workplace
communication can improve any business. Workplace communication is one of the key
factors of any organization. Communication between different levels of employees and the
employers cast a clear reflection on the business, the health of any organization. Not only
that, communication increases the profitability of a business – the main concern of any
organization. In the report, we are going to delve into the workings of such an organization
and see how the notion of communication is affecting the business and upon further analysis,
we will also see how this can be made better and what the factors we need to look into
closely are. We will also see how in this particular case – in the case of the chosen restaurant
– the communication within the workplace can make an impact on the overall service of the
organization.
Scope:
In this report there will be included a study of the communication effectiveness in case of the
chosen organization. There we shall discuss how this particular organization sees this aspect
of business management and we will also focus on the impact of communication
effectiveness in this particular industry.
Analysis:
In this section, we discuss the important aspects of workplace communication in a specific
context of the chosen restaurant. Soulfood is famous within its locality for their service that
makes a difference. Their special care given to the quality of food, which they claim are
entirely organic and homemade, makes them trustworthy. The menus are very carefully
prepared and depend on seasonal produce and their availability in the market. Another
important feature is that they require 48 hours prior to the order made. They are open to the
challenge of last minute orders but predominantly they serve best if ordered priorly.
Improvement in service:
One of the mottos to succeed in restaurant and catering service is to serve properly. In case of
restaurants like Soulfood, which focuses more on quality than quantity, it becomes essential
that the requirements of the customers are properly taken care of. A robust communication
among the employees is very much needed so that the particular idiosyncratic needs of the
eaters are minutely met when the food is being cooked.
Time management and communication:
Time management in the workplace is a essential factor while serving the customers. A
recent study has revealed some interesting information regarding the time space within
workspace – how the employees have their different time spaces going on within one
workspace and how one timespace overlaps another when one employee intrudes the work of

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another. This sort of timespace increases the risk of major miscommunication which may
prove dangerous to the reputation of a restaurant (O'Conaill & Frohlich, 1995). Especially a
restaurant like Soulfood that counts on each and every order and tries to serve the best quality
eating experience, a miscommunication can result in losing the entire market.
Communication effectiveness and shopping:
Soulfood depends on fresh vegetables produced seasonally since their focus is on the organic
food value of any dish. Another interesting aspect of this restaurant is they are more
comfortable with prior orders and especially preparing lunches and dinners for regular
customers. In cases like these, each customer’s tastes and preferences need to be met and for
this reason, shopping becomes difficult. If communication technology is not strong enough,
customers are bound to be dissatisfied as the restaurant cannot serve them according to their
individual tastes. Seasonal vegetables are also variable in its productivity, so an employee has
to have a good knowledge of the markets to get access to the fresh produce. Especially
shopping becomes a challenging task when a last-minute order comes.
Communication and Delivery Service:
For delivery service, it is essential to communicate with the customers to avoid many
inconveniences. There can be many situations which are at odds with both the service
provider and recipients. In these situations, employees need to work together so that no issue
is raised regarding poor quality delivery. Arriving and delivering on time is as important as
delivering proper needs at one time. Miscommunication can result in going to the same place
twice which is very cost ineffective on the restaurant’s part. Any meal consists of food which
are ideally served hot as well as cold. To maintain its proper temperature, food must be
delivered really fast, without any hassle finding the address and in the shape it came out from
the chef’s kitchen.
Communication and Catering Service:
A restaurant like Soulfood which wants to make a lasting impact on those who go to their
restaurant, it is quite practical they will want to make the best of the opportunities like
birthdays, anniversaries, and dinner dates. Even marriage catering and other social and family
gatherings can be arranged. But the prerequisites to these kinds of services are manpower. At
the same time, fine understanding of the needs and demands of the customers is also
important. Cost effectiveness is also a great factor when business is concerned. Catering
service relies a lot upon the service it provides. The only key to suave catering service is good
communication among the employees themselves and also the communication with the
clients. Catering service also involves a lot of people in one place. In such cases, many
people are being served. As a matter of fact, the people are not directly concerned financially
here since most of them are just invited to dine with the clients on a special occasion. In such
cases, a small fault on the service provider’s part can be inflated and can be seen as a
catastrophe (Waldron & Kassing, 2010). Thus, good communication skill is very essential.
Other than that, special occasions are always taken as special by people, so they want it to be
flawless and special in every aspect. It is a huge responsibility for any food serving service.

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Language and sociability:
Language is one of the factors that can break and make all kinds of social barriers.
Everything depends on language. Also, unspoken language reveals a great deal about
something. The employees need to use proper language with the clients, they need to take the
orders with proper etiquette and manners. This is the key to a good ambience maintained in a
soulful restaurant. Soulfood is always keen on maintaining that. There should also be
introduced a more personal and friendlier code of conduct when communication between the
client and employee is taking place (Turner, Qvarfordt,Biehl, Golovchinsky&Back, 2010). If
this is not introduced, then client will not prefer this over any other places. This will give the
restaurant an edge over other restaurants. They have to earn the level of personal cook or
private dining place. It is there business’ guiding principle as well – to make their clients at
home in every possible way.
Workplace interruptions:
Workplace is a ensemble of different ranks of employees and also a set of employer. In case
of service industries, there is also a external link to the clients which make the
communication two-fold. One is internal – within employees. The other is external – between
the workers and the clients. If any awkward situation breaks out, it needs strict guidelines to
handle such a situations. The guidelines also have to be two in number. While one guideline
will state the acceptable and unacceptable behaviors on the part of customers, the other
guidelines will state how the employees will behave themselves within the working hours and
workspace. The proper imposition of such rules and regulations will smoothen the business
flow (Lutgen-Sandvik& Tracy, 2012). Otherwise it will hamper the entire business; it will
ruin the ambience of the restaurant, and eventually downgrade the reputation of the
restaurant. Workplace interruption can break out if the interest of any employee is not taken
care of. This kind of situation should be nipped in the bud since such issues can lead to
unionization and greater hampering of any organizational functions. Also interruptions can
hamper the speed of the working, which in case of restaurants can prove to be fatal since
everyone wants delivery on time – especially when they are looking forward to the dish after
ordering it with so much expectation.
Updated Communication Technology:
Restaurants and fast food industries rely a lot upon emails, phone calls and all sorts of media
of communications. Proper technology is required to make everything fast.
Also, the official who is sitting behind the desk and receiving phonecalls has to be completely
into his or her work to avoid any sort of miscommunication. There should also be introduced
a more flexible, more shared space where each one will be communicated what they need to
know without anyone being accountable for any miscommunication or lack of
communication. This kind of practice can enhance the smoothness of working. It also lessens
the risk of missing on something. This is especially important in these situatiopns where
varied tastes and peferences need to be catered to.
Competition in the industry, Social Media and Public Relations:
In order for Soulfood to maintain its good name, they have to maintain their quality of food
and service, for sure. But another thing is that they cannot restrict themselves to only that.

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They have to get out of their way to make indelible impression on the clients’ minds to
ensure the next order. They have to make an impact. Only way to make that robust impact is
to have to good team of employees, PR’s, and attractive offers. Each of them requires
communication on several fronts (Keyton et al, 2013). They have to communicate also on
social media, make themselves heard in different platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
They can make nice videos of their environment and take nice photos and post them here and
there to attract new crowd. All of these require communication of a supreme quality.
Recommendations:
Employees should be well aware of the effective communications and its good side. They
should be given a workshop by human resource managers who can state out clearly the
benefits from communication in workplace. A well-functioning public relations team which
can handle different social media platforms can enhance the reach of this restaurant and their
creative ideas. A friendly voice behind the phone and friendly behaviour around the
restaurant space in general can keep the impression high. A communication strategy should
also be adopted by the employer in order to tackle workplace interruptions. A good
communication in the kitchen can keep the disastrous situations away. Service based
industries are also dependent on this. Hierarchical tendencies in workplace should also be
kept on check. A sense of fraternity among the workers should be encouraged, employer
should also not have an aura around her that makes her inaccessible. They also need to have a
screening test based on all these values in a aspiring employee when they are going to employ
for their restaurant.
Conclusion:
Soulfood have an extraordinary array of features which make them class apart from their
contemporaries. But with these aspirations, there need to be certain aspects that need to be
maintained with equal vigour. Communication in workplace is one such thing. There need to
be special emphasis on communication since it can affect profitability to a great extent.
Especially in restaurants like these that prefer to focus on quality and ambience over quantity,
communication becomes one of the key roles to be played. Accessibility counts more than
individual quality of the food, since that makes an ambience great. In our analysis, we have
discussed all sorts of communication network and have discussed each of them in detail and
how they affect workers. In discussing them, it can be seen that it also regulates many other
aspects of a business – flow of work, speed of service, quality of service, outreach in society,
and many other indirect issues which might go overlooked at first glance. Soulfood is a newly
opened restaurant. In order to make themselves among the top restaurants in their locality, to
make their service unique in quality, and food excellent in all respects, they need to focus on
public relations for the time being. Communication needs more emphasis than any other
aspects like expensive location, spending too much on technology or other unnecessary
things.

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References:
Keyton, J., Caputo, J. M., Ford, E. A., Fu, R., Leibowitz, S. A., Liu, T., ...& Wu, C. (2013).
Investigating verbal workplace communication behaviors. The Journal of Business
Communication (1973), 50(2), 152-169.
Lutgen-Sandvik, P., & Tracy, S. J. (2012). Answering five key questions about workplace
bullying: How communication scholarship provides thought leadership for
transforming abuse at work. Management Communication Quarterly, 26(1), 3-47.
O'Conaill, B., &Frohlich, D. (1995, May). Timespace in the workplace: Dealing with
interruptions. In Conference companion on Human factors in computing systems (pp.
262-263). ACM.
Turner, T., Qvarfordt, P., Biehl, J. T., Golovchinsky, G., & Back, M. (2010, April). Exploring
the workplace communication ecology. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on
human factors in computing systems (pp. 841-850). ACM.
Waldron, V. R., &Kassing, J. W. (Eds.). (2010). Managing risk in communication
encounters: Strategies for the workplace. Sage.