Improving Interdepartmental Communication at Tesco

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ASSESSMENT 2- INDIVIDUAL REPORT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 2
LITERATURE REVIEW......................................................................................................................3
RECOMMENDATIONS OF MEASURES TO COLLEAGUES AND SUBORDINATES FACILITATE INTER-
DEPARTMENTAL COOPERATION....................................................................................................4
BARRIERS IN INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATION AND STRATEGY TO OVERCOME THEM. .6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................. 9
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................10
1

INTRODUCTION
The assignment takes into account Tesco as its marketing director aims for better cooperation
between the departments within Tesco. This report includes recommendations to the
colleagues and subordinate to facilitate inter-departmental cooperation. Also, it needs to
address the kind of barriers to be faced within Tesco and also a strategy to overcome them.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Communication is a discrete process to transmit the message or information and also receive
the response of that message or information. In short, communication simply exchanges of the
idea, thought, messages or information in any communication method, be it oral, written
graphs, pictures and diagrams and so on (Adler and Elmhorst, 2012).
A book by Maude (2011) emphasis on managing the communication in the cross-culture work
environment since due to the growth of the business in the international market. It creates
more demand for business people, managers and professional staff to acquire the outlook as
well as communication ability in cross-culture environment. It has become essential for the
business to focus on cross-culture communication within the workplace to gather knowledge
about a different culture, motivate them to enhance cooperation and coordination within a
diverse workforce.
Hartman and McCambridge (2011) offered insights in their article for the business educators so
as to aid the millennials that are the people born between 1980 and 2000, in understanding the
impact of styles of communication while optimising the effectiveness of communication. The
development of style-flexing skills, as well as style typing, serve as a building block for the
development of subsequent interpersonal skill in various key areas like active listening,
audience analysis, conflict management as well as negotiation along with effective team
building and cooperation.
Thus it can be summarised from the above literature review that different forms of
organizational communication serve different purpose following effective communication
principles.
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RECOMMENDATIONS OF MEASURES TO COLLEAGUES AND
SUBORDINATES FACILITATE INTER-DEPARTMENTAL COOPERATION
It is extremely difficult for Tesco to maintain and manage the cooperation between
departments as it involves mutual respect, shared vision and in-depth understanding on the
role of one another in activities with the aim to achieve excellent business outcomes as well as
outstanding customer experience (Maude, 2011). Therefore the managers of the different
department are required to structure the communications to encourage collaboration between
them. Effective communication is referred to that communication wherein the message or
information of the sender is effectively conveyed to the receiver and is actually understood by
the receiver.
Some of the principles of effective communication are:
PRINCIPLE OF CLARITY: the message that is to be sent by the member of one department must
be clear and properly conveyed to the member of another department so as to avoid any
ambiguity or miscommunication (Hartman and McCambridge, 2011).
PRINCIPLE OF OBJECTIVE: one department member must know clear purpose and objective of
transmitting the message by selecting the proper choice of communication mode.
PRINCIPLE OF UNDERSTANDING THE RECEIVER: the aim of any communication understands.
There should be a proper understanding between the department by being aware of physical
and human setting (Rosa et al., 2018).
PRINCIPLE OF CONSISTENCY: one department member must be consistent with Tesco policies,
plans and goals so that it should not create conflicts with previous communication, chaos and
confusion.
PRINCIPLE OF COMPLETENESS: it is also essential to communicate message adequately and
completely otherwise it may lead to misunderstanding, poor interdepartmental relation, and
delayed action (Pearson, 2017).
PRINCIPLE OF FEEDBACK: the communication is a two-way process which means the receiver
must comprehend their reaction to the sender of the message.
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PRINCIPLE OF TIME: timing must be considered by the sender so as to create the desired
response in the receiver's mind.
MEASURES FOR COOPERATION BETWEEN DEPARTMENTS
PROVIDE CONTEXT: the managers at Tesco must give a holistic view of the mission as well as a
common goal. It must also encourage the frame of sharing information around the shared
objectives by having a kick-off meeting and invite inter-department members to join the
conversation and increase cross-engagement (Schäfer et al., 2017).
CULTIVATE EMPATHY: developing a mutual understanding between the departments of Tesco
can smoothen and increases the effectiveness of cooperation. Tesco managers must encourage
the members of the different department to get involved in the process of each other's and see
their challenge from a different perspective (Wong, 2019). This will help them to understand
each other’s constraints and challenges and come up with ideas to improve their process and
manage their personal emotions in a positive and productive manner.
DEVELOP COMMON LANGUAGE: difference in language and jargons between departments
create confusion and increase the risk of miscommunication and frustration (Obradovich et al.,
2012). Tesco manager must develop a common language to be shared by the members of
different department and improve cross-functional communications.
FOSTER TRUST: trust and transparency ensure successful cooperation as the foundation of any
high-performance team is trust and critical element to build trust among team members is
transparency (Wong, 2019).
FACILITATE CONSISTENT COMMUNICATION: it is essential for the departments to be up-to-
date with information in this increasingly fast-paced workplace environment (Maude, 2011).
Internal communication software must be installed to encourage information sharing and also
review past interaction among team members.
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BARRIERS IN INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATION AND STRATEGY
TO OVERCOME THEM
Tesco, like any other organizations, has two types of internal communication that are
intradepartmental and interdepartmental. There are various benefits of cultivating strong
interdepartmental communication as it's pro-activeness contributes to customer
responsiveness as well as business efficiency.
However, it is quite difficult to maintain effective communication between departments (Rosa
et al., 2018). It takes a lot of practices to get communication between department rights as
there as roadblocks or barriers to effective interdepartmental communication.
ABSENCE OF RECOGNIZED COMMUNICATION FRAMEWORK: several types of information flow
creates chaos which can easily lead to deprioritise interdepartmental communication (Pearson,
2017). Lack of proper communication procedures or infrastructure leads to decreased
cooperation and collaboration within inter-departments.
BROKEN INFORMATION FLOW: each individual is focused on doing their own work which might
result in slipping information through gaps and does not get shared internally thereby
negatively affecting productivity (Adler and Elmhorst, 2012).
PHYSICAL SEPARATION: it becomes more difficult to make effective interdepartmental
communication due to physical barrier such as distance. The employee may not even think of
clarifying certain issues with another department without any strong policies or practices for
encouraging interdepartmental communication.
OFFICE TRIBALISM: due to human nature for forming groups or alliances with people having
shared interests and preferences, the individual may look down or distrust people outside their
circle leading to negative stereotypes and poor interdepartmental relationships and
cooperation (Schäfer et al., 2017).
WORK PRESSURE: most of the employees within a department focus on meeting the KPIs
without considering their consequences or association with other departments.
Intradepartmental targets, as well as everyone, focused on synchronizing the work, make it
easy for individuals in overlooking interdepartmental communication (Obradovich et al., 2012).
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PERSONAL CONFLICTS: politics, direct disagreement and personal conflicts hampers
communication flow and also hobbles every individual’s performance. This leads to breaking
down of interdepartmental communication and relationship affecting the processes within
Tesco and interrupt the entire workflow.
Ironically, positive interdepartmental communication is one of the best ways to defuse personal
conflicts, relieve work, and negative stereotypes and so on.
STRATEGY TO OVERCOME INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATION BARRIERS
There are certain internal communication strategies to mitigate interdepartmental
communication barriers and improve internal communication in Tesco:
IDENTIFYING THE INFORMATION NEEDED BY DEPARTMENTS: it is essential to identify the
information possessed and required by each department in Tesco. The departments can
provide a list of information required by them from other departments. Also, routine report
such as daily weekly and a monthly report is proactively shared for providing the information to
facilitate a smooth communication flow (Obradovich et al., 2012). It helps them to make faster
and smarter decisions.
OPEN, TRANSPARENT TWO-WAY COMMUNICATION CHANNEL: open channel can be provided
through an internal blog to encourage individuals for sharing ideas and suggestions and also
provide feedback to increase productivity within Tesco. Employees can be asked for their
opinions and thoughts by regularly posting open-ended questions. It is also crucial to act on the
employee’s suggestion to increase their engagement and commitment level.
BRIDGE GAPS BETWEEN INTERDEPARTMENTAL COMMUNICATIONS: lack of communication
and transparency results in gaps each department is encouraged for regularly posting and
sharing information regarding their work (Schäfer et al., 2017).
ORGANIZE EFFECTIVE TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES: various team building activities such as
Take-an-Employee-to-Work Day, Group Mentoring, and Board Game Marathon, Sports Teams
to Get Fit, Schedule Team Building Lunch-and-Learns and so on can be formed to bring people
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closer and make an effective team. Team building specialists can be hired by Tesco to organize
and conduct these activities.
ENCOURAGE REGULAR CROSS-DEPARTMENT MEETINGS: short and regular meetings between
different departments can be scheduled and organised for sharing updates and also address
any issue or concern immediately (Pearson, 2017). It improves and deepens interdepartmental
relationships as well as cooperation. It is essential to ensure that the meeting is short and
productive and each individual agrees on the agenda.
Internal blogs allow Tesco to improve communication among different departments, also enjoy
the benefits of higher employee engagement so as to prevent conflicts (Rosa et al., 2018). Good
and strong interdepartmental communication can increase customer satisfaction as they can
receive better experience and service.
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CONCLUSION
Thus it can be concluded that it essential to have effective interdepartmental communication
that ensures that it builds trust between teams and departments that increases communication
efficiency thereby avoiding conflict and finger pointing in order to provide better customer
services and opportunities for professional advancement (Maude, 2011).
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REFERENCES
1. Adler, P.R.B. and Elmhorst, J.M., 2012. Communicating at Work: Principles and Practices
for Business and the. Mcgraw Hill Higher Educat.
2. Hartman, J.L. and McCambridge, J., 2011. Optimizing millennials’ communication styles.
Business Communication Quarterly, 74(1), pp.22-44.
3. Maude, B., 2011. Managing cross-cultural communication: Principles and practice.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
4. Obradovich, M.L., Schebesch, S.W., Pirtle, J.D. and Crain, T.C., Silver State Intellectual
Tech Inc, 2012. Technique for effective organization and communication of information.
U.S. Patent 8,126,960.
5. Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and
the idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.
6. Rosa, G., Ostrowska, I., Slupinska, K. and Gracz, L., 2018. The influence of the type of
customer (individual vs institutional) on the principles of written communication of a
large organization. Economic and Social Development: Book of Proceedings, pp.351-360.
7. Schäfer, S., Antons, D., Lüttgens, D., Piller, F. and Salge, T.O., 2017. Talk to Your Crowd:
Principles for Effective Communication in Crowdsourcing A few key principles for
communicating with solvers can help contest sponsors maintain and grow their base of
participants. Research-Technology Management, 60(4), pp.33-42.
8. Wong, L., 2019. 11 Ways to Improve Collaboration Between Departments (Online)
available at https://www.workzone.com/blog/9-ways-to-improve-collaboration-
between-departments/ Accessed on 7th June 2019
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