Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2018 - Sample 2
2018 - Sample 2
Candidate’s Name:
Candidate’s Number:
A. A.: 100107
J. W.: 100107
A. S.: 100107
C. P.: 100107
School: St. George’s College
Subject: Principles of Business
Centre Number: 100107
Territory: Jamaica WI
Teacher: Ms. Danhi
Year: 2019
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Table of Contents
RESEARCH TOPIC.............................................................................................. 3
OBJECTIVES........................................................................................................ 4
BACKGROUND/OVERVIEW ............................................................................. 5
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 6
PRESENTATION OF DATA................................................................................ 8
ANALYSIS OF DATA /FINDINGS STATEMENT..................................................13
CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................15
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................18
APPENDIX A- QUESTIONNAIRE.....................................................................19
APPENDIX B- INTERVIEW REQUEST LETTER.............................................21
APPENDIX C- INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND REPORT...............................22
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RESEARCH TOPIC
An investigation into the effectiveness of communication channels used in Brown’s
Funeral Home.
3
OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this research paper are:
(3) barriers that hinder effective communication and how to reduce these barriers.
4
BACKGROUND/OVERVIEW
The research paper seeks to investigate the effectiveness of communication channels used
in Brown’s Funeral Home, a funeral parlor located at 51-55 North Street in Kingston Jamaica.
The researchers aim to: explain the importance of communication in an organization, discuss the
communication channels used in Browns Funeral Home and identify three barriers of
transmission of a message which must be clearly understood by the receiver and feedback given.
channels.
effective within an organization it can cause communication to break down or cause the message
to be misinterpreted
The researchers believe that it is important to study this topic to better understand how
effective or not. As students who are aspiring business owners and managers, this topic will help
completing the research paper we are hoping that it can be given to the managerial body of
Brown’s Funeral Home to help them in understanding the role of an effective communication
channel in building positive relationships with stakeholders and achieve greater efficiency in the
business.
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METHODOLOGY
To obtain the necessary information needed to complete this research paper two (2)
primary sources of data collection were used and no secondary source was used. One of these
methods being a questionnaire, this is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for
the purpose of gathering information by getting feedback from respondents to use in a statistical
study. The second primary source is an interview, a conversation between individuals where
questions are asked to acquire the necessary data. (This is lacking sources)
The questionnaire consists of eleven (11) close-ended questions. The questionnaire was
distributed to a sample size of thirty (30) employees from Brown’s Funeral Home over a two
week period in December of 2018. The researchers chose to use a questionnaire as one of the
methods of data collection because it is cost-efficient and can be used to collect data from a large
sample size while keeping the respondent's identity confidential, however, questionnaires allow
little flexibility to the respondent with respect to response format. Data from the questionnaire
will be presented by the use of tables, graphs, and charts, and the data will be given in
percentages.
The interview that was done consists of seven (7) open-ended questions. The interview
was done on December 12, 2018, with the Manager, Andrea Dacres-Reiber, Director, and 2
employees of Brown’s funeral home. This method was used to complement the questionnaire
because it allows the respondents to give a more accurate response to the questions asked
although it was time-consuming as it took ten minutes to interview each respondent. The
responses to the interview will be placed with the interview report in the appendix.
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The limitations or disadvantages of these methods is that the questionnaire allows little
flexibility in responses, therefore, the employees at Brown’s Funeral Home may not be able to
explicitly state their view of communication in the organization. The interview, however, is used
to dampen this because the open-ended questions allow for the responses to be more detailed.
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PRESENTATION OF DATA
Channel
||| 3
Manual/handbook
Verbal/oral/written |||||| 6
communication
Fig 1. A table showing the channels of communication used within Brown’s Funeral
Home. Twelve of the thirty respondents said Email is the most effective channel of
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Table showing the forms of communication channels used by Brown’s funeral
home to inform the public
communication ||||| 5
Marketing Staff
Advertising |||||||||||||||||| 18
Other ||||||| 7
Fig2. Table showing the forms of communication channels used by Brown’s funeral home to
inform the public. The majority, fifteen of the 30 respondents say that Advertising is the most
45%
40%
40%
35%
30%
30%
25%
20%
20%
15%
10%
10%
5%
0%
Fully informed Fairly informed Adequately informed Limited information
Fig3. A bar graph representing the employee's impression of communication in Brown’s funeral
home. 30% of the employees say that communication channels within the company keep them
fully informed. 40% say they are fairly informed, 20% claim to be adequately informed and 10%
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A pie chart displaying the effects of improper
communication channels in Brown's Funeral Home
Lack of direction
20%
Misinterpretation
40%
Inefficiency
30%
Conflict
10%
Fig4. A pie chart displaying the effects of improper communication channels. 40% of the
sample size have misinterpreted the message, 10% have been impacted by conflict as a
result of improper communication, 30% for inefficiency and 20% had to lack directions
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A table showing the most effective written communication channel
Reports ||||||||||||||| 15
Memorandum ||||||| 7
Letters |||||||||| 10
Fig5. A table showing the various forms of written communication channel used in Brown’s
Funeral Home. Fifteen of the 30 respondents say that Reports are the most effective
communication channel used by Brown’s Funeral Home, and Memorandums the least effective.
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ANALYSIS OF DATA /FINDINGS STATEMENT
From the data presented in the table from figure 1 showing how effective the
channels of communication used within Brown’s Funeral Home. Twelve of the thirty
respondents said Email is the most effective channel of communication used, with
Manual/Handbook being the least effective. This may be a result of most employees
having access to an email address. (Acevedo 2019) states that emails transmit messages
almost instantaneously and can be accessed by any device such as a smartphone, which is
The Table at figure 2 showing the forms of communication channels used by Brown’s
funeral home to inform the public. The Majority, fifteen of the 30 respondents say that
Advertising is the most commonly used communication channel to the public. According to
(Hessinger 2018) this may be a result of advertising being able to communicate information to a
Brown’s funeral home. 30% of the employees say that communication channels within the
company keep them fully informed. 40% say they are fairly informed, 20% claim to be
adequately informed and 10% are given limited information. Employees may not be well
informed within an organization as a result of many factors such as information overload and the
chain of command is too large, this may cause the message to reach the final receiver in a way
Figure 4 is a pie chart displaying the effects of improper communication channels. 40%
of the sample size have misinterpreted the message, 10% have been impacted by conflict
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as a result of improper communication, 30% for inefficiency and 20% had to lack
directions when told to do a task. From an online article (Klazema 2014) in any
used in Brown’s Funeral Home. Fifteen of the 30 respondents say that Reports are the
Memorandums the least effective. According to (Stimpson, Harvey, Samlal Hemlee, Latty
Morrison 2011) Many managers will like everything to be in writing. They will, therefore,
use these forms of communication as they can be used for future reference.
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CONCLUSION
Objective 1:
The investigation has revealed that the main communication channels used in
Brown’s Funeral Home are electronic mail, notice boards, and Reports. Although there
are several channels used within the organization these three are the most commonly
used, perhaps because they allow for more efficient transmission and can be used as a
Objective 2:
plays a pivotal role in a business’ operations as it facilitates staff motivation, increases the speed
of decision making as well as reduces the risk and errors taken by the managerial body of
integral to the business world. In the fast-paced business world, the need for an effective
Objective 3:
As shown in figure 3, there is a portion of the sample size that is not well enough
informed, this is as a result of communication barriers. From the response to the questionnaire,
the most common communication barriers that hinder effective communication in Brown’s
Funeral Home are a lack of interest, noise pollution and language barriers such as heavy foreign
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RECOMMENDATIONS
The findings have stated that an email is one of the more effective communication
channels employed at Brown’s, many employees may not check their emails regularly or
completely ignore them as well as they may not be interested in reading reports and
notices, this may be a factor impacting the degree to with employees are informed as it
may delay the reception of the message. The recommendation to mitigate this is to make
the message more concise so it won’t become too wordy which may cause employees do
not want to read it, using an intranet instead of an email is another way a business can
make mass messaging more attractive. Providing employees with the necessary resources
needed to access emails and intranet will also make the channel of communication more
effective.
Effective communication plays a very essential part in the daily operations at Brown’s
a market that is constantly changing and demand growth. To ensure that the business is
performing efficiently the managers must be well informed so as to make good decisions.
A business can stay informed by observing current trends in order to predict future
change, having an online platform that will help a business to stay informed and even
The communication process may be hindered by barriers. Barriers that exist at this
organization are language barriers, a lack of interest and noise pollution. To dampen the
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impact of these barriers, the message must be made as simple as possible to lessen the
possibility of it being misunderstood, a concise message may not require much attention
communication process.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://blog.udemh.com/importance -of-communication-in-business
2. Richards L. (2018, June 30) How Effective Communication Will Help an Organization
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/effective-communication-organization-1400.html
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-email-business-communication-122.html
4. Stimpson P., Harvey Y., Samlal Hemlee D., Latty-Morrison J. (2011) Principles of
Business for CSEC, United Kingdom: Nelson Thornes LTD.
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APPENDIX A- QUESTIONNAIRE
Please tick the box that you wish to answer with, some questions may require you to select
several boxes, if you chose the option of “other” please state your answer on the lines. 1.
Gender
☐Male ☐Female
2. Age
3. What are the most effective communication channels used by this organization?
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☐Keeps us adequately informed
motivation
organization/departments?
☐Lack of interest
☐Noise pollution
☐Language barriers
10. Which of these effects have impacted you when improper communication channels are
used?
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APPENDIX B- INTERVIEW REQUEST LETTER
My name is Amaury Sutton. I am a student enrolled at St. George’s College. Myself and
organizations and we have selected your business for additional information for my project and
I would like to interview you and two other employees in person on December 12, 2018. I have 7
questions to ask and will take no more than 30 minutes of your time.
Feel free to let me know if you are available and the time that I can conduct the interview. Thank
Sincerely,
___________________
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APPENDIX C- INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND REPORT
5. Have you witnessed any case where information was misunderstood or not received that
6. If yes then how did it affect the level of production in the organization? 7. What
- 7 years.
- Reports, Memorandums, Emails, and we often use the notice board downstairs in the lobby. 5.
Have you witnessed any case where information was misunderstood or not received that
6. If yes then how did it affect the level of production in the organization? - This
misinterpretation almost cost us the whole business. It was with the help of other
members from another organization which helped up avoid a lawsuit.
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