BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AS USED IN STATE TRADE ORGANIZATION

(STO)

ORGANIZATION:

State Trading Organization with over 2000 employees and nation-wide presence is
the leading trading company in the Maldives. The State Trading Organization Plc or STO is a
public company with 81.63% of the shares owned by the Maldivian Government with the rest
18.37% being held by the public after the IPO a couple of years ago. The company is controlled
by a board of directors headed by a Chairman. Around the time of STO's establishment,
Maldivian economy started to pick up speed, fueled by increasing commercial activity mainly in
fisheries, agriculture, tourism and construction industries. STO responded by looking beyond its
traditional role of state trader. It began to take up alternative enterprises to earn foreign exchange
and broaden the nation's revenue sources.

TYPES OF INFORMATION:

1. Verbal Information
Example: Face-to-Face communication, Meetings, Interview
2. Written Information
Example: Letters, Messages, Posters
3. Multimedia Information
Example: Graphics, Moving images (Video), Animation
4. On-Screen Information
Example: Text, Audio, Video
5. Web-based Information
Example: Internet, E-mail, Applications

1. VERBAL INFORMATION

Verbal information is the act of sharing information between individuals by the use of
speech. Any interaction that makes use of spoken words is considered as verbal communication.
It is an integral part of the business world. Oral communication used within an organization
includes personal discussions, staff meetings, telephone discourse, formal and informal
conversations and presentations.
PURPOSES OF VERBAL INFORMATION

Excellent Verbal information is a key to maintaining successful business relationships.

Effective communication causes productivity to increase, errors to decrease and operations to run
smoother.

 The way employees communicate with each other portrays an organization’s image and
this image could be the first impression or the last.
 Good Verbal information skills of the employees of an organization foster excellent
business relationships with other organizations, customers, suppliers, etc.
 Effective Verbal information between employer and employee also increases job
satisfaction level.
 Employees feel secure when they are communicated effectively. Receiving the right and
updated information from their superiors boost their confidence and productivity.
 Excellent Verbal information skills increase the ability of the individuals to share ideas,
thoughts and concerns with each other.

2. WRITTEN INFORMATION

Written information involves any type of message that makes use of the written word.
Written communication is the most important and the most effective of any mode of business
communication. Some of the sources of written information that are used internally for business
operations include:

 Emails
 Reports
 Instant messages
 Job descriptions
 Employee manuals

PURPOSES OF WRITTEN INFORMATION

 When it is written down people will remember more and have something to refer to.
 It also allows people to read in advance of a meeting.
 It allows a raft of people all to see the same message at the same time.
 It will allow to present a detailed Business case
 It allows people to take your information away with them for later reference
3. MULTIMEDIA / ON-SCREEN INFORMATION

Multimedia is the field concerned with the computer-controlled integration of text,

graphics, drawings, still and moving images (Video), animation, audio, and any other media
where every type of information can be represented, stored, transmitted and processed digitally.

PURPOSES OF MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION

We live in the digital age. Before, business was done by word of mouth, but today using
videos, building mobile apps, and creating beautiful images are some of the many ways to
acquire customers.

 Can advertise the business through multimedia.

 Can do online deals through multimedia.
 Can get costumer's review through multimedia.
 Can keep business up to date through multimedia.

4. WEB-BASED INFORMATION

Web information system, or web-based information system, is an information system that

uses Internet web technologies to deliver information and services, to users or other information
systems/applications. It is a software system whose main purpose is to publish and maintain data
by using hypertext-based principles.

Web-based information displays many benefits of multimedia technology. Using today's

fast broadband connection, it's possible to stream sophisticated content to a computer anywhere
in the world. This is an advantage for many people as the information can be received and read
wherever and whenever it is convenient for them, which can be a crucial factor for a busy
executive. A significant amount of interactive multimedia content is now delivered via the
internet.

LEGAL ISSUES:

1. Data Protection Act 1998

The data protection act (1998) provides a framework to ensure that all personal and
sensitive information is handled and kept properly it also give individual personnel the right to
know what kind of information is held about them. The Data protection act works in two ways,
the first is for anyone who processes personal information.
  Fairly and lawfully processed
 Processed for limited purposes
 Adequate, relevant and not excessive
 Accurate and up to date
 Not kept for longer than necessary
 Secure and protected
 Not transferred to other countries without suitable security.

The second way the act works is to provide the individual with important rights. These
include the right to find out what personal information is held both digitally and in physical
form.

Example: If I started working for an organization and they had all of my information,
like my passport number, national insurance number, address, telephone number and my degree
information,

2. Freedom of Information Act 2000

The freedom of information act of 2000 is an act that deals with access to official
documents and files and other information. It gives individuals or organizations the right to ask
for information from any type of public authority, including central and local governments, the
NHS (National Health Service) police, colleges and schools. The act says that they have 20 up to
20 days to provide the information provided, but they may refuse if the information is exempt
from the act, for example the information that was requested would be detrimental to the public
authorities’ commercial interest like asking for tax payment on the labour party months before an
election.

3. Computer Misuse Act 1990

The computer misuse act of 1990 was passed to protect people from others maliciously
using computers to:

 Access a computer program or data unauthorized, for example try to get someone’s ID
and password for a website or to their computer
 Unauthorized access with the intent to commit a serious crime. For example, Fraud
 Unauthorized modifications of a computer contents, this could be modifying the
operation of a computer system or the reliability of data.
 This act is in place to ensure that people don’t misuse computers to cause harm or
inconvenience others. The way this act protects organisation is that it prevents people form
hacking into their servers and taking sensitive information from them.

ETHICAL ISSUES

1. Use of E-mail

Email is the modern and widely used business communication system that is supported
by Information technologies. Importance and uses of email in business communication are
greater than any other communication tool. Almost all kind of occupations, professionals, trades,
and works email messages are one the easiest and low-cost business communication method.
Nowadays emails work like legal agreements.

2. Use of the Internet

The code of practice may ban is using the internet for inappropriate things, such as
gambling and viewing pornographic images and/or videos, limited use of the internet is often
permitted for personal use, though this can be hard to gauge as it is hard to distinguish from
professional research. If an organisation has its own web server, there will usually be rules on
what can be posted to it. There might be exceptions for clearly identified personal pages, such as
blogs. The use of internet policy is there so that during working hour (not including lunch) that
employees do not use the internet for leisure or anything that is not work related like, using
social networking site or watching videos on YouTube and download movies that does not
coincide with your work.

3. Whistle Blowing

The Codes of practice will usually protect computer users who draw management’s
attention to other users’ misuse of the system. This is like allow them to make an anonymous
report to management, this can be very helpful if there are people who are leaking sensitive
information, such as financial information or information about yet to be released products. The
Codes will also protect IT administrators as they run the server and will most likely be the first to
detect the misuse.

4. Organizational Policies
 An organization’s Policies may have a substantial effect on how information is treated.
An organisation with a strong chain of command that operates on a need-to-know basis will
usually impose policies restricting access to important information. An example would be the
organisation kept its information in a secure, well protected central data centre , where it security
and data staff put restriction on who can update and access the data files. On the other hand an
organisation with a decentralized computing is also likely to have restricted access to
information, because of geographical reasons.

5. Information Ownership:

The department that produced the information should own every field of data in every
record. They should be responsible for making sure that the data is entered into the computer
system, correctly, consistently and in a timely fashion. Many data owners may have provided the
original information that has been processed to produce the new information. More often than
not, the information owner is the person who initiates or stores the data is the initial owner,
however, in an organisation that may have divisions or departments the owner becomes the unit
itself with someone chosen to be responsible chosen as the “head” of that unit.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF INFORMATION & IMPORTANCES

1. Management Information System

Small-business managers and owners rely on an industry-specific management

information system, or MIS, to get current and historical operational performance data, such as
sales and inventories data. Periodically, the MIS can create prescheduled reports, which
company management can use in strategic, tactical and operational planning and operations.

2. Decision Support System

A decision-support system, or DSS, allows small-business managers and owners to use

predefined or ad hoc reports to support operations planning and problem-resolution decisions.
With DSS, users find answers to specific questions as a means to evaluate the possible impact of
a decision before it is implemented. The answers to queries may take the form of a data summary
report, such as a product revenue by quarter sales report.

3. Transaction Processing System

 A small business processes transactions that result from day-to-day business operations,
such as the creation of paychecks and purchase orders, using a transaction processing system, or
TPS. The TPS, unlike a batch system, requires that users interact with the system in real time to
direct the system to collect, store, retrieve and modify data.

4. Executive Support System

The executive support system, or ESS, contains predefined reports that help small-
business owners and managers identify long-term trends in support of strategic planning and
non-routine decision making. System users click on any icon displayed on the ESS screen and
enter report criteria to view individual predefined reports and graphs, which are based on
companywide and functional department data, such as sales, scheduling and cost accounting.

STRATEGIC DECISIONS

Advantages:

1. Creating a better future:

There is always a difference between the reactive and proactive actions. When a company
practices the strategic management, the company will always be on the defensive side and not on
the offensive end. You need to come out victorious in the competitive situation and not be a
victim of the situation.

2. Identifying strategic directions:

The strategic management essentially and clearly defines the goals and mission of the
company. The main purpose of this management is to define realistic objectives and goals – this
has to be in line with the vision of the company.

3. Make Better business decisions:

It is important to understand the difference between a great idea and a good idea. If you
do have a proper and clear vision of your company, then having a mission and methods to
achieve the mission always seems to be a very good idea.

4. Increasing market share and profitability:

With the help of strategic management, it is possible to increase the market share and also the
profitability of the company in the market. If you have very focused plan and strategic thinking
then it is possible for all the industries to explore better customer segments, products and
services and also to understand the market conditions of the industry which you are operating in.

Disadvantages:

1. Complex process:

The strategic management includes various types of continuous process which checks all
type of major critical components. This includes the internal and external environments, long
term and short term goals, strategic control of the company’s resources and last but not the least
it also has to check the organizational structure.

2. Time consuming process:

In order to implement the strategic management it is necessary that the top management
spends proper quality time in order to get the process right. The managers have to spend lot of
time researching, preparing and informing the employees about this new management.

3. Proper planning:

When we say management systems then it calls for perfect planning. You just cannot
write things on paper and leave them. This calls for proper practical planning. This is not
possible by just one person but it is a team effort.

TYPES OF STRATEGIC DECISIONS

1. Programmed and non-programmed decisions:

Programmed decisions are concerned with the problems of repetitive nature or routine
type matters. Non-programmed decisions relate to difficult situations for which there is no easy
solution.

2. Routine and strategic decisions:

Routine decisions are related to the general functioning of the organisation. They do not
require much evaluation and analysis and can be taken quickly. Strategic decisions are important
which affect objectives, organizational goals and other important policy matters.

3. Major and minor decisions:

 Another classification of decisions is major and minor. Decision pertaining to purchase of
new factory premises is a major decision. Major decisions are taken by top management.
Purchase of office stationery is a minor decision which can be taken by office superintendent.

4. Organizational and personal decisions:

When an individual takes decision as an executive in the official capacity, it is known as

organizational decision. If decision is taken by the executive in the personal capacity, it is known
as personal decision.

REFERENCES

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_communication
 https://www.managementstudyguide.com/business_communication.htm
 https://businessjargons.com/verbal-communication.html
 https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-written-communication-in-business-
definition-types-examples.html
 https://sites.google.com/site/unit3p3m2/ethical-issues
 https://sites.google.com/site/unit3p3m2/legal-issues
 https://sites.google.com/site/unit3p3m2/organisational-policies