BUSINESS COMMUNICATION PROPOSAL

To: Mrs Le Thi Thu Mai

From: Group 13

Subject: Business Communication

Topic: Communication problems from Vietnam Airlines

Group members:
Dương Thu Hồng

Vũ Châu Anh

Nguyễn Thị Thuỳ Dương

Nguyễn Hồng Thảo Đan

I. Problem:

Problem 1: Media crisis from a controversial statement

On November 30, 2020, Ho Chi Minh City recorded the 1342th case - a flight attendant
of Vietnam Airlines. That's because this patient violated the isolation regulations in the
concentrated isolation area, which led to infection. Later, during home isolation, this
patient had close contact with 3 other cases and caused 1 of them to be infected with
SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Initially, a representative of Vietnam Airlines announced that this flight attendant had
seriously violated the regulations of both the State and Vietnam Airlines. However, the
statement "If all flight crews have to be isolated for 14 days in Cu Chi, no matter how
many times the test is negative, we can only fly for a few days and we will run out of
pilots" has made headlines of many major media and caused negative reactions of readers
towards VNA.

Problem 2: The chief flight attendant of Vietnam Airlines was heavily criticized
for criticizing the isolation area.
According to the flight attendant, around the beginning of May, she served on a fateful
flight when one of the passengers on her flight was positive for Covid-19 and was only
discovered 6 days later.
This hostess uploaded on her TikTok a 60-second video narrating the whole story of her
"remembering" quarantine. The work of the medical team was considered as treating
criminals and depriving all human rights. Moreover, she also disparaged and used heavy
words to describe the facilities of this place.

II. Reason why we choose the topics:

Vietnam Airlines has emerged as the leader of aviation industry and established its
name as a symbol of Vietnamese national pride, with a global network and well-
deserved position in region.With a long-term belief, during the covid period, the
professionalism of the flight attendants and the crew is expected to be even higher.
However, they have created a big stir by their arbitrary actions and unprofessional
statements that affect the brand. By analyzing two situations, our group wants to
find out the way Vietnam Airlines deals with crises related to internal and external
communication, especially in the era of growing social networks and information
being spread to readers quickly, then come up with some possible solutions.
Afterward, it is hoped that some interesting valuable lessons are explored to
resolve conflicts and reduce future miscommunication from these topics.
III. Analyze ( How will you analyze the situations based on what (THEORIES or
LEARNING CONCEPTS) you have learnt in the course? What lessons can be
drawn from these situations? )

1. Analysis of 2 problems

Problem 1:

 Communication channel:
Among the unpredictable consequences of the pandemic's spread, Vietnam medicine has
made an effort to save many patients as well as keep a fresh community without
infections. Therefore, the statement of Vietnam Airline is a far, far bigger story and
heavily criticized. It became the headline of many major media, causing negative
reactions from readers to VNA.
=> Many opinions objected to the fact that the company only cares about the interests of
the business but does not care about the safety of the whole community. There have even
been a few newspapers questioning whether VNA, despite the regulations on epidemic
prevention, is biased because it is a state-owned enterprise.
=> VNA impulsive statement in a sensitive time of the epidemic also comes from the
prolonged epidemic that directly affects the sales and business activities of the company.
However, all people's lives are affected, so we must put the community first. According
to the provisional policy of the country, the health of the people is placed above
economic interests. Based on the country's capacity and human resources are limited,
when the disease outbreak happens which will lead to an out of control situation.
Therefore, VNA's statement in such a sensitive time is a subjective opinion and
negatively affects the community.
 Business ethics:
And it also reduces the reputation of a big company in customers.Negative statements
will cause customers to have prejudice against the company as well as the quality of its
service, which can cause customers to turn away from VNA => Reduce professionalism
and customer’s sympathy for the brand => Reduce sales and profits

Problem 2:

 Communication channel:
After being posted, the video of the flight attendant caused a wave of protests and
criticisms from netizens. Everyone thinks that her actions are like negating the efforts of
the medicine as well as the whole country to try to repel the epidemic. Besides, it is clear
that centralized isolation cannot guarantee happiness at home, being too demanding at
this time is not only ungrateful but also thoughtless.
=> Not community-building and a selfish, one-sided opinion
 Business ethics:
The actions of an individual will affect the general interests of the company. Customers
will look at the behavior of employees then have an assessment of the quality of training
as well as the quality of service of the company. If the employee is unprofessional and
has a thoughtless look, the customer may blame the training team for being inexperienced
and not working carefully with their employees. In theory, knowledge workers need soft
skills: Oral and written communication skills, Active listening ,Proper business etiquette
,Appropriate nonverbal behavior,......
=> Bring an evaluation view of the company's unprofessional working team for
customers
2. The lessons drawn from these 2 situations

Problem 1:
 The encode system converted from the upper policies to employees needs
clarifying. When the announcement passes by without the agreement to act
as a voice in the communication and media, it builds the unmatching
between encoding messages of media sources and entrepreneurs.
 The development of risk solving systems including communication and the
media advantage to transfer messages is useful to Vietnam Airlines. The
rules of risk’s behaviors are particularly described in Vietnamese to
completely express the hospitality and testimony for the problem.
 Building the “employee encouragement” Act to mobilize the power of
communication from the employee community to promote the brand of the
 business with a wide spread, very little cost and not as constrained and dry
as the content emitted from the communication channel of the enterprise.

Problem 2:
 Because of the differing frames of reference, the chief flight attendant had
the argued sayings in media, particularly a large amount of transmission as
Tiktok. It can be concluded that employees in Vietnam Airlines lacks of
social media knowledgement, and take arbitrary to use the hashtag
“Vietnam Airlines” to attract fame and the popularity before considering
the level of risk
 Vietnam Airlines needs to reinforce communication behaviors and
communication cultures in the media to avoid misunderstanding and
controversy with hot content.

IV. Expectation
Through two unfortunate incidents of Vietnam Airlines, we hope to learn how to make a
correct and standard statement in public and media. Both the airline's representative and
the chief flight attendant mentioned above are considered to be irresponsible to society
who only care about personal gain.These days, nothing is easier to lose than the look and
trust of customers, so businesses should try to create sympathy by treating clients kindly
and responding to society. In conclusion, after analyzing these study cases, we expect to
improve communication skills to achieve effective communication not only in daily life
but also in business.