Practical No.

1
Business Communication
Communication is an essential element in the success of any business. The process of
transferring information from one person to another, within and outside the business
environment, is termed as „Business Communication.‟ The term „Business Communication‟ is
derived from general communication which is associated with business activities. In other terms,
communication between business parties or people for business-related tasks is considered
as „Business Communication.‟

Importance of business communication:

1. Effective business communication increases the productivity of staff by boosting up
teamwork. It creates a trustworthy and understanding environment among employers and
employees.
2. Effective business communication can facilitate in attracting new customers and retain
the current customers.
3. Business Communication also improves partnerships in business. It plays a significant
role in dealing with external business clients or vendors.
4. Effective business communication helps in business innovations as well as it facilitates
employees to convey their ideas and suggestions openly.
5. Business communication is required by an organization for exchanging information with
internal and external stakeholders. This helps in achieving its goals effectively.
6. Through effective business communication, organizations can make their plans and
policies properly.
7. Through effective communication, Managers are able to disseminate plans and policies to
the internal and external stakeholders.
8. Effective business communication plays a key role in increasing the efficiency of staff.
9. Through different communication channels, managers get information about different
routine and non-routine issues and based upon that they can take required actions to sort
out those issues.
10. Using effective communication, managers can acquire information from different sources
and can utilize it for making correct decisions.
11. The success of any business depends upon the healthy industrial relation. Business
communication plays a significant role in maintaining harmony in this.
12. Through effective communication different business parties can exchange information in
a smooth way. This results in fewer conflicts, controversies, arguments between them.
 Case Study
Case brief
Workplace dispute, as a result of internal promotion, that took place due to the shifting of
operational head to another branch.

Description
Harish, Jay and Arun, being the team leaders, have been working in a local newspaper agency
sharing the same office premises for many years which turned out the professional relationship
among the colleagues into a very close companionship. After these seven years of strong
companionship, there comes a day when existing operational head of the agency was transferred
to another branch creating vacancy for manager operations in this particular branch. After a deep
discussion in an official meeting about the same, it was decided that Jay would be promoted to
this particular profile which gave rise to an unwanted dispute among the two close friends,
Harish, Jay. Arun, being the ideal team leader, could not be promoted and therefore only these
two people were there who can be considered appropriate for this particular designation of
operational head.

Harish and Jay have been very close friends and professional work colleagues since many years
but this turning point of their life changed the feelings and bonding they were sharing with each
other. This was not the actual tension on official grounds, actual dispute aroused at that point of
time when Jay, being an operational head, introduced a new policy which made no sense to the
team members and just increased their existing workload. Although team members were not
allowed to question upon any of the policies being made by operational head but Harish, being a
close friend, lost his temper. It was literally the biggest deal for Arun, being a team leader, to
identify the “spark” that ignited this disagreement and find out the most appropriate solution that
can resolve the conflict and help these two people regain the sense of friendship for each other.

Reasons of Conflict
As per the views of Harish, working with this newspaper agency for longest time period, he
knows well what initiatives can prove to be helpful for the organization and what tends to create
workplace issues. It was clear in Harish‟s mind that this policy would fail due to the consistent
increase in workload of team member and therefore he felt that Jay could have expressed firmer
opposition to this policy which might have been set by the senior management. This particular
thought in Harish‟s mind has ignited the spark of anger ultimately giving rising to a silent
workplace conflict that is quite difficult to resolve through legal actions. Besides this, Harish
believed that being a less experienced employee, Jay lacks self-confidence and the meetings that
are being called up by Jay were just wastage of time as he takes a moment to get started and
becomes diverted very easily which creates a feeling of frustration in the mind of employees.

When Jay was asked to identify his perception of the reasons behind this conflict, he clearly
stated that he is continuously facing split in the team dynamics and he considers Harish as the
reason for this split and sense of disrespect. More than half of the employees still treat him in the
same manner as they did before this promotion which is quite difficult while challenging the
quality of work and rest of the employees maintain particular distance from him. This creates an
impression that they degrade the performance of Jay by spreading negative things in about him
in secret and Harish highly favors them which is quite unbearable for him. Additionally, Jay
believed that Harish just wants to incapacitate Jay‟s attempt to become a successful manager by
making irrelevant remarks during the meeting which undermines her authority.

Conflict Resolution Through Communication

Arun, being a team leader and companion of both the parties involved in dispute could not take
any legal action against any of the parties and therefore decided to go for an informal
communication. Informal discussion can be considered a better option to sort out this dispute as
the two individual were good friends before the promotion and formal procedures of conflict
resolution may cause further harm to the relationship. For this reason, informal communication
seems to be a genuine alternative and moral action in which disputing parties work with a neutral
third party to resolve their disputes.

In this process, Arun helped both the parties to find a common ground with the aim of dealing
with unrealistic expectations in an effective manner and regain the sense of friendship and it
actually worked out when the final outcomes were extremely positive. After this individual and
joint communication sessions, both Harish and Jay started respecting each other‟s opinions as
Harish realized that Jay was also opposed to the policy of senior management but was under
managerial pressure to implement it regardless of any positive or negative outcomes.
Importance of Business Communication correlating the above case study-

Communication is very important skill. Communication skills are not only needed in daily
personal life, but also required in the profession, workplace and in business. Depending on the
nature of your profession, if you work in a team or interact with customers or other people; you
often find the certain situations which are challenging to handle, this is where having best
communication skills become handy. In the given situation Arun‟s decision to go for an informal
communication proved to be correct.

These are kind of skills some are just born with it. One great example is Steve Jobs‟
communication and negotiation style. He is regarded as someone who had the best presentation
and business negotiation skills. Having the best communication skills was the secret of success
of Steve Jobs.

You can‟t be successful without great communication skills in professional life or in business. It
is important for a good communicator to be a good listener. No one wants to be a good listener
while everybody is extremely interested in being a good communicator. But you can tackle a lot
of situations just by listening patiently to other person. Both Harish and Jay listened to Arun and
each other patiently and came to resolution.

The individual as well as an organisation cannot survive without good communication skills. The
future of every organisation is also based on its communication channels. Business
communication involves any kind of communication that foster strong partnerships, promote
products or services, as well as relay information within a particular organization. It is imperative
therefore that communications should be done clearly, efficiently, and accurately because it can
have a great impact on a company‟s reputation and credibility, and will definitely say a lot about
its level of professionalism.

Business is a kind of interpersonal communication. The administrators and employees, sellers

and buyers must communicate effectively to promote the business. Even the small vender or
salesman with his convincing skills attracts more customers to earn more profit. Theoretical and
technical knowledge about the field is must but it should be coupled with effective
communication in order to reap good results. Professionals should acquire the skills and
knowledge needed to maximize every opportunity to communicate with your team members,
superiors, clients, and customers. Effective communication is important for company executives,
business managers, team members, and even job applications for them to know how to utilize
communication tools and techniques to serve their purpose and reach their goals. Effective
communication is an essential component for organisation success, whether it is in the
interpersonal intra group organisation or external levels.

Communication is the key to success in business. Business communication is the ability to build
solid relationships based on the effective and efficient exchange of information between two or
more parties.