Team Working And Communication Assignment Sample

Introduction Of Effective Team Working And Communication

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Productive communication with the organization's workforce is significant to identify the hidden opportunities and forecast critical threats. The report would evaluate the effectiveness of workforce communication through the application of different theories and models such as Berlo’s communication model, Comms Cycle, etc. The contribution of verbal and non-verbal communication style towards the workforce betterment would also be highlighted to enhance the relevancy of the report. Moreover, the effectiveness of the written and oral communication methods persisting in Sainsbury’s would be analyzed in the latter part of the report. Thus, a personal development plan would be prepared to identify the gaps and scope for further improvement.

Evaluation of the effectiveness of the workforce communication in Sainsbury’s:

To evaluate the effectiveness of workforce communication, the application of different theories is required that are mentioned below.

Communication cycle:

It refers to the process through which a message is transferred and communicated to the recipient. The communication cycle is comprised of five stages that are as follows.

Message creation:

This stage is accountable for commencing the communication cycle as it creates the message that needs to be communicated and transferred. Message creators could be functional managers, leaders, employees, and other staff working within Sainsbury's (Galindroet al., 2019).

Transmission:

It transfers and communicates the message to the recipient through different channels. The majority of the messages are communicated through e-mail within the workforce of Sainsbury’s.

Reception:

It refers to the persons and groups to whom the message was conveyed and transferred. Just like the message creator, the message recipient could be any person employed by Sainsbury's.

Translation:

It refers to the process through which the recipient decodes the message received and understands the motive behind it. The messages are transferred on Sainsbury’s own mail platform and required a password to gain access. However, confidential messages are encoded for complete security (Nicholset al., 2015).

Response:

It refers to the process through which the recipient responds to the received message if required. The recipient responds by replying to the mail that was received from the sender of Sainsbury’s.

The transmission stage requires more flexibility and could be problematic in case of communicating any important information and message that affect the performance and position of Sainsbury’s in the marketplace.

Shannon & Weaver communication model:

The communication model by Shannon & Weaver is similar to the communication cycle mentioned above. The application of Shannon & Weaver's communication model within the workforce communication of Sainsbury's comprised of the following findings.

Sender:

The sender could be any stakeholder who wants to communicate with internal and external stakeholders of Sainsbury's.

Encoder:

The sender encodes the message into different signals to protect it from unauthorized access. The official mail platform of Sainsbury’s is password protected and used by authorized persons. In the case of highly confidential information signals and binary data are used to encode the messages (Koptsevaet al., 2015).

Receiver:

The message is sent and transferred to the authorized person. Sainsbury’s demands acknowledgment from recipients once they received the message.

Decoder:

The recipient then decodes the message by converting the signals and binary data and finding the actual communication.

Noise:

It refers to the disturbances that could occur during the transition of the message from sender to receiver and vice-versa. Sainsbury’s protects its platform from unauthorized access and unauthorized signals to ensure the communication flow between sender and receiver is smooth and easy.

While all the important messages of Sainsbury’s are communicated through official email IDs, sometimes emergency information is transferred through telephone and digital media platforms like voice calls, video calls, etc. The interaction between functional managers and employees especially in the current situation is often performed through digital media platforms (McQuailand Windahl,2015). Moreover, the organization needs to implement more initiatives to secure and protect confidential information while interacting through telephone and digital media platforms. Thus, they should interact in code language when the transmission channel is not fully secured and protected and exploit unauthorized access and admittance.

Schramm model of communication:

It is a dynamic model that aims for the smooth exchange of ideas, information, and attitudes between two people and participants. This model of communication is more practical as it addresses the cons of traditional communication. Moreover, the model is segregated into different stages that are mentioned below.

Encoding:

Encoding is to secure the message and ensure it is understood by the intended recipient only. Schramm emphasized the significance of encoding in the process of communication. In this department, the workforce communication of Sainsbury's is not effective as messages are not properly encoded but are password protected which could be easily hacked and managed.

Decoding:

Decoding is dependent upon encoding. If the message is not encoded by the sender, then there is no question of decoding. Schramm highlighted the necessity of decoding to ensure that the recipient does not misinterpret the communication and understand the actual message and communication that the sender is trying to convey (Teixeiraet al., 2017). Since messages within Sainsbury's are not encoded, decoding is out of scope.

Feedback:

Schramm believed that communication is incomplete until the sender receives an acknowledgment and feedback from the recipient. According to the author, this is important to perform collectively and ensure that the message is finally delivered to the intended person. The workforce communication of Sainsbury’s encompasses the feedback system as recipients are instructed to provide acknowledgment as soon as they receive the message and communication.

Sainsbury's needs to restructure its workforce communication through the incorporation of encoding and decoding techniques to enhance its effectiveness, usefulness, and productivity (Sapienzaet al., 2016).

Berlo’s model of communication:

Berlo integrated the entire process of communication into the SMCR acronym that stands for the sender, message, channel, and receiver. The application of Berlo’s model of communication within workforce communication of Sainsbury's comprised of the following outcomes.

Sender:

According to the author, the sender who actually commences the communication process is affected by the following factors.

• Listening, speaking, and reading skills.
• Personal and professional attitude towards the recipient.
• Knowledge base.
• Beliefs, religion, and values.

The messages that are communicated by the functional managers to the workers and employees of Sainsbury’s often hurt their sentiments due to lack of phrases that offers recognition, respect, and cordial relationship.

Message:

The message indicates the information that needs to be communicated to the recipient by the sender. It could be of different types such as text, video, voice, etc. According to the author, it is important for the sender to evaluates the significance and importance of the message and select the most appropriate form (Turaga, 2016). The messages are conveyed in the form of text and voice within the workforce of Sainsbury’s.

Channel:

It refers to the intermediaries that are executed to send the message to the recipient. According to the author, the selected channel should consider the sensory system of the recipient to ensure that the message is appropriately communicated. The senses that must be considered are mentioned below.

• Touch
• Hear
• Vision

Considering the mode of intermediaries selected by the senders of Sainsbury’s, hearing and vision are the required senses to communicate and interpret the messages.

Receiver:

It refers to the recipient to whom the message is conveyed and communicated. According to the author, the receiver must decode the encoded message and understand the intended communication (Elleström,2019). Just like the sender, the understanding approach of the receiver could also be affected by the following factors.

• Attitude
• Knowledge base
• Professional understanding

Sainsbury evaluates the understanding level of the receiver by demanding acknowledgment and feedback from the recipient. Thus, it could be concluded that the workforce communication of Sainsbury’s requires flexibility, more protection, and features of encoding and decoding to enhance its effectiveness and boost the productivity of the workforce.

Assessment of the importance of verbal and non-verbal communications in addition to the methods employed by Sainsbury’s:

The workforce interaction should be integrated with verbal and non-verbal communication techniques to improve the workforce productivity and ensure a smooth flow of interaction between internal and external stakeholders (Kuznarand Yager,2020). Moreover, the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication techniques is mentioned below.

Importance of verbal communication:

Verbal communication is comprised of interpersonal, small group, and public communication. The importance is as follows.

Business relationships:

It enables the entrepreneur and functional managers to attract prospective clients and efficiently negotiate with suppliers to maintain a cordial relationship with them. Productive verbal communication skills enable the workers to efficiently reflects the positive values of the enterprise and convince the customers during the decision-making process.

Cordial relationship with employees:

Verbal communication skills create a cordial relationship between employees and functional managers that boost collective and team performance and enhance the existing position and performance of the enterprise in the marketplace.

Boost productivity and diminish operations errors:

The verbal communication process is simple and easy to apply within the work environment. It enables the functional managers to consistently review the performance of the workers and provide innovative recommendations that improve the workforce productivity and diminish the frequency of operations errors (Tiechuan,2016). However, it is important that workers and employees should be given the necessary freedom to verbally communicate with the managers and ask for help as and when needed.

Verbal communication is important to construct and share a cordial relationship, promotes collective performance, and diminish the operational contingencies of the workforce. Moreover, the verbal communication techniques that are embedded within the workforce of Sainsbury’s are mentioned below.

• Directing employees to behave respectfully and show professionalism.
• Taking feedback from the workers and functional managers on different business matters and projects.
• Supervision and advising the workers to improve.

Thus, the verbal communication techniques with Sainsbury’s fails to recognize and address the problems and queries of the workers that are important for workforce betterment and development.

Importance of non-verbal communication:

Non-verbal communication deals with body language, expression, attitude, and physical appearance that affects the workforce communication and interaction between two or more stakeholders. The significance of non-verbal communication is mentioned below.

Engagement and participation:

Non-verbal communication enhances the engagement and proactive participation of the parties involved in the interaction process. It depicts the interest and curiosity of the parties create a cordial bond and relationship among them (Hejzlarová,2018). Moreover, it enhances the productivity of the communication process and promotes meaningful interaction within the organization's workforce.

Stronger relationship:

Non-verbal communication creates a strong relationship between the parties as it reflects the true personality of the parties and boosts collective performance within the workforce. The sender and receiver could interact with each other through facial expressions and head movement which is one of the greatest advantages of excellent non-verbal communication.

Trust, clarity, and collective performance:

Non-verbal communication creates a trust between the parties and transparently transfer and communicate the message. It also enables the workers to understand the satisfaction of the consumers so to make changes accordingly and proceed strategically.

Non-verbal communication enhances the usefulness and effectiveness of workforce communication by creating stronger relationships and cordial bonds. Moreover, the written communication methods persisting within Sainsbury's workforce are mentioned below.

• Circulars
• Memos
• Bulletins
• Reports
• E-mail

Thus, Sainsbury should promote non-verbal communication skills within its workforce to boost collective performance and enhance the engagement of the workers (Phutela, 2015).

Criticism of own communication skills:

Criticism of own communication skills comprised of following outcomes.

Interpersonal skills:

I encompass productive interpersonal skills that enhanced my overall verbal communication with other parties. I am an active listener and efficiently present my structured thoughts while interacting with others.

Feedbacks:

I received positive feedbacks for oral communication while negative feedbacks for written communication skills. I need to focus on my written communication skills as I failed to appropriately pin down my thoughts and ideas. While the target audience of my presentation did not complain about my written communication skills but I know that sometimes I failed to present my ideas and views efficiently.

Communication style:

My communication is a mixture of passive and aggressive communication styles.

Participative management:

My management skills are efficient as I implement the theory and model of participative management. I consistently support and guide the workers and review their performance and credibility.

Strengths:

• Cordial relationship.
• Productive task segregation.
• Guidance and training.

Areas of improvement:

• Research skills.

Personal development plan:

The personal development plan focuses on achieving the SMART objectives that are mentioned below.

• Participation in workforce debates and interpersonal programs.
• Reading articles, novels, and books to improve vocabulary.
• Interacting with colleagues and experts to monitor the progress.
• Collecting feedback from the audience and colleagues to identify the gaps.
• Practicing written communication skills on a regular basis.

The above objectives should be accomplished with a period of one to two months.

Conclusion:

The persisting workforce communication of Sainsbury’s lacks features of encoding and decoding to protect confidential and sensitive business information. Organizations should promote non-verbal communication skills to improve the effectiveness and usefulness of workforce communication. Thus, verbal communication should be ethical and convey to the intended recipient respectfully.

References:

Elleström, L., 2019. Modelling human communication: Mediality and semiotics. In Meanings & Co. (pp. 7-32). Springer, Cham.

Galindro, B.M., Zanghelini, G.M. and Soares, S.R., 2019. Use of benchmarking techniques to improve communication in life cycle assessment: A general review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 213, pp.143-157.

Hejzlarová, M., 2018. Non-verbal Communication in Malaysia: Gestures and Facial Expressions at Business Meetings and Negotiations.

Koptseva, N.P., Liia, M. and Kirko, V.I., 2015. The Concept of “Communication” in Contemporary Research.

Kuznar, L.A. and Yager, M., 2020. The Development of Communication Models, Quick Look. Joint Staff J39, Strategic Multi-layer Assessment Washington, DC United States.

McQuail, D. and Windahl, S., 2015. Communication models for the study of mass communications. Routledge.

Nichols, P., Horner, B. and Fyfe, K., 2015. Understanding and improving communication processes in an increasingly multicultural aged care workforce. Journal of Aging Studies, 32, pp.23-31.

Phutela, D., 2015. The importance of non-verbal communication. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 9(4), p.43.

Sapienza, Z.S., Veenstra, A.S., Kirtiklis, K. and Giannino, S.S., 2016. The transmission model of communication: Toward a multidisciplinary explication. ETC.: A Review of General Semantics, 73(4), p.321.

Tiechuan, M., 2016. A study on non-verbal communication in cross-culture. Asian journal of humanities and social sciences, 4(1).

Turaga, R., 2016. Organizational models of effective communication. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 10(2), p.56.

Teixeira, M.M., de Souza, J.V., Homenick, D.B.D., da Silva Medeiros, E., dos Santos, H.P.B., da Silva, F.A.L., dos Santos, A.S., de Morais, C.A., da Silva, L.U., Ribeiro, G.J.M. and Lima, T.F.V., 2017, June. From mathematical model of communication to the communication model of virtual universe. In 2017 12th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI) (pp. 1-8). IEEE.