buss comm - final

NTRODUCTION

Communication is a “two way” process of transferring information from one entity

to another. Communication is also a process of exchanging information, usually via

common system of symbols. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in

intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking,

questioning, analyzing and evaluating. The process of communication is what allows

us to interact with other people, without it, we would be unable to share knowledge or

experiences with anything outside of ourselves.

The process of communication can be broadly classified as verbal

communication and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication is further

divided into written and oral communication. The oral communication refers to the

spoken words. Oral communication can either be face-to-face communication or a

conversation over the telephone or on the voice chat over the internet. Spoken

conversations are influenced by voice modulation, pitch, volume and even the speed

and clarity of speaking. The other type of verbal communication is written

communication. Written communication can either via snail mail or e-mail. The

effectiveness of written communication depends on the stage of writing, vocabulary

used, grammar, clarity and precision of the language.

Non-verbal communication includes the overall body language of the person

who is speaking, which will includes the body pastures, the hand gestures and

overall body movements. The facial expressions also plays a major role while

communicating since the expressions on a person’s face say a lot about his / her

mood. On the other hand, gestures like a handshake, a smile or a hug in the form of

pictorial representations, signboards or even photographs, sketches and paintings.

1 BBKN 3103 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

If messages were not communicated effectively, problem in communication

occurs. For me to identify the types of problem in communication, I have conducted

interview with three different managers within the same organization but from

different department. So, I have selected VADS Business Process, my current

working place, as my main source to gather the required information.

VADS Business Process Sdn Bhd is a subsidiary of VADS Berhad. VADS is

one of Malaysia’s leading Managed ICT Services provider. Growing from our heritage

as a joint venture between IBM Global Network Services and Telekom Malaysia

Berhad, today VADS Berhad are a public listed company serving more than 500

medium to large enterprises across various industries.

In an effort to empower companies with Managed ICT Services , VADS has 4

wholly owned subsidiaries:

VADS Solutions Sdn. Bhd. which focuses on Systems Integration Services.

VADS e-Services Sdn. Bhd. which focuses on Contact Centre Services.

VADS Professional Services Sdn. Bhd.

● VADS Contact Centre Services Sdn Bhd.

The VADS Call Centre in Penang started operation around April 2006 answering

calls for Fault Management Contact Centre (100). This call center is located at Level

58, KOMTAR. VADS Business Process, Penang Contact Centre was officially

launched on 22nd May 2007 by Penang Chief Minister, Datuk Dr Koh Tsu Koon.


http://www.tm.com.my/

http://www.tm.com.my/

http://www.vads.com/

For me to accomplish this assignment, I have selected three managers, Mr Santh

Meera Bin Nagoor, Ms Usharani A/P Sunderajoo and Mr Nithanandan A/L

Kathamuthu.

Mr Santh Meera is an Operational Manager for the Fault Reporting

Department in VADS Call Centre since 15th July 2007. He had completed his studies

in BSc in Computer Studies from Bolton University in 2004. Either than this, he also

did his studies in Information Processing & Computer Programming from City &

Guilds of London and Diploma in NCC. Before he joined VADS, he was working as a

Operation Manager in Jaring Communication Sdn Bhd for 3 years. Prior to this, he

was working in Dell Sdn Bhd for 10 years. He joined Dell as a Computer Customer

Service Representative until promoted as a Technical Accounting Manager.

As a Operation Manager in VADS, Mr Santh Meera need to manage 76 staffs on

day to day operation for fault reporting services. He also needs to sustain and

maintain the performance of his services based on service level, Key Performance

Index (KPI), adherence, occupancy and utilization of all the system.

The second person that I’ve interviewed was Ms Usharani A/P Sunderajoo. She

is the Assistant Manager for the Training Department. She joined VADS Business

Process on 2nd February 2007 as a Training Executive and was promoted to her

current position on 1st October 2009. Ms Usharani had successfully completed her

studies until Sijil Pelajaran Tinggi Malaysia (SPTM) and currently pursuing her

studies in completing the degree in Business Administration in one of the local

university. Prior to this, she was attached to SRG Outsource company for Astro and

Maxis projects as a Team Leader for two years. Later on, she joined Celcom as a

Team Manager.


As an Assistant Manager for the Training Department, Ms Usharani’s job

description is to manage her team to conduct training for new recruit and existing

staffs. She also needs to ensure all the trainees trained are well-verse in product and

system and able to answer call efficiently.

The third manager involved in my interview session was Mr Nithanandan A/L

Kathamuthu. Mr Nithanandan was a TM staff before he joined VADS Sdn Bhd. Mr

Nithanandan joined TM in 1981 as a technician and later on climb the ladder until he

was promoted as Marketing Manager. He joined VADS on 1st August 2006 as QA

Executive and on 1st October 2009 he was promoted to QA Assistant Manager.

Mr Nithanandan is a four diplomas holder in Training and Development,

Counselling from University Putra Malaysia, Marketing Management and Sports

Science. According to Mr Nithanandan, as an Assistant Manager for QA department

he needs to maintain quality standard of answering calls in call centre. He also needs

to take corrective action for point of failure in call transaction. He also will need to

identify and give compliment for high achievers and investigate complaint received

both internally and externally.


TYPES OF COMMUNICATION PROBLEM

As a first point of type of communication problem is complex organization.

Complexity in organization structure is also a serious problem in the smooth flow of

communication. The organizational structure has an important influence on the

capacity of the members to communicate. Complexity involves many layers of

supervision, long distances, more lines, communicating gaps, organizational

distances between the workers and the top management. According to Mr Santh

Meera, in our call centre, we have many layers for the message to flow down from

the top management to the subordinate. By the time the message reached to the

subordinate, it will be either too late or the message got distorted.

Another type of communication problem faced in organization is language.

According to Mr Santh Meera, it has been a current practise that VADS is recruiting

more top level management from Philippines and due to this there will be some

problem faced in the usage of language. For an example, this Philippines staff might

be using a different language, vocabulary, accent, dialect and slang while interacting

with us which we might not or find it difficult to understand. Once, we face difficulty in

understanding them, there occurs communication problem where the message

conveyed by them was not full absorbed. So, when the languages are different, and

translation has to be used to communicate, the potential for misunderstandings

increases.

Cultural is also another type of communication problem in an organizational.

According to Mr Santh Meera, age, education, gender, social status, economic

position, cultural background, temperament, health, religion, political belief, ethics,

values, assumptions, aspirations, rules and regulations and priorities can separate


one person from another and create a problem in an organization. When individuals

from different cultures run into each other's values and beliefs, cross-cultural

misunderstandings and miscommunication take place.

Ms Usharani highlighted that misinterpretation of message as a one of the

problem in communication in our organization. According to her, how the message is

sent, many additional factors determine how the message is interpreted by the

receiver. All new information we learn is compared with the knowledge we already

have. If it confirms what we already know, we will likely receive the new information

accurately, though we may pay little attention to it. If it disputes our previous

assumptions or interpretation of the situation, we may distort it in our mind so that it is

made to fit our world view, or we may dismiss the information as deceptive,

misguided, or simply wrong. She also added that when people are angry with each

other, the likelihood of misinterpreting communication is greatly increased to the point

where it is almost inevitable.

Assumption also is another problem in communication that was highlighted by

Ms Usharani. According to Ms Usharani, there is a quote stating “Assumptions are

the communication killer”. Assumptions can really derail a conversation. When

discussing an issue or solving a problem, people often jump to conclusions before

they spend time talking about what the problem is or what data they have at hand.

Once they have their own assumption, there is a tendency to assume the opponent's

motives are malign, even when they are not.

Ms Usharani also pointed out that manipulation of information as a problem in

communication. According to her, manipulation can be defined as "managing or

controlling artfully or by shrewd use of influence, often in an unfair or fraudulent way;

to alter or falsify for one's own purpose". And usually this manipulation will be done


by an influenced people in the organization. Opinion of leaders are quite influential in

getting people to change their mind, opinion and behaviour. When the information is

manipulation before delivering it to the next level of the receiver, the receiver might

not be able to get the real meaning of the information and this will lead to a problem

where information were not effectively communicated.

While interviewing Mr Nithanandan on the problems in communication, he

highlighted that secrecy and deception as another factor in communication problem.

According to Mr Nithanandan, sometimes information which is critical to the accurate

understanding of a situation is not available to all parties. This frequently occurs in

business conflicts, when companies try to keep details about products and processes

secret. This can happen in interpersonal conflicts as well when people simply choose

to keep particular facts to themselves. Poor communication also arise when a party

attempts to strengthen its position by deliberately providing opponents and other

parties with misleading or inaccurate information.

Lack of information is also another problem in communication that was

highlighted by Mr Nithanandan. According to him, information is very important in an

organization and every day operation in call centre are fully based on information that

were received. If after all, we did not receive sufficient information pertaining certain

matter or issues, the it will directly, distort the operation of the organization. So it is,

vital for an organization to have all relevant and sufficient information to move on.


Mr Nithanandan also highlighted that lack of personal touch is factor that

contributes to problem in communication. He informed that in this age of electronic

communication, far too many managers use email as a substitute for personal

interaction. However, the same managers who know that personal contact is key to

interpreting a person’s character and reactions and establishing commonality often

choose to “manage by email” even when workers are in offices a few steps away.

While we should never seek to discuss sensitive or delicate matters electronically,

even everyday business is better handled through personal contact when possible.

More direct contact will help create better rapport and trust.


BARRIERS IN COMMUNICATION

Based on the interview conducted with Operation Manager for Fault

Reporting department, Mr Santh Meera Bin Nagoor on the barriers of

communication, he had pointed out three major barriers that he had encountered

while communicating with other personals either from the same department or other

departments.

The first point, pointed out by Mr Santh Meera is language barrier. According

to Mr Santh Meera, language is an arbitrary code that depends on shared definitions,

but there’s a limit on how completely any of us share the same meaning for a given

word. This language barrier exist because of words can be interpreted in more than

one way by others. At a time, using bombastic language or inappropriate words also

can lead to miscommunication. When a person uses inappropriate words while

conversing or writing, it could lead to misunderstanding between the sender and the

receiver. For an example, Mr Santh Meera explained that when he communicate with

his staffs using sophisticated words or language, they will not get the true and real

meanings of the information passed to them.

Poor listening is the second barrier highlighted by Mr Santh Meera. According

to him, listening effectively is not easy. He also said that we usually let our minds

wander now and then, regardless of how hard we try to concentrate. Mr Santh Meera

also informed that people are essentially likely to drift off when they are forced to

listen to information that is difficult to understand on that has little direct bearing on

their own lives. He also added that people only listen to what they wanted to listen,

information that only benefits and important to them. When he tried to communicate

with others from other department, he would be facing difficulty in transferring or

delivering all the information to the receiver. He also added that he himself won’t be


sure whether all the information passed to the staffs, will be 100% listened by the

receiver.

Lastly, Mr Santh Meera highlighted that differing in status also another factor

that leads to barrier in communication. Mr Santh Meera further explained this point

that employees of low status may be overly cautions when sending messages to

managers and may talk only about subjects they think they manager is interested in.

Similarly, higher status people may distort messages by refusing to discuss anything

that would tend to undermine their authority in the organization. Moreover, belonging

to a particular department or being responsible for a particular task can narrow the

point of view so that it differs from the attitudes, values and expectations of people

who belong to other departments or who are responsible for other tasks.

After successfully completed the first interview session with Mr Santh Meera, I

proceed to interview Ms Usharani A/P Sunderajoo, Assistant Manager for Training

Department.

Ms Usharani highlighted that inadequate communication structure as one of

the factor that leads to barrier in communication. According to Ms. Usharani,

organizational communication is effected by formal restrictions on who may

communicate with whom and who is authorized to make decisions. Designing too few

formal channels also blocks effective communication. Ms Usharani added that VADS

Business Process, strongly centralized organization, especially with a high degree of

formalization, reduce communication capacity and they decrease the tendency to

communicate horizontally thus limiting the ability to co-ordinate activities and

decisions. She also informed that tall organizations tend to provide too many vertical

communication links, so messages become distorted as they move through the

organization’s level.

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BBKN 3103 BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

As a second factor that contribute towards barriers in communication that was

highlighted by Ms Usharani is physical distractions. According to Ms Usharani,

communication barriers are often physical such as bad connections, poor acoustics

and illegible copy. Although noise or this sort seems trivial, it can completely block an

otherwise effective message. She also added that receiver might also be distracted

by an uncomfortable chair, poor lighting, or some other irritating condition. In some

cases, the barrier may be related to the receiver's health. Hearing or visual

impairment or even a headache can interfere with reception of a message. These

annoyances don't generally block communication entirely, but they may reduce the

receiver's concentration which lead to communication barrier.

Information overload also being highlighted by Ms Usharani as one of the

factor that lead to barrier in communication. According to Ms Usharani, too much

information is as bad as too little because it reduces the audiences ability to

concentrate effectively on the most important messages. People facing information

overload sometimes try to cope by ignoring some of the messages, by delaying

responses to messages they deem unimportant, by answering only parts of some

messages, by responding inaccurately to certain messages, by taking less time with

each message, or by reacting only superficially to all messages. For an example, Ms

Usharani informed that in call center working environment, the staff receives too

many information on the latest product and promotion at the same time which unable

them to absorb or understand the information effectively.

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As a third person, I have interviewed Mr Nithanandan A/L Kathamuthu,

Assistant Manager for QA Department to get his point of view on the factors that

leads towards communication barriers.

The first point that he highlighted as a barrier for communication is incorrect

choice of medium. He informed that if we choose an inappropriate communication

medium, the message the sent can be distorted so that the intended meaning is

blocked. For an example, he said that telephones and other interactive electronic

media aren’t as rich, although they allow immediate feedback, they don’t provide

visual non-verbal cues such as facial expressions, eye contact and body movement.

He also said that written media can be personalized through addressed memos,

letters and reports but they lack the immediate feedback. Mr Nithanandan said that

the communication failure or a partial failure could occur if the media that being

selected for transmittal of a message is inappropriate and necessary feedback is not

received.

Mr Nithanandan also pointed out that filtering is also another barrier in

effective communication. According to Mr Nithanandan, filtering is screening out

before a message is passed on to someone else. The purpose of filtering is usually

to block the irrelevant information, clear information from redundancy, that is, make it

shorter easier to remember and understand. He added that there are many different

filters in an organization such as secretaries, assistants, receptionists, answering

machines and so on. Unfortunately those gatekeepers may eliminate important

messages as irrelevant, delay messages as not very important, translate ideas and

may respond before passing anything to the correct receiver. All this filtering of the

messages, may lead to miscommunication.

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Mr. Nithanandan highlighted that emotional as one of the barriers of

communication. According to him, it is comprised mainly of fear, mistrust and

suspicion and it will be hard to communicate with a very emotional person. He also

added that disorders of emotional communication include problems expressing one's

own feelings and misunderstanding the feelings of others. Emotion is communicated

in facial expressions, body movements, body language, tone of one's voice, pace of

words, and intensity. So when, the receiver is in emotional stage, the message that

was delivered to him/hr might either be interpreted wrongly and the information did

reached the receiver.

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TACTICS OF OVERCOME THE PROBLEM

As a tactics to overcome the barrier in poor listening, the manager said that

he will usually ensure that the listener will have an eye contact with him. By

establishing an eye contact, he will know that the receiver is paying attention to what

is being conveyed to him / her. If after all, if he noticed that the receiver is not paying

attention or the mind wonders around, he will stop talking and ask the receiver to

repeat back what he /she understands for far.

On my point of view, I would suggest that in order to overcome this poor

listening barrier, the receiver need to be send for a training to improve the listening

skills and how to focus and pay attention on what is being delivered by the sender.

According to the manager, the tactics that he/she used to overcome language

barriers, are by using the most specific and accurate words possible. He/She always

try to use words that the audience will understand. They also will increase the

accuracy of their messages by using language that describes rather than evaluates

and by presenting observable facts, events, and circumstances.

But in my point of view, in order to overcome barriers in language, the both

parties involved in receiving and transmitting message can take initiative in learning

the each other language. The management also can send them to attend language

course, either to learn new language or to further enhance and improve their

language skills. Either than that, the sender also can frequently check the

understanding of the receiver and also speak clearly and slowly.

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In order to overcome the filtering barrier in communication, the management

tactics are to establish more than one communication channel. They also have taken

steps in eliminating as many intermediaries as possible and decrease distortion by

condensing message information to the bare essentials. According to the manager,

the tactic that they use to improve filtering really works especially when the eliminate

intermediaries and directly communicate to the intended person.

Here, I also would like to suggest that in order to overcome filtering barrier in

organization, we could avoid distortions by making our messages shorter and

condensing to bare essentials. Either than that, we also can use formalizing and

ritualizing. By making the messages short and compress, the receive would be able

to understand the context of the message easily and without confusion.

The current tactics used by managers to overcome the emotional barriers

faced by the employees are through sending them for a counseling sessions with a

qualified and appointed counselor. According to the manager, the employees are not

allowed to interact with the customer if they are in some kind of emotional. This is

due to, the management is worried that the particular staff might provide wrong

information to the customer. This is why, before a staff join duty, the supervisor will

ensure that they are not emotionally disturbed.

As for me, I suggest that, staffs facing emotional disturbance should be send

for a motivational course or training after attending the counseling session. I would

suggest this because, even though counseling is important, but from the long run

perspective, training on motivation is also important. Once they attend seminar or

training on motivation, the staffs actually can learn on method how to overcome their

emotion problem and handle their stress at the same time.

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One of the tactics used by the managers to overcome the barrier of overload

information is by identifying the irrelevant information contained in a message and

also make the necessary information easily available. According to them, in call

centre working environment, daily they will be receiving hundreds of information and

as being a responsible manager, they just can’t simply download all the information

to everybody and if they do it, they are actually burdening the staff with overload and

unnecessary information. So, the managers said that only important and relevant

information should be passed to the correct staffs.

Here, I would suggest a tactic that can be used to overcome the information

overload barrier where the management can set up a website, blog or a homepage

for the staffs to go and browse for the latest information or updates. In this website,

all the information or messages that needed to be informed can be uploaded here

and the staffs easily can utilize this system to search for the information. This will

indirectly lessen the burden of the staffs to remember all the information. By using

this, we are not only reducing the overload of information, we are also actually

helping the staff to work in a stress free environment.

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CONCLUSION

Based on the interview conducted with the three managers from

different department but within the same organization, I found that all three of

them have the common similarity problem in delivering the message

effectively which is due to the complex organization structure where the

message flows down to many levels has being misinterpreted and

manipulated by the receiver their level without having a personal touch

directly from the receiver to the sender.

From this studies, I have learned that effective communication depends

on both the receiver and the sender themselves. Whereby, the sender must

select the correct communication mode to transmit the message to the

receiver. Whereas the receiver must be ever ready to receive the message as

it is with a right attitude and positive mindset. By properly planning and

implementing this, communication will ensure that everyone understands

what’s the sender’s goal and what are the receiver’s part in achieving the

message so that everybody will achieve their goal.

As quoted by Jim Rohn, the world's leading motivational speaker, philosopher &

entrepreneur “If you just communicate you can get by. But if you skillfully

communicate, you can work miracles”.

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References

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6:109-114

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3) Busey, B. (2009, October 17). Communication - "Communic8 Essentials".

4) Casey, A. Q. (2009, September 21). Workplace Communication - 5 Keys to Getting Your Message Heard and Avoiding Misunderstandings.

5) Oberoi, R. (2009, October 21). Workplace Communication Skills - How to Develop?.

6) Morreale, S.P., Osborn, M.M. & Pearson, J.C. (January, 2000) Why communication is important: A rationale for the centrality of the study of communication. Journal of the Association for Communication Administration, 29(1), 1-25

7) Fernanda Diaz, (2008), Type of Communication, Free Article Tutorial

8) Shawn Smith, July 8, 2002, Removing workplace communication barriers, Fairfield County Business Journal, Westfair Communications, Inc.

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9) Schick, A. G., Gordon, L. A., & Haka, S. (1990). Information overload: A temporal approach. Accounting, Organizations, and Society, 15, 199–220

10) Stiebel, David, June 22, 1997, Resolving problems when communication fails. (problem-solving for workplace issues), Canadian Manager

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