Chapter 7 - Management skills: Communicating

Communicating

the transferring of information from the sender to the receiver through a medium

Channels of communication

- Upward: From a team member to their manager

- Downward: for example from the manager to a meytymber of their team

- Horizontal: For example between staff members on the same team

Internal communication

Internal communication refers to the transfer of information between staff in workplace.

Mediums used to internally communicate are

- Meetings

- Notice boards

- An intranet

- Shared cloud documents/ Google drive

- Telephone calls

- Emails

- Text messages

- Memos

- Face to face conversations

- Intercoms

External communication

The transfer of information from the business to its stakeholders is known as external communications

Stakehoklders

- Investors

- Government

- Suppliers

- Interest Groups

- Society

Different mediums a business can use to communicate with its communicate with its stakeholders include

- The company website

- Social media

- Press conferences

- Telephone calls

- Emails

- Video conferencing

- Letters

- Advertisements

- Reports

What help to make communication effective

- The right duration

- An accurate message

- Appropriate language

- Visual aids

- Confidentiality of information

- Feedback

- Timing

The Right duration

The sender should make sure the message is not short it omits important information nor overload the receiver with too much information or the main message could be lost or the receiver might become bored

An accurate message

A sender should have a clear idea of the message they want to get across to the receiver and research anything they are unsure of if they are giving a presentation to other stakeholders it should have a clear message and structure including:

- An introduction

- A plan of action

- Expected outcomes

Appropriate language

If the sender is skilled in highly specialised field or has present lot of information a complex topic, they need to consider the knowledge base of the receiver and adapt any technical words or jargon so that the message is understood

VIsual aids

Using graphs such as infographics, line graphs, bar charts, pie charts makes information more interesting and engaging to an audience they can also be used to sum up imformation so that it can be easily understood by the receiver

Timing

If a message is urgent it would be more efficient to send an email than a letter which is slower to arrive. Face to face meetings and a phone call are also faster

How improved communication can help a business

- Improved employee morale

- Improved accuracy

- Better decisions

- Quicker decision making

- Low staff turnover

Improved employee morale

If a manager is clear in their message it should remove any confusion or ambiguity might have when carrying out their roles. A manager should ensure that their message is clear and encourage feedback - this reduces future conflict and disagreement among employees over tasks they have carried out

Improved accuracy

The best way to improve the outcome is to improve the instructions. If a sender gives clear instructional steps which are written down for staff to follow and also encourages any staff who are unsure to ask questions> It should result in fewer errors in the business

Barriers to effective communication

- Noise

- lack of clarity

- Lack of accuracy

- Language

- Timing

- Using the wrogn medium

- Information overload

- Technology

Information Overload - Consumer

A sender should not give too much information at one time. in its instruction manual, a business keeps the steps clear and concise so that a consumer can easily follow them

Language

The level of jargon jand technical terms should match the intended recipient. A business encourages feedback from suppliers. If its unsure of any technical features or adaptions needed to its products

What are different methods of business can use to communicate

-Pie chart

- Bar chart

- Line graph

- Business Letter

- Report

Types of business meeting

- AGM (Annual General Meeting)

- EGM (Extraordinary general meeting)

- Board meetings

- AD HOC Meetings

- General Meetings

Annual General Meeting

An annual general meeting is a mandatory yearly gathering of a company's shareholders and directors. Shareholders with voting rights can vote on current issues such as appointments to the company's board of directors, dividend payments and the selection of auditors

Annual General Meeting example

Glanbia's chairperson gives a report to its shareholders before conducting the voting procedures for new directors

extraordinary general meeting

An extraordinary general meeting EGM is called so that shareholders and directors of the company gather to formally discuss and vote on an urgent matter for the business cannot wait until next AGM takes place. There could be major disruption to a company's production for example, if the production facility was damaged in a storm or there could be a vote on a takeover bid for the business

extra ordinary general meetinf example

Glanbia held an EGM in May 2017 to vote on the expansion of an existing strategic joint venture to be known as Glanbia Ireland

Board meetings

The board of directors meets regularily, in many cases every month to discuss any issues within the business. It can also use the meeting to solve problems. The board is made up of senior management staff, and therefore is focused on the long term performance direction of the business

Board meetings examples

Glanbia's board of directors meets regularly to analyse, if it is moving towards some of its strategic objectives including growing through organic investment

Ad hoc meetings

Ad hoc meetings are imrpomptu one off meetings, meaning that they are not planned in advance. These are used to discuss matters that arise suddenly

Ad hoc examples

A marketing manager calls manager team together for an ad hoc meeting to discuss recent social media reactions to the company's latest advertisement campaign

General meetings

A business has regular meetings during which different stakeholders discuss an issue the organisation is facing and try to find a solution or management pass on information to their staff or everyone votes on matters that affect the business

General meeting examples

A production team has a meeting so that the manager can discuss the team's recent performance, seek feedback and highlight areas for the team to work on

Write notice

Notice is hereby given write time date locatio

Write agenda

1. The minutes were appeoved signeed off nd adopted

7. AOB

Notice

This gives what, who, when and where a meeting will take place

Agenda

This is a list of items in order of importance to be discussed at the meeting

Minutes

These are a summarised written record of what occurred during a meeting

Quorum

This is the minimum number of people or members needed in attendance in order for a meeting to proceed

The role of the secretary at a meeting

- Send notice and agenda

- Arrange a venue

- Deal with correspondence

- Take the minutes

- Add the chairperson

Secretary

Secretary or perosnal assistants are responsible for the administrative side of the meeting They organise the facilities and the paperwork and lliase with the chairperson to assist them

1. Send notice or agenda

The secretary sends out the notice and agenda to each person who is entitles to attend the meeting they should be sent in q good time incase people have to arrange transport and accommodation

2. Arrange a venue

The secretary checks with anyone presenting that they have suitable audiovisual facilities and that the venue has refreshments, a toiled and suiting

3. Deal with correspondence

The secretary must deal with any correspondence to do with the meeting including documents that the board has received and any queries they should inform the meeting organiser of any important information received

4. Take the minutes

During the meeting the secretary takes notes on everything that is discussed.

Afterwards they summaries these to produce the minutes which forms part of the official record of what heppened during the meeting

The chairperson then sigsns it and requests its approval by someone who attended it nect meeting

Role of the chairperson

The chairperson runs the meeting they should not have any bias their role is to facilitate input at the meeting, ensuring no one takes over by talking too much and keeping the meeting moving using the agenda.

1. Ensure a quorum

The chairperson checks that there is a quorum present before starting the meeting if very few people attended the meeting they would have a lot of power of decisions and could result in bias

2. Sign off the minutes

The chairperson ensures that the minutes from the previous meeting. are read, adopted and signed off. They should then move through the agenda laid out for one meeting

3 Manage the meeting

The chairperson sets the agenda for the meeting and tries to ensure that no topic takes up too much time and discussions stay focused on the agreed agenda

4. Call for votes

The chairperson calls for votes to take place on decisions in the event of a tie in the voting procedure they make the decision as they have the casting vote

Auditors

External accountants a business pays to prepare the end-of-year accounts

Treasurer

In charge of the accounts and income and expenditure for the club

Directors

Are elected to sit on the board of directors - they act on behalf of the shareholders

Benefits of meetings as form of communication

- Allows for brainstorming

- Effective decision making

- Encourages feedback

- Confidential methid

Allows for brainstorming

Meeings can be used for idea generation and facilitating different departments working together, Customer feedback can be discussed between various departments. The marketing team could then use this information from the

ICT beinifits

1. Development in instant messaging

2. Improved netiwkring opportunities - Linkedin

3, Video conferencing

4. Having your own computer website - CAD

Challenges for businesses using ICT

- Cybercrime

- Data breaches

- Investment required

- Skills required

Investment required

A large capital investment is required initially to put systems in place for a functional website or app as well as to imporve its design its functionality and to handle high volumes of visitors

example: A complex app for a smartphone costs 100,000 to 500000 to launch develop and run

Data breaches

Business need to invest in security and spyware for their systems to reduce the chances of hackers accessing any sensitive information to hold on their consumers

Example: In 2018 Irish Data Protection Commission opened an investigation into a date breach that affected nearly 50 million facebook accounts. It could result in a fine for 1.5 billion for Facebook

Cybercrime

Hackers can access information stored on websites and threaten to use it unless their ransom demands are met. They can also threaten to crash the company website disrupting the business

- Musgraves which operates the Daybreak, Centra and Daybreak was targeted in a cybercrime in 2017 aimed at extracting credit and debit card information

Skills required

Staff need ti learn new skills regularly this will cist the bsuines money and take up the time of the staff

Example: Staff members of Sky TV need to be trained regularly on how to interact with customers through its website live chat

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