Understanding communication process in the workplace

1.1 Explain the importance of effective communication in the workplace Communication is defined as the interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs, Communication is used by everyone in the work place at all times. Employees communicate with each other to get their jobs done. Supervisors communicate with their staff to run a business proficiently. Everyone working within a business communicates with customers and consumers to make sure all of the clients' needs are met. Without Communication no work could ever be accomplished, and I can explain the importance of effective communication in the following:- 1-Gain control on the business through the effective communication of the other departments in the company.

2-To have Influence on other people.

3-Gain trust from colleagues.
4-Can change opinions when you can communicate effectively.

1.2 Describe the stages in the communication cycle
Any communication process shall have Input, then process in order to have an output, that can be the simple explanation of communication process, And the cycle of the communication shall be more detailed, and differs from one to another in the business nature, I work in the leasing department in Dubai properties and I can give an example on my communication stages as follow: Example: I have a plot for long term lease; my objective is to find the right client so I can contact in order to propose the lease opportunity, I can start with 1-Plan: I need to gather the plot technical information and know the usage, size, and location so I can identify the type of client that I shall contact, then I gather information on the right clients that shall be contacted.

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2-Send: I start to contact the client through email or phone call etc, I usually represent myself and my company, then I explain the reason I’m contacting the person, then I start represent the opportunity and I finish the communication that I expect the feedback. 3- Receive: after the clients receive my communication, they evaluate the opportunity and send me their feedback wither they are interested or not and if they have more inquiries about the opportunity. 4-Understand: after a cross communication between me and the clients, we reach the stage where we understand the opportunity and can move forward to; 5-Reply /Decision: the client shall reply at this stage with his decision or can reply that he’s not interested in this opportunity.

1.3: Identify possible barrier to communication in the workplace a)Language Difference - Inability to converse in a language that is known by both the sender and receiver is the greatest barrier to effective communication. When a person uses inappropriate words while conversing or writing, it could lead to misunderstanding between the sender and a receiver. Example: I witness an incident where a team was doing outbound calls to sell products for other countries with an English speakers, but in different nationalities, the call center executive kept on asking on a person while a lady kept on saying “he’s deceased” and the call center person knew after the lady hang up the line that deceased means “passed away”. b)Distance Barriers - One of the major barriers of communication in a workplace is the distance barrier. Distance barriers in a large size organization include large number of departments and manpower areas that are physically separated into different offices or workplaces.

c)Culture Barrier – Dubai is a multi culture destination and the especially in the work place, the cultures get to collide especially in the workplace, it always create a barrier to communication. Example: Japanese Clients have a culture where when there’s a group conversation between a boss and a manager and an executive, always the executive has to be one step behind the manager while talking to a boss, it can be taken as an offensive action to the manager and the boss if the executive stayed at the same line of the manager or closer to the boss.

d)Body Language – some cultures, the body language can be with a different meaning from another culture, some to be taken offensive while in some cultures it shows an0ther meaning, Example: one of the managers was presenting something to the team, and during the presentation while using his body language he wanted to explain something that couldn’t express it in English where he used his body language to explain; where it gave another meaning that made the girls in the meeting got offended.

1.4 Explain how to overcome a potential barrier to communication With the potential barriers mentioned above I can explain how to overcome these barriers as follow:- 1-Language Difference: in order to overcome the barriers to communication through formal or official e.g. emails or letter phone calls etc, it’s recommended to:-
a)Have a reliable method of communication
b)Have a clear subject to purpose of communication
c)A understandable content that can be understood from the receiver
d)A summary of the message at the end and the requested action to be explained properly In the case of communicating in writing e.g. Email or the message, it’s highly recommended to review the message and read it once or twice before sending; more than 90% of the people sending email everyday find mistakes and typo errors in their emails.

2-Culture Barrier: it’s highly recommended to be aware of the culture background of the person you’re about to have a meeting with or do business with; it can make communication easy and faster; other than creating barriers and misunderstanding will take place. 3-Distance Barriers: it’s better to keep the departments that are working together like sales and leasing with the real estate management to be in the same workplace, while marketing and PR can be also working closely in order to avoid the barrier and miscommunication.

2.1 describe the main method of written and oral communication in the workplace and their uses Written communication: MEMO
In our policies of getting an approval for leasing a property; we prepare a MEMO to the management explaining the property and the proposals that we have on the property and our department recommendations for choosing a certain proposal, then the MEMO got circulates for the leasing committee to approve or reject. Usage: The use of this MEMO is to document the deals and the approvals of the lease committee so we can recall at anytime the terms of the deal for as a reference for other deals e.g. price and legal terms Also to keep a record for the auditors by the end of the year to review the deals done and get a justification for the recommendations done by the leasing department and for the approval or rejection of the leasing committee.

Oral Communication: workshop
Sometimes the leasing department endorses a new policy or a new document to be implements in leasing or renew the lease for the company real estate portfolio, Usage: we make a workshop to inform the staff on the new policy, and give them orientation on importance of the new policy and the new paperwork work and formalities required in the workshop.

2.2 Identify the main advantage and disadvantage of the written method of communication

The written method is The MEMO that the leasing department is preparing In order to propose the deal to get the approval of the leasing committee. Advantage: it’s giving an accurate and full detail of the deal with all the supported documents e.g. profile of the tenant, full detail of the property and a benchmark of equivalent deals that the company approved or other companies done.

Disadvantage: time consuming due to the circulation of the MEMO to be approved by almost 12 member of the leasing committee, it can take more than 2 weeks at least, sometimes it can take more if some member or on vacation or business trips.

2.3 Identify the main advantage and disadvantage of the Oral method of communication The Oral Method is the workshops that the leasing department is doing to propose a new policy for signing the lease contracts or renew the leases. Advantage: it’s making sure that the staff is trained and ready to implement the new policy and the paperwork, through answering all the question and clear any quires the staff may have on the new policy before implementing it, this can reduce the mistakes to the minimum. Disadvantage: the workshops affect the site offices, as most of the staff are customer facing in the sites, usually one person is working in the site, and the workshop can take at least 2-3 hours where the site office will be closed during the workshop.

2.4 Explain how non-verbal communication can influence the effectiveness of oral communication In my area of expertise, non-verbal communications are the ways we communicate without words, it can influence the effectiveness of the oral through the following: a)Clarifies: Nonverbal communication clarifies the verbal message. This can be seen in a presentation. The speaker is verbally communicating and uses nonverbal visual aids to help the listeners understand more effectively.

b)Creates Culture: Whether a culture is created in a family or a corporation, it is the nonverbal communication that is responsible for it. In every relationship and group there are certain norms and expectations that are not verbally communicated. Most of the time these rules of engagement are created through nonverbal expressions whether it is touch, time or gestures. Nonverbal communication can make a culture hostile, comforting or awkward.

c)Adds Depth: Nonverbal communication adds depth to verbal communication. This is seen in the expression of emotions. Emotions are a form of nonverbal communication that provides depth and greater meaning for an individual's soul. For example, a person can give a speech with no emotion and lose the crowd or they can say the same speech with emotion behind it and captivate the audience.

2.5 Explain the value of feedback in ensuring effective communication Feedback makes communication meaningful. It is the end-result of an idea and makes communication continuous. It can have the following values: a)Clarifying: sometimes the audience may mishear something; the feedback is a good practice to clarify things. b)Improvements to ideas: sometimes when you propose an idea or a plan, the feedback may help the improvement of the idea and vice versa.

3.1 Assess own performance in a frequently used method of communication
First of all, I would like to represent myself, I work as a leasing manager in DPG, I’m responsible on signing the residential lease agreement up to certain value on behalf of the company, and other task I’m responsible on which is leasing the lands for special activity e.g. schools, hospitals, retail etc, Most of my day is communicating with the staff that I’m leading, around 25 executive, added to that communicating with client for the lands that requires communication with other departments in the company in order to achieve targets.

I can divide the methods of communications into 3 methods:-
1-Oral Communication
2-Written Communication
3-Body Language

Through my self assessment on my performance in the mentioned methods, and also through collecting feedback from my colleagues, I found the following:

1-Oral Communication: I’ve used different way of assessment in the oral communication as follow:

i)Manager’s feedback: my manager find me organized while discussing a topic internally or with another department, also my manager said that I’m a good negotiator. ii)Audio Recording: in order to assess my tone of voice, my oral communication skills, I recorded my voice for a subject I want to discuss it with the team, I found a lot things I need to work on it, for example; my tone of voice, I have to work on it to make more relaxed while addressing a message to people, also I found myself talk very fast, I need to be slow enough so people can easily understand, my voice was loud that can deliver a wrong message.

2-Written communication: I assess the written communication through the following:- i)Reviewing correspondence: I review my previous email that I sent to my clients and my colleagues to request something, or to respond to a request from them, and I found some minor miscommunication that I can work on it in the future to have a better written communication skills.
ii)Colleagues feedback: I asked my colleagues from different departments on my writing communication with them, some of them said it’s alright and added some comments, like adding an attachment to the message that can recall the history of this subject, The most important one, a colleague mentioned an important thing, I always add (!) at the end of any request on the email, she told me that sometimes people take it offensive.

3-Body Language: I assessed that skills through the following: i)Colleagues Feedback: I checked my colleague’s feedback, and they told me that they haven’t noticed my body language to express things while talking. ii)Video Recording: I recorded a presentation I was about to present it to my client, and I found a lot of things I have to work on, for example:- -I move a lot while talking

-My body language looks terrible and I have to work on it
-I look stressed while talking and I don’t use my body language with my oral communication.

AC 3.2 Outline actions to improve own performance in communicating In order to improve the performance of the communication I suggest the following:

Oral Communication: I have to do the following:-
-I have to make an introduction t0 the communication I’m about to present -I have to prepare a list of the subjects I need to communicate, -I have to be informative and straight to the point to avoid miscommunication -I have to practice my oral communication through recording to my self -I have to focus on the eye contact to understand from people if the message is understood. -I have to ask on the feedback by the end of the communication. Written communication: I have to the following:-

-I have to organize the message to have introduction, content, action required. -I have to review the message before send it.
-I some cases I have to attach a brief history for the topic, so people can recall the topic and respond accordingly. Body Language: In this particular communication, I have to do the following: -I have work a lot on the body
language while I’m doing a presentation or talking to multiple people. -I have to use the right sign that can explain the words I’m saying. -I have to relax more while presenting.

-I have to use my body language along with my oral communication when required.