Professional Business Communications Of Woolworths & Aldi in Australia

Question: Discuss about the Professional Business Communications Of Woolworths and Aldi in Australia. Answer: Introduction The report is prepared to discuss the various aspects of effective business communication and its impact on the business functioning with ease and effectiveness. The two business organisations considered here as the case study are Woolworths and Aldi in Australia. There are different types of communication followed by these two organisations and so the best communication method and the least effective communication practice will be illustrated here in details. It will also evaluate how the communication type proved to be effective for one organisation while it may not be the right approach for another company. Providing a detailed analysis of the positives and negatives of the two most important communication techniques and its impacts is one of the main reasons of developing this report as well (Guffey Loewy, 2012). Basic principles of effective communication within organisations To enable the perfect communication within the business organisations, it is important to identify the various principles of effective communication including the clarity of messages, adequacy, attention, timing, integrity, its strategic use, interest and acceptance, balance between uniformity and adaptability and selection of proper communication channel too (Robles, 2012). Clarity To make sure that the communication process is noteworthy, it is important to understand the purpose of communication at first. The business communication could be successful as well as experience clarity when the receiver could understand the messages and information that would be transmitted. The sender must send the messages and information in such a manner so that the receiver could understand it and the communication process should also be clear, simple and possess easy language. Adequacy The main purpose of communication process is to manage optimum flow of information, which can not only benefit the two companies, i.e., Woolworths and Aldi, but can also allow the organisations to establish trust and sense of loyalty among the customers through interaction with them (Dainton Zelley, 2017). The messages must be adequate so that it could ensure proper flow and create convenience while being transferred from the sender to the receiver. Attention through understandable and meaningful message The delivered messages and information should be possessing right information and provide a clear meaning through its content, so that it could create attention among the receiver and ensure that they know the purpose of obtaining the information. Thus, the attention of the receiver and his ability to read to understand the message should be vital for establishing good communication. Both the supermarket chains have promoted their products by creating good messages and information and posted those on social media platforms so that customers can gain clear knowledge about the kinds of products that they want to purchase (Chen, Chiang Storey, 2012). Timing Time is an essential factor that contributes to the successful management of business communication. The effectiveness of a message depends upon the time taken to deliver and receive the message. It is also important that the business organisations take time to compile proper information and data consisting of diversified and complex contents and then make sure to deliver the right message on time to influence the consumers buying behaviours. Integrity and strategic use The individuals associated with the centres of communication should be focused on as well. It is often seen that the top-level managers forget to communicate messages to the middle level or line managers and rather try to communicate with the employees directly. Though it is an effective way to keep the staffs motivated within the workplace, still the line managers can feel ignored and not being able to gain the respect and position that they currently hold within the organisation (Conrad Poole, 2012). Thus, communication could be successful only when it happens from top to bottom with every stage passed through. When the information and messages during communication process are not enough, then strategically using the information obtained could be beneficial for making these organisations create sustainable place in the market. Two-way communication is needed for the companies to ensure that the messages are delivered properly and the business requirements are met (Sigmar et al., 2012). Description of the businesses Woolworths and Aldi both are major retail companies situated in Australia that deliver good quality products and services all over Australia and in other places worldwide too. Both these two companies focus on communication to promote a good culture, better teamwork and coordination within the organisation as well as understand the needs and requirements of clients to keep them satisfied. Woolworths is one of major supermarket and grocery store chain in Australia that holds 80 percent of the Australian market with an estimated revenue of more than 42.13 billion AUD. Aldi is a common brand that manages two of the leading discount supermarket chains with more than 10000 stores worldwide. It has a combined turnover of more than 50 billion and holds over 104,000 employees (Conrad Newberry, 2012). Comparing the nature of communications The business organisation Woolworths follows the verbal communication mostly to exchange messages and information face to face and discuss about the important business aspects. It is also seen that enabling verbal communication facilitates the information sharing and exchange efficiency as well as allowed the top level managers to consult with the employees while making decisions. The verbal communication styles followed by the company include meetings, presentations and lectures and conversations done through telephone usage or video conversations too. Meetings allowed the top-level managers of Woolworths to meet the middle level managers and the staffs to obtain their opinions and feedbacks regarding the business function and identify the areas which need improvements (Levin Nolan, 2014). The brainstorming sessions are managed as well to enable changes and furthermore evaluate the current market conditions based on which, the products can be delivered and new products shall be int roduced. The company authorities manage the meetings every month where every participant can get a chance to speak without monopolising the agenda. The company interacts with the managers and gain their feedbacks regarding the products delivered by the company through telephonic conversations. In case of any queries the customers services department provide relevant solutions to the customers and maintained a positive relationship with them, which further helped in influencing their buying behaviours (Oradee, 2012). Verbal communication styles also allowed the company managers to interact with the employees and understand their needs for development, based on which, necessary training sessions were provided to them. This could lift their morale, enhance their skills, knowledge, and keep them motivated an encouraged to perform with dedication and commitment (Agnola Cofaru, 2014). On the other hand, Aldi proposed the role playing activities as major forms of communication. The company is more focused on teamwork and so to handle different critical situations with ease. Here a particular scenario is formed where individuals play different roles and this is how their works and approaches are evaluated regarding how they respond to the different approaches and situations, furthermore remain counterproductive. This would also help in understanding what people think and how they might feel in such situations. It is an effective communication approach to develop experience, skills and self-confidence among the individuals and allow them to handle critical situations through preparation made by acting in similar kind of situation. With situations, evolving from time to time, mistakes and errors would be overcome and this would strengthen the brainstorming sessions, furthermore promote effective coordination and teamwork (Setiawan, Abadi Rahman, 2013). Types of communication Woolworths considered the verbal communication effective because it allowed the company to maintain good relationships with its customers by interacting them online and at the same time enable proper communication between the staffs within the workplace. Meetings were held and video conferences with the use of internet further helped the employees working within the organisation to communicate with each other and discuss about the business related tasks (Dias, 2016). The top-level managers communicated accurate messages and information to the line managers through meetings, which were later communicated to the staffs through telephonic or online conversations and chat messages (woolworths.com.au, 2018). This form of communication is less time consuming and both the sender and receiver can be engaged easily, which has further maintained the clarity and consistency of messages that are delivered (woolworths.com.au, 2018). Another verbal communication style that might not be the most effective for Woolworths could be the workshops. Here instructions are provided to the teams to develop their skills and experiences and even the leaders can provide proper information about a certain business scenarios to the staffs. Woolworths was experiencing lack of communication and so the leaders were not much active to deliver messages and information to the employees directly. This could have hindered the proper accomplishment of researches undertaken to focus on the business issues and furthermore might have created difficulties to solve problems and negotiate solutions as well (Guffey Loewy, 2012). Due to lack of proper instructions gained by the staffs, the company failed to respond to queries by the customers on online platforms, which could have even deteriorated the brand reputation. The role-playing communication was though considered as effective by Aldi because the staffs were allowed to take part in real world situations and made sure that their skills and knowledge level improve. One of the major purpose of such communication is to keep the staffs informed, engaged and motivated all throughout to perform with effectiveness. The supermarket chain has emphasised on this internal communication style. The employees and staffs took part in role playing sessions based on real business scenarios about how to target the major audience group (Aldi.com.au, 2018). This was done through discussions, which shed limelight on various areas including editorial focus, social media assets, web creativity and even promotions through televisions and advertisements for engaging more customers with the brand with ease and effectiveness. As the staffs became informed about knowledgeable about the ways of targeting different market segments, they focused on enhancing the marketing awareness through introduction of digital billboards and other social media promotional campaigns to ensure that the messages and information about the new products introduced can be delivered to the customers (Robles, 2012). Aldi possesses a good organisational structure and culture, because of which, meetings and face-to-face conversations are not much of use, because most of the staffs were quite friendly and communicated among each other properly. Training programs were arranged as well for enhancing the self competency and communication skills, because of which, they had been quite skilled and knowledgeable to handle critical situations with ease (Chen, Chiang Storey, 2012). Impact of communication The verbal communication styles adopted at Woolworths have created a huge positive impact on the organisations through cost savings, time saving as well as obtaining immediate feedbacks and responses from the clients regarding any queries and delivering appropriate solutions too. Consumers complained about inappropriate customers services previously, due to which, oral communication could be managed by managing telephonic conversations and even communicating with them in social media platforms for assisting them to overcome any issues faced. The employees also could communicate with each other quite easily and this promoted favourable relationships between the two parties with ease and efficiency too (Conrad Poole, 2012). This also allowed the managers to communicate with the employees face to face, which further kept them motivated an encouraged to perform better. The verbal communication at Woolworths has affected the business sometimes due to lack of secrecy, which resulted in no legal validation and created misunderstandings among people within the workplace. At Aldi, role-playing was adopted as useful form of communication because it developed higher level of engagement with the issues and knowledge and improved the skills of staffs too. The role playing activities also helped in proper assessment and flow of information , which further created more opportunities to adapt to real world business scenarios and ensure successful growth and growth of own self and organisation too. It is has allowed the staffs of Aldi to understand the requirements of customers by getting opportunities to practice in a safer environment where any mistakes will not lead to real world consequences (Aldi.com.au, 2018). Not everyone has the ability to judge how the roles should be played, because of which the communication process could deteriorate. It can take lot of time to make decisions and even get difficult to adapt to the situation quickly. Conclusion From the report, it could be analysed and interpreted that the two companies in Australia followed different communication styles, which possessed both positives and few drawbacks too. Though Woolworths followed the verbal communication to remain connected with the customers and even promoted teamwork within the workplace, there were few areas that still needed improvements. The customers services lacked certain improvements, because of which, the communication with the customers was not up to the mark. Aldi followed the role-playing in training strategy to understand each others skills and facilitate the communication process. However, it was sometimes difficult to predict the real world scenarios, which even created difficulties to understand the preferences of the customers due to inaccurate flow and exchange of information and messages. It is recommended to improve the core areas and maintain the principles properly for both these two companies and ensure that close relationships are managed with both the clients and within the workplace. References Agnola, L., Cofaru, I. I. (2014). Electronic Infrastructure Aimed At Improving Comunication And Education For Business And Academia. InBalkan Region Conference on Engineering and Business Education(Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 171-174). De Gruyter Open. Aldi.com.au. (2018). Aldi.com.au. Retrieved 13 February 2018, from https://www.aldi.com.au/ Chen, H., Chiang, R. H., Storey, V. C. (2012). Business intelligence and analytics: from big data to big impact.MIS quarterly, 1165-1188. Conrad, C., Poole, M. S. 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