Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to find out Buddong Systems communication problems, report the result

of the investigation and make recommendation to the Board of Directors so that they can implement plans and improve the business communication and environment. It examined the critical issue of business communication that included communication competence and communication climate which both of them have big impact on achieving an effective communication. Also the using of right languages and communication channel are elements that will contribute to a good communication. Last, the morality of one is essential. This report found out the new CEO Ken Young, although he is educated very well, he is lack of communicating skills. It is suggested that he should hire a personal assistant or secretary to help him in communicate within the company, also company should provide some communication courses as to increase the awareness of communication since it could benefit the company runs more effectively.

Introduction An effective communication within the company is essential in allowing the message being sent to the receiver precisely. Ken Young was appointed to be the new CEO of Buddong Systems, before and during the staff meeting there were some business communication issues occurred with the Vice president & General Manager Krik Johansen and managers that would cause the organization to failure. This report is to discuss the problems have arise based on the current situation in the company with relevant communication theories. Firstly, in terms of the organizational communication, communication competence was not shown during the staff meeting. Furthermore, Youngs choice of language and communication channel to convey message was not appropriate. In order to increase in sales, there is a morale issue on Young asking the managers to promise and say whatever the customer wants. At the end of the report, recommendation will be provided based on the issues in this case in order to improve future communication and achieve an effective communication.

Organizational Communication Communication Climate During the staff meeting, one of the managers Philip Wang has questioned about the possibility of pushing their sales by 10% in the next quarter, Young has given an angry glare to him and answered him in a furious tone even after Wang has corrected the words of asking him to a less direct way. This might cause to a defensive communication climate that staff may find it hard to express their real thoughts and lead to a low level of trust and morale. According to Smeltzer, Leonard & Hynes continuous of critical errors occur in the communication, no matter how much trust both sides had before, they may quickly change to a distrust and closed communication (Smeltzer, Leonard & Hynes, 2002). Thus that would make future communication more difficult, since a trusting and open climate is critical to a positive communication climate, compare to Johansen has a more mature approach to communicate with others manager.

Communication Competence Communication competence is the ability to interact well with others (Spitzberg 1988, cited in Lane 2000). On an individual level, Young has a low communication competence because he did not provide clear instruction to Johansen how the team can increase 10% of sale in next quarter, and before he did not try to understand and listen to them why would that happen but just asked Johansen and the managers to take action, he did not consider the team confidence is already low and there has been resignation. In a group level, when Johansen asked the formed group from different department to work together why the sales has keep dropping for the past two quarters, however they could not find the reason because they all did not work as a group, those managers only did their own thinking and not willing to communicate with each other, as a result they could come up with a solution.

Communication Channel Young chose to use email to communicate with Johansen about the poor sales performance, since organizational culture will also affect how managers communicate. In this case, youngs communication value was to use email to inform or request task to managers, where as, here using oral communication is the norm. Hence Johansen has formed a project group of nine staff from different functional departments to address the problem of slumping sales, he held a meeting to gather them with a view to find out the reason behind the poor sales, his use of tone was appropriate to the business situation and the request was clear to the receiver. Again when Johansen asked for the updated with the team leader he chose face-to-face communication. In using a oral communication, sender can get the feedback directly and also this is a richer form of communication than written communication because the process in conveying message will have tone, pitch, pace and rhythm that both parties can encode the message more correctly (Crossman, Bordia & Mills, 2010, cited in MBC, 2011).

Choice of language - Informal Johansen has shown an effective communication in interacting with others manager, which he used a suitable tone, provided clear purpose, and received the instant feedback from them although the result was not ideal. However Young has used informal language and racist language both in the emails and in the staff meeting. First in the emails he sent to Johansen and his managers, he has used slang in the emails such as heads will roll, tick tock and shape up or ship out. This is not a suitable language to business communication with fellow mangers since informal language sometimes may be rude or even offensive (Crossman, Bordia & Mills, 2010, cited in MBC, 2011). It is suggested that in writing business communication require rather dignified and formal tone, at the same time choosing of word should be given consideration, no expression that seem beneath the dignity and try to write simple (Little, 1970). Moreover, Young has been acting racist to the other 50 technical workers in the company. They were not invited to the meeting because Young did not want to meet the technicians that most of them are Asian immigrants and on a working visa, he explained that he found difficulties when

talking to them since when he asked them a questions, they would just smile and say nothing that he found them sneaky. Young may have been stereotyping on the Asian technicians, since he did not interact with another culture frequently which he may feel vulnerable due to uncertainty (Overton, 2008). Thus he may fail to account for real experience, individual variation and formed the basis prejudice.

Morale Young has sent email to Johansen and his division manager to increase in sales by promising and telling the customers anything if they sign a contract, he even said he did not care how they do it, he just want to see the 10% improvement. However, that was against morale and Johansen since he has been instructed his team to be honest with the customers even after he said in the staff meeting that the company came to represent fairness, honesty and integrity to the customers and employees which is totally contradicted to what he did after he became the new CEO of Buddong Systems.

Conclusion In conclusion, several communication issues have been addressed. Firstly, the sales team and Young were low in communication competence, they only sent out the message that they want to convey but did not try to communicate with each other. Also, his attitude towards managers question has scared them and this could result in a low communication climate. Young has used informal languages included slang in his email to the fellow manager, this may cause unsatisfactory to the staff since they may find it rude and offensive. Moreover, he has been racist on those Asian technicians that now they didnt know what happened in the meeting and so no information will be received but they are actually important to the company and their opinions are crucial to the company.

Recommendation According to the findings above, it is suggested that the new CEO Young should hire a personal assistant or secretary to help him in daily communication perhaps he has a strong educational background but he is lack of communication experience. Young should seen communication climate as an important issue because if he wants others managers to give feedback and follow what he requested, he should create an equally atmosphere for everyone to air out their opinion included the technicians. And at the same time, company should provide some effective communication talk or courses for the employees so that they can apply to their job. Also culture lesson should be provided to everyone, let them understand each culture and maybe company could hire translator so even Asian technicians can express their view directly to the CEO. In addition, staff should find out why the sales performance is declining and in order to do that, they can start addressing customer needs and expectations by giving them surveys (Dwyer, 2009). As a result, customer feedback will be gathered and they can tackle the problems and implement solutions.