Background Information

Discuss about the Communication Problem In Telstra Town Hall.

Telstra is a leading telecommunications and technology company based in Australia, offering a wide range of communication services with a global presence in over 20 countries. The company believes in creating more opportunities through more connections; hence the reason for being Australia’s largest and fastest national mobile network. The objective of this research proposal is to ascertain the communication problems that hinder the organisation from growing and sustaining its growth in the international market. This proposal is divided into five chapters.

Chapter one gives a brief introduction to the topic under investigation.

Chapter two provides the background information that necessitates the research.

Chapter three provides a critical review of literature relevant to the study topic.

Chapter four consists of the proposed research design and method.

Chapter five consists of ethical issues and limitations

Chapter five presents the proposed time schedule and budget.

Telstra is a leading telecommunications and technology firm that is based in Australia and offers a full range of communications services and is a global competitor as well. The company provides the Australian market with 17.6 million retail mobile services, and has an international presence in over 20 countries. The mission of the company is to assist create a brilliant connected future for everyone in each day. To sustain and enhance its growth strategy, Telstra has decided to improve its communication system in all its branches across the globe. This is because the company believes that without proper communication at the workplace, nothing will be achieved. Instructions could not be provided; no orders could be made for equipment and suppliers; growth and development would not be measured; and no delivery of products and services will be carried out. Drucker (2012) observes that all management functions namely planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling are all reliant on communication.  Most studies have shown that employees perceive the management to be poor communicators whereas the same is felt by the managers towards the employees (Birth et al., 2008; Mazzei, 2010). This study will address communication problems and at Telstra Townhall, Australia.

Based in the background given in the previous chapter, the following management problem has been identified:

Should Telstra Town Hall ascertain its communication problems at the workplace?

The study seeks to examine the study topic by providing solutions to the following questions:

1.    What is the communication like in Telstra, Australia?
2.    What are the channels of internal communication at Telstra, Australia?
3.    What are the barriers to internal communication at Telstra, Australia?

1.    To ascertain the nature of communication at Telstra, Australia
2.    To find out the channels of communication used at Telstra, Australia
3.    To examine the barriers to internal communication at Telstra, Australia

This section serves to provide an in-depth understanding of the study topic from existing body of knowledge relevant to the study topic.  This chapter describes the channels of internal communication and barriers to internal communication.

Problem Definition

Face to face communication is perceived to be the richest channel for communication because the response is instant and large amount of information is exchanged during communication. Studies suggest that face to face communication is the best form of communication between employees and the management and colleagues (Litvin, Goldsmith, and Pan, 2008; Madlock, 2008). Also, it is regarded as the best way of sharing the firm’s values and philosophy and building confidence in the workforce (Dennis et al., 2008). However, this channel is only possible when both parties are present at the same place and time (Puccinelli, et al., 2013).

The moving image and sound are obviously more encompassing than static print (Men, 2014). Multimedia channel of communication has mostly been used in employee communication and training. Video and TV are preferred for their ability to instantly deliver messages in a convincing way. Additionally, visual multimedia enables the employees to visually see the senior management (Mishra, Boynton, and Mishra, 2014). However, video production is too costly for most of the companies. Also, almost all TV audiences are TV literate and will not welcome programs that do not match ordinary professional standards. Also, most of the businesses use audio production programs instead of video production  

Sisko Maarit Lipiäinen et al. (2014) note that the corporate world is increasingly becoming dependent on the internet for communication, especially in workplaces where the entire workforce has access to the internet connected computers. The major advantage of online communication is that a large group can be reached within a short time (Gur?u, 2008).

The studies by Kim and Niehm (2009) and HernáNdez et al. (2009) found out that almost all businesses ranging from multinationals to SMEs have at least an official website. The website doesn’t limit the users or its readers, thus acting as a credible source of instant information to all stakeholders. The workforce are the most devoted users of the company’s website (Mishra et al., 2014).

Email is the most preferred channel of communication because it can target specific groups or people, and can as well be used for mass mailings. Emails are faster and more confidential. There is the likelihood of getting feedback from people. However, email messages need to be accurate and exact. Ver?i? et al. (2012) suggests that management should provide guidelines on the reduction of email overload.

Intranets are perceived to be repository of information and opinions. They have search functions that enable user to ascertain their way quickly to the type of information required. Chartrooms create conducive platforms for discussion amongst the employees (Ver?i? et al., 2012). However, intranets are faced with information overload, and it’s ineffective to the elderly and with sight issues (Dennis et al., 2008).

Research Questions

The rise and development of social media has almost substituted the function of websites (Waters and Lemanski, 2011). Employees have the option of choosing from a diverse range of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube among others. Some social media tools can also be integrated into organizational intranets

Globalization has fostered workplace diversity which is continuously being promoted due to its benefits such as innovation. However, language barrier has also been linked to the ineffectiveness in a diverse workplace. Language barriers are experienced from employees from different ethnic groups, age variation, and varying levels of industry experience (Lunenburg, 2010). This slows communication and develops misunderstanding thus making communication ineffective (Baltatzis et al., 2008).

Effective workplace communication is dependent on profession correspondence formulated to help in business operations. Personal issues of employees affect workplace communication and creates communication problem which can take time to be traced and resolved (Lunenburg, 2010). Employee personal issues can make them refuse to communicate thus hindering the organization’s ability to conduct business operations and thus hindering the growth of the enterprise.

A research design is defined as a general outline of the procedure to be carried out by the researcher in a study with the objective of determining the answers to the research questions (Bryman and Bell, 2015). According to Creswell and Creswell (2017), a research design has two fundamental functions: to determine and develop procedures and logistical strategies required to accomplish the project and to emphasise the importance of value in these procedures to achieve validity, precision and fairness.

This study is to adopt a descriptive research design method to identify, evaluate and discuss the communication problems in Telstra, Australia. A descriptive approach describes and answers the question “why” and is concerned with the conditions or current relationships; activities that succeed; perceived opinions of feelings; continuous processes; the current effects; or developing trends (Noor, 2008). The researchers chose a descriptive approach for the study because it is likely to generate outcomes that will produce a definite conclusion and describe the characteristics of the respondents concerning precise research objectives (Zikmund et al., 2013).

This study will gather both primary and secondary data. Secondary data from published literature is to be collected using the qualitative research method (Boog, 2008) and from government publications on communication issues. On the other hand, primary data will be collected using a quantitative approach in order to examine the communication problems in Telstra, Australia. Secondary data is to offer a detailed understanding of the topic under investigation and to determine the current research gap.

Research Objectives

The chosen data sources are more reliable since the outcomes and conclusions will be based on previous studies that are relevant to the study topic.

The selected employees of Telstra, Australia are to act as sources of primary data. The target population comprises of 300 employees of Telstra Company in Australia. The researcher preferred these subjects because they are in the most appropriate position to offer reliable information on communication practices carried out by the organisation in addition to their respective views. The sampling frame for this study will consist of workers from different departments in the company namely finance, customer care, human resource, safety, marketing, and IT.

The study will use stratified random sampling methods since it minimizes sampling errors (Creswell and Creswell, 2017). With the help of stratified random sampling technique, the researcher is to select 30 respondents to be included in the research. There participants will be chosen using a table of random numbers. The strata will comprise of different categories of customers based on their units or departments. Additionally, the selected sampling frame is adequate in ascertaining the stratified features of the target population (Saunders, 2011).

The major approach to be used in the survey is a quantitative approach because it allows statistical measurements of some features, their impacts (Bryman, 2015), and communication challenges. The feedback from the participants are to be measured using a five-point Likert Scale starting from “strongly disagree” to “Strongly Agree” to allow rating, coding and analysis. Conversely, this survey has also used qualitative method to gather additional data and describe the situations that surround the research variables and respond to the research questions:

Structured questionnaires are to be used to collect data because they are more accurate, suitable to use, less costly and ensures confidentiality (Creswell and Creswell, 2017) for the respondents especially of the Telstra company from which the information to be gathered is highly sensitive and private.  Additionally, the researcher seeks to obtain the attitudes, behaviours and views of the employees, hence the questionnaire is most appropriate for this situation. The researcher will deliver the questionnaires by hand to the Telstra employees and then collected after fourteen days. The questions in the questionnaire were generated from the literature review and were categorised into three sections. Section one was on the demographic features, section two, and three were built on the first, second, third research questions respectively.

This study will use quantitative data analysis technique, more specifically descriptive statistics since they best show the incidence of activities by creating statistical relationships between the research variables (Bryman, 2015).  The mean and percentages are the descriptive techniques to be used in the study. Data will be run in SPSS.

Channels of Internal Communication

The identities of the participants will remain anonymous during the entire research in order to avert any likely consequences to the individual participants. The express consent of the respondents is to be sought for before the commencement of the study

The survey will only consider Telstra, Australia due to the little time available and the constrained budget which will not permit the inclusion of other companies. The investigation should include other subsidiary organisations in Australia to increase the sample size and allow generalisation.

The approximate budget for the entire exercise will cost $ 6,500.

The study is expected to take approximately three months beginning on 09/04/2018 to 20/05/2018

References

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Kim, H. and Niehm, L.S., 2009. The impact of website quality on information quality, value, and loyalty intentions in apparel retailing. Journal of interactive marketing, 23(3), pp.221-233.

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