Caribbean Examination Council

Principles of Business/ Accounts

An investigation into the effectiveness of communication

channels used in Brown’s Funeral Home.

Candidate’s Name:
Candidate’s Number:
A. A.: 100107
J. W.: 100107
A. S.: 100107
C. P.: 100107
School: St. George’s College
Subject: Principles of Business
Centre Number: 100107
Territory: Jamaica WI
Teacher: Ms. Danhi
Year: 2019

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 Table of Contents

RESEARCH TOPIC .............................................................................................. 3

OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................ 4
BACKGROUND/OVERVIEW ............................................................................. 5
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................ 6
PRESENTATION OF DATA ................................................................................ 8
ANALYSIS OF DATA /FINDINGS STATEMENT ..................................................13
CONCLUSION .....................................................................................................15
BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................18
APPENDIX A- QUESTIONNAIRE .....................................................................19
APPENDIX B- INTERVIEW REQUEST LETTER .............................................21
APPENDIX C- INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND REPORT ...............................22

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 RESEARCH TOPIC

An investigation into the effectiveness of communication channels used in Brown’s

Funeral Home.

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 OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this research paper are:

 To discuss three (3) different communication channels used in an organization.

 To explain the importance of effective communication in an organization.

 To identify three (3) barriers that hinder effective communication and how to reduce

these barriers.

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 BACKGROUND/OVERVIEW

The research paper seeks to investigate the effectiveness of communication channels used

in Brown’s Funeral Home, a funeral parlor located at 51-55 North Street in Kingston Jamaica.

The researchers aim to: explain the importance of communication in an organization, discuss the

communication channels used in Browns Funeral Home and identify three barriers of

communication. An effective communication channel in an organization must facilitate the

transmission of a message which must be clearly understood by the receiver and feedback given.

As a functioning organization, Brown’s funeral home uses different forms of communication

channels.

An online article by (Richards 2018) emphasizes that if a communication channel is not

effective within an organization it can cause communication to break down or cause the message

to be misinterpreted

The researchers believe that it is important to study this topic to better understand how

communication channels work in an organization and how to determine whether a channel is

effective or not. As students who are aspiring business owners and managers, this topic will help

us understand the effectiveness of communication channels within an organization. After

completing the research paper we are hoping that it can be given to the managerial body of

Brown’s Funeral Home to help them in understanding the role of an effective communication

channel in building positive relationships with stakeholders and achieve greater efficiency in the

business.

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 METHODOLOGY

To obtain the necessary information needed to complete this research paper two (2)

primary sources of data collection were used and no secondary source was used. One of these

methods being a questionnaire, this is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for

the purpose of gathering information by getting feedback from respondents to use in a statistical

study. The second primary source is an interview, a conversation between individuals where

questions are asked to acquire the necessary data. (This is lacking sources)

The questionnaire consists of eleven (11) close-ended questions. The questionnaire was

distributed to a sample size of thirty (30) employees from Brown’s Funeral Home over a two-

week period in December of 2018. The researchers chose to use a questionnaire as one of the

methods of data collection because it is cost-efficient and can be used to collect data from a large

sample size while keeping the respondent's identity confidential, however, questionnaires allow

little flexibility to the respondent with respect to response format. Data from the questionnaire

will be presented by the use of tables, graphs, and charts, and the data will be given in

percentages.

The interview that was done consists of seven (7) open-ended questions. The interview

was done on December 12, 2018, with the Manager, Andrea Dacres-Reiber, Director, and 2

employees of Brown’s funeral home. This method was used to complement the questionnaire

because it allows the respondents to give a more accurate response to the questions asked

although it was time-consuming as it took ten minutes to interview each respondent. The

responses to the interview will be placed with the interview report in the appendix.

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 The limitations or disadvantages of these methods is that the questionnaire allows little

flexibility in responses, therefore, the employees at Brown’s Funeral Home may not be able to

explicitly state their view of communication in the organization. The interview, however, is used

to dampen this because the open-ended questions allow for the responses to be more detailed.

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 PRESENTATION OF DATA

Table showing the frequency of the various communication channels used at

Brown’s Funeral Home

Communication Channel Tally Frequency

Manual/handbook ||| 3
Verbal/oral/written |||||| 6
communication
Notice Board ||||||| 7
Circular memos ||| 3
Meetings |||||||| 8
Reports ||||| 5
E-mails |||||||||||| 12
Other || 2

Fig 1. A table showing the channels of communication used within Brown’s Funeral

Home. Twelve of the thirty respondents said Email is the most effective channel of

communication used, with Manual/Handbook being the least effective.

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Table showing the forms of communication channels used by Brown’s funeral

home to inform the public

Channel of communication Tally Frequency

Marketing Staff ||||| 5

Advertising |||||||||||||||||| 18

Published Materials |||||||||| 10

Other ||||||| 7

Fig2. Table showing the forms of communication channels used by Brown’s funeral home to

inform the public. The majority, fifteen of the 30 respondents say that Advertising is the most

commonly used communication channel to the public

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 A bar graph representing the employee's impression of communication in

Brown’s funeral home.

45%

40%
40%

35%

30%
30%

25%

20%
20%

15%

10%
10%

5%

0%
Fully informed Fairly informed Adequately informed Limited information

Fig3. A bar graph representing the employee's impression of communication in Brown’s funeral

home. 30% of the employees say that communication channels within the company keep them

fully informed. 40% say they are fairly informed, 20% claim to be adequately informed and 10%

are given limited information.

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 A pie chart displaying the effects of improper
communication channels in Brown's Funeral Home

Lack of direction
20%

Misinterpretation
40%

Inefficiency
30%

Conflict
10%

Misinterpretation Conflict Inefficiency Lack of direction

Fig4. A pie chart displaying the effects of improper communication channels. 40% of the

sample size have misinterpreted the message, 10% have been impacted by conflict as a

result of improper communication, 30% for inefficiency and 20% had to lack directions

when told to do a task

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 A table showing the most effective written communication channel

used in Brown’s Funeral Home

Written Channel Tally Frequency

Reports ||||||||||||||| 15

Memorandum ||||||| 7

Notice Board |||||||||||| 12

Letters |||||||||| 10

Fig5. A table showing the various forms of written communication channel used in Brown’s

Funeral Home. Fifteen of the 30 respondents say that Reports are the most effective

communication channel used by Brown’s Funeral Home, and Memorandums the least effective.

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 ANALYSIS OF DATA /FINDINGS STATEMENT

From the data presented in the table from figure 1 showing how effective the

channels of communication used within Brown’s Funeral Home. Twelve of the thirty

respondents said Email is the most effective channel of communication used, with

Manual/Handbook being the least effective. This may be a result of most employees

having access to an email address. (Acevedo 2019) states that emails transmit messages

almost instantaneously and can be accessed by any device such as a smartphone, which is

now so popular and available to everyone.

The Table at figure 2 showing the forms of communication channels used by Brown’s

funeral home to inform the public. The Majority, fifteen of the 30 respondents say that

Advertising is the most commonly used communication channel to the public. According to

(Hessinger 2018) this may be a result of advertising being able to communicate information to a

large audience in a very timely manner.

From figure 3, a bar graph representing the employee's impression of communication in

Brown’s funeral home. 30% of the employees say that communication channels within the

company keep them fully informed. 40% say they are fairly informed, 20% claim to be

adequately informed and 10% are given limited information. Employees may not be well

informed within an organization as a result of many factors such as information overload and the

chain of command is too large, this may cause the message to reach the final receiver in a way

that it was not originally intended to.

Figure 4 is a pie chart displaying the effects of improper communication channels. 40%

of the sample size have misinterpreted the message, 10% have been impacted by conflict

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as a result of improper communication, 30% for inefficiency and 20% had to lack

directions when told to do a task. From an online article (Klazema 2014) in any

communication process information will be misunderstood if the channel of

communication does not facilitate the transmission of a clear message.

Figure 5 is a table showing the various forms of written communication channel

used in Brown’s Funeral Home. Fifteen of the 30 respondents say that Reports are the

most effective communication channel used by Brown’s Funeral Home, and

Memorandums the least effective. According to (Stimpson, Harvey, Samlal Hemlee, Latty-

Morrison 2011) Many managers will like everything to be in writing. They will, therefore,

use these forms of communication as they can be used for future reference.

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 CONCLUSION
Objective 1:

The investigation has revealed that the main communication channels used in

Brown’s Funeral Home are electronic mail, notice boards, and Reports. Although there

are several channels used within the organization these three are the most commonly

used, perhaps because they allow for more efficient transmission and can be used as a

reference in the future if needs be.

Objective 2:

(Stimpson, Harvey, Samlal Hemlee, Latty-Morrison 2011) argues that communication

plays a pivotal role in a business’ operations as it facilitates staff motivation, increases the speed

of decision making as well as reduces the risk and errors taken by the managerial body of

Browns Funeral Home. Communication helps coordination between departments therefore is

integral to the business world. In the fast-paced business world, the need for an effective

communication channel is growing as communication can help a business in keeping up with

trends and its internal affairs.

Objective 3:

As shown in figure 3, there is a portion of the sample size that is not well enough

informed, this is as a result of communication barriers. From the response to the questionnaire,

the most common communication barriers that hinder effective communication in Brown’s

Funeral Home are a lack of interest, noise pollution and language barriers such as heavy foreign

accents and various spellings of words.

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 RECOMMENDATIONS

The findings have stated that an email is one of the more effective communication

channels employed at Brown’s, many employees may not check their emails regularly or

completely ignore them as well as they may not be interested in reading reports and

notices, this may be a factor impacting the degree to with employees are informed as it

may delay the reception of the message. The recommendation to mitigate this is to make

the message more concise so it won’t become too wordy which may cause employees do

not want to read it, using an intranet instead of an email is another way a business can

make mass messaging more attractive. Providing employees with the necessary resources

needed to access emails and intranet will also make the channel of communication more

effective.

Effective communication plays a very essential part in the daily operations at

Brown’s Funeral Home. Effective communication in business will help it to perform

efficiently in a market that is constantly changing and demand growth. To ensure that the

business is performing efficiently the managers must be well informed so as to make

good decisions. A business can stay informed by observing current trends in order to

predict future change, having an online platform that will help a business to stay

informed and even communicate messages more effectively to stakeholders.

The communication process may be hindered by barriers. Barriers that exist at this

organization are language barriers, a lack of interest and noise pollution. To dampen the

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impact of these barriers, the message must be made as simple as possible to lessen the

possibility of it being misunderstood, a concise message may not require much attention

to be understood therefore a lack of interest will not be a major issue in the

communication process.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Klazema, A. (2014, May 24th) The importance of Communication in a business

http://blog.udemh.com/importance -of-communication-in-business

2. Richards L. (2018, June 30) How Effective Communication Will Help an Organization

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/effective-communication-organization-1400.html

3. Acevedo. L (2019 February 14) The Advantages of Email in Business Communication

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-email-business-communication-122.html

4. Stimpson P., Harvey Y., Samlal Hemlee D., Latty-Morrison J. (2011) Principles of
Business for CSEC, United Kingdom: Nelson Thornes LTD.

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 APPENDIX A- QUESTIONNAIRE

Please tick the box that you wish to answer with, some questions may require you to select

several boxes, if you chose the option of “other” please state your answer on the lines.

1. Gender

☐Male ☐Female

2. Age

☐16-20 ☐21-25 ☐26-30 ☐Above 30

3. What are the most effective communication channels used by this organization?

☐Manual/Handbook ☐Circular/Memos ☐Verbal/Oral/Unwritten communication

☐Notice Board ☐Meetings ☐Reports of various kinds ☐Emails

☐Other (Please Specify)

4. What are the usual channels of communication with the public/customers?

☐Through Marketing Staff

☐Through advertising in various media

☐Through published materials, brochures, etc.

☐Other (Please Specify)

5. Which written communication method is most effective in this organization?

☐Reports ☐Memorandum ☐Notice Board ☐Letters

6. Which best describes your impression of communication within this organization?

☐Keep us fully informed

☐Keeps us fairly well informed

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 ☐Keeps us adequately informed

☐Gives us only a limited amount of information

7. Which mostly influences grapevine within this organization?

☐Social Interaction ☐Political Issues ☐Different Personalities ☐Trends

8. In what way does effective communication benefit the organization?

☐Staff motivation

☐Speed of decision making

☐Faster response to market demand

☐Better coordination between departments

9. What are the usual problems/Barriers/Hurdles encountered in communication in your

organization/departments?

☐Lack of interest

☐ Noise pollution

☐Language barriers

☐Other (please specify)

10. Which of these effects have impacted you when improper communication channels are

used?

☐Misinterpretation of message ☐Conflicts ☐Inefficiency ☐lack of direction

11. Which of these must be avoided for effective communication?

☐Insincerity ☐Noise pollution ☐Ambiguity ☐Information Overload

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 APPENDIX B- INTERVIEW REQUEST LETTER

Mrs. Andrea Dacres-Reiber

Managing Director
51-55 North Street
Kingston CSO

Dear Mrs. Reiber,

My name is Amaury Sutton. I am a student enrolled at St. George’s College. Myself and

3 other group members area doing a research on the effectiveness of communication in

organizations and we have selected your business for additional information for my project and

as such I would be grateful if I could meet with you.

I would like to interview you and two other employees in person on December 12, 2018. I have 7

questions to ask and will take no more than 30 minutes of your time.

Feel free to let me know if you are available and the time that I can conduct the interview. Thank

you so much and I am looking forward to meeting you.

Sincerely,

___________________

A. S. (your full name)

Student, St. George’s College

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 APPENDIX C- INTERVIEW QUESTIONS AND REPORT

1. What position do you hold at this Organization?

2. How long have you held this position?

3. How long have you been working for this organization?

4. What methods of communication are used in this organization?

5. Have you witnessed any case where information was misunderstood or not received that

obstructed work or caused a blunder?

6. If yes then how did it affect the level of production in the organization?

7. What other barriers of communication arise in the operations of this organization?

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RESPONSE- MANAGER

1. What position do you hold at this Organization?

- I am the General Manager

2. How long have you held this position?

- 7 years.

3. How long have you been working for this organization?

- 9 years and counting

4. What methods of communication are used in this organization?

- Reports, Memorandums, Emails, and we often use the notice board downstairs in the lobby.

5. Have you witnessed any case where information was misunderstood or not received that

obstructed work or caused a blunder?

- Yes, there has been a case like that.

6. If yes then how did it affect the level of production in the organization?

- This misinterpretation almost cost us the whole business. It was with the help of other

members from another organization which helped up avoid a lawsuit.

7. What other barriers of communication arise in the operations of this organization?

- Employees were being dishonest, sharing false information. A major barrier.

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