Business Communication

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Expanding to the international level is a big change and Golden Clothes Asia (GCA) will need to adapt to these changes to be successful. Although GCA's informal style of communication works on the local level, it will not translate well to the international context. Thus, a study has been undertaken to highlight the importance of writing skills in the workplace to GCA staff and recommended solutions for the problem.

Research data was gathered through: (1) a survey of fifty GCA employees, and (2) interviews and focus group discussions with six personnel in the company.

From the survey results and focus group discussions, it has been found that a significant percentage of the GCA employees believed that professional writing skills were not important and the employees did not have adequate skills in written communication. This situation may result from the fact that employees are used to the informal communication method with local customers and not with international clients. Thus, an education on this subject is required. Without improvement in written communication, future international business for GCA will be problematic and unsuccessful.

Relevant writing courses such as workshops and sharing sessions are recommended to develop the employees' writing and business communication skills. Moreover, the employees' attitude towards writing skills should be shaped to reflect confidence and motivation. To achieve this, incentives for staff to practice writing skills are recommended. The requirement for employees to consistently apply effective writing skills at work will eventually become procedural and it would benefit the company as a whole in the long run.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Background

Golden Clothes Asia (GCA) is a Singapore fashion retailer which envisions promoting the Asian culture in its ethnic designs to the world through expansions into global markets. However, the GCA employees are accustomed to informal forms of written communication in the workplace and seem to be unaware of this essential criterion. Hence, Executive Asia Consultancy & Training (EACTTM) is engaged to find the solutions for this problem.

1.2. Purpose and Research Questions

This report aims to highlight to the GCA employees the importance of professional writing skills for a successful international business, and to bring their attention to our recommendations about how they can improve on these skills.

More specifically, we would like to find out the answers to the following key questions:

* What are the current attitudes of the CEO and the employees at GCA regarding writing skills?

* Which writing skills are particularly important and relevant for GCA when expanding internationally?

* How can GCA improve the writing skills of its employees?

1.3. Scope

This report will only examine the current attitudes of GCA employees towards professional and formal written communication skills and the possible explanations behind those attitudes.

1.4. Methodology

To investigate the attitude and skills of GCA employees towards written communication, a survey has been conducted on a random sample size of fifty out of the whole GCA population. Secondary data from Temasek Foundation on the effectiveness of communication has also been used.

In addition, qualitative data has also been gathered from interviews and focus group discussions with six staff members on communication skills.

1.5. Limitations

Given the limited time in generating this report, we were unable to gather as much information as we would have liked about the topic. Furthermore, the CELC survey results provided may not be entirely relevant to us when applied into GCA context. Nevertheless, the results still effectively capture the employees' general opinions about written communication and provide insights into the different components needed for the improvement of writing skills.

1.6. Report organization

First, the report will highlight the findings about GCA employees' attitudes towards written communication and their current level of skill. Subsequently, it will provide possible explanations to the situation. Lastly, the report will elaborate on several suggestions that could mitigate the problem.

2. FINDINGS

2.1. Employees' unawareness of the importance of written communication

The interview with Mr. Joseph D'souza, the CEO of GCA, has revealed that the writing skills of the employees needed to be improved to cope with a more varied clientele if the company wanted to expand its market beyond Asia. However, as Figure 1 illustrates, the survey result has shown that a significant percentage of the respondents (42%) did not think writing skills was an important issue. Only slightly more than half of the respondents (58%) thought it was necessary to be equipped with written communication in workplace.

This information is backed by the focus group discussion results, in which most respondents highlighted that they "do not think letter writing skills are so important", or that "our skills are adequate" because they were used to communicating by telephones and they "did not want to complicate things by having to write them down". Moreover, the respondents also thought that "international clients have to adapt to our style" if they wanted to work with GCA.

2.2. Employee's lack of writing skills

According to Figure 2, the communication skills survey has also shown that a significantly small number of the respondents (6%) thought enhancements were needed in clearly defining the purpose of the writing work. Furthermore, only 12% of respondents perceived that analyzing the readers before writing a report or proposal should be improved. In contrast, the majority of staff put emphasis on the structure of the reports such as organization of message and use of language, with 42% choosing the former and 40% choosing the latter.

This finding can be supported by Figure 3 , which shows that generally in business writing environment, having a clear purpose, directness and conciseness were equally as important as the use of tone and clearness