BM102 –BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
Question 1
With reference to practical examples, discuss how communication can be used to improve worker`s morale and productivity. (100)
In this essay, the writer seeks to talk about communication as a motivation tool. The essay will touch on the ways in which effective communication can motivate workers to be more productive. Concrete examples with local companies are going to be given. The writer is going to touch various forms of communication, the channels that are generally used in the companies and how they can be used as a motivation tool. Before exploring ways to use communication as a productivity tool, the needs to define the meaning of productivity and morale.Klan (2004) define morale as a reflection of the attitude of an individual or team. The company can have workers with high morale or workers with low morale which can affect productivity.According to

The first point the writer will look is the use of communication for information distribution between the workers and the management and between the workers themselves. The structures of most organizations allow the flow of information upward, downward, lateral and horizontal. Tracy (2013) reiterates that when management communicates vague or fuzzy expectations or no expectation, the staff is deprived of the winning feeling thereby becoming demotivated. The company needs to communicate its strategic goals and objectives, policies and company notices and all that is done through information sharing and information can only be shared through communication. If the staff is deprived of the information, they are deprived of the right to know and that breeds uncertainty and uncertainty is a recipe for low morale. This happened when Agribank was doing its retrenchment exercise and the workers were not kept in the loop, especially about the compulsory package. The management kept quiet and all the workers were anxious about who is going and who is not going and during that month of anxiety the banks` productivity levels went down. Therefore, the management can effectively use communication for information distribution and if the lines of communication are kept open, the incidences of communication failures are reduced and the workers can work knowing that what they hear or heard is what the management wants. In that way the company is assured of improved staff morale.
The workers spend eight hours at work, five to eight hours sleeping and the rest are for family, friends and all other activities. In essence, one can deduce that worker spend a greater part of their lives at work. In this set workers do not exist in a homogenous world but a plural world where they have to interact with each other. In this world they create links to each other and bonds and these bonds are called relationships. The relationships between the workers themselves and also the management thrive on the continuous flow of information .Aylott (2014) explores the importance of employee with various stakeholders in the organization which include management, customers and the trade unions. She further stresses that employee welfare is important and they have to have a say in what happens in the organization. Good relationships strive on good information relaying and the feedback between the parties. Lack of communication destroys the relationships which in turn reduces workers` morale and productivity. One example of relationship gone bad due to poor communication is ZUPCO when the workers reached a deadlock with management on salary negotiations. According to Zimbabwe Independent(2014) , the workers committee failed to agree with management on wage increments and this resulted in O Mashinga (workers` committee chairperson) being fired. According to the paper, the company did not bother engaging the workers for mutual beneficial discussions. The poor relationship was caused by poor communication and inadvertently affected workers morale and reduced productivity.