Acknowledgment

We have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them.

We are highly indebted to our honorable faculty Kashfah Khan Chowdhury for her guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing necessary information regarding the project & also for her support in completing the project.

We would like to express my gratitude especially towards Vice Chairman of Social Islami Bank Mr. Md. Sayedur Rahman who helped us to prepare this report by giving us information related to business communication process of SIBL Dhaka. His kind co-operation and encouragement helped us in completion of this project.

We would like to express my special gratitude and thanks to SIBLs Rampura branch manager, employees and all the co-workers of SIBL for giving us such attention and time. They made the time to participate in interviews and complete our survey instrument. We hope that in return, you would find this report useful.

Our thanks and appreciations also go to our group members especially to Mamshad, Ikra,Moni, Atikul, Sadlil and Ishrak in developing the project who have willingly helped us out with their abilities.

Executive Summary:
In this report we have discussed about SIBLs communication process. SIBL is one of the leading Banks and is one of the tenth largest Bank of Bangladesh. Many branches of this organization is working in Bangladesh and they are known as SIBL in this region. Maintaining their reputation, they are also running successfully in Bangladesh and are one of the leading Banks in the country. In this report, we discussed about the communication process of SIBL. The goal of this report was to gather sufficient information on how their communication system works. SIBL gives preference to informal communication process over formal communication process. In our hypothesis we stated that SIBL is facing difficulties by allowing informal networking in the organization. So to justify this hypothesis we went through interviews and surveys. At first we interviewed some of the top level managers. We interviewed the vice Chairman of SIBL Mr. Sayedur Rahman, Managing Director Mr. Md.Shafiqur Rahman, Manager Mr. M.A Maruf and the Director Mr. Alhaj Sultan Mahmood Chowdhury. We also conducted a survey among the employees SIBL to find out necessary information. After gathering information from the interviews and surveys we analyzed the replies of the employees regarding the communication system in SIBL. After analyzing the data we found that majority of the employees found this communication process very convenient and it helped them to be more efficient in their workplace. It seemed that a minority of the employees feel that this system is affecting their privacy and causing problems in the working environment. Although it seems that informal communication is working great for SIBL but we feel that it may cause problems in the future. The informal communication and the open door policy SIBL follows is highly commendable but we suggest that SIBL should be less lenient towards their informal communication process.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction
Social Islami Bank Limited known as SIBL a second-generation bank, operating since 22 November, 1995 based on Shariah Principles, has now 86 branches all over the country . It works as an Islamic participatory Commercial Bank with human face approach to credit and banking on the profit and loss sharing.

SIBL is a pioneer in introducing on-line banking among all the Islami Banks of the country with state-of-the-art banking software, which will enable the bank to perform as any branch real time banking service to the clients. The state-of-the-art banking software of the bank will enable to perform as any branch real time banking service to the clients. SIBL is supported by core banking solutions and our products & services are strongly backed by IT infrastructure, which are upgraded & expanded on continuous basis. Social Islami Bank Limited is always with modern thinking and up to date technology. It has naturally introduced online banking, ATM service and any branch banking like products. SIBL is prospering along with its clients and partners and contributing to nation as well.

Research questions:
Our underlying research issue is center on identifying the communication process adopted by the employees of SIBL. Because communication is the heart of the organization as it connects and collaborates different kinds of department of an organization. To do that we will focus on the interpersonal relationship between managers and employees and how they communicate with each other when they do any official works. Other related research questions included:

1. Does SIBL have a effective communication system to communicate properly? 2. Does SIBLs communication system depend on technology? 3. Does informal communication leads to grapevine in the company? 4. If yes, how does it affect the communication system? 5. What is the most effective communication system in SIBL? 6. Do the internal politics create barrier to communication in your Bank? 7. Does lack of English knowledge hinder your ability of communication in this Bank? 8. Does job monotony affects to communication in your Bank? 9. Does defective technology create barriers to communication in your bank? 10. Does technical word create barriers to the communication in your bank? 11. Do you want any changes in the organization communication system? 12. Is the communication process in harmony with the organization culture? 13. Do you feel free to communicate with colleagues?

14. Does the communication help you to create the social bonding? 15. How important do you feel is the communication system in your organization, keeping in view that your that organization has internal as well as external communication systems (with clients/prospective clients)? 16. Overall, how satisfied are you with communication system in your organization? 17. Does grapevine reduce productivity? 18. If yes how does it reduce productivity?

Origin of the Report:

This report was done from section 04 of the course BUS 251. The faculty of this course was Kashfah Khan Chowdhury.

Submission Date:
19th April, 2013

Objectives:
The objective of this report is to discuss the communication system of Social Islami Bank Limited and its different aspects. We will also discuss the various effects this communication system has in the company and its merits and demerits. We will cover how they communicate internally and externally. We will also discuss what kinds of communication tools they use in order to communicate.

Organizational Overview:
Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) is a banking company registered under the companies Act 1994 with its heads office 15 Dilkusha C/A, Dhaka-1000. The bank operates as a scheduled bank under a banking license issued by the Bangladesh Bank. The Bank started its operation from 22, November 1995. SIBL is a capitalized new generating Bank with an authorized capital of Taka 4000 million in 2008 and paid up capital of Taka 1309.88 million in 2008 and also 1119.55 million respectively as of December 2007. In the formal corporate sector, this Bank would, among others, offer the most up-to-data banking services through operating of various types of deposit and investment accounts, financing trade, providing letters of guarantee, opening letters of credit, collection of bills effecting domestic and international transfer, leasing of equipment and consumer durables, hire purchase and installment sale for capital goods, investment in low-cost housing and management of real estates, participatory investment in various industrial, agriculture, transport, educational and health projects and so no. In the Non-formal noncorporate sector, it would, among others, involve in cash Waqf Certificate and development and management of WAQF and MOSQUE properties and Trust funds.

Literature Review:
In this report, we have discussed about the communication process of SIBL. How their communication system works, we discussed whether the employees are satisfied with the current process of communication. At first, in the hypothesis we stated that Grapevine leads to misunderstanding and miscommunication in the organization. To justify our hypothesis we went through many interviews and surveys to gather data and analyzed it. We have mentioned the names of the top level managers who we

interviewed. We have also given the names of the departments and the numbers of participants from each department. In the analysis section we will highlight the data and different charts and graphs to show the findings of our surveys and interviews. The report shows us the internal and external communication systems in SIBL. Then in the findings we interpreted the data and came to a point of judgment. After the findings we have given our recommendation regarding the matter and then we summarized the whole report in a nutshell.

HYPOTHESIS:
There are various ways to communicate within a business, and communication is the essence of management. It involves the constant flow of information, through various levels of hierarchy both laterally and vertically. Effective communication is essential in maintaining cohesion within a group. Communication can be formal or informal in bank sector. The research that will be conducted will help us understand whether the mixture of communication methods has any advantages and disadvantages. There may be certain advantages from the mixture of communication methods such as easier to communicate with one another within the organization and might also build loyalty towards the company.

Though there may also be a few drawbacks to such communication methods such as gossiping might occur due to personal communication which might affect the attitude of the person and in turn damper their work performance. That is why we have chosen HYPOTHESIS Grapevine leads to

miscommunication and misunderstandings

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
As for primary source, we plan to survey employees in Social Islamic Bank Limited through a questionnaire to find out the difficulties, challenges and barriers they face in their workplace to communicate with others and also their views concerning different communication process and whether

effective and traditional communication process are able to solve their communication problems and make the communication effective within the organization. As for our secondary source for the research paper, we wish to go through newspaper articles, journals and browse the internet.

Questionnaire and Data Analysis

1. Does SIBL have an effective communication system to communicate properly? We have started our survey by asking a very simple and basic question to know about their communication quality. We glad to know that about half of the employees are strongly agreed with their effective communication system. We have asked employees from different departments of SIBL such as human resource management, accounts, client service, media, events and activities department. We have obtained the following data by the help of their cooperation.

Strongly Disagree Answers Participants Percentages 1 5%

Effective Communication System Disagree Neutral Agree 1 2 5% 10% Table 1.1 6 30%

Strongly Agree 10 50%

Effective Communication system

5% 5% 10% 50% 30% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

Chart 1.1

2. Does the informal communication system lead to grapevine in the company? SIBL are strategically innovative as they believe good and friendly communication among all the employees will help their company to reach their goals and objectives. Hence, they allow their employees to communicate with each other through informal communication. We have taken face-face interviews of some top manager. And they told us that they allow their employees to communicate with each other and it leads to grapevine. One of their senior managers Md. Samsur Rahman said, As we know grapevine can never be stopped and that is why we control it in a way so that it helps our employees to build strong relationship and also refresh their moods.

Answers Yes No May be

Participants 14 2 4 Table 1.2

Percentages 70% 10% 20%

Grapevine of infomal Communication

20% 10% 70% Yes No May be

Chart 1.2

3. If yes, how does it affect the communication system? In the third survey question we select 20 employees to justify what they think about grapevine and how does it affect them while they are working. From the survey we come to know that 10

of them think that 10 of them have Bad effect on them. 4 of them have slightly bad effect, 2 of them have no effect and the rest 4 have good effect on them.

Types of effects Participants

Bad Effect 10

Communication Affect Slightly Bad Effect No Effect 4 2 Table 1.3

Good Effect 4

Grapevine Affect on Communication

12 Number of Participants 10 8 6 4 2 0 Bad Effect Slightly Bad Effect No Effect Good Effect Participants

Types of Effects

Chart 1.3

4. Does grapevine reduce productivity? In the third survey question we see that due to grapevine half of the employees have bad effect on them. As employees are directly or indirectly involved in increasing or decreasing productivity, they cannot provide the best effort in increasing the productivity with this bad impact. As a result SIBLs productivity reduces because of grapevine.

Answers Yes No May be

Participants 12 3 5 Table1.4

Percentages 60% 15% 25%

25% 15% 60% Yes No May be

Chart 1.4

5. If yes, how does grapevine reduce productivity? In the fifth survey question we have found that out of 20 employees 6 employees answer that grapevine leads to miscommunication, 4 employees think as misunderstanding, another 4 employees think as a personal conflict, 4 more employees think as demonization and the rest 2 employees think high turnover happened because of this grapevine. Answers Miscommunication Misunderstanding Personal conflict Demotivation High turnover Table 1.5 Participants 6 4 4 4 2

Productivity Reduction of Grapevine

7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Number of Participants

Participants

Answers' Types

Chart 1.5

6. How employees get involved in grapevine? In the sixth survey question we have found that rumor, gossip, conversation and anonymous are equally the same reason by which employees actually get involved in grapevine.

Involvement in Grapevine

Rumor Answers Participants Percentages 5 25%

Gossip

Conversation

5 25% Table 1.6

5 25%

Anonymous Sources of Information 5 25%

Involvement in Grapevine

25%

25%

Rumor Gossip Conversation Anonymous Sources of Information

25%

25%

Chart 1.6

7. What is the most effective communication system in SIBL? After doing some survey on 20 employees we have found that upward communication system is the most effective one. Then informal, lateral and downward are the next effective one in a row.

Participants Percentages

Upward 8 40%

Most Effective Communication System Downward Lateral 2 4 10% 20% Table 1.7

Informal 6 30%

Most Effective Communication System

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Upward Downward Lateral Informal Types of Answers Number of Participants

Participants

Chart 1.7

8. Overall, how satisfied are you with communication system in your organization? Though there are few problems inside the SIBL. Surprisingly, we have found that employees are still enjoying their respective job. As a result, most of the employees are very satisfied to do the job in SIBL with full of enthusiasm.

Types of Satisfactions Very Dissatisfied Dissatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very Satisfied Table 1.8

Participants 1 3 3 5 8

Satisfaction with communication

Very Satisfied Types of Satisfactions Satisfied Neutral Participants Dissatisfied Very Dissatisfied 0 2 4 Number of Participants 6 8

Chart 1.8

9. Is the communication process in harmony with the organization culture? As we have mentioned earlier the communication process of SIBL mostly follows informal patterns and for this reason sometimes it leads to grapevine. But we have found out by taking personal interviews of their managers that the communication process is in harmony with the organizational culture. As we have mentioned earlier that the top managers believe that working as a team bring success and hence they let their employee to communicate with each other through informal communication. They let their employee to think big and give them opportunity to bring new ideas.

Communication process in harmony Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Answers Participants Percentages 2 10% 4 2 20% 10% Table 1.9 6 30%

Strongly Agree 6 30%

Communication Process in Harmony

10% 30% 20% Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral 10% 30% Agree Strongly Agree

Chart 1.9

1. Internal Communication:
1.1Employee to employee communication:
As we have mentioned earlier SIBL gives immense importance on how employees are communicating. All the employees can discuss any kinds of problems with each other anytime in the office .For doing that they do not need to follow any formalities. Even an employee from one department can ask help from another departments employee. SIBL also let their employees to talk with each other even if they dont have any problems to discuss. For this particular reason a friendly relationship has grown among all the employees.

1.2 Employee to manager communication:

SIBL follows open door policy so that the employees can easily reach their managers help. All the managers and departments heads always try to help their subordinates by giving continuous positive and corrective feedbacks so that all the employees reach their fullest potential.

Employees are also allowed to call their departments head by using cell phone or Email if they face any kinds of work related problems.

1.3 Manager to employee communication:

Managers are also encouraged to ask help from their employees. They can go to an employees desk anytime and ask for a favor. To appraise the performance of managers and employees SIBL use 360 degree performance appraisal tool. To build better relationship Department Heads of SIBL arrange annual function such as road trips and picnic. They also occasionally give treats to their employees to motivate them. To build better connection and relationship among employees and managers of SIBL set up a table tennis court in their office space.

2. External Communication:
SIBL has excellent external communication process to communicate with clients. They use many communication tools to make a proper advertisement such as, Cell Phone, Office Telephone, Email, Website Advertisement, Personal face to face interaction, and so on. Generally their clients contact them via phone ,email or direct face to face conversation. Almost each branch, they have receptionists who provide all sort of information to the clients. Their website is is very informative and changes on a regular basic with updated information.

3. Communication Challenge:
Informal networks or Grapevine:

SIBL allows their employees to communicate with each other freely. As we have mentioned earlier employees can communicate with each other at any times in office. But sometimes it can

create grapevine. For this reason many employees may get the wrong news and rumors about the company and companys managerial decision. If it happens employees will sense uncertainty. Also, at times employees do not have self-confidence due to which they form unions. Sometimes the managers show preferential treatment and favor some employees giving a segregated feeling to other employees. The grapevine is not trustworthy always as it does not follows official path of communication and is spread more by gossips and unconfirmed report. The productivity of employees may be hampered as they spend more time talking rather than working. The grapevine also leads to making hostility against the executives.

Recommendation
To avoid this problem the managers and supervisors need to play a vital role. They can make a new policy like they may announce an extra bonus for the employees who will be mostly dedicated toward their respective job. The employees, whoever is not dedicated towards the job, will be punished by giving fine. To make it successful, they may start evaluating procedure to justify the employees more logically and effectively. In this case, managers should keep track on employees by using EPM (electronic performance monitoring) so that they can control the grapevine. Because of this rewarding and punishing approach the job place will be more competitive and responsive. As a result to stay in the competitive place the employees will give more concentration to the job.