(TIỂU LUẬN) BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ADVANCED EDUCATION PROGRAMS - - BUSINESS COMMUNICATION Group members: Vu Chau Anh – 11204559 Nguyen Thi Thuy Duong – 11204930 Nguyen Hong Thao Dan – 11200704 Duong Thu Hong – 11201628 Class: Advanced Finance 62C Instructor: PhD Le Thi Thu Mai I CONTENTS TABLE OF FIGURES .3 ABSTRACT I COMPANY BACKGROUND II CASE 1: MEDIA CRISIS FROM A CONTROVERSAL STATEMENT Descriptions of the situation Reasons for studying this situation Reasons for this situation 3.1 Lack of communication skills (Chapter 1) .7 3.2 Apologizing in the Digital Age (Chapter 9) Consequences of this situation (with evidence/facts/statistics/image) 10 Suggestions 11 III CASE 2: BRAND IMAGE DAMAGED BY CHIEF FLIGHT ATTENDANT’S SOCIAL BEHAVIORS 12 Descriptions 12 Reasons for studying this situation .13 Reasons for this situation 13 Consequences of this situation (with evidence/ facts/ statistics/ image) .14 Suggestions 14 IV LESSONS .15 REFERENCES 16 TABLE OF FIGURES Figure Background of case .6 Figure 2.1 Five Rs Figure 3.1 The chief flight attendant of Vietnam Airlines was heavily criticized for criticizing the isolation area .12 ABSTRACT I COMPANY BACKGROUND Vietnam Airlines is the national airline of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, a core component of Vietnam Airlines Corporation The airline is managed by a Board of Directors of to persons with a 5-year term, has services to Southeast Asia, East Asia, Europe, and Oceania, and its head office is in Vietnam at Noi Bai International Airport According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, Vietnam Airlines has a market share of 47 percent based on the number of flights, which is much larger than that of other local airlines such as Vietjet or Bamboo Airways Vietnam Airlines has the highest market share and overall income from products in Southeast Asia This is a market opportunity; Vietnam Airlines concentrates on freight transport and sets the objective of getting freight to a balance between income and expense before establishing a specialist cargo airline Vietnam Airlines, being a state-owned carrier, sets the standard for flight and passenger quality service, particularly as the only airline in Vietnam having a set of requirements for epidemic prevention and control levels during the COVID-19 era 19 Despite refining the brand image, improving in response to societal changes, and developing acceptable standards, Vietnam Airlines continues to experience communication issues in key times, generating major consequences Large losses must be handled with meticulously The communication issues that Vietnam Airlines must address are discussed in further detail below II CASE 1: MEDIA CRISIS FROM A CONTROVERSAL STATEMENT Descriptions of the situation After 89 days, Vietnam did not detect any patient who is positive with SARS-CoV-2 in the community, but the fear named “Covid-19” has returned, Ho Chi Minh City identified cases of Covid-19, one of whom is a male patient - a flight attendant of Vietnam Airlines That's because this patient violated the isolation regulations in the concentrated isolation area, which led to infection Later, during home isolation, this patient had close contact with other cases and caused one of them to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus Figure Background of case Initially, a representative of Vietnam Airlines announced that this flight attendant had seriously violated the regulations of both the State and Vietnam Airlines Regarding the policy for flight attendants to go home after only 4-5 days of concentrated isolation, a representative of Vietnam Airlines said that the airline is still applying and has no plans to adjust this policy The statement "If all flight crews have to be isolated for 14 days in Cu Chi, no matter how many times the test is negative, we can only fly for a few days, and we will run out of pilots" has made headlines of many major media and caused negative reactions of readers towards VNA In fact, there have been cases of testing that have only been positive for the fourth time, there are cases where the patient was isolated for more than 10 days before testing positive, so it cannot be said as a representative of VNA that the flight attendants and pilots are allowed to return home after they are self-isolate at home after only days and negative tests, because the risk is low The spread of the epidemic from the isolated areas to the community is a worrisome problem So many opinions objected that Vietnam Airlines only cares about the interests of the business but does not care about the safety of the whole community There have even been a few newspapers questioning whether VNA, despite the regulations on epidemic prevention, is biased on which is a state-owned enterprise The essence of the problem is that VNA is worried that if all flight crews have to quarantine for 14 days in Cu Chi, the airline will only fly for a few days and then run out of pilots Therefore, the airline is not eligible to carry out other flights as required Vietnam currently has many airlines which are capable of international flights To solve difficulties for VNA, the government should divide rescue flights equally so that each airline can have a job during difficult times, and first, to not put weight on VNA's crew, leading to spreading the epidemic to the community, consuming a lot of effort and money of the whole system However, the VNA's statement approach to the public is completely inappropriate and partly to blame, especially in the sensitive time of the pandemic, so it is no doubt receiving negative waves from the public Reasons for studying this situation Currently, with the development of media and technology, it is a very important factor in promoting and showing the brand's prestige to the public Vietnam Airlines has emerged as the leader of the aviation industry and established its name as a symbol of Vietnamese national pride.With a long-term belief, during the covid period, the professionalism of the flight attendants and the crew is expected to be even higher However, they have created a big stir by their arbitrary actions and unprofessional statements that affect the brand By analyzing this situation, it will highlight two issues: how to make realistic sentiments more accessible to the public and how to control the risk of transient statements Reasons for this situation 3.1 Lack of communication skills (Chapter 1) The reason for that issue is the lack of communication skills to the public Among the unpredictable consequences of the pandemic, Vietnam medicine has tried to save as many patients as possible and keep the community safe without infections Therefore, the statement of Vietnam Airline is a far, far bigger story and heavily criticized This impulsive statement is also affected by the prolonged epidemic that directly affects the sales and business activities of the company However, all of society is affected, we must prioritize the benefits of community first According to the provisional policy, the people’s health is considered above the economic interests because the country's capacity and human resources are limited, when the disease outbreak happens which will lead to an outof-control consequences Therefore, VNA's statement in such a sensitive time is a subjective opinion and negatively affects the community The way they express their own difficulties is stated which is too one-sided, completely inappropriate in the general background Representatives need to handle the media with more caution and the way to express needs to be considered more carefully in terms of context and usage of words 3.2 Apologizing in the Digital Age (Chapter 9) After receiving information about case 1342, the airline representative delivered an apology statement: "Vietnam Airlines sincerely apologizes for the unexpected incident when there was a case of Sars-CoV-2 infection from the airline's flight attendants due to non-compliance with isolation regulations." In the statement, it is confirmed that the company has strictly followed the relevant instructions Next, the statement also affirms, "The compliance with regulations on concentrated isolation and isolation at residence is always thoroughly demanded by Vietnam Airlines to each employee However, due to the management and supervision of the Management Board of the concentrated isolation area of the Southern Vietnam Airlines Flight Attendant Union - 115 Hong Ha, Ward 2, Tan Binh District and the subjective awareness of individuality, the flight attendants had violating isolation regulations by contacting colleagues, friends and relatives during concentrated isolation, caused having infected other people with the virus." Figure 2.1 Five Rs According to the Digital Age theory, VNA has failed to follow up the "Five Rs" model They did not have restitution and blamed responsibility for others, that was considered as disrespect for the problem By speaking this, the content of the apology is a way of reducing the airline's responsibility for the incident by "transferring" the responsibility to the Management Board of the concentrated isolation area and individual flight attendants Immediately, this apology was received with the reaction of many people for the reason of "not being sincere" In addition, many people also questioned the role and responsibility of the Head of the airline when the content of the announcement was not mentioned There are a variety of opinions that believe the company which blames responsibility on others has antagonized VNA's apology So VNA uses Victimage's strategy which is to remind relevant parties that the business is also a victim of the incident One of the ways to apply it is to show the difficulties they are dealing with Consequences of this situation (with evidence/facts/statistics/image) Firstly, this incident has damaged VietNam Airline's image with customers, especially loyal customers who have supported the company for a long time This incident is considered as an excuse for many people to raise discrimination and urge company boycott Figure 2.2 Vietnam Airlines has transported goods and urgent medical equipment across the country as well as many neighboring countries Although continuously facing fierce waves, this airline has been very active, contributing a lot of effort, human and material resources Vietnam Airlines has actively deployed free transportation of many doctors and medical experts involved in epidemic prevention Along with that, the airline has carried out transporting urgent medical equipment and goods across the country as well as many neighboring countries and around the world But no matter how much the airline tries, people still not 10 recognize and not encourage VNA’s effort although it is in difficult circumstances Secondly, this incident directly affected VNA's employees In a tryst with CaféF on December 3, a representative of Vietnam Airlines confirmed that there were many flight attendants being scorned, insulted, threatened, and encountered bad behavior from some passersby According to this person, the airline's functional units have warned flight attendants to avoid encountering negative behaviors Suggestions Due to the unexpected consequences, this problem seems to be an expensive lesson for VietNam Airlines, especially in the way of communication that needs some notes to address Firstly, when there was a communication crisis on social networks, for the first time, all the flight attendants of VNA together apologized, called for sharing and forgiveness of the community Obviously, without a strong and professional media department responsive to social networks or finding timely support from the press, Vietnamese airlines will continue to face difficulties They cannot "run behind" social networks to apologize, then everything is too late, reputation and revenue will certainly be greatly affected VNA should have to acknowledge and admit that this is the era of social networking If they want to avoid the crisis, they must quickly learn how to behave in accordance with the community Secondly, VNA needs to be more responsible and cautious with its statements VNA should consider it in accordance with the general context of society combined with the difficult context that the airline is facing However, the problem belongs to the company's responsibility, the company needs to show more sincerity in the way of admitting mistakes and fixing mistakes in the future In short, although VNA may have a media crisis at this time, it has not caused a financial impact or even seriously affected its image The 11 evidence shows that the value of VNA bonds only decreased in the first and second days when the incident happened and then rose again Therefore, if VNA always prioritizes a strategy of focusing on handling the main cause of the incident and increasing interaction with primary stakeholders, VNA will quickly overcome when a crisis happens again III CASE 2: BRAND IMAGE DAMAGED BY CHIEF FLIGHT ATTENDANT’S SOCIAL BEHAVIORS Descriptions Figure 3.1 The chief flight attendant of Vietnam Airlines was heavily criticized for criticizing the isolation area 12 According to Kenh14.vn, in 2021, around the beginning of May, she served on a fateful flight from Danang to Hanoi when the passengers having 29A seat on her flight was positive for Covid-19 and was only discovered days later Self-identifying as a person with "high self-discipline", the flight attendant immediately contacted the health of the ward where she lived to declare However, this hostess later uploaded on her TikTok a 60-second video narrating and complaining the whole story of her "remembering" quarantine The work of the medical team was considered as treating criminals and depriving all human rights Moreover, she also disparaged and used heavy words to describe the facilities of medical isolation place Reasons for studying this situation In the era of technology development, Tiktok is a social networking platform with high reach With only a short clip being posted, it has created a wave of public opinion and criticism for using sensitive, selfish, thoughtless words Through this, we will learn from experience and learn how to convey bad information in an accessible way to vertical people Reasons for this situation Wrong way to deliver bad news to the public (chapter 9): 13 Individual view was public shared by the flight on Tiktok After being posted, her video caused a wave of protests and criticisms from netizens She used abusive language such as “being treated like a criminal”, “deprived of all civil rights”, “being taken to a place I don't know”, “heart drop out” This was a one-sided opinion, selfish action or she didn’t project a professional image Everyone thinks that her actions are not only tarnished Vietnam Airlines ’s image like negating the efforts of the medicine as well as the whole country to try to repel the epidemic Besides, centralized isolation cannot guarantee happiness at home, being too demanding at this time is not only ungrateful but also thoughtless Consequences of this situation (with evidence/ facts/ statistics/ image) First, in front of a wave of public opinion, the head hostess was asked to take down the clip and expressed regret and promised to pay close attention to her statement from now on Then her account was locked private Secondly, the chief flight attendant is the representative figure of an airline, who works directly with passengers Thus, the actions of an individual will affect the general interests of the company Customers will look at the behavior of 14 employees then have an assessment of the quality of training as well as the quality of service of the company If the employee is unprofessional and has a thoughtless look, the customer may blame the training team for being inexperienced and not working carefully with their employees Suggestions Due to the unexpected results, this problem seems to be an unforgettable lesson for Vietnam Airlines, especially in the way of communication that needs some notes to address First, the head hostess should take responsibility for her own action and be carefully warned or disciplined Next, about Vietnam Airlines, staffs should be trained how to solve problems in a positive way and deliver bad news to the public, especially in COVID-19 pandemic period This is a sensitive time so a small action can create a wave of public opinion All thoughts should be communitized, contributing and improving together, not criticizing or complaining IV LESSONS Two unfortunate events of Vietnam Airlines have left us valuable lessons in communication and behavior not only for airlines but other companies as follow: First, the development of society has led to the explosion of social networking platforms It is a double-edged sword, both an opportunity and a challenge for any company or brand that uses it Thus, the company's representative and spokesman as well as all employees must have a close agreement when expressing on social networks Hence, it's a lesson in speech Secondly, when faced with a communication crisis, nothing more than a frank confrontation and sincere apology which builds customer trust 15 Sincerity, honesty, immediacy, and reciprocity are the ways to regain image and reputation Therefore, make sure to be precise and comprehensive in every action towards clients and media 16 REFERENCES 17 ... Vietnam Airlines continues to experience communication issues in key times, generating major consequences Large losses must be handled with meticulously The communication issues that Vietnam Airlines... transient statements Reasons for this situation 3.1 Lack of communication skills (Chapter 1) The reason for that issue is the lack of communication skills to the public Among the unpredictable... expensive lesson for VietNam Airlines, especially in the way of communication that needs some notes to address Firstly, when there was a communication crisis on social networks, for the first time,