UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

FACULTY OF COMMERCE
GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Course: Communication and Negotiating Skills

Course Code: MBA563
Lecturer: Dr. L Mukaro
Group Number: 11

GROUP MEMBERS:

1. BRIAN ZUNGU R191298R

2. ARTWELL MARINDA R191184Y
3. FARAI MUSENDO R115156P
4. ARTWELL MAMVURA R082458G
5. TAPUWANASHE MHURURU R191189M
6. TAKUDZWA MBIRIRI R191201K
7. FAITH MAZUZU R191260C
8. JACQUELINE CHIROWODZA R191182R

Question: Evaluate the documentation in business organisations

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Introduction

Escoe (2001) expresses documentation as anything written in any medium and can
extend to manuals and records. One can assume that documentation includes all
forms that are written which include letters, electronic mail, memorandum, business
proposals, reports and texts. Examples of such documents are contracts, organogram
work flow, brochures, newsletters, recruitment materials and reports (internal and
external) among others. These documents are prepared by various people in the
business entity like owners of the company, employees, accountants, lawyers and
other partners in the business.

Documentation is very crucial to the business organisations as it provides evidence

of the organisation’s transactions and its records of day to day running. Organisational
documentation is the applied and formal image of the organisational structure. It is key
for an organisation to document in order to have a proper functioning of the overall
representation of the system. An organisation uses documents to communicate,
transact and analyse its productivity.

Documentation can be considered differently in various fields but it serves an

important role in these varying fields. Perry and Porter (2010) view documentation as
anything that is written or electronically composed which describes the status of the
client or the services that are offered to that client. This goes on to show that although
documentation can mean different things in different fields, it serves the same
purpose.

There are different types of documents used in a business setting which include the
electronic form and physical documents and these include memorandums,
presentations, proposals, reports, feasibility studies, resumes, cover letters, audio-
video recordings, google drive, emails and websites (Bronstein, 1999). Various types
of documents are required during the various stages of the product life cycle include
product specifications, deployment manuals, instructional material, operational
manuals, forms manuals, brochures.

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Documentation is the essence of key business processes. Its importance varies from
regulatory compliance to the necessity to communicate with customers, suppliers and
employees in multimedia coordinated ways. Given the rapid changes occurring in the
business fraternity, changes in technology, globalization, competition and many other
factors, organizations have the ever increasing desire to improve on efficiency,
profitability and productivity. In order to achieve this desire, organisations must ensure
proper documentation both internally and externally as it is central to the efficient and
effective running of daily operations. Documentation follows a sequence or a process
and the retention period for these documents differ due to diverse organisations
documentation policies and this will ultimately affect their negotiation positions in
business deals.

Lindsay (2002), affirms that documented material becomes a useful resource and
communication material for its creators as well as for others interested in carrying out
similar activities. Documentation has also evolved over the years in line with
technological trends which have seen the dramatic shift in format from hard copy to
soft copy. According to Huschka and Wagner (2012), data documentation and its
obtainability are requirements not only for good business practice but also for good
methodological work.

Types of Documentation in Organisations

Internal Memorandums and Emails

Management in many organisations use emails and memos as primary channels for
internal communication. These are normally used to update employees on changes
within the organisation. Employees can also use the corporate emails to document
peer to peer cross functional correspondence. The memorandum is usually a signed
hard copy which can be displayed on notice boards where all employees can read.

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Business Letters (External Communication)

A business letter is a formal communication between an organisation with its internal

and external stakeholders. A letter is usually used to record official communication on
letterhead with third parties and signed by authorised company officials. In some
cases, a business letter can be used as evidence to settle disputes which may arise
from contractual expectations. Key recipients for business letters include customers,
suppliers, regulators and employees.

Business Reports

These are reports that harness information from business meetings, projects, sales
trends, financial performance and production statistics. Most business reports are
mainly for internal consumption as they contain confidential strategy information and
business secrets. Some organisations may also prepare business reports for external
consumption where the organisation is participating in a multi-stakeholder project.
Non-Governmental Organisations who embark on social work projects from time to
time issue impact assessment reports to update the social welfare department.

Transactional Documents
These are key instruments which form primary interface for transactions between an
organisation and its customers. This documentation creates a permanent record of all
transactions initiated by customers. In banks customers complete and sign off bank
slips for purposes of recording and verifying authenticity of transactions carried out by
customers.

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Financial Documentation
Fedaghi et al,(2009) postulated that organisations use monetary documents so that
they remain within budget. Examples of key financial documentation include
transaction receipts, salary reports, billing statements, bank statements, profit and loss
statements, balance sheets and taxation reports. All financial reporting in most
organisations is done by accountants for onward submission to shareholders and
directors.

Licenses and Permits Documents

Organisations should keep paper copies of business licenses and permits, because
often regulations require them to do so. In Zimbabwe most statutory bodies requires
companies to display these licences at the walls within common areas of their
premises.

Contracts
This includes Independent contractor agreements and customer contract forms for
specific projects. This may also include nondisclosure and confidentiality agreements
which are signed when sharing proprietary information.

Documentation Process
Key steps;
 Identify the subject, design and communicate the task.
 Locate the stakeholders
 Assessment of organisation’s documents.
 Establish a filing and archiving plan.
 Retrieval of files.

Features of good documentation;

 Approval and updating of documents into current versions.
 Latest version of documents are made available on demand.
 Documents continue to be legible.
 Distribution of external documentation is controlled.
 Absolute documents are properly archived.

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The importance of documentation in organisations

Legal Protection
Documentation is essential in businesses as it helps in implementing and enforcing
procedures that help to mitigate legal problems including compliance issues which
limit the company’s liability. In the banking industry outlining and enforcing company
policies related to the Banking Act, Anti Money Laundering, Terrorism and Child
Trafficking Act impose heavy penalties on the banks if violated. Employees are obliged
to sign these internal procedure manuals and undergo training and development. This
will more likely push employees to observe legal restrictions related to the institution
since they will be incorporated into the organisation’s structures. Documented policies
and procedures help protect companies in courts in the event that an employee has
acted negligently. Formalising and enforcing code of conduct in companies prevents
health and safety breaches, sexual harassments and drug abuse from happening
thereby giving direction and help in achieving goals of the organisation.

Planning
The purpose of documentation is also to identify and ensure the systematic
preservation of papers and other records that provide information about people,
groups, events and economic conditions. A documented project seeks to contribute to
the building of a comprehensive and equitable historical record by making unique,
original source materials available to researchers and citizens. These materials enable
us to better understand the present and to plan more intelligently for the future.

Most companies these days are giving employees performance contract based on the
previous performances of the employees. Performance targets are based on the
available historical data, this enables the employer and the employee to reach
consensus as these targets are realistic since they were once attained before. One of
the financial institutions which employees such policy is African Century Limited.
Employees receive profit share based on their previous performances and this is a bit
satisfying to them.

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Historic data helps the sales and marketing departments to plan for promotions. Ok
Grand Challenge promotional budgets are planned based on the base year budgets
although they also factor in other factors like inflation in their planning. This historical
data assists them in coming up with realistic sales forecast of that year.
In production-oriented industries, planning based on historical data helps increase
efficiency and productivity. Companies like Delta beverages use such data to know of
their peak periods were demand will be high and they act accordingly. They are able
to adjust and order their raw materials in time and prepare for such seasons and also
they are able to do their annual plant maintenance within scheduled timeframes that
will not disturb their business.

Professionalism

Creating documents in an organisation is an indication that a company is professional.

Classifying potentially controversial work-related topics such as, disciplinary
procedures increases consistency and reduces chances of unfair labour practices.
Most companies in Zimbabwe strive to maintain professionalism. Following
documented procedures in contacting hearings and any other disciplinary issues will
help in bringing in professionalism to an organisation. Affected employees will know
the fate of their actions as there will be properly laid out proceedings that will be
followed in conducting the hearings. Further to that it also helps in sheltering the
organisation when it comes to labour lawsuits that might be faced.

Need for transparent and Accountability

Documentation ensures transparency and accountability of employees. Employees’

activities are recorded daily and reports are produced concerning the activities that
would have been carried out by the employee over a period of time. Documentation
will make employees accountable for their actions hence cementing employees to
effectively value their work. One of the examples of such documents are minutes of
meetings, they clearly outline an action, its owner and the dead line date for the
action to be closed. This can be used for tracking progress of the discussed action
and also helps in coming up with corrective actions that is if there are to improve the
closure of the action.

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Documentation also promote good corporate governance in the pillars of
transparency and accountability. In the event of auditing for example, the case of
Auditor General’s Report of NSSA and ZESA. The Auditor General managed to
unmask these government subsidies due gross misrepresentation of transactions
and fraudulent tendering procedure which lead these institutions to lose money. This
was all supported and lead by the issue of documentation which helps in uncovering
issues that might not be seen if there will not be any documented information.

Business performance review

Business documentation are also required to evaluate the performance of the

organisation. Profit and loss, cash flow statements, statement of financial position
reflects the financial position of the organisation. These documents review how the
business would have performed in a certain trading period allowing the management
to come up with action plans so that they will make more profits. Decisions to re
capitalise on share issue, capacity utilisation is based on the financial position of the
company hence can only be seen if the information is documented.

Documentation is key in order to mobile resources or to attract more business. It is

easy for companies that are listed on the stock exchange like Delta Beverages and
Econet Wireless to recapitalise and issue shares to the general public since their
financial statements are well documented with a good share face value. Also, the
trend for share information is easily available and understandable.

Communication
Business documents are important for communication within and outside the
organisation. The documents include job adverts, newsletters, memos or notices.
The documents ensure that all relevant stakeholders are aware of the company
performance and any on goings within the organisation, they also provide direction
as to where the organisation will be heading to. Emails provide official
communication inside and outside organisations, they produce evidence of business
discussed and also has a subject line with details of sender and receiver.
Public limited Companies especially the ones listed on the Zimbabwe Stock
Exchange (ZSE) communicated their annual results to its shareholders and

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stakeholders though trade publications and newspapers. Most companies prefer
Sunday Mail, Thursday Herald and Financial Gazette amongst others. This is done
to communicate to the public on the performance of the organisation. Parastatals like
NRZ, ZERA, EMA and local authorities also make use of these media houses to
make press statements on issues concerning their respective organisations.

Efficiency in Running the Business

Business documents are also required to efficiently and effectively run the business.
Companies operate with procedures, organogram, workflows and work instructions
and these serve to help the business to run smoothly and efficiently. These
procedures present how work is supposed to be carried out in a safe and proper
manner. Organisations like Lafarge Cement Zimbabwe use standard operating
procedures (SOPs) in defining work activities. As an organisation that is health and
safety conscious it ensures that all work procedures are followed in order to avoid
work related illness and accidents. This is leading to reduction in chances of poor-
quality products being produced and avoid in re works to occur. Organogram outlines
reporting structure in an organisation and this efficiently assist in quick decision
making and execution of workload.

Transaction Purposes
Business documents are also very important for organisations as they allow them to
transact and do business with it clients and suppliers. Certificates of incorporation,
tax clearances certificates and contracts can allow other stakeholders to do business
with you as they will know that your organisation is transparent and also allowed to
operate within the governing laws and regulations.

Compliance is very important that is why when tenders are advertised they clearly
stipulates the requirements they want for an organisation to be selected on the list,
this shows that an organisation may fail to transact business if it does not possess
proper documentation of its operations. Many cases in Zimbabwe the first document
you see when you enter a reception of any professional organisations are certificates
of incorporation and any other trading licences that will have been granted the
respective organisation to trade in.

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Documentation Risk

Cost
Documentation process is continuous and entails that the company should acquire
sufficient resources to cater for setting up of a document management system.
Modern document management systems requirement costly software and computer
hardware to support huge amounts of documentation generated in organisations
daily.

Security
Organisations with electronic documentation, should ensure that they have very
strong and reliable cyber security protocols to prevent loss of their data through
viruses and hackers. Hackers may request ransom or even permanently destroy
valuable company data resulting is financial losses in the business.

Conclusion

Documentation in business is very essential and helps organisations to move forward

and perform its business effectively. Various types of documents produce various
types of advantages, some are produced to provide operating procedures at
workplaces, some produce evidence of transparency and accountability.
Documentation enhances decision making in terms of hearings and budget
allocations and planning. Therefore, it is important for organisations to have proper
documentation when operating.

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References
1. Bronstein, M. (1999) The New Generation of Technical Writers. San Francisco:
FTP Systems.
2. Escoe, A. (2001) The Practical Guide to People -Friendly -Documentation. 2nd
edition. ASQ Quality Press
3. Fedaghi, S Alsaqa, A & Fadel Z (2009) Conceptual Model for Communication,
International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, Volume
six, Number 2.
4. Huschka, D. & Wagner, G. G. (2012), 'Data Accessibility is Not Sufficient for
Making Replication Studies a Matter of Course' (195)
5. Lindsay, H. (2002) Business communication through documentation.
Cambridge: OCR.org.uk
6. Perry, J.L. and Porter L.W. (2010) Academy of Management Review.
Bloomington: Indiana University

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