The modern multinational organizations are observed to be significantly affected with the issue of the cross cultural barriers. As the term implies, the multinational organizations will be observed to have employees irrespective of their culture, national barriers or language. The usual barrier that these organizations face is in integrating those employees who belong to different cultures or languages or the societies. The cross cultural differences has the potential to cause notable distraction inside an organization. This plays the role of the destructor in the smooth conduction of the business operations of the multinational organizations (Urbancová, 2013).
The paper is focused in specifying the key challenges in the intercultural communication and the identification of the potential misunderstandings. The paper is able to portray a scenario where it will be able to evaluate the issues in the smooth integration of two workforces belonging to Singapore. Apart from that the paper will state the strategies which will be helpful in the improvement of the workforce engagement and the communication. Along with that the paper will also include an internal communication and engagement plan to assist the Singapore management for better communication and engagement with the Chinese workforce.
Identification of the Intercultural Communication Challenges:
A general briefing regarding the possible sources of barriers will be notably good in understanding the communication challenges faced by individuals of different cultures. The smooth flow of the communication in the organizational level is significantly observed to get ineffective due to the introduction of noise into it. According to the study of Martin & Nakayama (2013), the noise is termed as interferences that reduces the clarity of the message during the encoding and decoding processes. The noise can be divided into Psychological or mental, Physical and environmental, Semantic or language usage and Channel (Carbaugh, 2013).
Along with this, the occurrence of the noise is significantly involved with the encoding and decoding of the messages along with the encoding and decoding of the feedbacks as well. Apart from this noise can also take place in cases where the suitable channel is not used for the transfer of the message. In organizational level the channel is the medium through which the information flows from a level of employees to another level.
The interview sessions were significant in expressing that the issues like the low picture quality and audio quality can become a menace for the Singaporean management team in the effective transfer of the messages to the Shanghai workforce. Along with that the signal strength of the internet can also be a point of concern for the Singaporean team in effective communication with the Chinese team. According to Almond & Verba (2015), culture is a collected design of values, behaviours and beliefs that are shared by a common group of people who has significant similarity in their history and verbal and non-verbal symbols.
However there are different aspects of culture present in the form of formal level, technical level and informal level. Sahlins (2013), states that the formal or the on stage level is concerned with the visible rules and roles, traditions, rituals, patterns of communication along with the customs. According to the study of Cadden, Marshall & Cao (2013), the connection between the culture and the communication is pretty strong as the communication is the main medium for the learning of the culture.
In depth analysis of the link between the culture and the communication will confirm that the culture is transmitted or interpreted or taught through the usage of the codes of communication may that be the common symbols, non-verbal cues or the language (Babnik et al., 2014). The communication between the Shanghai team and the Singapore management group will be difficult at times as considerable number of words in both the languages have multiple different meanings.
The intercultural conflict is a case where the difference in the expectations of the employees involved in the intercultural exchange is the main reason behind the generation of the emotional frustration. This is observed to have three distinct stages in the form of Micro or Individual, Immediate and Macro or Societal level (Stacks & Salwen, 2014). The general division of the conflict among the employees of the organization is observed to be divided into five phases in the form of Latent Conflict, Perceived Conflict, Felt Conflict, Manifest Conflict and the Conflict Aftermath (Samovar et al., 2014).
A detail analysis of the phases will portray that the latent conflict is the stage where the reason behind the conflict arises due to the inherent differences in the values or the beliefs of different individuals. In case of the Perceived stage, the interacting employees becomes well known about the differences and starts to experience the frustration (Neuliep, 2017). In the Felt conflict stage, the interacting employees are observed to examine the sources of motivations for themselves and the other employees and also evaluates the magnitude of the problem (Hua, 2013).
Apart from that, in case of the Manifest conflict, the exhibition of the actual conflict behaviours take place. In the Conflict Aftermath stage, the outcomes are observed to be assessed whether they are productive or counterproductive. The interview findings were significant in stating that the Chinese people face notable issues in maintaining their desired work life balance. The Chinese people are observed to be affected to significant amount of job stresses and they often get dissatisfied with their work pressure. The Singaporean management team needs to mindful of the work-life balance of the Shanghai workforce in order to reduce the job stresses.
Apart from that, one of the aspect of the cultural communication which has significant influence is the cultural shock among the employees. The culture shock generally relates to the employees who are the outsiders of a particular culture. According to the study of Van der Zee & van Oudenhoven (2013), the concept of the culture shock defines that when a particular employee enters a new culture which is completely unknown to him or her, the employee is subjected to undergo four stages. Gunn (2017), confirms that these stages are the honeymoon stage, hostility stage, adjustment stage and the adaption stage.
At the initial stages the employees who enter the new culture seems to be liking the change from the old culture to the new culture. The new culture, the food, the society and the work environment seem to be fascinating for the employees at this stage (Jack, 2014). In the hostility stage, the employees starts to experience the differences among the new and the old culture in a not so good manner. This generates significant amount of dissatisfaction among the employees and considerable amount of anxiety which initiates the culture shock (Lombard, 2014). In the adjustment stage, the employees are usually in the new culture for 6 to 12 months and somehow they starts to adjust to the new culture, language and the way of living (Yook, 2013).
With more time in the new culture, the employees starts to become a master of the act where the employees become well accustomed with the changes that had the potential to create the culture shock. Along with the concept of culture shock, the employees who return to the own land from a different culture, is also subjected to the reverse culture shock. The concept of the reverse culture shock specifies that the employees who return to their own culture or society after certain period in the new culture expects that all the aspects of the culture that he or she left behind will be in the same state and condition (Naeem, Nadeem & Khan, 2015).
However, the culture and the society that the concerned employee left behind is also subjected to significant amount of changes during the time, that employee was in the new culture. Hence these modifications will be the main reason behind reverse culture shock of those employees. Apart from that the Singapore management team will face significant amount problems in getting culturally associated with the Shanghai workforce as it is seen that the value dimension aspects for both countries are notably different in cases like the conflict management, long term orientation, uncertainty avoidance along with indulgence. Hence the management team needs to take care of the mentioned issues as well in order to effectively manage the Shanghai workforce.
The process of the cross cultural adaption is observed to include three basic steps which are basically Acculturation, Assimilation and the Deculturation. In the Acculturation stage, the process of resocialization to the ethics and values of the host culture takes place and in the organizational context, the culture will be considered as the organizational culture (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). The Assimilation is a state where the high acculturation to the host culture takes place along with the high deculturation of the original culture takes place among the employees of the organization. The deculturation step defines the unlearning of the original cultural habits of the employees.
Improvement in the Employee Engagement and Communication:
The Singapore management needs to improve a lot in the cultural assimilation part because the management will face significant issues in communication. The management needs to make sure that they be able to speak the local language without any sort of issues as that will be instrumental in getting the feedback of the employees from the lower level (Zakari, Poku & Owusu-Ansah, 2013). This will be good for the organization as the scope of communication gap between the different levels of employees and the management will be significantly reduced.
From the interview findings, It is visible that even though the Malaysian and the Singaporean society and people are highly similar in their way of living or the food but even then there are considerable amount of cultural differences that is present among the workforces of two nations. Victor who was a manager in the Business Banking Planning and Enablement of Maybank Singapore, was interviewed over his experience in the organization for the last 7 years. The background of the interview informs that he was planning to conduct a virtual team meeting through the telephone or video conference using an application named as Call WebEx.
From the response of Victor, it seemed that the cultural differences and the technological gap are the main obstacle for Victor. The research findings are able to state that the behaviour and the culture of the workforces and the people of the two nations are bit different. The language is also a major reason behind the dissimilar nature as it was observed that some of the words in the Singaporean language have different multiple meanings in other languages.
This was significant problem for the Singapore management team in having a smooth communication with the workforce of Shanghai. Along with that the work culture and the adaption of the technology were observed to be different for both the nations. Singapore were observed to be highly efficient in terms of handing the technological advancements and their adaptability of technology were notably higher than any other nations. Hence the Singaporean management team needs to take care of the issues as their level of expectation in terms of handling the technological innovations from the Shanghai workforce may or may not be same.
Apart from that, the Singapore management team is in need of preparing well to cope up with the technical issues as well. The technical issues like the poor speech quality or low quality video in the video conferencing will be a significant menace for the team in dealing with the workforce of the Shanghai. The poor signal strength will be frustrating for the shanghai workforce in having a long discussion.
The Singapore management team is in need of recruiting quality and efficient engineers in order to cover up these flaws. Along with this the Singapore management team is in need to make sure that they be well prepared for the work culture at Shanghai, value and the preferences of the employees along with the social behaviour. The team needs to be significantly mindful of the local languages as well in dealing with the Chinese counterparts.
From the second interview, it is visible that the Singaporean management team is not to be concerned with the occurrence of any sort of physical meeting as the Shanghai team may not have any sort of issues in expressing their ideas, views or any sort of opinions. Rather the applications like Google Hangout will be significantly benefitting for both the parties involved as it will make sure that the amount cost and time that relates to the physical meetings are reduced in a notable manner.
The management team will be able to avoid the constraints like fixed timing, fixed dates or the fixed places for the meeting and it becomes notably good for the team in having a more open environment for the meetings. Having said that it also relates to significant amount of vulnerability as well because it can be counter-productive as all the parties involved in the decision making may or may not be involved with all the items of the agenda.
Apart from this the second interview was significant in expressing the presence of culture shock. The Singapore management team is advised to take all the necessary steps in order to reduce the culture shock at Shanghai. The culture shock has the potential to cause significant amount of issues in maintaining the work-life balance and that leads to the generation of considerable amount of work stress (Haar et al., 2014). The team is advised to be aware of the time zone at Shanghai as the timing of the meeting must not be creating difficulty in maintaining a proper work life balance for the employees at Shanghai.
Along with that the team is advised to be aware of the social and cultural representation of the people of China as it was observed that the people in China was largely collectivist and they considers others’ difficulty as the major one in front of their issues. The collectivist aspect of the Chinese society has the potential to make the life easy for the management team members if the Shanghai workforce is well managed and in order to do so the Singapore team must be able to eradicate every sort cultural and interpersonal differences between them and the Shanghai workforce (Steele & Lynch, 2013).
Along with that the organization is in need to make sure that they be able to implement several employee engagement activities where the employees of the different culture will be able to meet and communicate among themselves. This will be significant for both sets of employees in recovering from the usual dilemma that they have in interacting with the employees of different cultures (Owoyemi & Ekwoaba, 2014). This will also be significantly helpful for the employees to get used of each other and that will be a benefit for the organization in the effective team work as well.
Apart from that it is recommended that the employees of different culture be mindful of their activities and comments regarding the culture, society, language and way of living of the employees of other culture (Halim et al., 2014).
Internal Communication Plan:
Key Stakeholders and Partners:
The key stakeholders or partners in this case will be the Shanghai workforce along with the Singaporean Management Team. The general topics will be the strategies for the effective communication across the different levels of employees and the management.
Key Communication Activities:
The engagement workshops, the discussion events or the surveys will be the main activities for the communication.
Value Proposition:
The basic goal of the communication will be to increase the flow of the information across the different levels of employees and the management. Apart from that, the effective communication among the different segments of employees will make sure that the management is well aware of the happenings of the organization.
The employee segment will be the lower, executive and senior level employees and the management of the organization.
Engagement Activity:
|
Activity |
Time |
Authority |
Outcome |
|
Learning of Local Language |
6 Weeks |
Language Professor of the local University |
Ability to communicate efficiently in the local language with the Shanghai workforce. |
|
Employee Engagement Activities like celebration of Chinese festivals |
Yearly basis |
Human Resource Management |
This will enable the Singaporean management team to get the chance to know and gel with the Shanghai workforce in a better manner (Appannah & Biggs, 2015). |
|
Evidential Report Processing |
12 weeks |
Human Resource Management |
This will be significantly good for the employees and the management in making proper evidential reports on which the critical decision making will be based. This will be good for the organization in reducing the conflicts among the employees (Lawrence & Lee, 2013). Apart from that the follow up of the proper medium or channel will also be significantly helpful for the employees and management to reduce the amount of noise related to the communication. |
The success of the engagement activity and the internal communication plan will be tested by the capability of them in reducing the cross-cultural differences that is visible between the Singaporean Team and the Shanghai workforce. Along with that, it will have the objective of improving the non-verbal communication and plan will have the aim to pose a better version of attitude towards resolving conflict among the team and the people in China. The engagement activities will be significant in understanding the different approaches to the task completion, different styles of decision making along with the formation of the trust.
Conclusion:
On a concluding note it can be said that the employees of Shanghai workforce will be difficult to manage for the Singaporean team without proper understanding of the value dimension aspects of the Chinese society. Along with that it is observed that the interview sessions were important in gathering significant insights regarding the cultural and societal differences of the Chinese people along with the members of other countries. Hence the implementation of the internal communication and the engagement plan must achieve utmost priority to the management team.
References
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