Overcoming Communication Barrier In Multinational Company: Marks And Spencer

About Marks and Spencer

Discuss about the Communication Skills Training in Dementia Care.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the issue of communication barrier that emerged in the light of the culturally diverse employees in Marks and Spenser. The paper explores the aspects of description about the organization, importance of the training, participants of the training, training plan, resources of the program, the rational of hybrid training method for the program and the barriers that may emerge.

Marks and Spenser is considered to be one of the most prestigious multinational retailers of British origin. Among the British multinational retailers, Marks and Spenser have occupied one of the most dominant positions in the field of retail. The headquarter of the company is situated in Westminster, London. It has been listed on the London Stock Exchange and is also a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index (Marksandspencer.com, 2018). The forte of the company lies in selling trendy and elegant apparel, perfume and bath products, luxury home products and high-end food products. Apart from this, the brand is associated with various ethical and environmental friendly practices that was incorporated as part of the Look Beyond the Brand campaign. Presently, the company has more than 979 stores across UK.

The term training refers to the planned effort by an organization to promote learning of the competencies . Competencies are broadly understood as knowledge, behavior or skills (it refers to the attitudes in certain approaches) that are considered as critical for securing and accomplishing successful job performance. The objective of training for the employees is to enable them to master the knowledge, attitudes and skills that are to be emphasized in the training programs and for application in the day-to-day activities. The development refers to the knowledge, behaviors that are pertinent to the performance in the future compared to the present context. Marks And Spenser has emphasized on the factor of communication of the employees. This includes both inside and outside communication for the workplace professionals. However, presently there is a lurking challenge to communication due to the presence of cross-cultural barriers. People who belong to different geographical backgrounds and have different attitude towards life are posed with immense challenges in terms of sharing the views and ideologies with one another as a result of communication barrier. In the socio-cultural context of Australia it has been noted that there are different kinds of people who belong to diverse cultural backgrounds and possess variegated attitudes with regard to the organization. In case of Marks and Spenser (M&S) it has been found that the organization is based on competency level and skills that are kept at the foreground whilst hiring employees with diverse cultural backgrounds and worldview. According to Sawitri & Muis (2014), the highlight of effective communication lies in its ability to maintain a good rapport among the employees within the organization. It has been found that people who belong to different geographical backgrounds may not be flexible in sharing the information regarding the business due to the constraint in language. In other words, language creates impediments in effectively communicating with the customer. Due to this, it is the customers who have to face the major problems during the time of information regarding the products, billing or any other issues related to the purchase of the product.

The Importance of Training in Multinational Companies

The language barrier makes it difficult for the customers to accrue their products within the specific time. As a corollary to this, Marks and Spenser have to face the challenge in securing the success. In this context, the human resource managers have to take a robust initiative in creating a training and implementation program based on the hybrid method. The training assessment need or communication skills was developed with the objective of enhancing the professional skills of the employees (van den Akker, Branch, Gustafson, Nieveen & Plomp, 2012). This would make the employees feel comfortable in exchanging their views and ideologies regarding their specific business goal. In this way, the business employers and the business employees would achieve their desired outcomes rendering equal priority and response. The imperative of a needs assessment is to enable the organization in the expansion of their business beyond the global boundaries. It has been identified that the service providers of Marks and Spenser need to provide multi-lingual flexibility for attracting people who belong to different background or cultural origins (Brewster, 2017).  Effective training is premised on the ability of the employees to be flexible in dealing with people of cross-cultural origin. It was found that the employees need to maintain their enthusiasm or else they would lose interest towards the organization. An effective communication method would enable the employees to rise beyond the monotonous workflow and be part of an environment where the employers and the employees would be equally satisfied. It has been established by the scholars that the business sustainability of an organization is contingent on the flow of communication that is to be adopted in the workplace. A brand would be dependent on the business sustainability image and the reputation of the brand.

The participants in this case would be employees who belong to different backgrounds and face linguistic barriers in communicating with the participants. The employees would receive guidance from the professional trainer would get the opportunity in improving their skills and competencies. This would enable the customers to receive systematic response from the service providers that ultimately left a positive impact in the achievement of success.

The cohorts belong to diverse cultural, social and linguistic background. They have migrated from different countries and also belong to the indigenous population . This diversity in their backgrounds

The training and development program would deploy the hybrid training method (the details of which would  be elaborated in the next section). Communication skills training is strived at eliminating the communication barriers faced by the employees through interpersonal communication skills training. This would ensure that the communication barrier that took place between two persons belonging to different cultures could be overcome or removed. The employees through guidance and help from the professional trainers would be able to improve their skills and competencies (Eggenberger, Heimerl & Bennett, 2013). The interpersonal communication skills training would enable the employees to communicate in a coherent and cogent manner. It will instill confidence among the employees in speaking to the superiors or with the customers who belong to diverse cultural affiliations and enables them in getting out most of the dealings. This would develop a better rapport with the customers and make them feel valued. This would be particularly important considering that the business would involve a large number of customers that is quite evident in the case of Marks and Spenser.

Challenges Faced by Employees Due to Cross-Cultural Barriers

Another goal of the training program would be to enhance the empathic side of the employees and would instill in them patience that would be useful during the interaction with the customers. Another feature of the training program would be to maintain a diverse workforce. In a situation when people from different races are working together may accidentally offend each other or the customer. In case the promotion, employee review and termination policies are not clear to the minority and ethnically diverse employees they will feel offended as well as discriminated (Buabeng-Andoh, 2012). Therefore, effective communication in the workplace would encourage the employees to treat each other and the customers with respect. Another feature of the effective interpersonal communication training would be helpful in overcoming conflicting and difficult situations.

Given the nature of the problem of conflictual interpersonal communication between the employees and customers of diverse cultural backgrounds, the approach would be to develop a hybrid training method for the implementation of effective interpersonal communication plan (Buabeng-Andoh, 2012). Training methods can be of different types namely technical or technology training, quality training, skills training, sift skills training, professional training, safety training, managerial training amongst others. For enhancing the interpersonal communication skills and eliminating the communication barriers faced by the employees as well as the customers (Goetsch  & Davis, 2014). The rationale behind the adoption of the hybrid training method would be to incorporate different training programs subsumed into a singular training program that would benefit all the employees. In other words, hybrid training program draws the best characteristics of different training program and create a state-of-the-art training program (Bratton & Gold, 2017). In this case, the hybrid training method would draw from the quality training that would sensitize the employees about the different means in the prevention, detection and the elimination of the non-quality items. Secondly the hybrid training method would draw from the skills training that is concerned making the employees efficient in the performance of the job. This can be applied in enabling the employees to be trained in the assessment of the needs of the customers and in offering the customers appropriate information before purchasing of a material. The hybrid training would also draw from the professional training that would embolden the employees to remain updated about their profession and grasp the nuances of communication that are important for the employees to succeed in their field (Curtis et al, 2017).

The Need for Hybrid Training Methods

The program objectives of the hybrid-training program for strengthening inter-personal communication skills are as follows:

1. To instill a sense of confidence among the employees from diverse ethnic, linguistic and cultural background to deal with the customers
2. Building and maintenance of effective personal rapport among the employees
3. To reduce and avoid situations that would lead to conflict
4. To keep the employees motivated so that they are able to demonstrate their best performance and take the brand to its zenith
5. To ensure that the employees and the customers are equally satisfied and would not have to stay with the monotonous workflow
6. To maintain the sustainability of the organization
7. To ensconce the brand image and reputation of Marks and Spenser

Training framework	Plan
Communication skills training	Elimination of the communication barriers due to diverse cultural backgrounds of the employees
Delivery mode	Vestibule
Budget (per person)	Lunch- $15 AUD Notebook and stationeries- $25 AUD
Delivery style	Power points, digital collaboration, new technologies, face-to-face small group interaction
Audience	employees from diverse cultural backgrounds
Goals and learning objectives	1.     To instill a sense of confidence among the employees from diverse ethnic, linguistic and cultural background to deal with the customers 2.     Building and maintenance of effective personal rapport among the employees 3.     To reduce and avoid situations that would lead to conflict 4.     To keep the employees motivated so that they are able to demonstrate their best performance and take the brand to its zenith 5.     To ensure that the employees and the customers are equally satisfied and would not have to stay with the monotonous workflow 6.     To maintain the sustainability of the organization 7.     To ensconce the brand image and reputation of Marks and Spenser
Timeline	4-5 hours of training  for 1 month (excluding Saturday and Sunday)
Communication	E-mail and WhatsApp message (WhatsApp group would be created)
Measurement method	survey and group discussion

The methods of delivering the training would be through new technologies, digital collaboration, multimedia training and training in groups. The adoption of new technology for the training program would reduce the cost on training in delivering the training; it would increase effectiveness of the learning environment and equip the training to contribute to the organizational goals. In this context, online training would be quite effective. The second method of delivery would be digital collaboration that would enable the employees to enhance and extend their work through electronic messaging systems and online community and electronic meeting systems (Moser, 2012). The advantage of this would be the possibility of non-real-time interactions from where the learners can access information from the learning resources. Another aspect of the digital collaboration would face-to-face interaction of the trainer with the learners, experts and the trainers. In case of multimedia training, there would be the incorporation of the computer-based training. There will also be blended learning as method of delivery as it would allow more face-to-face social interaction. The instructions would be presented in a dedicated environment. Finally, the small group communication method would be relevant in enabling the communication and this would allow better communication skill for the employees.

1. The role of the trainer would be to maintain coordination between the receiver and the sender
2. The trainer would play the role of an intermediary and would help in reducing the communication gap between the two employees.
3. The trainers would be using the interactive method and enhance the communication skills of the employees who are facing language barrier
4. Another responsibility of the professional trainer would be to improve the competencies and skills of the employees
5. In case of small group communication, the trainer would be faced with multiple challenges, firstly they would not get the opportunity for evaluating the performance level of the individual.
6. Secondly, the trainer might not be able to understand the communication skill of the individual

Feedback and evaluation of the training program is important in keeping a tab of the learning outcome of the program and secondly to assess the success of the program. The evaluation of the program would be done through online survey and face-to-face survey from the customers. Another mode of evaluation would be  collecting feedback from the employees regarding the effectiveness of the training and the ways in which the training has been helpful in bringing a change in their perspective and helped them in strengthening interpersonal communication skills of the employees. The third mode of evaluation would be the response from the manager regarding any identifiable change in the employees. The effectiveness of the training can be measured through the Kirkpatrick Model.

The resources required that would facilitate design, implementation and evaluation of the program’s success or failure would be required for the interpersonal communication training program would be folders and files, name tags, notebooks and stationeries to be distributed among the employees and sticky wall. In addition, there would be required markers, pen, masking tape and food items that would be served to the trainers and the employees.

Objectives of Hybrid Training Program

Projector for power point presentation, 20 computers for the employees, chairs and tables, and personal phones given by the employers to the employees for their official use

• Location- The location for the training would be the training room situated near the main manufacturing site of the company
• Staff- In this case, the number of staff required would be the communication skills trainer who would provide training to the employees, the facilities manager who would ensure that all the facilities are met out to the employees and the organization, and the person who would be serving lunch to the employees and the trainer.

Given the number of resources to be used for the purpose of training, the remuneration to  be paid to the communication skills trainer and the facilities that would be required in training the employees, the estimated cost is expected to reach at $100 AUD

The role of management support lies in the managerial use of the information for using the resources. This helps in providing relevant information in the management and planning of the decision-making. A manager needs to conduct a pre-assessment that needs to be discussed with the employees at the outset of the program (Ruck & Welch, 2012). The managers need to have a brief meeting with the employees before the commencement of the training program and review the objective of the course and associate these to the specificity of the tasks. If the manager do not provide the adequate support, it would be difficult to go ahead with the training program.

The perception and the participation of the employees is important in continuance of the and effectiveness of the communication skill training problem. If the employees do not participate program in an enthusiastic manner or are not involved with the vision and objective of the program, then it will be difficult and pose impediment in the success of the training program. Similarly, the perception of the employees needs to be in sync with the overall vision of the program. If the employees feel offended with this program then the outcome of the program would not  be in accordance with the intention behind the training program.

Financial constraint can be a major issue in the context of a training program and can pose barriers in the continuance of the program. For example if there is no adequate resource it would be difficult to apply the appropriate training method, purchase of the resources and hiring of the trainer who would train the employees

This is in similar lines to that of that of the perception and participation of the employees. Conflicting priorities can be a barrier considering that the employees would feel that the training is of no use whereas for the manager of Marks and Spenser, the training is useful for eliminating the communication barriers between the employees and the customers and in building better relationship and brand image.

Conclusion

Based on the above discussion on communication skill training and development program it can be stated that Mark and Spenser have effective plans for eliminating the communication barriers between the employers and customers belonging to diverse background. The hybrid method would be useful in the outlining of an effective communication plan.

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