Organisational And Intercultural Communication Management: A Report

Intercultural Communication

Discuss about the Communication within an Organization.

In modern days of business it has become essential for the firms to take use of the best communication methodologies as well as channels (Chaney and Martin, 2013). It helps to ensure that the flow of information at different levels carries out without any interruption. Apart from this it is also necessary that management makes an appropriate strategy for communication. There are larger numbers of people inside the firm that comes from different cultural backgrounds hence a proper mode of communication needs to be selected (Bovée and Thill, 2012). There are two types of communication within an organisation namely organisational communication and inter-cultural communication. This report highlights the ways in which inter-cultural communication and organisational communication needs to be managed.

Intercultural communication is understood as the discipline that studies communication across different social groups and cultures (Guffey and Loewy, 2012). It can also be understood as the ways in which culture affects the communication. This concept arise due to the reason that communication problems and processes arise naturally due to people coming from different social backgrounds, ethnicity etc. Cross cultural communication suggests that people interprets anything in a way as they have learned over the years.

Organisational communication is a field that studies regarding the consideration, criticism, role and analysis of communication within organisational context (Kernbach, Eppler and Bresciani, 2015). The flow of information can be through both the modes formal and Informal. Communication through informal channels is termed as grapevine while the communication that is through formal channels is understood to be downward, horizontal and upward (Hynes, 2012). Grapevine is unofficial and random means o communication as well as intercultural communicatiof communication. It is quick and is direct but can be a havoc of communication.

There are several theories that have been given by different scientists on organisational communication as well as intercultural communication (Kaul, 2014).

• Weber’s classical theory: This theory suggests that firms have clearly defined responsibilities and roles and hence communication is structured, clear and hierarchical. This is a rigid machine like structure where there is no confusion regarding message being sent from top to bottom (Kupritz and Cowell, 2011).
• Tompkins and Cheney’s control theory: This theory is applicable for the firms that are moving past the bureaucratic mode but are yet to be totally amorphous (Louhiala-Salminen and Kankaanranta, 2011). This theory defines four kind of control that determines the way firms exercise power within and they are simple, bureaucratic, technical and concertive.
• Deetz’s Managerialism theory: The evolution of organisational models and structures over the years has spawned theories that reflect the changing organisational norms. This theory is an attempt to describe the ways in which organisational control and communication happens in the firm (Ruck and Welch, 2012). In this classical notions are substituted by the acknowledgement of economic and political interest as well as requirement to give empowerment to these diverse interests.

• Meaning of meanings theory: This theory suggests that a misunderstanding takes place when individuals assume a word has a direct connection with its referent. A common past diminishes misunderstanding (Ean, 2011).
• Face negotiation theory: This theory suggests that members of collectivistic, high context cultures have concerns for mutual face and inclusion that leads them to manage conflicts with another person by obliging, compromising or avoiding.
• Standpoint theory: An individual’s knowledge, communication and knowledge behaviour are shaped in larger part by the social groups to which they belong (Skills you needs, 2018). People sometimes view things similarly but other times they have very diverse views in which they see the world.
• Stranger theory: This theory suggests that at least one of the individuals in an intellectual encounter is a stranger. Stranger are a hyperaware of cultural differences and tend to overestimate the effect of cultural identity on the behaviour of individuals in a strange society, while blurring individual distinction (Lardbucket, 2018).

Events and experience

There are various kinds of events that are going on inside the firm from time to time. I have also been part of such events and i have learned about the various kinds of challenges that are faced by firm in terms of communication. I was a part of change in the work culture within a firm. Previously company was following individual centred work culture, later it was changed into team culture. I have seen that in the change management there is lot of issue related to the communication. I noticed that there are many kinds of strategies that were required for managing an event. One of the most essential strategies is to manage conflict between different levels of organisation. Communication channels helps in making process of change management easier.  There are many employees that get unsatisfied with the change in the work culture. There are many types of problems that can be sorted out if there is proper communication channel where people can easily put there issue and raise their concerns. This helps in making change process smooth. People inside the firm coms from different cultural backgrounds hence a proper explanation of why change is needed is necessary.

Organisational Communication

Interpretation and evaluation of change

It is essential in every organisation to embed a culture of team within an organisation. It helps in enhancing the productivity of the firm as well as enhancing the efficiency of individuals. During the change the role of communication becomes more significant. I saw that it is the role of the management in this process to implement a best communication channel so that things can be sorted out properly. Change management must be done by applying different organisational communication and inter-cultural communication theories. It helps in ensuring that there are larger numbers of people that are coming from diverse cultural backgrounds may not face any challenge while implementing the change. This event helped me to understand that people percept things as per their past experience while sometimes distracts from the original idea of why things are being done inside the company. Choosing the best possible communication process helps in reducing the amount of conflict that may arrive in the daily operations of the firm. I felt that it is essential that a long term communicational structure needs to be constructed so that employees do not face problems in sharing of the information which is essential for making any event easier.

Usefulness of information

It helped me in understanding there are many kinds of people that comes inside the firm who have a totally different perception about anything. It is essential for the firm to make sure that there is no communication gap within the firm due to these kinds of communicational barriers. In order to reduce this there must be a proper communication channel that is to be set up within the firm. In order to make sure that there is a proper flow of information within a firm a formal organisational communication channel is needed. It changed the way of my thinking as previously I was unaware about the role of communication in any event.  I will utilise this information of mine in future in order to reduce the unnecessary among my team mates.

Both these topics are highly important for the firm since they help in reducing the conflict and helps in maintaining the positive environment within an organisation. Study of both these topics helped me in understanding that there are larger numbers of people gets dissatisfied if there are improper communication channels within any organisation.

Help in future career

This will help me in making the future communication plans. There are many kinds of people that are coming in the organisation and hence it will be help me in making good relationship with them .It will also help me in making a strategic approach that assist in reducing the conflicts that may arise in the future It will also help me in getting good grades in my future academic career. This will also help me in resolving issues that comes due to communication barriers among people that comes from different sections of the society. This will also help me in resolving the issues that arise due to miscommunication or misjudgement of the words by two culturally different people coming from different backgrounds. If I came in the management of any organisation then it will help me in making healthy relations with employee which is necessary in modern day business.

Conclusion

From the above based report it can be concluded that there are many individuals coming to the firm from different cultural backgrounds hence it is necessary to have proper communication policy and structure. This helps in bringing smoothness to the flow of information within a firm which is essential for the growth of the firm as it ensure that there is no confusion in the flow of information. Apart from this there are several theories that will be given by different scientist on the topics like inter cultural communication and organisational communication. These theories help in understanding the present communication model as well as the changes that are required in it. Various communication complexities occur during any event such as changing the working culture within the firm.

References

Bovée, C.L. and Thill, J.V., 2012. Excellence in business communication. Pearson Higher Ed.

Chaney, L. and Martin, J., 2013. Intercultural business communication. Pearson Higher Ed.

Ean, L.C., 2011. Computer-mediated communication and organisational communication: The use of new communication technology in the workplace. The journal of the south east asia research centre for communication and humanities,(3), pp.1-12.

Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D., 2012. Essentials of business communication. Cengage Learning.

Hynes, G.E., 2012. Improving employees’ interpersonal communication competencies: A qualitative study. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(4), pp.466-475.

Kaul, A., 2014. Effective business communication. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..

Kernbach, S., Eppler, M.J. and Bresciani, S., 2015. The use of visualization in the communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation. International Journal of Business Communication, 52(2), pp.164-187.

Kupritz, V.W. and Cowell, E., 2011. Productive management communication: Online and face-to-face. The Journal of Business Communication (1973), 48(1), pp.54-82.

Lardbucket, 2018. Classical theories of organisational communication. [Online]. Available at: https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-organizational-communication/s05-classical-theories-of-organiza.html. [Accessed on: 7^th  February 2018].

Louhiala-Salminen, L. and Kankaanranta, A., 2011. Professional communication in a global business context: The notion of global communicative competence. IEEE Transactions on professional communication, 54(3), pp.244-262.

Ruck, K. and Welch, M., 2012. Valuing internal communication; management and employee perspectives. Public Relations Review, 38(2), pp.294-302.

Skills you needs, 2018. Intercultural communication skills. [Online]. Available at: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/intercultural-communication.html. [Accessed on: 7^th  February 2018].