Style in Business Communication - Case Study Example

Communication BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Communication The case of Mr. Smith Everyone directly associated with Mr. Smith had their own perceptions about his personality, his lifestyle and his individual contribution to the company. Most of these interpretations about the meaning of Mr. Smith were based on minimal knowledge about his personal life, or based it on their own social views about what should dictate proper business and social behaviour. Smith obviously enjoys having distance from other employees and puts professionalism before socialisation, which makes some people in the organisation believe Smith is not psychologically adjusted correctly. In some cultures, there is the idea of power distance, where social matters take second priority over simply following manager’s directions (Ober, 2008). This attitude, in business, is marked by remaining isolated or simply following orders without much ongoing social discussion. The case suggests that Smith prefers to keep a distance between job role and responsibility and his own personal affairs. The CEO created a positive connection with Smith because of his own personal values, such as military service or high job performance. Felicia, his coworker, perceived meaning from small, non-personal details that she built around her conceptions of integrity and charity and then applied these personal meanings to describe Smith. His receptionist seems to like to speculate to find her own meaning based on certain small importance verbal cues or visual cues. Her personality fits the profile of a person who might engage in inter-office gossip or communicating in ways that do not always reflect business etiquette. The meanings that each person has about Smith are based mostly on perceptions or various verbal and non-verbal cues that help them to shape a personality profile about him. These are all cultural differences that come from limited knowledge where people try to, through perceptive deduction, create their own construct of personality which they attribute to Smith. The management of the business should rely on different informal measures such as planning more group meetings, where certain agendas can be discussed and allow people to get to know one another on a more personal level. Assigning people to work in team projects is one quality way of improving communications and knowledge about workers to create a knowledge culture. Smith would probably not enjoy being singled out in a meeting to discuss his personal goals, lifestyle or ambitions, but by assigning group tasks, some misconceptions could be cleared up and they would have direct knowledge to understand him better. The case of Baker and Rennalls Baker indicates that his observations about Rennalls’ ability to work better with his own race than that of Europeans is stated as a matter of fact. Baker should have approached the subject by introducing language that was culturally-relevant and not so accusing. Baker could have discussed the different situations Rennalls had worked through, citing instances where results were completely positive and when some had met with outcomes that were negative. Baker should not have used the idea of ethnocentrism, or the belief that one race is superior to another (Ober). This is exactly what he did and it would have been hard for anyone to miss. Baker should have led the discussion by talking about Rennalls’ experiences with expatriate managers rather than referring to them as Europeans or Barracanians, which quickly suggested a form of racial profiling or racial identity. Baker failed to recognise certain cultural characteristics of people who hail from this region, which again include high levels of power distance. It is somewhat natural that a person with high power distance would tend to have more similarities with people from their own country and positive communications would simply be an outcome out of commonalities and similar beliefs. Europeans, however, tend to be much less status-oriented and like to be a part of group activities and enjoy social connection in the professional environment. Baker failed to consider aspects of culture and his remarks seemed very accusatory without considering ethnic values. In some countries from this region, there is also high instances of masculine values being more valued than feminine values, with aggressive personalities often being the outcome of these beliefs. Baker’s construction of reality is based on his own values as a European that considers teamwork and social business environments to have much higher value than strictly business alone. Rennalls’ likely drew on his masculine values related to competitiveness and, as a matter of culture, reacted very strongly as most people from his region would. Even though Rennalls’ response was out of line and very inappropriate, especially without again consulting Baker about his concerns, the accusations Baker made were clearly there and not really hidden by innuendos. Each person involved in this case constructed their own realities based on cultural preferences and stereotypes and Baker could have done more to speak in a tone that would be accepted by someone with Barracanian culture systems and symbols. “Beliefs, then, become an equally important component of stereotypes that can provide insight in the complex structure of these perceptual mechanisms” (Ibroscheva & Ramaprasad, 2008, p.68). The case of Chinese tourism Most of the issues in this case were also culturally-motivated, and dealt with the concept of uncertainty avoidance. Europeans tend to make more risky decisions in the hopes of achieving a positive outcome, which is why they chose to base their perceptions as the rationalisation for why they agreed to book a very complicated tourism plan with a person who did not speak English. High levels of risk decisions occur with many Europeans so they just did they best they could to communicate through repetition or gesturing. Asian cultures, however, have little tolerance for risk or situations that are uncertain which is why the tourist was so frustrated about the women not showing up on time and holding up the travel bus. The British tourists thought they could just muddle through the planning stage and perceived that their needs were going to be met, even though the tourism agency was designed to fit the needs of Chinese-speaking tourists. Because of these differences in cultural values, the women assumed that their gesturing and transportation needs were completely understood and they would have no problems after arriving at the airport. Because of the low risk culture in China, the tourist guide just assumed that a Chinese-based travel agency would follow the right rules and guide the women properly to avoid complications or delays. It goes against their cultural norm to be inefficient in a country where hard work and dedication to performance are common values. The English women, however, simply in search of a relaxing and recreational trip, were prepared to deal with the problems that might arise because of their risk profiles. The Chinese tour guide was upset by what had occurred since it went against their norm for productivity. The guide held the sign up to show that she felt the phrase two English women, written in Chinese, should have been enough for the women to recognize their own role in the process and respond accordingly. There was definitely a divide between culture and perceptions of tourism efficiency that was considerably more important to the tour guide than the British travellers. The case of Molex Inc. Molex is a global organisation, meaning that it must work regularly with foreign cultures that have different business values and social beliefs. In order to meet the needs of clients, Molex needs to make sure its employees understand the different characteristics of foreign clients and give them the resources to provide support and professionalism in a way that provides value to these customers and partners. Support employees will have to consult with representatives from different countries and therefore need to know their basic perceptions about respect, status, or not using language that shows frustration if they are working with someone who does not speak English very well. In order to make sure they keep a competitive advantage over other global firms in their industry, it became necessary to create an integrated human resources system with a focus on training and support for these cultural representatives. This is a systems-thinking organisation, defined as “organizations being constituted of sub-systems that are in interrelationships with one another, and which exist within a boundary” (Chowdhury, Butler & Clarke, 2007, p.2). A global company has interconnected divisions that need to communicate effectively in order to accomplish strategic goals and satisfy customers. By providing this focus on unity and better global support through human resources, they have a better team that can service many cultures. The case of McDonald’s Multi-national companies that operate in foreign areas need to understand the different cultural and even religious values of market segments that will most likely buy their products. By moving McDonald’s into different countries where Hinduism is practiced, they should have identified their menu to locate products that might have caused problems with the local culture. A company as large as McDonald’s has the talent and resources to conduct statistical research and cultural research in many different formats to make sure it understands what type of menu would appeal to their religious, family, or social preferences. This is one thing McDonald’s could have done to prepare for offering service in a Hindu nation. Countries with strong values, such as considering the cow sacred and therefore protected, should have been enough early knowledge to identify any products, and those used to prepare them, to find anything with beef used as an ingredient. The company could have found these issues and listed them as warnings on the menu or in news releases so that customers knew exactly what they were getting and could make the right menu selections to fit their religious values. This involves better research and proper communications that are targeted at their largest customer groups. Failure to inform customers of their preparation methods, or identify them, was a failure for the company that led to the perception in buyer groups that they were being misled or their needs were not being considered. The case of KKD Most of the noise involved Crowell himself, who liked the social and informal aspect of business more than Moto did. These were cultural differences between Americans and Japanese where informal meetings seemed to be the norm in the U.S. In Japan, there is more group consensus necessary to finalize business decisions where in America, individual expression is common with different business leaders. Americans are "are quick to the point" in communication and "eschew long greeting” (Ding, 2006, p.87). The noise was mostly a product of these differences in how to approach business. When Crowell took Moto’s card and slipped it away without looking, Moto should have realised that this was to be an informal session and tried to adapt to Crowell’s noisy personality. Crowell found value in discussing his possessions and his family while Moto, being inexperienced, was relying on his academic lessons and cultural values about having a strong business ethic. Moto had prepared a gift symbolizing his business relationship and respect and Crowell, being a noisy talker, did not take the time to realise this gift had great respect and meaning behind it. Noise was also just created because Moto did not understand that individualism was common in America and he expected everyone to communicate similarly to Ms. Black, his American overseas instructor. In Japan, such an informal meeting between similar business partners would not have been tolerated and there probably would have been some sort of disciplinary action or using power and control to make the other focus on the objective of landing the deal or working on arrangements for strategy. Communications style for Crowell involved self-expression in a tone that was light-hearted and very social. Moto was simply not accustomed to this style so he did not have the experience needed to adjust his tactics in a way that better fit Crowell’s personality and tone. The noise between them was out of misunderstanding and large differences in individualism at the cultural level. A person’s perceptions are usually based on learned interpretations (qcpages.qc.cuny.edu, 2008). As Moto became more experienced, he realised that businesspeople in the U.S. have their own approach to doing business which made him able to cut out the noise in communications by being more flexible and by learning. References Chowdhury, R., Butler, R. & Clarke, E. 2007, Healthcare IT project failure: A systems perspective, Journal of Cases on Information Technology, 9(4), pp.1-15. Ding, D.D. 2006, An indirect style in business communication, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 20(1), pp.87-101. Ibroscheva, E. & Ramaprasad, J. 2008, Do media matter? A social construction model of stereotypes of foreigners, Journal of Intercultural Communication, Iss. 16. http://www.immi.se/intercultural/nr16/ibroscheva.htm (accessed April 3, 2010). Ober, S. 2008, Contemporary Business Communication, 5th ed. Houghton Mifflin Company. qcpages.qc.cuny.edu. 2008, The Social Construction of Reality Assumptions, Brock University. http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/mediastudies/reality.htm (accessed April 4, 2010). Read More