Describe the concept of communication as it relates to the discipline of Management.
Identify three (3) issues that can undermine effective communication in an
organisational context. Using an example, explain how managers can develop a system
of communication to improve their organisation’s performance.
This essay will discuss the topic of communication as it relates to the discipline of
Management. It will use three examples to identify and define how a cross-cultural
environment can undermine effective communication in an organisational context. Relevant,
authenticate research from academic sources, such as books, and journal articles will support
and verify points and issues in this essay. My sub-topic focuses on how the cross-cultural
environment of a business effects communication. Bell and Smith (2010) state that
intercultural communication involves understanding the different ‘views of the world’,
whether between countries, or cultural groups within one country.
Bell and Smith (2010) point out that multicultural communication in business has such a
large part to play in today’s economy, having one third of business graduates experience
extended foreign business involvement within the first five years of their careers. Bell and
Smith (2010) outline eleven common areas of multicultural misunderstandings, which
include: male-female interactions, respect, time and space, taboos, commitments, nonverbal
cues, language and translation, dress, methods of persuasion, religious and political issues
and prejudices. Three relevant key concepts which will be addressed are: trust and language,
lack of awareness and groupthink. For communication between different cultures to be
successful, it requires managers to develop relationships, trust being the foundation of a
successful relationship. Irwin, More and McGrath (1998) interviewed people in a business
organisation, their findings suggest that, the most important things in management is the trust
between two managers; which pulls people to work together openly. There’s nothing more
destructive to a relationship than to have the feeling that at top management there is a lack of
trust. This is an excellent example of how without trust, there is nothing that ties one manager
to another, leaving communication broken or omitted entirely. It becomes even more
prominent between multicultural communication, where language and cultural background
affects the meaning of the message trying to be conveyed.
Trust comes hand in hand with listening and understanding the other person you are trying to
communicate with. As Mounter (2003) states that global communication model can be
summed up in one word: listening. Mounter (2003) believes that 70 per cent of effective
1
global communication involves listening. Rogers and Farson (1976) describe that active
listening requires the receiver to listen for full meaning without making premature
judgements or interpretations and it demands total concentration. Active listeners use their
idle brain time to summarise and integrate what has been said, or in this context if the
language being communicated is foreign or the sender has a strong accent, this allows time
for the receiver to process and comprehend the message being sent.
When communicating with another culture, managers shouldn’t assume that they understand
English at the same level as them. Jung and McCroskey, (2004) state how if different cultures
(which speak another language) are apprehensive about speaking their own language, their
fear of communicating in English must be magnified ten-fold. This follows on from Bell and
Smith (2010) who advise that communicators should avoid slang and idioms, slow down their
speech, and check their listener’s understanding of what they’re communicating. To help
managers understand another culture and hence help diminish weakness in effective
communication between organisations, Bell and Smith (2010) suggest to visit the country’s
embassy, get a feel for how their culture affects their day to day life, participate in cultural
training, ask people who have lived or visited the country what to expect and the do’s and
don’ts of what’s accepted in the culture and studying the language. Although they won’t
expect you to be fluent in their language it is always a compliment if you at least try.
Sometimes you can undermine communication by being unaware of cultures customs and
tradition but by being unreasonably slow, or excessively explaining something when talking
to someone of another culture doesn’t help and can leave the receiver feeling patronised or
annoyed. A smart move which is the best of both worlds, Bell & Smith (2010) suggest
creating a business card with English on one side, and their language on the other. Make sure
that the translation is accurate and to be aware that meanings in English don’t always
translate exactly the same into another language.
Lack of awareness in multicultural communication undermines communication by not
realising cultural traits, which in turn can insult, offend, or make the receiver interpret the
message wrong. Bjerregaard et al. (2009) support Hall (1959) when he suggests that culture is
communication and communication is culture. The way each individual’s brought up,
whether in a different country, or by a religious upbringing, they bring their own culture to an
organisation, and it is often simple barriers which prevents successful intercultural
communication in organisations. Bjerregaard et al. (2009) agree with Loosemore and Lee’s
2
(2002) statement that culture may function as “noise” and a “perceptual filter” in the sender’s
encoding and the receiver’s decoding processes.
Lack of awareness or ending a conversation and later thinking, “…well how was I supposed
to know?” isn’t good enough in the discipline of management; thankfully managers can be
taught to being aware of expectations and blind spots. Knowledge is power, as Bjerregaard et
al. (2009) agree with Marcus and Lin, (1999) in their argument, ‘that the more one learns of
another culture, the closer one comes to understanding the messages the way they were
intended’. Multicultural communication barriers undermine affective communication so
much because cultures vary and so much needs to be learnt before effective multicultural
communication can take place. Mounter (2003, p. 268) confirms that ‘Lack of awareness
about local sensitivities is clearly a significant reason why global communication can fail.
There is, however, a fine line between understanding and being patronising’.
Groupthink is where pressures to conform in groups can become a problem. As Robbins et al.
(2011) put it; groupthink is where individuals stay silent, due to pressure for conformity, and
where new ideas, or expressing their dissent are seen as unwelcome. Individuals feel as
though they can’t express their ideas and when in actual fact one or more group members
may have the same idea but won’t speak up in order to give the appearance of agreement. As
a result, groupthink undermines critical thinking in the group and eventually harms the
quality of the final decision. While groupthink can occur in any group, Goby (2007 p. 425)
states, ‘the findings also indicate that respondents in multicultural settings may be more
inclined to engage in groupthink because of their heightened awareness of cultural
differences and their wish to avoid conflict’. Goby (2007, p. 434) questions how culture in
group discussions can undermine communication, asking:
But does a multicultural environment encourage individuals to exercise greater caution and
reserve in self-expression? Are individuals in such an environment more inclined to
hyperconform, to engage in groupthink, because of their heightened awareness of cultural
differences and their wish to avoid conflict?
There isn’t just one answer to these questions; a system of communication can be applied to
improve an organisation’s overall performance, since communication is the foundation of any
organisation’s success. A system of communication requires individuals to feel free to
3
express their thoughts and ideas, as Robbins et al. (2011) explains, there are three steps to
improving communication in group decision making. Robbins et al. (2011) outlines three
suggestions to improving group decision making, and communication between group
members. The first allows individuals to feel comfortable in sharing ideas and even prompts
them to suggest ideas. Many authors support Wagstaff’s (2002, p.45) definition of
brainstorming: ‘brainstorming is a relatively simple technique that generates ideas by
encouraging any and all alternatives while withholding any criticism of those alternatives’.
The next step is the nominal group technique. Marcus and Lin, (1999) suggest that the group
silently and independently writes down their ideas (problems and solutions) and then each
member presents their ideas to the group. The decision is made by voting on the ideas and
ranking them. This allows everyone to have a say, and to prompt individuals to think on their
own two feet. An alternative to the nominal group technic is electronic meetings which work
just like the nominal group technic but via online. This method is mostly used in multicultural
communication between business partnerships which are overseas. Goby (2007, p. 343)
insists though that, ‘diversity across organizational subcultures may prompt groupthink’.
Which in turn can undermine intercultural communication but with the aid of brainstorming,
the nominal group technique and electronic meetings, cultural differences are eliminated and
all opinions are heard.
A cross-cultural environment can undermine effective communication in an organisation;
there are many issues which have to be dealt with, such as: trust and language, lack of
awareness and groupthink but a cross-cultural environment can enrich an organisation with
new and different ideas. Different cultures can if intercultural communication is successful;
provide and bring fresh and diverse perspectives and concepts into the organisation.
Management is ineffective without proper communication but with the right approach and
attitude can create all the difference. By taking the time and making the effort to learn and
accept other cultures, an organisation can transform into a diverse network, creating more
opportunities.
4
References
The reference list has been removed as it was based on another system of referencing.
Please make sure that your reference list complies fully with the Harvard Style as laid
out in the Harvard Referencing Guide for this unit.
5
Completing the Major Assignment: Checklist
In order to complete your major assignment to a high standard, please make sure you
address the following checklist items…..
□ Make sure you fully understand the feedback you received from the JAR task:
□
Clarify your understanding of the Harvard system – both for the final
reference list and for in-text citations.
□
Clarify what constitutes an ‘academic article’ and how many you need as a
minimum to answer the question.
□
Clarify your expression if needed; academic essays require you to
demonstrate a command of specific language – layman’s terminology and
inaccurate/vague discussion will not score a pass grade.
□ Make sure you understand the requirements of the question asked!
□
Select the topic you are interested in. YOU DO NOT have to do the same
topic that your JAR focused on – you may change to the other option.
□
Do you know what the question requires you to do?
□
How can you address ALL aspects of the question?
□
Talk with your tutor about your plan?
□ Plan your essay carefully
□
The question options are broad in scope – you must narrow the focus to
something you are particularly interested in. For example – you may wish to
focus on how planning theory works in times of crises; similarly, you may wish
to focus on how change occurs in not-for-profit organisations. The focus of
your paper is completely up to you.
□
Find a minimum of 7 academic journal articles focused on this narrow topic of
your choosing; NB: your paper must focus on organisations of some sort.
□
Your tutor/lecturer is NOT in a position to read your paper in advance –
however, you are welcome to discuss the scope and focus of your paper to
make sure it is on the right track.
□ Write your essay carefully!
□
Demonstrate that you have command of the academic concepts and
language. The best way to do this is to (a) DEFINE all of the key concepts
involved in your topic – break them down into key elements , AND (b)
demonstrate how the elements you have identified interact (or don’t!) to
answer the question.
□
Make sure that your essay has something to say about the theory in the
particular context you have chosen.
□
Your conclusion should include the implications your work has for practising
managers – i.e. if you were a consultant, what recommendations would your
assignment have for managers “in the real world?”
□
Spelling and grammar errors are unacceptable! Proof read your work before
handing it in!
Planning and writing your essay
Unless you have truly remarkable powers of handling multiple sources of information
simultaneously in your working memory, you will need to follow your research and note
taking by making out a plan before you begin to write an essay. Indeed, it is a false economy
to spend little or no time on the plan, thinking that you will sort out any gaps or fuzzy bits
during the process of writing — you are more likely to get stuck or wander away from your
line of argument/discussion. Time spent on effective planning should quickly repay itself by
greatly cutting down writing time.
Answering the question
To understand what a good plan looks like, you need to be clear on what it should enable
you to do. Certainly that is to write out the full essay, but what are you trying to do in that?
Whatever your topic, the same applies: the cleverest thing you can do is answer the
question. Although many people believe this to be obvious, one of the most common faults
with early essays is their failure to address and/or to answer the question the tutor or
examiner has set.
An essay question asks you to do something(s) and so establishes a domain of relevance
for your answer — to 'compare and contrast...', 'discuss...', spell out 'why...' or 'how...' and so
forth. Some concepts, arguments and sources of evidence are relevant to answering it, many
more are not. Analysing what the question means, and what material is relevant to answering
it, is an important part of planning an essay's structure. No essay question is ever intended to
mean 'write out everything you know about X', unless it says so — and generally it won't!
Often, however, producing an unordered list of points that they have come across in
connection with terms in the essay title is precisely what people end up doing. This is
especially likely to happen if you make up your own essay titles by simply putting a noun
phrase at the top of your paper, e.g. Tiaget's Theory or 'Learning and Development'. You
should notice that the essay titles you are set are never noun phrases like those, although you
may encounter something like 'What are the differences between learning and development
in Piaget's theory?' For everything you include in an essay, you should be able to justify why
it is there and necessary to answering the question; if you can't, leave it out.
Building an essay plan should also aim to avoid a further common problem with essays:
leaving the material to speak for itself. In a novel, it is considered a mark of skill to build
up 'evidence' that leads the reader to a 'conclusion' that the author does not present explicitly,
say 'X stumbled across the room, his speech slurred, as the empty whisky bottle caught my
eye...' but not 'X was drunk'. In academic essays, however, it is important to express the
structure of your argument and your conclusions as explicitly as possible. Each step of your
argument, or order of discussion, should be stated explicitly and clearly, and part of building
your plan should involve articulating precisely what those steps are and why they are going
to be located as they are in relation to the other parts of the essay.
Planning
Your essay plan can usefully include five components:
(a) A summary of the introductory paragraph, which will orient the reader to what you are
trying to do and how you intend to do it. This tells the reader what to expect and also sets the
criterion of relevance against which they can judge whether or not your essay achieves what
it sets out to do. Sentences in this paragraph should: highlight the terms from the title that
you believe are important; make clear how you are interpreting the question; state your aims;
and very briefly indicate the general line of argument and/or order of discussion that follows.
If the full version of this paragraph gets beyond about half a side, it's too long; cut out any
superfluous material and/or make your prose style terser.
(b) In the order in which you will present them, the main points of your argument.
Express the essential idea behind each stage of your essay in a single sentence.
(c) Under each of these points, a brief reference to the evidence, examples and supporting
material that will be included to support it. This will mainly involve outlining someone's
argument(s) and/or details of empirical studies. Arrows may be added to indicate any cross
reference between stages of the essay that you intend to include.
(d) A conclusion, which should relate to the essay question and follow clearly and logically
from your preceding points.
If (a), (b) and (d) are expressed in coherent sentences (harder to do but far more effective
than unrelated words or phrases), putting them together should produce an intelligible
abstract or précis of your whole essay.
Interconnected material - linear order
If you follow the preceding guidelines about planning, then writing the essay should be a
straightforward task of producing appropriate prose to flesh out the skeleton that you have
constructed. Easy enough once you have mastered it, this fleshing out process often requires
practice to prevent what should be an explicitly structured, systematic argument ending up
as a list of points that seem relatively unrelated as far as the reader is concerned. This is not
surprising. There are all sorts of interconnections between the issues, concepts and studies
that are relevant to a typical essay. You may be able to express these for yourself in a
diagram, and they should be made clear in your plan. However, when it comes to final
writing, you have no option but to work in a linear mode, producing a series of words, one
after another.
You have to use appropriate phrases in appropriate places to make the structure of your
argument clear and compelling to the reader. The best rule of thumb is that your reader
should never have to try to work out for themselves why you have included any particular
material in your answer. You should tell them, and do so at a time when they can best take
advantage of that information. Ask yourself: how likely is it that someone paraphrasing my
essay would end up with something close to my original plan? Have a serious look at how a
good academic book or paper tries to make its structure transparent through sentences in the
introduction, start of each section, and beginning and ending of each paragraph. In the
meantime, some widely applicable suggestions are given below:
(a) Ensure that all the steps of your argument/discussion appear explicitly in the essay
and are not left behind in your plan or your head. Don't just present the evidence for points
that you wish to make, thus leaving it to speak for itself, or the reader to try to speak for it.
(b) As far as possible, make your question-related commentary as you go along, don't 'save' it
all for a final conclusions section. The main conclusions should draw together what has
already been said, not do new work for the essay. For example, if you aim to 'compare the
views of A and B', avoid devoting two sides to what A has to say about X, Y and Z, then the
same amount to what B has to say about X, Y and Z, only at the bitter end drawing attention
to agreements and disagreements. By the time your conclusion launches into 'so, A and B
agree on X insofar as ', the reader may have to look back four pages to check. It's fine to
conclude: “As demonstrated above, A and B agree on X and Y but disagree on Z” — provided
the agreements and disagreement really were explicitly flagged and spelt out for the reader
earlier on.
(c) Don't 'save' your points or commentary until the ends of the paragraphs or sections
in which they occur. As the plan proposal, above, suggested: evidence or examples should
be assembled under points you are making, not before them. Don't spend half a page or more
summarizing an experiment, then tag on words to the effect: This means X for the essay
question.' Instead, start by saying 'X is demonstrated by a study that...', then summarize the
experiment. This can help you to be more selective about what details of studies you present;
and it is easier for the reader to work forwards rather than backwards.
(d) Avoid repeating the same point or conclusion in a series of paragraphs (though it is
better to repeat yourself than not to comment explicitly at all). Say, for example, you want to
establish that X is the case and you have three sources of support, A, B and C. Obviously,
you should not just write three paragraphs summarizing A, B, then C, with allusion to X
nowhere in view. Neither is it good style to begin or end three consecutive paragraphs with X.
Where a single point is supported by several sources of evidence, this branching structure can
be expressed quite simply in words by saying something like: Three sources of evidence
support the conclusion that X. Firstly, A….Secondly, B….Finally, C….
There are many similar constructions. For example, you can often begin a series of
thematically related paragraphs with a sentence like:
“This paper shall outline three sources of evidence for X:A; B; and C”, where you substitute
brief phrases for A-C before the more detailed 3-step exposition. A similar solution copes
with one piece of evidence, say A, relating to several aspects of an issue, for example X:
Study A makes three important contributions to our understanding of X. Firstly, aspect 1 of A
challenges the opposing view not-X. Secondly, aspect 2 of A suggests X2. Finally, aspect 3
of A confirms X3.
(e) Develop your repertoire of 'hooks' between paragraphs. Adjacent paragraphs should be
explicitly related to one another in more than a spatial sense. One way of achieving this was
shown in (d) above. Other methods involve making a paragraph's opening sentence follow on
from the theme of the preceding paragraph, using expressions like 'However, further
studies...'; 'An equally important point/issue...'; 'We need also to consider...'; etc.
Alternatively, it is sometimes effective to start a paragraph, or to end its predecessor, with a
query. For example, 'Might [whatever you've just outlined]have occurred because X?'
explicitly licenses you to go on and discuss X.
Essay format
You have the content of your essay under control. All that remains is to get details of the
presentation right. This section considers some commonly asked questions, and outlines
essential aspects of making your essay fit the appropriate academic format.
To section or not to section?
Should you subdivide your essay into separate sections, each with its own heading? In a
practical report this would be essential. In an essay it is optional, but it will sometimes be
useful.
In general, you should think about introducing sections if you believe it will make the
structure of your essay clearer and easier to follow for the reader. You should not sprinkle
section headings throughout an essay as a substitute for clear, planned structure. If the
sequence of your argument or analysis doesn't make sense, a series of logically unrelated
section headings will certainly not help anything. Section headings can help you and the
reader by marking key shifts in an essay's structure; they make it easy to see at a glance
where each main division in the essay starts and ends. However, they do not speak for
themselves. The introduction will still need to include something like: "This analysis is
divided into three main sections. In section 1... Next, section 2... Finally...in section 3.' That
is, section headings may mark the main steps of your answer, but you must be clear on what
those steps are before you can use sections effectively.
Employed sensibly, section headings become increasingly useful as pieces of writing
become longer. Most people can follow a few sides, but an extended essay of 4000 words
will be about sixteen double-spaced pages of typing plus a reference list. By that point,
section headings take on less of an optional quality and generally they should be used. When
you read journal articles and book chapters you will see that they are almost invariably
divided.
Conclusion section
The final paragraph of your major assignment should offer a statement summarising how
your paper achieved what it set out to in the Introduction section. As such, it is vital that you
make a clear statement about “what the paper sets out to do”, so that in the Conclusion you
can “summarise how the paper achieved that outcome”. In the end, proper planning is
essential; please do not think that you can simply submit a first draft effort and hope to score
more than a failing grade – this is university, and you must demonstrate your command of the
professional language!
Introduction
1 point
0.8 points
0.6 points
0.5 points
O points
Explicit and detailed
statement of essay
aims and essay scope.
Detailed statement of States essay aims and
essay aims and essay essay scope.
scope.
States essay aims or
essay scope.
Does not state essay
aims or scope.
5 points
4 points
3 points
2.5 points
1 point
Coverage of key
concepts.
Comprehensive
discussion of all parts
of the essay question.
Detailed discussion of
all parts of the essay
question.
Discusses all parts of
the essay question.
Discussion fails to
address one part of
the essay question.
Discussion fails to
address two or more
parts of the essay
question.
Most key concepts are
identified and defined.
All key concepts are
identified and clearly
defined
All key concepts are
identified and defined.
Identifies and defines
about half of the key
concepts.
Identifies and defines
less than half of the
key concepts.
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
0 points
Review of relevant
theory and research.
Argument supported
by comprehensive
discussion of relevant
theory and research
sourced from more
than 7 academic
sources.
Argument supported
by theory sourced
from non-academic
literature.
Argument supported Argument supported
by detailed discussion by broad discussion of
of relevant theory and
relevant theory
research sourced from sourced from academic
more than 7 academic literature. Relevant
sources. research acknowledged
but not discussed.
Cites 7 or more
academic sources.
Argument supported
by basic discussion of
relevant theory
sourced from 7 or
more academic
sources. Little if any
discussion of relevant
research.
No discussion of
academic research.
Cites fewer than 7
academic sources.
Use of examples.
2 points
1.6 points
1.2 points
1 point
0 points
Provides detailed and
highly relevant
examples that clearly
illustrate key points.
Provides detailed and
relevant examples that
clearly illustrate key
points.
Provides relevant
examples that clearly
illustrate key points.
Provides examples that
illustrate key points.
Fails to provide
examples.
Examples are
irrelevant.
Conclusion.
1 point
0.8 points
0.6 points
0.5 points
0 points
Explicit and detailed
statement of essay
aims and review of
main issues covered in
Detailed statement of
essay aims and review
of main issues covered
in essay.
States essay aims and
broadly reviews main
issues covered in
essay.
States essay aims or
reviews main issues
covered in essay.
Incorrect or no
statement of essay
aims.
essay.
Incorrect or no review
of main issues covered.
2 points
1.6 points
1.2 points
1 point
0.5 points
Write using academic
language and structure
Writing style is clear;
logical flow and
structure; Fluent use
of discipline-specific
academic language.
Writing style is unclear
lacks logical flow and
structure; numerous
spelling grammatical
Writing style is Writing style is mostly Writing style lacks
clear;Mostly logical flow clear; Generally logical clarity; there are flaws
and structure; Correct flow and structure; in logical flow and
use of discipline-
Mostly written in structure; unclear use
specific academic discipline specific of discipline-specific
language.
academic language;
academic language.
Some spelling or
Some spelling or
Some minor spelling or grammatical errors. grammatical errors.
grammatical errors.
errors.
No spelling or
grammatical errors.
Adhere to referencing
2 points
0 points
O points
0 points
0 points
conventions and
No HD Grade
No CR Grade
No PP Grade
acknowledge sources.
Acknowledged all
sources in text and
reference list.
There were errors in
the formatting and
presentatrion of
references.
All references in correct
format.
Adhere to presentation
1 point
0 points
0 points
0 points
0 points
conventions.
No DN Grade
No CR Grade
No PP Grade
Does not meet ALL of
the formatting
requirements
Meets ALL of the
presentation
requirements (12 size
font, 1.5 or double
spacing, page numbers
included).
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