Cultural issues in organizational communication

Sasidhar Adavigari
2011CE10317

Cultural issues in organizational communication

Abstract The importance of cultural issues in organizational communication has received increasing attention in recent years both from academics and practitioners. Organizational communication with respect to different organizational cultures and people from different cultures are analyzed. The cultural impacts of using modern technology in organizational communication and issues of cross cultural communication in global organizations and role of leaders in proper monitoring of cultural and communication issues in the organizations are discussed in brief. A case study is presented on how poor culture and organizational communication effects an organization and some methods are advised for good culture and communication in organizations.

Cultural issues in organizational communication Introduction Every organization has a culture. Culture is defined by the way people communicate, interact, how information is shared and how decisions are made. Organizational culture is something that is created by the leadership of the organization and can become very ingrained into the core of the way things are communicated and how things are done on a day-to-day basis. Positive cultures can influence productivity and a healthy work environment. However a culture that is not good can have the bad affect and can actually stifle productivity. Purpose of cultures: 1) Cultures offer an interpretation of an institutions history that members can use to decipher how they will be expected to behave in the future. 2) Cultures can generate commitment to corporate values or management philosophy so that employees feel they are working for something they believe in Organizational Culture. 3) Cultures serve as organizational control mechanisms, informally approving or prohibiting some patterns of behavior. 4) Some types of organizational cultures are associated with greater productivity and profitability. When we join an organization and wish to remain in it, sooner or later we need to adopt the culture of the organization. The group rewards such behavior through acts of recognition, approval and inclusion. In groups which are happy to accept you and where you are happy to conform, there is a mutuality of interest and a high level of win-win contact. A key element of culture is communication and how information is shared and exchanged within the organization. Good communication is what keeps internal processes running smoothly and helps to create good relations with people both inside and outside the organization. Successful communication allows exchange of ideas. Discussion When the organizational culture is well managed, effective communication is enhanced and when effective communication is applied, the organizations goals and objectives become achievable. Organizational culture accounts for the uniqueness of each organization. The purpose of communication is to transfer ideas and knowledge from one entity to the other. The first step in communication is input, someone must say something that is received by someone else. The communication loop is successful when the receiver demonstrates that he or she understands what was being communicated. From an organizational perspective there are many barriers than can impede the flow of communication. These barriers include culture, technology, language, workforce, and environment. Culture, here refers to the traditions and
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Cultural issues in organizational communication customs that are prevalent in the country where each company is located. These traditions and customs influence policies and procedures implemented by organizations. Environment refers to the external forces that affect the company. Technology is simply the use of mediums such as email, Internet, text messaging, and cell phones to communicate. When there are communication breakdowns within an organization, it can lead to conflict in the workplace. This conflict is caused from lack of communication or distorted or inaccurate information. Often these breakdowns are caused from ineffective communication channels within an organization. Organizational structure is a mechanism through which effort and work is coordinated with supervision to produce the results that are hoped for from organizational culture. The structure seems to be the conduits or lines of authority, the system set into place through which individuals can come together to fulfill the expectations of organizational structure. Organizational culture resembles the plumbing and the water while the organizational structure is the actual pipes. So, organizational culture decides the organizational structure and the channels of flow of communication. So, among all these factors culture and structure is the most important factor affecting the communication. For effective organizational communication, structure and culture, organizations should question the following points in their culture:1. Individual initiative: how much and what kind of responsibility, freedom and independence do individuals have? 2. Risk tolerance: are employees encouraged to take initiatives and engage in risk-taking behavior? 3. Direction: are the organizations objectives and performance expectations clearly communicated and implemented? 4. Integration: is it easy for groups within the organization to operate in a coordinated manner and are they motivated to do so? 5. Management contact: are managers accessible, supportive and helpful to their subordinates? 6. Control: to what degree and what kind of rules and supervision regulations does the organization employ to oversee employee performance? 7. Identity: does the organization encourage employees to identify with the company and the companys public image? 8. Reward system: how and to what degree are employees rewarded for their performance (i.e. through promotion, salary increases, bonus schemes, etc.). 9. Conflict tolerance: Is there a mechanism and/or procedure that allows employees to communicate conflicts and criticisms? 10. Communication patterns: are communication channels restricted to the formal hierarchy of command, or are they diverse (i.e. do junior employees have easy access to senior managers; can members of one section cooperate with members of another)?

Cultural issues in organizational communication Not all the points are applicable to all kind of organizations and should question themselves according to the goals whether they are providing sufficient channels of communication in the structure. Contextual factors such as organizational structure, organizational culture and technology will all impact on the way that messages are sent and interpreted on receipt. However structure and in fact organizational communication as a whole cannot be considered in isolation from the context in which it takes place. Organizational culture is the shared values and beliefs that are seen to characterize an organization. Cross-cultural communication Cross-cultural communication is an important aspect of cultural issues in organizational communication. Since most individuals grow up within a single culture having to interact with others from a different culture or background can represent a challenge. Culture, here refers to both the traditions, customs and organizational culture that are prevalent in the country or the organization in which the employee worked in the past. In a global environment the ability to communicate effectively can be a challenge. Even when both parties speak the same language there can still be misunderstandings due to ethic and cultural differences. As society becomes more globally connected, the ability to communicate across cultural boundaries has gained increasing prominence. Understanding the impact of globalization on cross-culture communication is imperative for organizations seeking to create a competitive advantage in the global market. Global organizations must understand how to communicate with employees and customers from different cultures in order to fulfill the organizations mission. The use of technology has had a profound impact on how organizations communicate globally and market their products and services. Role of Leaders in Cultural issues in organizational communication A good leader should have cultural intelligence. Cultural intelligence is defined by rabotin as the ability to interact with others from diverse cultural backgrounds, being aware of our cultural values that drive our attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs Regardless of their geographic location leaders must be able to communicate across borders in order to create a competitive advantage and achieve results. It is clearly apparent that physical boundaries are increasingly becoming transparent. A global leader must be aware of their personal cultural biases and be willing to change their opinions by learning from those that are different from them. Cross-culture communication is not easy, especially when we are unfamiliar with the receiver of the information. Organizational leaders that have to communicate cross-culturally can use the following steps:
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Cultural issues in organizational communication 1. Develop clear and concise expectations for how the organization will accomplish its mission. 2. Ensure that employees understand their role in the organization. 3. be willing to invest time to communicate. 4. Remember that communication is a two-way process, listen before you speak. Cultural Impacts of Computer-Mediated Communication in Organizations Over the last decade there have been significant advances in technology including the internet, emails and video conferencing. All of which have had a significant impact on the ways in which we communicate within organizations. Technological developments such as email and the internet have had a huge impact on written communication. Computer-mediated communication is a form of asynchronous communication which has the advantages of eliminating problems created by barriers of time and space, cost-effective, fairly easy to use, as well as the potential of being more personal and customizable. Subsequently so called virtual organizations that do not exist in the physical sense are being formed, whereby people rarely have any face to face social communication with fellow colleagues. The cultural issue of computer-mediated communication in organizations is that it reduces the gaps between people by providing a tool for the employees to be connected to all people within the organization. The computer-mediated communication technologies include computer conferencing, e-mail, online chat, database utilities, multimedia and Web-based environments. However face-to-face communication should be used to build relationships between employees and leaders, to discuss sensitive issues as they give non-verbal cues such as gestures, eye contact and tone of voice, personal focus, able to reduce misunderstanding or misinterpretation during communication. For effective communication through computer and maintaining cultural sensitivity, the following steps to be followed:1) 2) 3) 4) When sending a message make it a point to know the recipient. Encode the message in a form that will most likely be understood as it is intended. Be aware of the recipients culture. Consider the receivers frame of reference to make the best choice regarding words, pictures etc.,

What if there is poor culture and organizational communication?? Communication is the life-blood of organizations and must be allowed to flow throughout the entire organization. However, when information flows are random and there is no apparent directive of how to apply the outside knowledge the organization will not benefit. Productivity decreases when organizational leaders are not able to communicate clear and concise
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Cultural issues in organizational communication expectations. Furthermore, conflict and tension arises when employees do not understand how their personal efforts contribute to the overall success of the organization. A Case Study showing how poor culture and organizational communication effects an organization The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine. The Chernobyl disaster is widely considered to have been the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. Organizational communication factors are said to have played a critical role in the Chernobyl accident in April 1986. The unit 4 reactor was to be shut down for routine maintenance, during this shutdown a further test was to be carried out to determine whether cooling of the core could continue to be ensured in the event of a loss of power. Unfortunately this test was carried out without proper exchange of information and co-ordination between the team in charge of the test and the personnel in charge of the operation and safety of the nuclear reactor. (World Nuclear Association: Chernobyl Accident: Simplified Sequence of Events, March 2001). This example of poor communication meant that personnel were not alerted to the nuclear safety implications of this test and its potential danger and inadequate safety precautions were included in the test programmer. Meshkati (1996) considers that human and organizational factors-related causes played a critical role in the Chernobyl accident. He considers that research has demonstrated that human and organizational factors, such as training, management style and operator error are at the heart of the safety problem of the nuclear power plants. Poor communication should be considered as one of these key organizational factors. Complex large scale technological systems such as the Chernobyl nuclear power plant require human operators to constantly adapt according to system and environmental demands, using problem solving and decision making skills at their workstation level (Meshkati , 1991). Meshkati argues that these operators jobs must be supported by the needed organizational structure. Their role has changed from one of manual controller to that of a supervisory controller who oversees the work of other controllers. Much of their role is to passively monitor until such time as an emergency or unexpected system event occurs when they are required to become actively involved. Good communication should be a key factor in such an organizational structure. Meshkati also notes deficiencies in the Chernobyl plant organization and management, the principal managers who ran the test were electrical engineers from Moscow for example rather than specialists in reactor plants. The IAEAs Summary Report on the Post-Accident Review Meeting on the Chernobyl accident (1986) (cited in Meshkati (1991) stated that one of the causes of the Chernobyl accident was the potential misunderstanding of the physics characteristics of the reactor by the operators citing deficiencies in plant organization and management as the root causes of safety significant events. Such misunderstandings could be a symptom of poor
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Cultural issues in organizational communication organizational communication, linked to organizational structure within which communication is taking place. The Chernobyl accident provides us with an extreme example of the disastrous consequences that poor organizational communication can have. It is a clear demonstration that poor communication can be both a cause and a symptom of organizational problems. It also demonstrates that poor organizational communication cannot be considered in isolation to organizational structure, culture and leadership, each are all intimately linked and are both a cause and a symptom of the other. Conclusion Both structure and leadership are major contributing factors to the culture within an organization however; a pre-existing culture will impact on any structure and leader. By acknowledging the links to culture, structure and leadership, it is possible for organizations to implement varied, but closely monitored, routes of communication. Communication takes effort, it is much easier to sit back and simply assume what we think others are trying to tell us. To actively engage in communication takes time and energy. Organizations must be willing to invest the resources needed to support cross-culture communication. Every organization has a culture and this culture can be managed for effective communication. Surely, an organization cannot exist without communication and it has also been advanced that an organization is as good as its communication system. Therefore, having utilized the necessary strategy for the planning of a better organizations culture management, it is expected that effective communication will be evolved. An effective communication invariably means goal-directed communication which should ensure the realization of the organizational goals and objectives. Managing organizational culture is not easy or instant or something you do once. It is a constant process of change and development, and the best investment you will ever make to your company. This is because an organizational culture will determine how the company deals with change and competition, growth and down turns, how it will maintain staff loyalty and orientate new staff. Communication is the key to managing organizational culture for it is the medium of change and the pacifier to the anxiety of change, the way we know we need to change and the way we know we have. Leaders create culture in the early stages of an organization. Culture creates leaders as an organization matures. If decisions and policies leader applied led to quality performance it can encourage atmosphere of hardworking, competition, integration and poor performance culture would collapse and proper channels of organizational communication would be established.

Cultural issues in organizational communication References 1) Lowell C. Matthews and Bharat Thakkar (2012). The Impact of Globalization on CrossCultural Communication, Globalization - Education and Management Agendas.DOI: 10.5772/45816. 2) Chernobyl and Soviet Reactors Appendices 1. Chernobyl Accident: Simplified Sequence of Events. World Nuclear Association, March 2001. 3) Lee, Heejin and Varey, Richard (1998) Analysing Cultural Impacts of ComputerMediated Communication in Organizations. 4) Business communication self-study, University of Northern Iowa, College of Business Administration, Dale Cyphert, PhD. 5) Carlone, D. & Taylor, B. (1998). Organizational communication and cultural studies: A review essay. Communication Theory, 8(3), 337-367. 6) Edgar H. Schein (1990).Organizational Culture .Vol. 45, No. 2, 109--119 February 1990 American Psychologist 7) Cross-Cultural Communication, Organizational Culture ,Organizational Communication (12th March 2013) Retrieved from Wikipedia.