Effective business communication within an organization is very significant to maintain the workflow and coordination and avoiding the unnecessary confusions and conflicts. The basic need for an effective business communication is to maintain harmony within the walls of the company, which will deliver high productivity and trigger the effectiveness of work. This will help the company to work with their utmost potential thereby attaining the highest yield. A proper communication within every layer of the company will not only create a warm workplace, but also provides an employee friendly ambiance. The company will enhance its effectiveness by maintaining communications with their employees as well as other agencies.
Identification and description of the topic
The concept of globalization is increasing dynamically, thus, diminishing the efficiency of the border. The approaches to blurring of the border results in labor mobility, which, in turn, leads to the better social, economical and political wellness, irrespective to the facts that do not provide, guarantee to improve conditions of the desired life. Furthermore, the concept of IBIS West Africa focuses to empower marginalized and poor children as well as adults. The organization aims to claim the rights of individuals as well as collective communities, for providing quality education, for their betterment. The main aim of this study is to examine the effective business communication system that leads to adoption of qualitative approach of constructivist paradigm for communicating effectively across the different cultures. Furthermore, the article evaluates several issues and problems that are generated at the time of verbal as well as non-verbal cues that are major reasons for creating differences to the common messages transferred. In addition, the article also focuses on suitable strategies while focusing more on the intercultural capacity and relationship in between the multinational staffs and certain methods that can be adopted to enhance the effective communication in the multinational organization.
Identification and description of problems that the article states
There are several issues discussed in the given article like misunderstanding, misperceptions and misinterpretations in both the case of verbal and non-verbal communication. These issues add different meaning to simple messages. Mindlessness is another issue that has been discussed in the given article that characterizes interactions between the local staffs and expatriate workers of Ibis West Africa. Challenges in ensuring that all the workers within the organization are able to understand and interpret the messages equally are another issue that has been evaluated in the given articles. The problem usually arises when people, belonging to two or more different cultures are unable to understand the messages transferred, owing to language constraints. Furthermore, the limits to the study is another significant problem narrated in the given article, which aimed to interview the employees instead of the leaders; it was deemed desirable if any of the leaders of Ibis Liberia had been interviewed instead. In addition, the ethical issues was also considered in the given context that states lack of honesty, respect for the participants, anonymity and confidentiality and many other facts that are relevant.
Discussion of the significance of the issues
The issues of mindlessness occurs when an organization faces challenges towards the intercultural communication both in between the local and the expatriate (Mak & Shaw, 2015).
The challenge of misunderstanding hampers the mission and vision of organization, as the objective is made clear enough to multicultural workforce. It has been observed that the entire planning will be devastated if the effective communications methods will not be adopted by the respective organization (Cottrell, 2017). Furthermore, the lack of effective communications leads to failure of the work completions at an appropriate timing that are instructed by the expatriates to the local counterparts or employees.
Effective business communication aims to focus on certain challenges that instance for militating the multicultural context of effective communication. Furthermore, the challenges that can be faced by the organization under these aspects are non-verbal cues that are in the intercultural communication. It is this challenge that leads to create the common meaning to a message while transmitting and constructing the message to the others. It has been observed that the process of communication remains incomplete without the adequate decoder and encoder. Every communication leads to predict certain principles and rules that are contextually and culturally grounded. Therefore, the cultural and social situations determine the regulations, rules and principles of the communication. Thus, the exceptional manner of speaking English by the Ghanaian which can only be clouded by the culture and social situational of the Ghanaian poses to be a challenges to the individuals that are not aware of the terms and meaning as they are stranger to terrain (Abdulai, Ibrahim & Mohammed, 2017). However, it has been evaluated in the given study that the verbal aspects are extremely significant to the intercultural communication especially in language mastery that regarded as the grammatical competence. Some of the negative aspects that arise due to all the above issues/problems are misunderstanding, misconduct and miscommunication among the employees and managers in the working environment, which leads to lack of effectiveness in the process of productivity.
Description of the major findings in the article
Communication and contexts in intercultural relations :- It is very important, especially in recent times, that the multinational organization like the Ibis, West Africa, to use intercultural communication that confirms the capability to deal with someone of the cross cultures. Ibis established English as its working language but the problem is well understood when deals with the locals and the expatriates. The locals use local languages along with English. The cultural values are exhibited through the languages the person following that culture speaks. Therefore, when the concerned organization chooses English as the main language within the organization then this is clearly portrayed that the organization places certain cultures over the other cultures. In addition to this, the local employees communicate in their local and own language sometimes needs translations to the "strangers" and this again exhibits misrepresentation and misunderstanding that eventually leads to miscommunication.
Communication between the strangers and the locals :- As discussed earlier, communication depends on the culture which affects the communication behaviors including styles. The cultural difference between the "locals" and the "stranger" makes the locals not understand the communicating language of the stranger and vice versa. Therefore this study observes that the natives in order to coupe up tries to speak English and ends up somewhere close to English that makes their communicating language as a blend of the English language and the local language. This is also stated that the people who are not familiar with the culture of the concerned place or who are not bought up there, may not be able to interpret and understand the local expressions or symbols as are not in touch and are unaware of the blends.
Challenges to create common meanings :- A demonstration as observed in Ibis is that the messages were exchanged in encoded form and decoded by the locals and the expatriates respectively and not a single one was able to understand the messages. Hence to create a common understanding of the encoder and the decoder is needed. Every communication is foretold on the cultural and contextual rules and principles. A significant weapon of use to nullify problems and minimize the challenges of communication is free and continuous communication. A contemporary mean such communication is foretold largely on the internet and is mainly used by the expatriates, while the locales depend more on the verbal instructions that are considered to be traditional.
Non-verbal cues in intercultural communication :-
The study showed a misunderstanding and misrepresentation of non-verbal communication types used by the local workers in order to engage with the expatriate employees. This study indicates the problem is so that when the meetings are held in sessions, the local workers use many gestures to convey their opinion. But, again as non-verbal communication uses much gesture it sometimes leads to misrepresentation and misunderstanding.
Discussion of the significance of findings for future research
The first finding that is the communication and context between intercultural relations argued that the culture and communication are much related and effective business communication is influenced by culture. So the organization when implements a common language, conflicts and confusion arises and therefore an organization in order to implement a common language must allow time for the employees to get acquainted with the new change (Neuliep, 2017).
The second finding indicates that, in order to, forcefully implement the common language the mentioned organization created a climate where the locals are speaking in blended English. An organization must, to avoid the above scenario, provide training sessions and help the locals to be on the same page as the expatriate or the "stranger".
The third finding aims to build a common language to communicate within the organization and this can only be done when the locals stop depending on verbal instructions and upgrade themselves to the level of the "strangers" (Carter, 2015). When the encoder and the decoder are having the same professional development then it is needless to say that they will be able to communicate among themselves.
The non-verbal signs are considered as the central part of communication but the same arises even more conflicts because not only the expatriates but also the local workers also misunderstand the gestures and make up their own meanings. There is no single way but many are there and different minds suggest different ways. One of the best ways of improving non-verbal communication is by maintaining eye contact while communicating. Another way that can be a significant one is by making the workers learn to synchronize their gesture, expression and language properly and this helps relatively to minimize the scope of giving others the chance of misunderstanding.
Communication is considered the most important determinant of the effectiveness of the concerned business. It is the most natural part of human experience that motivates or lowers down the morale of an employee thereby affecting their future in the business. The communication portrayed by the officials of the business, to its employees should be positive in order to align the concept of effective business communication with the responsibilities and reputation of the business professionals.
Abdulai, M., Ibrahim, H., & Mohammed, M. A. (2017). Communicating across cultures in multinational Ibis West Africa. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 58, 42-53.
Neuliep, J. W. (2017). Intercultural communication: A contextual approach. Sage Publications.