Effect of Communication on Organizational Culture

This research paper explores the impact of communication, leadership and culture on Datacom Group. It discusses how effective communication leads to growth and establishment of healthy organizational culture. The paper includes literature review, data collection and analysis methods, and discussion on the impact of communication, leadership and culture on Datacom Group.

Running head: EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Effect of communication on organizational culture
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Executive Summary:
Organisational communication plays a very important role in the operations of business
organisations. It forms the basis of the very organisational leadership and organisation culture.
Organisational communication is not limited to communication of commands and feedback
within organisations. It also encompasses communication of the companies with external
stakeholders like government, investors and customers. Thus, effective organisational
communication yields capital and revenue for the companies. It in fact leads to the growth of the
organisation and establishment of healthy organisational culture. The paper would visit these
aspects through the lenses of Datacom Group.

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EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Table of Contents
Part 1. Introduction:.........................................................................................................................3
Part 1.1: Background on Datacom Group:......................................................................................3
Part 1.2: Objectives/Aims/Hypothesis:............................................................................................5
Reesearch aim..................................................................................................................................5
Research objectives.........................................................................................................................5
Research hypothesis.........................................................................................................................5
Part 1.3: Scope.................................................................................................................................5
Scope of the research.......................................................................................................................5
Part 2: Literature review:.................................................................................................................6
Part 2.1: Organisational communication:........................................................................................6
Part 2.2: Organisational leadership:.................................................................................................8
Part 2.3: Organisational culture:......................................................................................................8
Part 3: Data Collection & Analysis Methods:.................................................................................9
Part 3.1: Data Collection Method(s):...............................................................................................9
Part 3.2: Data Analysis Method(s):...............................................................................................10
Part 4: Data Analysis:....................................................................................................................11
Part 4.1: Organisational Communication:.....................................................................................12
Part 4.2: Leadership:......................................................................................................................12
Part 4.3: Organisational culture:....................................................................................................12

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Part 5: Discussion:.........................................................................................................................12
Part 5.1: Organisational communication:......................................................................................12
Part 5.2: Leadership:......................................................................................................................13
Part 5.3: Organisational culture:....................................................................................................14
Part 6: Conclusion:........................................................................................................................14
Part 7: Recommendations:.............................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................17

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EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Part 1. Introduction:
Part 1.1: Background on Datacom Group:
Datacom has achieved accolades and glory by providing quality cloud consultancy
services in the threshold of New Zealand. Provision of software development services helps in
smoothening the business activities. Along with this, the company is known for owning and
managing the operations of the data centres (Datacomgroup.eu, 2018). Established in 1965, the
company has expanded into the markets of Australia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Philippines.
Presence of 4880 skilled and qualified employees expands the scope and arena of the company
business. The company aims to provide automatic IT services to the clients. The company
provides solution to the company, who intends to avert market risks. Provision of cost effective
services to the clients and the customers is the vision of Datacom Company (Curtis & Cachia,
2015)
As per the annual report of 2017, the annual revenue of the company was NZ 1.16
billion. The net income was NZ 43.7 million. Infrastructure of the company reflects the
expansion in the service breadth and depth. Custom designs of the IT systems and processes
enhance the brand image of the company, enriching the reputation. Talent management is one of
the greatest strength of the company, working towards the professional development of the
people. Typical evidence of this lies in the initiatives, which are undertaken for increasing the
employee retention rates (Datacomgroup.eu, 2018). Here, logical reasoning is the common
attribute, which helps the personnel in exposing the performance as per their capabilities.
The services of Datacom revolve around the customers. Suggestions and feedbacks are
taken for gaining knowledge about the areas where innovation is needed. Preservation of the core

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values is reflected in the customer satisfaction. The staffs believe in collaborative output for
maintaining the pace with the competitive ambience of the market. Commitment, dedication and
perseverance are crucial components in terms of achieving growth and development.
Genuineness in the approach helps in maintaining the stability in the relationship with the clients.
Promise of delivering value for money is assistance for the company towards achieving loyalty,
trust and dependence from the customers (Theaker, 2017).
Part 1.2: Objectives/Aims/Hypothesis:
Reesearch aim
The aim of this project is to assess the impact of communication, leadership and culture
on the business activities of Datacom.
Research objectives
 To examine the means of communication adopted by the functional units of Datacom
 To assess the effectiveness of leadership styles on the performance of the staffs in
Datacom
 To analysis the impact of workplace culture on the morale of Datacom staffs
Research hypothesis
 H0 Communication, leadership and culture does not have any impact on the business
activities of Datacom
 H1 Communication, leadership and culture heavily influences the business activities of
Datacom

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Part 1.3: Scope
Scope of the research
Collecting relevant data on the subject matter would determine the scope and arena of the
research. This research went to the extent of collecting information on the impact of
communication, leadership style and culture of Datacom. This was done in stages starting from
the topic selection to formation of a rough draft and final submission. At the initial stage, a list of
goals, deliverables, functions and tasks was performed to gain awareness about the criterions to
be fulfilled for carrying out this research. Literature review on the subject matter is an attempt
towards enriching the preconceived knowledge. This activity enhances the scope and arena
towards discussing and analysing the anticipated findings. Evaluation of the appropriate research
techniques eases the process of analysis. Rough draft enhances the decision-making process,
assisting in the discovering the drawbacks in the propositions and assumptions. Consistency in
the evaluation reduces the chances of mistakes, upgrading the standards and quality of the
research work.
Part 2: Literature review:
Part 2.1: Organisational communication:
Curtis and Cachia (2015) define organisational communication is the process of exchange
of information and messages with organisations and work places. Organisational communication
result in exchange of important information between different levels in business organisations.
The apex management bodies make strategies and communicate them to the middle level
management. The middle level managers in turn communicate the messages to the executives
which actually carry out the strategies formed by the apex management. Theaker (2017) points a

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salient role of organisational communication which strengthens the execution of strategies in the
business organisations, training. The human resource departments in the business organisations
use the laid out communication channels using formal methods to train employees. The
managers and human resource department train the employees using methods like mentoring,
class room training, coaching, on job training and teleconference training. Tarhini, Hone and Liu
(2015) makes a very important contribution to this discussion. They state that technology plays
an increasingly important role in the organisational communication. The managers and HR
department train the employees using videos and simulations which enable better understanding
of concepts by the employees. This results in more effective execution of strategies by the junior
level employees, which in turn contributes to organisational effectiveness. Kotabe and Kothari
(2016) mention that this organisational communication supported by technology is of immense
use in multinational companies. The multinational companies having branches in different
countries communicate with their geographically dispersed branches while forming strategies.
The multinational companies have involve in different types of operations like financing,
staffing, marketing, innovation and developing new products. This requires communication and
collaboration between departments of diverse functions. As far as multinational organisations are
concerned, they often need to collaborate between same deportments situated in different
locations (Cuervo-Cazurra et al. 2014). This means these departments need to communicate and
exchange diverse information which ultimately lead ways to decision making. Hackley and
Hackley (2017) mention that organisational communication is not only useful in the internal
communication but also outside it. The multinational companies promote their products in the
market to get access to customer base. Thus, promotion and advertisement are also forms of
organisational communication. The business organisations communicate the policies and plans to

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the government, suppliers and other stakeholders. Thus, organisational communication, by nature
can be both external and internal. As the above discussion points out, organisational
communication is dependent on technology and ios the very base of interdepartmental
coordination. It is effective in coordination between departments and location dispersed
geographically. One can also point out that organisational communication is instrumental in
crucial business operations like revenue generation, HRM and NPD. The business organisations
also form the base of revenue generation and leadership.
Part 2.2: Organisational leadership:
The organisational leadership Lin et al.(2015) can be defined as the leadership approach
which ensures leading of individuals towards attainment of the organisational goals.
Amanchukwu, Stanley and Ololube (2015) point out that organisational communication plays a
very important in organisational leadership. The mangers lead their subordinates towards
attainment of the target performances by using different types of leadership styles. They establish
strong communication in order to obtain strong support of team members in attaining goals.
Binder (2016) here emphasises on the opinion of Cuervo-Cazurra et al. (2014) and point that
multinational companies use their strong organisational communication network to lead their
immense human resources dispersed in different location, mostly in different countries. The
headquarters of the multinational companies involve managers in all the locations while forming
their global strategies. Thus, it can be inferred that organisational leadership is not possible
without strong organisational communication network traversing diverse locations (Lin et al.
2015).

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Part 2.3: Organisational culture:
Mohelska and Sokolova (2015) mention that a strong organisational culture enforces
leadership and strong communication with the organisations. The apex management bodies of
the multinational companies build strong organisational culture which enforces smooth
communication among employees which contributes to high organisational performances.
Bolden (2016) points out that business organisations today depend largely on their
internationally spread organisational communication channels to establish and maintain strong
organisational culture. Thus, here it can be said that organisational culture is dependent on
organisational communication. Strong communication in business organisation enable the apex
management to lead all the employees from diverse locations towards achievement of
organisational success (Hackley & Hackley, 2017).Thus one can infer in the light of the above
discussion that strong communication within the organisation enforce strong organisational
culture which binds employees and lead them towards attaining of high level performance. One
can point that organisational communication, leadership and culture are dependent on each other
and attainment of one leads to the next.
Part 3: Data Collection & Analysis Methods:
Part 3.1: Data Collection Method(s):
The data collection process is generally of two types and those are primary and secondary
way of collecting data. It can be said that primary data can be collected over face to face
interviews by starving for providing questionnaires to the respondents of the research work and
in this process the research scholar personally meets the respondents who agrees to help him to
complete the research work. On the other hand in the secondary research work the data relevant
to the topic of the research all in most cases collected from numerous articles newspapers

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magazines journals and by government or any other websites. For this particular topic of the
research the research scholar will be adopting secondary data collection method by consulting
books, journals, newspaper articles and internet websites (Humphries, 2017). These sources
would render the researcher sufficient amount of data to conduct the research. It can be said that
the data would bring into light salient features related to the organisational culture leadership and
organisational communication of the chosen business organisation (Lewis, 2015). Personal
interview sessions with the managers of different stages of the business organisation can reveal
the relevant information regarding the presence of leadership in the company and that can
potentially help the research scholar to attain the objectives which has been discussed previously
in the research paper.
Qualitative type of research actually refers to the exploratory type of research and the
research scholar had utilised the process of qualitative research for analysing the collected data
as it enabled him to provide insight into the particular problem for which the research work has
been performed and apart from that qualitative analysis of the research would help the research
scholar to develop the hypothesis of the research (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015). On the
other hand quantitative research can help in the aspect of quantification of the problem statement
of the research by generating the numerical data which may be changed into a usable statistic.
Quantitative research can be performed to quantify the opinion and attitudes of the collected data
so that the research scholar can generalize the results obtained from a huge sample population
(Smith, 2015).
Part 3.2: Data Analysis Method(s):
For this particular topic of the research the research scholar will utilise qualitative method
of research by consulting secondary sources like books, articles, newspapers and online websites

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of the chosen business organisation in order to get to know relevant information regarding
communication leadership and the organisational culture of Data Com. The individual interviews
taken by the research scholar would help him to validate the collected information relevant to the
topic of the research.
Part 4: Data Analysis:
The research will be taking the help of the interview process top complete the needful. The
report has highlighted some of the main questions that have been asked to the managers and the
supervisors of the mentioned organization on the three different organizational needs. The
questions that were asked during the interview were as follows;
1. How the management of the organization does communicate with the different
departments and the employees in the organization? How is it helpful?
The managers of the organization provided a prompt and specific reply to this particular
question. The management of the organization had their prompt reply that the organization
conducts re4gular meetings and coordinates with each other before any decision to make the
most of the business. The managers also ensure to personally inspect the works and interact with
the employees to get an idea of their demands and choices.
2. What kind of leadership challenges do managers face and how do they overcome this?
The managers and supervisors of the organization responded that a number of different
challenges were generally faced by them on a regular note. The leadership challenges provide the
most difficult problem for them as because it is a huge task for them to control each and every
employees of the organization. However proper and regular communication in between them is

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one of the main tasks that help them to overcome such challenges and get close to the employees
of the organization.
3. How does the management of the company promote organizational culture?
The organizational culture is one of the main things that determine the success of the
business. A healthy organizational culture is necessary for the success of the business in the
organization. It is important for the business to promote a proper culture in order to ensure
coordination amongst the employees and a proper working environment. The managers of
Datacom answered to this question by, “at Datacom we are proud of our culture – despite the
geographic spread of the organization and each office still manages to retain a small business
friendliness that is often diluted in the enterprise”.
Part 4.1: Organisational Communication:
As said by the management of the organization business communication is one of the most
important parts of the organization as because absence of proper and efficient communication
can result into disaster. The mentioned organization takes care of communication by organizing
meetings and personally interacting with the employees. This helps the maintenance of
coordination between the employees and the different departments of the organization. DataCom
Group being a leading IT company uses its strong communication channel to connect its
branches spread in North America and Europe (Yu & Ko, 2017). The communication channel of
the company enables it to hold meetings between the branches and investors while making
crucial business decisions.

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EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Part 4.2: Leadership:
Organisational communication leads to the second important requirement of a strong
organisation, leadership. Appropriate communication channel encompasses both the internal and
external environment. The lower level like the sales executives and customer care executives are
in direct contact with the market. They communicate the market information to the managers
who in turn communicate the same to the apex management. The apex management makes
strategies and communicate them to the middle level managers and ultimately to lower level
managers. Thus, by attribute organisational leadership is dependent on communication and gives
way to decision making (Yu & Ko, 2017). Organisational leadership on the bottom-top view also
forms the base of execution of strategies and ultimately to the high performance of the
organisations. The strong communication network of Datacom helps it to establish a strong
information network among departmental heads and subordinates. The communication enables
the departmental heads gain participation of team members in the strategy execution, thus
enabling them to lead their departments effectively (Bonaccio et al., 2016).
Part 4.3: Organisational culture:
Healthy organisational culture is the outcome of strong organisational communication
and organisational leadership. The discussion clearly shows that the strong employee centric
organisational culture paves ways for organisational development (Cheung & Yiu, 2014). The
success of Datacom Group in the markets like the UK in spite of presence of strong resident IT
company bear testimony to the strong organisational culture. It can be inferred that this strong
organisational culture is the outcome of strong leadership and communication running through
the entire length and breadth of the company (Yu & Ko, 2017).

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Part 5: Discussion:
Part 5.1: Organisational communication:
Promptness of the managers indicates their awareness towards the workplace activities.
Specific replies to the questions are praiseworthy in terms of efficient execution of the duties and
responsibilities. Regularity in the meetings and conferences enhances the unity and coordination
between the personnel. Involvement of the board panel in the meetings is fruitful in terms of
achieving effective solutions for the workplace issues (Andriof et al., 2017). Discussions and
open forums provide the staffs with the platform for voicing out the opinions regarding the
issues, which they face while executing the allocated duties and responsibilities. Involving the
statutory bodies of law in the meetings, results in the legal investigations. Counselling sessions
with the staffs makes the managers aware of their specific needs and demands. Consistency in
these sessions enhances the stability in the relationship between the managers and employees of
Datacom. Providing the employees with the opportunities of presentations would enhance their
communicative skills. This opportunity would determine their capabilities towards creating
impression on the managers (Cheung & Yiu, 2014).
Part 5.2: Leadership:
The managers of Datacom are of the view that challenges are an inevitable part of the
business activities. Challenge stains the workplace culture. Controlling every employee is
difficult for the managers, as it indicates compromise with the other business activities. This
incapability contradicts the aspect of leadership. Leaders need to maintain the balance between
all the activities. Here, one of an important aspect is communication, which possesses flexibility
to solve half of the workplace issues. If the managers indulge in communication with the
employees, they would be able to assess the effectiveness, appropriateness and feasibility of their

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leadership skills (Shu, Chiang & Lu, 2018). Regularity in the counselling sessions is beneficial in
terms of mitigating the conflicts and misunderstandings. However, ethical approach needs to be
maintained by the leaders for gaining trust, loyalty and dependence from the clients.
Consideration of Data Protection Act (1998) is effective in terms of protecting the private
belongings of the employees. Respecting the privacy of the employees would enhance the
personality of the managers, driving them towards the path of leadership. Herein lays the
appropriateness of the Transformation Theory in terms of the transformations, which comes in
the behaviour of the managers after gaining the confidence regarding the capability towards
managing the employees (Andriof et al., 2017). Evaluation generates self-organizational skills
making the manager great before the staffs. Utilizing this achievement for bringing further
improvements is a planned action in terms of enhancing the professional development (Iqbal,
Anwar & Haider, 2015).
Countering this, self-introspection is both personal and professional development. This is
because the managers are altering their personality for creating a positive image in the minds of
the employees (Cheung & Yiu, 2014).
Part 5.3: Organisational culture:
Organizational culture is an integral part of the workplace. This aspect determines the
approach of the employees towards the customs and traditions. Maintenance of the workplace
culture is crucial for achieving success. The managers are of the view that maintaining a healthy
working environment is beneficial for enhancing the professionalism of the employees. The
managers of Datacom are proud of their culture. However, in spite of being proud, the manager
should preserve the culture. Friendliness between the staffs is an epitome of workplace culture in

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EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
companies like Datacom. Following ethical code of conduct can be considered as a wise example
of preserving the organizational culture (Shu, Chiang & Lu, 2018).
Part 6: Conclusion:
The following report has been able to meet the objectives of the research. The report has
been successful to highlight the different aspects of the management of Datacom and has also
been able to make sure to address the different aspects and concepts upon which the following
organization works. The thorough analysis of the following study will help the readers to get
knowledge of communication, leadership and culture of a business organization in the modern
market.
Part 7: Recommendations:
Organizational communication being an important aspect for the growth and
development of any organization, it becomes necessary to improve it at all expense. There are
many recommendations that can be implied for the improvement of organizational
communication which are as follows:
 Wholehearted interaction: One of the major ways to improve workplace
communication is to maintain a level of interaction among the different sets of employees
belonging to the different ranks and orders. One way communication should be
discouraged and shy employees should be reached out at all levels to improve their
confidence level.
 Local Intranet Software: Investment of the company in local intranet software can also
be done at a regular basis so that chatting, communicating among the different employees

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becomes easier, and it makes a place for the official communication too without any
hassle.
 Common goal: Setting up of a common goal is another way to improve organizational
communication system as the employees when advocated towards a common goal is
prone to make better communication among them, which again is the desirable element.
 Improvement of culture: Lack of organizational culture is another reason of low
organizational communication, which can be altered by improving the culture of a
particular place. The improvement of the culture can be done by a number of factors like
taking the note of the problem that the employees are facing and sorting out problems
according to the needs in consultation with the workers. The improvement of workplace
culture is heavily related to the improvement of workplace communication which is again
depends heavily on good HR policies.
 Conferences: Conferences and team outings are another way to maintain the workplace
communication at the organizational level. The conferences and team outings make sure
to maintain the healthy communication among the people and make the organization a
more cordial place to work for.
 Mobile technology: The technological advancement for mobiles is another way to
improve workplace communication at the organizational level. The company can develop
a mobile app that can be used to maintain the grievances and suggestions of the
employees which can again make the whole organizational communication process
healthy.
 Social Media: Social media is one of the most important aspects of the modern world
where the people from different arena get to know and communicate with each other.

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Using this medium for the effective organizational communication is one of the easiest
ways by forming a company page where the employees can communicate effectively.

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