Effective Business Communication for Australian Beauty Pro in China

This report discusses the challenges faced by Australian Beauty Pro in China due to intercultural differences, the significance of effective intercultural communication, and recommendations to enhance organizational performance. The challenges include different cultural values and etiquettes, direct versus indirect styles of communication, and different cultural norms of decision making.

Running Head: Effective Business Communication
Beauty Pro
Effective Business Communication

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Significance of effective intercultural communication................................................................2
Purpose and structure of report....................................................................................................2
Analysis of current situation............................................................................................................3
Different cultural values and etiquettes.......................................................................................3
Direct versus indirect styles of communication...........................................................................4
Different cultural norms of decision making...............................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6
Removing cultural barriers...........................................................................................................6
Improve negotiation skills............................................................................................................7
Encouraging diversified workforce..............................................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Australian Beauty Pro is a multinational corporation engaged in production and distribution of
organic cosmetic products. Head office of the organization is situated in Brisbane, Australia.
Organization has developed its effective image in the overseas market also as their products are
quite effective in comparison to the other beauty products (Australian Beauty Pro, 2017).
Organization is also planning to expand its business in other parts of the globe and with regards
to this; they have outsourced the marketing research activity to the professionals in order to
extract appropriate and relevant data as per the organizational functionalities. Organization also
operates in China and there, organization has appointed a country manager in order to regulate
the functionalities of organization in China along with determining the conditions of Chinese
market, buying behaviour, consumer’s requirements and their preferences in order to produce
appropriate products which could fulfil the target audience’s demands and wants. While
executing the managerial functionalities, the new appointed country manager found that
organization is facing several issues and challenges in relation with intercultural communication.
These challenges are affecting organizational performance and with regards to mitigating those
challenges, new appointed manager has discussed with the other two Australian based managers
to reach to the appropriate conclusions through which appropriate measures could be adopted for
the motive of resolving challenges as well as to enhance organizational performance.
Significance of effective intercultural communication
With the effect of globalisation in business markets, organizations have evolved their method for
executing their tasks. Numerous opportunities arises with the effect of globalisation and these
opportunities are directing organizations to set up their businesses in the international market for
the objective of overall development, sustained growth as well as for the objective of enhancing
organizational performance. With regards to this, multinational corporations look forward for
skilled, flexible and those candidates who could adjust themselves with other people different
background, moral values and different cultures along with applying their skills, tactics and KPIs
for the objective of enhancing organizational performance in the international market (Bakar,
Walters & Halim, 2014).

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Culture has a huge impact over business’ performance, although, candidates from different
cultural background are effective for organization but cultural implications are critical for
succeeding in the international context. For improving intercultural communication skills,
organization needs to adopt certain measures such as removing cultural barriers for encouraging
creating diversified workforce, improving negotiation skills, etc.
Purpose and structure of report
The report will be forwarded to the CEO of the organization and with regards to this; this report
will focus over significance of effective intercultural communication, analysis of the current
situation faced by the organization under which challenges faced by the employees will be
discussed. With regards to those challenges, next part of the report will discuss recommendations
in relevance to the measures which could be adopted for the objective of resolving those issues
along with enhancing organizational performance (Bird & Mendenhall, 2016).
Analysis of current situation
Australian Beauty Pro is performing exceptionally well in the Australian and other overseas
markets. With the objective of expansion and growth, organization has set up its business in
Chinese market but due to different cultures, organization is facing intercultural challenges
which are ultimately affecting organizational performance. Newly appointed country manager
has decided to develop a report by taking suggestions from two other Australian-based managers
in the organization in order to ask the CEO of organization to approve the measures for removing
the cultural challenges faced by the organizational employees. Following challenges are being
faced by the organization in Chinese market:
Different cultural values and etiquettes
People from different culture, values and etiquettes are considered as beneficial for organization
as it helps in creating cultural diversity at workplace which ultimately enhances organizational
performance; boost up the productivity of organization. On the other hand, diversified cultural
workforce also leads to generate conflicts amongst the employees which also affect the teams’
performance at workplace (Campus Compact, 2016).

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Australian Beauty Pro is executing its functionalities in different parts of the globe and in
Chinese market, due to different cultural values and etiquettes of employees; certain intercultural
challenges are arising in relation with the communication which is affecting organizational
performance. This issue is arising because employees in China belong to totally different cultural
background in comparison to the cultural background of Aussies which is becoming the primary
barrier in proper communication. Chinese culture is strong and citizens of China follow their
cultural values in their personal as well as in professional lives. Due to this, they are not able to
adjust themselves with the other people with different cultural background. Potential issues arise
in intercultural communication due to interaction between people from different cultural
background, different values and etiquettes. With regards to these attributes, following
challenges in intercultural challenges arises:
 Discrimination: Due to different culture, values and etiquettes, numerous challenges
arises because every employee has its own way of executing tasks when these employees
work together in a team, issues and conflicts arises. Apart from this, as Beauty Pro is an
Australian based organization, thus, there are various possibilities that senior members of
the organization supports Aussies in scenarios of conflicts and issues due to which
employees from China raise voice against discrimination (Cardon, 2014).
 Communication: It is the vital tool for organization to gain success, growth and
development. If an organization lacks with appropriate communication tools, it may
affect organizational performance because senior level management will not be able to
convey organizational goals, objectives and vision to the employees which will lead to
create a gap which ultimately affects organizational performance. In this scenario,
employees of China follow different culture and their values also differ from other
people and it leads to generate issues which affect organizational performance (Aba,
2015).
Communication is one of the most significant functions of an organization through
which an organization could easily execute its functionalities in an effective manner
(Purnell, 2018). Not only communication is essential in executing domestic operations
but when an organization moves in international market that time also, communication
plays pivotal role. But due to cross-cultural differences, Beauty Pro is unable to adopt an

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appropriate communication style for the objective of conveying organizational goals,
mission and objectives to the lower level management and employees. Due to different
cultural values and etiquettes of Chinese and Australian employees, communication
between them is inappropriate which is ultimately affecting organizational performance.
Chinese people are found to be fond of their cultural values and their beliefs and they
also follow these attributes in their personal as well as professional lives. With regards to
these factors, Chinese employees are not able to show their consent towards
organizational functionalities and with regards to this, organizational performance is
getting affected (Jenifer & Raman, 2015).
Direct versus indirect styles of communication
This is another challenges faced by Beauty Pro in Chinese market. Organization follows both
direct and indirect communication style on the basis of requirement of situation. Although,
indirect style of communication is not much effective for organizations because in this style of
communication, speaker’s intensions are not clear and they did not make clear statement that
results into uncomfortable situation for both organization as well as for employees (Kostelnick,
2017).
It has been observed that indirect communication style is being practiced at the workplace of
Beauty Pro in China. Although, goal of both, direct and indirect speakers are same but their way
of conveying message to its employees are different. While determining the reason why indirect
style of communication is being practiced, it has been observed that most of the African and
Asian countries, culture has been set to use indirect style of communication. Due to this,
organizations are not able to perform their operations in an effective manner. Employees of
China at Beauty Pro are from different cultural background and with different morals, values,
beliefs, etc., and they are more dedicated towards work. This becomes the major difference
between Australian employees and Chinese employees, thus, conflicts and issues arise. Superiors
in the organization mostly are Australians and their style of making the work done from their
subordinates is quite different in relevance with the way of doing tasks of Chinese employees
(Tjosvold, 2017).

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Apart from this, managers are not able to convey their messages to their subordinates in an
effective manner due to huge difference of culture and other norms. In relation to this, employees
found that managers have adopted indirect communication style and there is no transparency in
the organization with regards to the sharing information from top level to bottom level. This
becomes another big reason of generating intercultural communication challenges at workplace
due to which organizational performance is getting affected.
Due to managers are practising indirect communication style, flow of information from top level
management to lower management and employees is not appropriate which is leading to create
differences at workplace (Jin & Cortazzi, 2016). Apart from this, discriminatory practices are
also being practiced at the workplace because managers are not much relying on the Chinese
employees and in relation to this, issues and conflicts arises. Cultural and values differences are
the major factor which encourages the different communication styles. Every manager has its
own way of executing tasks and their decision making style is also influenced by their cultures
and values. Although, managers and leaders adopt contingency approach in order to take
decisions on the basis of situation in order to execute the tasks for enhancing organizational as
well as employees’ productivity. In this scenario, Australian managers are failing to analyse
market conditions of China due to which they are not able to adopt appropriate communication
style for communicating with the employees. This is leading to generate conflicts and issues at
workplace (Halualani, 2017).
Different cultural norms of decision making
Decision making style of every leader, manager or even of an employee in an organization
differs from each other and in order to perform the functionalities of organization in an effective
manner, it is necessary for employees and all members of top level management to encourage
collaboration and teamwork at workplace with the objective of enhancing organizational
performance as well as for boosting up the productivity of organisation (Holmes, 2014).
Management in Beauty Pro China is practicing centralised decision making approach so that the
goals could be attained as per the expectations of organization but as Chinese employees are
dedicated towards their work, hard working as well as committed towards organizational goals
seeks for transparency in the decision making process in order to determine all available options
so that an appropriate alternative could be selected in order to enhance organizational

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performance. Transparent decision making approach is a type of decentralised decision making
approach and it is effective for the objective of encouraging team work and collaboration at
workplace which is ultimately effective in terms of enhancing organizational performance and
productivity (Henderson, Barker & Mak, 2016).
Cross-cultural differences are affordable because workforce diversity is the only option through
which organizations could easily set up its businesses in the international market. When two
people work at same place with different values, beliefs, and culture, conflicts and issues may
arise because their thinking style as well as their behaviour towards tackling situation would be
different. These issues could be easily be tackled with the help of certain measures such as
adopting appropriate and effective communication tools and by appointing flexible and adjusting
employees with broad thinking ability. Due to different norms of culture at the Beauty Pro at
Chinese location, cross-cultural differences are arising and these factors are effective on one
hand for enhancing efficiency in cross-cultural communication, conflict resolution as well as in
the negotiations. With regards to this, Chinese employees are not able to handle the superiority
complex of managers and leaders from Australia as according to their cultural norms,
transparency should be present in the decision making process so that they could also share their
views and feedbacks about the functionalities of organization.
Thus, Chinese employees are not showing their consent towards the decisions taken by
Australian managers and leaders which is ultimately affecting organizational performance. With
regards to resolving these challenges, it is necessary to analyse the differences in the cultures
followed by determining their values and behaviour of people for the objective adopting
appropriate measures through which organizational performance could be enhanced along with
gaining desired goals and objectives ((Neuliep, 2017).
Conclusion
From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that intercultural differences are the major
reason through which organizational performance is getting affected. With regards to this,
Beauty Pro’s performance is getting affected. Organization is suffering from several challenges
and issues on the basis of different cultural values, and etiquettes, adaptation of appropriate style
of communication to communicate the information at workplace, and differences in cultural

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norms of decision making. With the effect of these issues and challenges, organizational
performance is getting hampered which is also affecting organizational brand value in the global
market. Australian Beauty Pro is an organic cosmetic products manufacturing and distributing
company. Organization is performing exceptionally well in all parts of the globe along with
Australia but in Chinese market, organization is not able to attain the desired goals and
objectives on the basis of expectations which is ultimately affecting organizational financial as
well as reputational goodwill in the global market. In this report, those challenges has been
discussed along with determining the significance of effective intercultural communication at
workplace. These issues have been the major factors for declining organizational performance.
In relation to this, newly appointed manager has formed a small team with two other Australian
based managers with the objective of determining issues, challenges and problems faced by the
employees of the organization. Along with discussing those challenges, appropriate resolutions
will also be discussed with relevance to those challenges in the next section of the report through
which collaboration and team work could be promoted at workplace so that expected outcomes
could be attained along with matching up with the target audience’s demands and wants.
Recommendations
In relevance with the above issues discussed with regards to the operations of Beauty Pro in
China, it has been reviewed that intercultural challenges are effective for enhancing
organizational efficiency on one hand but on the other hand, when people with different cultural
norms, values and beliefs works together, conflicts and issues arises which affects the
organizational performance in negative manner. Thus, it is necessary for the organization to
adopt appropriate measures through which intercultural differences could be settled and
organizational performance could be enhanced. Following are certain recommendations through
which organizational performance could be enhanced along with mitigating the issues and
challenges faced by the organization:
Removing cultural barriers
Primary measure which could be adopted for removing the cultural barriers is providing
intercultural communication training to the employees from different backgrounds. Workforce
diversity is considered as the primary success factor for enhancing organizational performance in

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international market. Thus, it should be encouraged at the workplace by providing intercultural
communication training along with building awareness of cultural norms amongst the employees
(Sinden, 2014).
 Providing self-awareness and communication training to the employees from different
cultural background will be effective for organization in terms of removing cultural
barriers. Along with this, organization could also provide communication skills training
to its diversified workforce through which employees would be able to understand each
other in an effective manner which will ultimately help the organization to boost up its
performance as employees would be able to work in a team environment more effective
with appropriate communication skills. This will also remove the intercultural
communication barriers amongst the diversified workforce (Piller, 2017).
 International affairs graduate programs could also be adopted for removing cultural
barriers. These programs include teaching analysis, interpretation of cross-cultural
interactions. This will create positive impact over culture on conflict and communication
at different levels. Apart from this, considering personal space and by teaching the
business etiquettes to the employees with different cultural backgrounds will help the
organization to match up to the standards set up by the organizational management. This
will also create positive environment on the outcomes of business interactions
(Whitmore, 2016).
Improve negotiation skills
Training for intercultural communication helps the organization to enhance the ability of
employees to negotiate which ultimately boosts up the individual marketability within the
diversified global workforce. In relation with negotiation, every culture has its own rules,
regulations, beliefs and values and with regards to this, business experts and business
professionals recommend the organizations to integrate the cross-cultural framework with other
measures for removing intercultural differences for those employees who deal with multiple
people with different cultures in every day (Linton, Boersma, Traczyk, Shaw & Nicholas, 2016).
With regards to the improving negotiation skills, Beauty Pro at Chinese location could also adopt
Business Model of Intercultural Analysis (BMIA) as this framework consist of six

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comprehension lenses which helps in eliminating business-related challenges especially in terms
of cultural differences along with this, these lenses also helps in improving negotiation skills of
individuals at workplace. Following are these six comprehension lenses:
 Cultural Themes are linked with the fork beliefs or religion, thus, these needs to be
considered while developing a negotiation strategy (Shah & Barker, 2017).
 Communication is an essential component for developing negotiation strategy
because different cultural background people have different languages which could
create a big impact over flow of information within workplace.
 Group dynamics has the major role in influencing sales process and it is the duty of
sales managers to actively take participates in the organizational processes with
regards to the smooth functionality of organization (Cardon & Marshall, 2015).
 Globalisation is the concept which has encouraged local companies to set up their
businesses in international market through which they have become Multinational
Corporation and they are required to analyse the local cultures and marketing
environment for the objective of implementing appropriate and relevant strategies
for attaining desired goals and objectives.
 Process engineering is the factor which is required to be addressed by global
companies. Resources at all locations are not same which create negative impact
over negotiation process.
 Time orientation varies from all cultures and it affects the pace and expectations of
negotiation process.
It is necessary for the organization to analyse those employees who have appropriate mindset to
execute negotiation process who could easily navigate the industry along with analysing different
views of the international industries. In relation to this, intercultural communication training
helps the organization to accomplish its goals and objectives through a variety of frameworks
and approaches with regards to the international culture. Appropriate candidates will help the
organization to deal with different situations in an appropriate and effective manner. The more
organization would be able to make their employees efficient to adjust with the different cultural
background people and dynamic business environments (Manuti, et. al., 2015).

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Encouraging diversified workforce
Diversity has become the typical at workplaces and in order to expand the business in
international market, matching with the requirements of international clients have become an
easy task. In relation with workforce diversity, various challenges arises i.e. language barriers,
cultural differences, etc. and these barriers ultimately affect the organizational business along
with affecting relationships at workplace, thus, it is necessary to adopt appropriate measures
before going in the global market to break down the barriers (Oetzel, 2017).
 Learning new key phrase: Communication is the most essential element because with
clear measure of communication, employees could easily understand the objectives of
organization and they could frame their measures on the basis of customers’ needs and
wants. Language is the main attribute of communication and with the global
functioning; it is required for the employees to learn different languages for treating
their international clients in an effective manner. Along with providing training for
different languages, cross-cultural training could also be offered in order to deal with the
international clients and employees from different cultural backgrounds in an effective
manner (Martin & Nakayama, 2015).
 Learning other employees’ culture: It has been recommended to the Beauty Pro to
provide appropriate information to the employees regarding each other’s cultures for
encouraging them towards teamwork. For example, if Aussies and Chinese employees
will be given learning sessions for providing them information regarding both cultures,
values, beliefs, their preferences, greeting gestures, etc. will help the organization to
develop basic tenets of culture amongst the all employees regarding each other’s culture.
This extra effort will help the organization to form an appropriate and effective
workplace environment which will be able to fulfil its clients’ demands and wants.
 Providing freedom to employees to be open with each other: It has been
recommended that leaders and manager are required to perform the duties for enhancing
organizational performance and removing cultural barriers. With regards to this, they
should conduct team building exercises and collaborative sessions through which
teamwork could be promoted along with building appropriate workplace environment
for attaining desired goals and objectives. This will help the organization to provide

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appropriate and relevant information for cultures to the employees with regards to the
development of bonding amongst the employees for making better teams as well as to
accomplish the goals and objectives of the organization (Sorrells, 2015).

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