Communication and Collaboration Strategies: H&M Report Analysis

This report analyzes the importance of communication and collaboration in the workplace, focusing on the multinational clothing retail company H&M. It explores various techniques to enhance communication, such as leveraging technology, setting focused goals, and fostering a culture of respect. The report also examines how management styles, organizational culture, and structure impact communication and collaboration within an organization. It highlights the significance of effective communication and collaboration for achieving sustainable competitive advantages, improving employee performance, and fostering innovation. The conclusion emphasizes the benefits of proper communication and collaboration in attaining organizational goals and objectives. The report references key scholarly articles and publications that support the analysis of communication and collaboration strategies.

Communication and
Collaboration

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO4 Techniques to communicate and collaborate effectively at work place.............................1
LO5 How management, organisational culture and structure can impact communication and
collaborative within and between organisation...........................................................................2
LO6 Effective Communication and Collaboration within organisation.....................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4
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INTRODUCTION
Communication and Collaborative skills plays an crucial role in organisation ensuring
effective performance and achievement of sustainable competitive advantage (Binder, 2016). It
creates a open and a honest environment at work place and assist employee to perform in such a
way that helps in achieving organisational goals and objectives. In this report chosen
organisation is H&M. It is a multinational clothing retail company known for its fast fashion
clothing for men, women and children. This report analyses the effectiveness of communication
and collaboration using various techniques and how organisational structure, culture can impact
communication and collaboration.
LO4 Techniques to communicate and collaborate effectively at work place
It is very essential to effectively communicate and collaborate in order to perform
effectively and achieve set targets. Various techniques to communicate and collaborate
effectively are mentioned below-
 Leverage Technology to effectively and collaborate- In order to collaborate
successfully it is necessary that every individual should interact effectively. H&M should
create ways for the employees to interact with work force of other departments by the use
of internet, video conferencing, google hangouts or organising various team building
games. This way collaboration and communication will be smoother and easier.
 Focused Goals/ Clear roles and responsibilities-H&M should set focused goals for the
team, this makes the employees to communicate and collaborate effectively by working
all together towards the achievement of the set goals. It creates interactions among the
employees about performing the task to achieve realistic targets (Charles and Dickens,
2012).
 Create a culture of Respect- When the respective organisation builds a culture of
respect, it requires four specific actions such as Listening, encouraging, helping and
showing empathy to employees, make them effectively communicate at work place and
discuses their ideas and problems with superiors and subordinates while increases
collaborative working.
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LO5 How management, organisational culture and structure can impact communication and
collaborative within and between organisation.
Communication and Collaboration at work place have a great impact by management,
organisational structure and culture which are described below-
 Management- When the respective organisation focuses on participative management
and affiliative style it encourages team work and promotes a harmonious group culture at
work place. It encourages effective communication and collaboration among employees
to work efficiently but when H&M focuses on autocratic style of management , it create
a low morale and poor job satisfaction among employees which impede the culture of
collaboration.
 Organisational Culture- In context to H&M when there is a collaborative culture and
competitive environment at work place, it encourages employees to effectively
communicate with other subordinates and collaborate effectively which assist the
company to achieve set goals and targets (Gallmeier and et.al.,2012). But when there is
wide cultural diversity among employees having different language, values and beliefs it
becomes difficult for them to effectively communicate and collaborate among employees
of varied backgrounds.
 Structure- In H&M where there is a hierarchical organisational structure, information
flows from higher authority to lower ends. It minimises the level of interaction of
employees at work place. They focus on performing the task allocated to them as well as
when there is flat organisational structure at H&M, there are reduced level of
management and encourages employees to participate in decision making and leads to
effective communication and collaboration.
LO6 Effective Communication and Collaboration within organisation.
There is a high requirement for the employees to effectively communicate and
collaborate at H&M to ensure effective performance and achieve sustainable competitive
advantages. Collaboration means when a group of people share their ideas and thoughts and
works in a team to accomplish goals and objectives (Klein, 2013).
In context to H&M company should make effective communication and collaboration at
work place which will assist employees to share their new ideas and suggestion and discusses
their problems and creates a friendly atmosphere at work place. Managers and leaders should
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increase skills and abilities of employees which will allow them to perform effectively and
achieve organisational goals and objectives.
Effective communication and collaborative working will allow employees at H&M to
face competitive challenges and work innovatively in order to attract large number of customers
and attains high profit and productivity for the company (Wigand, 2014).
It also sharpens employees knowledge, skills and capabilities to perform complex tasks
and increase their motivation. When the individual at H&M works collaboratively it makes them
achieve realistic goals within the short time period.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been described that proper communication and collaboration
among the employees at work place helps them to attain competitive advantages and effective
realisation of goals. It has been analysed there are various techniques to increase collaborative
working and helps employees to sharpen their skills ad knowledge.
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REFERENCES
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management
across borders. Routledge.
Charles, K.J. and Dickens, V., 2012. Closing the communication gap: Web 2.0 tools for
enhanced planning and collaboration. Teaching Exceptional Children. 45(2). pp.24-32.
Gallmeier, and et.al., 2012. Method and System For Context Sensitive Content and Information
in Unified Communication and Collaboration (UCC) Sessions. U.S. Patent Application
13/417,561.
Klein, J.T., 2013. Communication and collaboration in interdisciplinary research. Enhancing
Communication & Collaboration in Crossdisciplinary Research, edited by M.
O’Rourke, S. Crowley, SD Eigenbrode, and JD Wulfhorst. pp.11-30.
Sarkar, D., Sarkar Pte Ltd, 2014. System for communication and collaboration. U.S. Patent
8,688,673.
Wigand, F.D.L., 2014. Communication and collaboration in a Web 2.0 world. In Cyber
Behavior: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 1-18). IGI Global.
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