Improving Communication in Deere and Company Ltd: A Report

This report examines communication challenges within Deere and Company Ltd, a multinational agricultural equipment manufacturer. The study identifies issues such as ineffective social media use for information sharing, a lack of robust customer feedback mechanisms, and difficulties arising from intercultural communication. The purpose of the report is to explore strategies for improving communication across all levels of the organization, focusing on leveraging social media platforms for better employee and customer engagement, establishing effective feedback channels, and mitigating misunderstandings caused by cultural differences. The report reviews relevant literature on social media's role in crisis and knowledge management, customer service, and the impact of cultural diversity on communication. It proposes solutions such as proactive live chat support, dedicated feedback forms, and direct customer calls to gather insights. The study emphasizes the importance of timely responses to customer feedback and the use of social listening tools to monitor brand perception. The report aims to provide recommendations for the managerial team, particularly the customer service and employee relations departments, to enhance communication and foster a more inclusive and efficient organizational environment.

Running Head: COMMUNICTION IN ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Communication in Deere and Company Ltd Management
Name
Academic Institution
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Introduction
Background of the Organization
Deere and Company Ltd is a multinational organization that has its head office in
Australia. It operates in several countries across several continents including, Australia,
India, Vietnam, India, Oman and Nigeria. The organization deals in the manufacture of
agricultural equipment and sale of the same to both local and international clients.
Running the organizations operations are a total of 8000 employees spread across the said
countries serving some 1 million customers. In the recent times the organization has been
facing challenges with regards to a variety of fronts. The issues identified include;
weaknesses in the use of social media platforms such a blogs, wikis, Whatsapp, twitter
and other networks in promoting information sharing and the sharing of ideas among
employees. Second issue is the lack of meaningful feedback from clients on ways of
improving customer satisfaction with quality of product and services. Lastly are
challenges arising from intercultural communication which through misunderstanding
breeds mistrust in the organization.
Purpose of the Study
The study seeks to address itself to the identified challenges in communication in the
organization, with are identified as; ineffective use of social media platforms such a blogs,
wikis, Whatsapp, twitter and other networks in promoting information sharing and the sharing of
ideas among employees, the lack of effective feedback from clients on ways of improving
product quality and customer satisfaction with service delivery and lastly the mistrust and
misunderstanding arising from the challenges occasioned by intercultural communication in the
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organization. The study will seek to identify strategies which the organization can employ in
order to improve communication at all levels in the organization.
Scope of the Study
This paper will focus on the ways in which the organization can use social media
platforms to change the way information is shared between the different levels in the
organization (among the employees) as well as between the organization and its clients. The
paper will explore ways in which social media can be used to provide clients with better
interface, convenient channels of accessing information about the organization and its products
and services. Also the paper will review methods that the organization can engage in order to
provide its clientele with avenues of reaching the organization with feedback on what they feel
about the organization’s products and services. Lastly, the study will seek to deconstruct the
challenges that arise from intercultural communication and provide solutions to minimize future
misunderstandings within the organization in order to ensure that employees of various
nationalities are all brought on board and feel part and parcel of the operations of the
organization
Report Outcome
The study will seek to conduct an in depth investigation of the identified issues at the
organization. The outcome of the study will become the basis upon which the study shall arrive
at recommendations on the changes and adjustments that need to be done by the managerial team
and the departments involved; especially the customer service department and the employee
relations team.
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Literature Review
Social media is becoming a popular tool for crisis communication in most organizations
today (Cheng et al., 2018). Even large multinationals that were skeptical about the use of this
tool are fast changing tact and are adapting to the changing trends. In this new era of millennial
when scientists and innovators are creating mind-blowing technological solutions, every
businesses enterprise and organization that is serious about performance must realize that one of
the most vital assets at their disposal is the knowledge of their employees. This is manifested in
their expertise. In order for an organization to attain the level where they produce superior
products and/or services, they must invest in knowledge management (Roblek et al., 2013).
In so doing it is vital for the organization to share the expertise of their best employees
with other employees. The use of social media has turned this into a less strenuous exercise. The
success story of the employees who perform above expectations can be shared with other
employees just on social media platform like whatsapp or Facebook. (He et al., 2016) submits
that this is one way of stimulating innovation and motivating other employees to strive for better
performance too. If an organization is to succeed it has to tap into the potential of knowledge
sharing presented by social media platforms. Social media platforms should be used by
organizations to create a knowledge base which can then be shared by all employees. Any
organization that seeks to gain an edge in providing high quality customer service must embrace
the challenge and opportunities presented by social media as well as multichannel engagement.
Timely and convenient access to knowledge about the organization’s products and
services plays a major role in improving customer satisfaction. Today, customers want to engage
with the organizations through channels of their choice As a consequence, businesses that get
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stuck to the traditional methods of marketing are likely not to make any sales (Stefan et al.,
2017). Knowledge management optimization can be achieved through employment of different
channels for delivery. In achieving this, the knowledge must be packaged in a format that is
channel appropriate. Providing access to the knowledge about the organization through an
established channel like Facebook is a good choice. The organization can use knowledge
management tools to filter and control what type of information can be accessed by the clientele
and the staff as well. The benefit of this is that customers and staff can access information about
the company using a channel of their choice. The content that is availed in the social media
platforms must be authenticated to ensure it is fit for customer engagement. Also, the knowledge
management tools should have a seamless integration with the organization’s customer service
desk applications in order to allow for information to be forwarded wherever it is needed.
Any organization that pursues profits must ensure they get constant feedback from its
customers. This is the only way the organization will be able to assess the quality of their
products and services as well as assess the levels of customer satisfaction. Experts in the
customer service submit that for every customer who complains about the quality of service or
product there are another 20 who have simply chosen to remain silent. What’s more is that most
clients do not usually provide feedback to the organization unless the quality of service was
extremely bad. Many times they choose not to raise the matter with the organization. Instead
they share the information with others. Experts opine again that dissatisfied customers can share
the information with 8 to 10 others and sometimes up to 20 (Waters et al., 2011).
In the modern age where the use of social media is popular, such information can get
viral very fast and seriously damage the reputation of the organization’s brand. Auer et al.,
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(2011) notes that social media platforms have given people the people to influence
organizational decisions and public policy. This is the reason why every organization must be
keen to provide avenues for customers to give feedback and then act on the information to better
the quality of the organization’s products and services. There are a number of things an
organization can do in order to provide avenues for the customers to give feedback. Providing a
live chat platform that is proactive can help the organization to address many issues. For instance
clients who have been unable to find the locations of the products they would wish to purchase
can ask questions about the same directly to the organization’s staff. They can also inquire about
the availability of the products, options for payments and shipping details.
A proactive live chat support can help the organization to better understand the needs of
its clients. This platform can also help the organization to identify any recurring issues among
the client base. This information can then be used in coming up with long term solutions for such
recurring problems. The hint here is that the organization must respond promptly to the questions
raised by their clients with information that is helpful. The company can also choose to derive
feedback from the customers through the use of dedicated feedback forms on their website. For
instance the organization can have a feedback email on its website. Through this email address,
clients can directly communicate whatever issues they have with regards to products and
services. Additionally, the organization can step up this mode of obtaining feedback by use of
dedicated feedback forms. The practice is that the forms should contain all questions that are
relevant to the feedback but must not be long. The visibility of the form should be prominent to
make it easy to see. Where possible give the customer options as well.
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Another very effective method of getting customer feedback is through calling them.
Clients always want to feel that they are valued by the organizations they choose to buy from
(Horn et al., 2010). And giving them a call is a very personalized method of obtaining customer
feedback that at the same time makes them feel valued and respected. This approach is one of
the most proactive and has potential to yield some of the best responses. One of the major
advantages of the calling method is that the organization is able to obtain firsthand information
right from the client. Moreover, the customer service agent making the call on behalf of the
organization can judge the level of customer satisfaction from his or her tone. The secret to
success with this method is that the agent should not present themselves as one merely
conducting a survey; rather they must present themselves as genuinely seeking to provide help to
the customer. To maximize on the benefits of this feedback technique, organization agents must
call the clients at appropriate times. The timing of the calls is very essential to the success of this
method. Clients are likely to take calls between 8 am to 9 am and between 4 pm to 5 pm. The
direct calling method is time consuming and labor intensive and should be reserved for
customers who have a longstanding relationship with the company or high value customers.
In this era of social media revolution there are a variety of options when it comes to
feedback channels. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook,
LinkedIn, and so on are valuable ways of getting customers feel about an organizations products
and services. By employing tools that are effective in “social listening” the organization can
gather information on people’s conversations about certain brands on social media (Pitt et al.,
2011). It is in fact possible to monitor the level of market presence of competing brands by use
of appropriate tools. In handling social media complaints, time is of the essence. Negative
comments usually spread very fast. As such the organization must respond promptly to
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complaints raised by clients in order to ease the tension. Social listening tools such as HootSuite,
Klout, and Social Mention can be invaluable resources in monitoring feedback. If used alongside
with a combination of in house and third party staff, social media becomes a very important
channel for feedback monitoring and response.
A multinational organization has the advantage of being able to hire employees from
different nationalities and cultures. They can source for the best experts in whatever field each of
them bringing a unique set of skills and abilities that if well managed, can steer the organization
towards the realization of organizational objectives. But the major challenge with multicultural
organizations is communication. Some organizations encourage their employees to use social
media in communicating between different levels of management as a way of fostering
relationships (Cho et al., 2013). Employees who have different cultural backgrounds will
interpret different forms of communication, signs and languages differently. This also affects
their decision making and how they resolve conflicts.
Communication in the western countries (such as Australia where the company head
office is) tends to be more direct. In other cultures such as Asia and Africa individuals tend to be
more discrete in the way they communicate. Consequently, confusion can result say for example
when a senior manager who is from Australia gives is seeking some information from a junior
employee who is African or Asian. This is likely to result in a workforce that is disconnected. To
overcome this challenge, a company needs to conduct diversity training for its employees before
they are posted to their work stations. This will help to build the capacities of employees who are
not native to the countries to understand how to blend in the new work place. Multicultural
organizations also face the challenge of language barrier which also affects cohesiveness in the
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team (Lauring et al., 2010). English is the internationally accepted business language. Employees
who are non-English speakers or whose ability to express themselves in English is limited may
feel left out in the organization because they are not able to convey their contributions in the
discourse. Sometimes the said employee may be an expert in the subject matter at hand. This is
what breeds mistrust in the organization.
Conclusion
This paper makes clear the need for Deere and Company Ltd to invest in social media as
a tool for sharing information with its clients and among its employees. Knowledge bases in
social media sites can serve as a device for continuous education and motivation for the staff.
Every organization operates to make profits through sales. Client feedback is therefore very
essential in determining how the customers perceive the products and services of the
organization. Organizations with a workforce that is multicultural will always have challenges in
communication. But providing diversity training helps to bridge the gap in cultural differences.
Recommendation
The organization should hire social media managers to create social media sites and
platforms for the organization to engage with its staff and employees. This should help to boost
the information sharing among employees. The customer service department should then revamp
its feedback and monitoring techniques. The customer service department should consider the
use of social media in getting the feedback from clients considering the popularity and
widespread use of the said platforms. Success and/or failure of feedback methods chosen should
be measured by the frequency of the purchases made by customers and the number of new
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clients they refer to the organization. In order to overcome multicultural communication
challenges the organization should conduct diversity trainings for its employees to build their
capacities to blend in a multicultural organization.
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