Challenges and Strategies in Business Communication for Companies

This report delves into the complexities of business communication, particularly within multinational corporations operating across diverse cultural and linguistic landscapes. It highlights the importance of effective communication for business success, emphasizing both internal and external interactions. The report identifies key challenges such as timely communication, communication breakdowns between management and staff, feedback collection, and language barriers. It then explores various strategies employed by companies like Coca-Cola, Bayer Corporation, and GE to overcome these challenges, including employee training programs, open forums, surveys, and the use of technology like intranets and online platforms. The report also discusses future strategies, such as developing support teams, implementing open communication channels, and utilizing surveys and questionnaires to gather client feedback and address language issues. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges and strategies related to business communication in a globalized world.

Running head: COMMUNICATION 0
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................................2
Good practices:............................................................................................................................................2
Challenges faced by the company and the future strategies:......................................................................4
Conclusion and implications:.......................................................................................................................7
References:..................................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
Globalization and internationalization enables the companies to move in the international
countries overseas and conduct their businesses there. This requires the business to communicate
properly in the international countries. These businesses need to communicate with the external
as well as the internal environment of the company. Therefore, better communication is the key
to success for the multinational companies as they have to conduct their business activities in
different countries having different linguistic and cultural behaviour (Chesher & Kaura, 2012).
This report majorly discusses about the challenges that the company faces due to communication
barriers exist in the environment. This is the case of the company that operates in Australia,
Vietnam, India, Oman and Nigeria. The company have to deal with such issues and it makes
some of the strategies so that they can face the challenge and conduct the businesses effectively.
This report also focuses on such strategies used by different companies in order to manage the
communication.
Good practices:
Business communication can be defined as the communication between the business and the
communication inside the business. it is very important for the companies especially the ones
that works in different countries to have good communication skills so as to manage the
communication and remove the communication barriers that has been faced by the companies
these days (Stuhec, 2010). Communication strategy is the term that integrates communication
with strategic point of view. It is required by the companies to think strategically about resolving
the issues of communication at the workplace so that it can efficiently conduct their task in other
countries with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (Ulrich & Sarasin, 2012). There are
various issues that have been faced by the companies in terms of communication. Some face the
issues of cultural differences while other faces the issues of difference in thought process and
beliefs.
However, there are companies who are doing great in their context of managing the effective
communication among the employees across the borders. This is because of their strategic point
of view regarding the aspect of communication (Bovee, 2010). Earlier, the organization does not
give much attention to the concept of communication but with time, it has been realised by the
companies that barriers in communication can be the major issues that affect the functioning and

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outcomes of the task performed. The major concern of communication is managing the cross
cultural teams. As most of the companies believe in team work thus the companies have to make
the teams with diverse workforce (Guffey & Loewy, 2010). These teams also need to interact
and communicate internally to complete the project. Thus, communication barriers at every point
may hamper the performance of the company as well as the individual employees.
Coca Cola is one of the companies that focus on this issue and implemented different strategies
at different levels of the organization so that communication can be made effective. The
company has the employee brand advocate program (Peltokorpi & Clausen, 2011). This program
is called as Coca Cola Ambassador program that deals with educating the employees about how
to communicate effectively with the external and internal stakeholders of the company about any
of the issue that affect the business. Coca cola is firm that operates in many countries and thus
have to deal with people of different countries whether it is employee of the branch or the
customers at different countries (Guffey & Loewy, 2012). Communicating with all the
stakeholders is necessary for the company and this program trains the employees of the company
to do the same. It is required by the companies to take feedback from the employees of the
company regarding any of the issues of the organization. Thus the companies like Bayer
Corporation have implemented some of the strategies to make the process effective. The
company has engaged around 200 employees who work for taking feedback from the employees
to make the communication better (Martin & Nakayama, 2013). This involves the practices of
interaction between the employees. This also involves the view points of the employees for
making their communication effective. There are many other examples of the companies that are
making changes in the policies and function in order to make their communication effective. GE
is one of the companies which have made significant changes in its culture in past years
(Harzing, Köster & Magner, 2011). As and when the company announced that their headquarters
would be shifting to Boston, it has taken the initiative to redesign the culture and the structure of
the company. It has implemented that strategy to improve its communication by integrating the
internal communication with the external communication. GE has to communicate with its
employees about any of the changes it made in its culture or structure. The company suggests
that it is not only the employees who need to know about the changes in the company but the
other stakeholders like customers also need to know about the same. Organization has integrated
both the communication and incorporated the system that delivers the information to the external

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stakeholders well (Michaelidou, Siamagka & Christodoulides, 2011). LinkedIn is used by the
company as the portal to display all the information regarding the company. The people who
access this platform can easily know about the firm by reading the posted information. It is also
the place where the company can easily interact with the job seekers.
It is not necessary that the communication strategies need to be developed deliberately by the
companies, it can develop instantly at the time when the requirement is felt. Formulating the
communication strategy is not an easy task and thus it is required to link the strategy to the
organizational goals. It has also been analysed that t is not possible that single strategy can work
all the time. It is based on the type of the industry in which the company is operating and also the
phase of the company (Moran, Abramson & Moran, 2014). If the organization has implemented
the internet based system in the company then it is required to for the strategy that is speedy in
nature. It is also related to the organizational gaols and the time of the project. If there is
misalignment among the strategies and the gaols of the organization then it is not possible for the
company to achieve its goals effectively as poor and mismatched communication hampers the
same.
Unify is one of the company that has incorporated a project called Project Ansible. This project
enables the company to make its communication better (Lewis, 2010). This platform allows the
employees of the company to spend less time in orchestrating and more time in doing their work.
It is not the application but it is the experience that supports the better information flow among
the employees. It is the secure platform that allows the employees to communicate with each
other with a smooth flow in an organized manner. Introduction of telecommuting in the company
helps the company to make their communication strong. This helps in making easy
communication between the virtual workplaces (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 2011).
Challenges faced by the company and the future strategies:
There are many challenges that have been faced by the company these days in terms of
communication. Some of the challenges have been discussed below along with the strategies that
needs to be used by the company to overcome the same.
Timely communication between the staff and the clients: it is the major issue that has been faced
by the company (Griffin & Moorhead, 2011). Communication can be effective only when the

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information is flowed at the correct time. If the communication or the information flow is slow
them there is no sense sharing the information. It is very important for the company to transfer
the information timely to all the employees as well as the clients. This issue can generally be
faced by the companies that work overseas as time is the major issue for them. This is because
the time zone of different countries differs from each other.
Strategy: the strategy that can be used by the company in order to remove the issue of timely
communication with the clients is to develop the support team. It is the team that uses the
internet technological medium to communicate and interact with the clients timely. The shifts
need to be conducted according to the time zone of the different countries where the clients of
the company exists (vom Brocke & Sinnl, 2011). This helps the company to have connection
with the client every time that is for 24 hours. Every time a team should be there at the support
system to entertain the clients every time. In order to establish the great communication between
the employees, intranet is the facility that can help the employees to interact with each other on
time. Intranet is the facility that connects the computer system of all the employees working at
the workplace. Any information that is found to be important can be shared to the relevant
employees as and when required.
Communication breakdown from top management to staff and vice versa: This is the issue that is
related to the barriers of communication between the staff and its top management. Some of the
companies face this issue as the top management cannot be directly deal with the staff as there is
no portal for the staff to directly contact the staff. This needs to be removed so that the barriers
can be removed.
Strategy: an open forum needs to be developed by the organization where the employees can
share their views and opinions regarding the workplace environment and their project. This
forum allows the top management to talk to the staff and thus make the bottom up as well as top
down communication effective. It acts as the powerful gateway to develop the two way
communication at the workplace. This also creates the sense of belongingness among the
employees as they are being heard by their employer through this forum.
Feedback from the clients: it is required by the companies to take the feedback from the client.
This is because it helps to build the image of the company in front of the clients and also allow

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the company to know about their weaknesses so that they can make the improvements in their
processes according to the feedback of the clients (Deresky, 2017). It has been analysed that it is
not that easy for the companies can make interaction with the clients. They need the medium that
supports this communication every time.
Strategy: survey can be the major strategy that can be used by the company in order to take the
feedback from the clients. Survey is just one technique that can be used. The survey forms
should be uploaded to the online portal of the company’s website where the client can provide
their feedback according to their experience with the company and with the experience of its
products and services usage (Chhokar, Brodbeck & House, 2013). There are other strategies that
can be used by the company such as client support, questionnaires, etc.
Issues of local language: every country has its own language. When any of the company initiates
its business in the different country then it also has to employ the people from that local country.
This let the company deal with such people with different languages as the parent country
employees to team up with the local country employees to perform the tasks. This creates
language issue for the company. The managers find it very difficult to among the teams with
such diverse workers. This requires the company to make some of the communication strategies
in order to make the communication effective.
Strategy: the strategy that can be used in order to overcome such issue is to train the expatriates
or the employees of the parent country with the local language. This helps the managers to
understand the language of other country nationals. As the company in this case operates in
different countries such as India, Nigeria, Oman, Australia, Vietnam, every country has different
local language and thus the company has to build that local touch in their company’s operations
and communication mediums so that it can be made effective.
Cross cultural issues: when a multinational company recruit the employees, it prefers to bring
diversity in the workforce so that multiple skills and knowledge can be gained from people with
different cultural background having different skills as well. These cultural differences can also
become the reason for ineffective communication (Lasserre, 2012). Culture forms the basis of
the thinking process and beliefs of the person. If the thought process of the people working in the

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same team is different then it becomes difficult to reach to a similar conclusion and this acts as
the communication barrier for the company and the team.
Strategy: the strategy that can be sued to resolve this issue is again training of the employees.
There are many initiatives that need to take by the managers of the team in order to maintain the
effective communication at the workplace. This can be done by conducting some of the informal
meetings among the employees of different cultural background so that they can interact with
each other and understand each other’s thought process and beliefs.
Limited literacy in digital communication and use of social media: as far as the company
discussed in this case is concerned, the company operates its business in countries like India,
Oman, Nigeria, Australia and Vietnam. Almost all the countries are very well versed with the
technology (Reiche, Mendenhall & Stahl, 2016). India, Australia and Vietnam are the places that
are social media tools as the medium of business communication to large extent. But, the places
with limited use of technology have issues with communication as they cannot be able to interact
with their parent firm so easily.
Strategy: In order to resolve this issue, it is required by the company to develop technological
skills among the people and the employees at the destination where the employees are not
familiar with such technological tools such as social media as the business communication
method (Madera, Dawson & Neal, 2014). It is required to make it compulsion for the employees
to create their social media accounts so that they can be contacted through them.
Conclusion and implications:
It has been concluded from the report that communication is one of the most important aspects of
business especially for the company that works overseas. There are many communication
barriers exist that hampers the performance of the firm. Better communication is the key to
success for the multinational companies as they have to conduct their business activities in
different countries having different linguistic and cultural behaviour. There are companies who
are doing great in their context of managing the effective communication among the employees
across the borders. This is because of their strategic pint of view regarding the aspect of
communication. Some of the companies that have been discussed above are coca cola, GE, Unify
etc. the issues that are faced by the company that needs to be resolved with the strategies

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suggested, thus it is required for the company to implement such strategy so that the above
discussed issues of communication can be resolved and the company perform efficiently in other
countries.
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