Intercultural Communication for Business Managers in the Pandemic

This report analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on intercultural communication within business management. It examines how businesses have adapted to remote work environments, highlighting the challenges and ethical issues that have arisen. The report explores various communication models, such as the SCMR model, and discusses how they can be applied to improve communication effectiveness during social distancing. It also provides insights into different approaches to change management, including top-down, bottom-up, and integrative approaches, and their implications for organizational culture and employee engagement. Furthermore, the report delves into specific examples of companies, such as tech and healthcare organizations, and their responses to the pandemic, emphasizing the importance of clear and concise communication in maintaining productivity and employee well-being. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for managers to consider ethical considerations and the importance of adapting communication strategies to the changing circumstances of the pandemic.

Running head: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION FOR BUSINESS MANAGERS
INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION FOR BUSINESS MANAGERS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s note

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Introduction
The outbreak of a disease called COVID-19 has created ultimate pressure on the
shoulders of managers to run their businesses. The economy is still running by the contribution
of business units and employees who are taking precautionary measures to stop the spreading of
the disease and also trying to contribute to the economic activity. The paper will how different
companies have successfully adopted a change in the system and following the social distancing
in their work culture. The work from home concept has gained importance at this time of the
pandemic. Some organization were using this concept earlier also. However, it is the need of the
hour, and every organization such as tech companies can execute these with some efforts. The
centres for disease control and prevention and different health departments are continuously
giving guidelines to restrict travels of employees and initiate work from home or reduce the
working hours. The following of these guidelines varies from company to company. The
organization which is not showing any positive cases can continue the usual working by
maintaining the hygiene requirements and social distancing in the office. However, this too has
its challenges as it affects the organizational culture and business communication.
Discussion
Answer 1
Most countries of the world are experiencing the outbreak of COVID-19. The cases of
COVID-19 virus is increasing exponentially. The situation was so bad that most governments
chose to lock down their economies. This urgent step was taken by the different government to
ensure that people maintain social distancing and stay at their home. This will cut down the chain
through which COVID-19 is spreading. The business entities and several other organizations are
supporting the government and providing work from home to their employees (Fernandes 2020).

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They are initiating this step to ensure the safety of their employees who are part of their
organization. The provision of work from home is not an easy task. It involves lots of teamwork
and extensive management role so that the employees remain motivated for their work even at
their home. The companies have provided guidelines concerning work from home if it is possible
for them.The works which need to be carried out at the office or in the defined working
environment. Then the employees who are infected by the disease or feels any symptoms must
not go to the office (Ozili and Arun 2020).
The tech companies like Microsoft came forward to initiate the work from home. The
choice of allowing employees to use the official software and systems from home can be
possible in the tech industry. The manufacturing industry is hit by the outbreak of the COVID-
19. Dara Conroy who is a chief human resources officer at Tax Analysts (TA), a small, nonprofit
publisher in Falls Church, Va said, “For these large tech companies, working at home is in their
DNA”. The organization like TA company had always ‘work from home’ policy in their
protocol. This was included in the policy to deal with the temporary situations as a snowstorm
etc (Dinarto, Wanto and Sebastian 2020).
The hospitality industry is one of the industry which is affected the most by the outbreak
of the disease. The tourism sector and the hotel industry has ceased its operation because of this
pandemic. The healthcare companies in the hospitality industry is the busiest companies at this
crucial hour. The time of operation cycle of these companies has increased due to the increased
demand for medical products and healthcare services. General electrical healthcare is one of the
renowned companies which manufacture medical technology and equipment. The company is
doing great work in the healthcare services. It has increased its production lines. It has hired
more workers and increasing the production of medical equipment that are the crucial necessities

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of the present situation. COVID-19 has created a global pandemic. The companies other than
healthcare companies are contributing and helping the government by keeping their employees
safe while healthcare companies are producing medical equipment to help the diseased. TA has
closed the office temporarily for imposing a full stop to the spread of COVID-19 infections. The
company has informed all its employees via official mail (Bartik et al. 2020). The management
is continuously updating each and every information through e-mails. The e-mails are
acknowledged by employees. The use of e-mail for communication is formal communication
which is used by the organization to reduce the miscommunication and maintain the
effectiveness of business communication. The chosen approach of communication can be seen as
integrative in all the above-said organizations because the effect of the communication is not
limited to a single line of communication. It has involved the participation of all the departments
(Stephany et al. 2020).
Answer 2
Use of Iceberg model for effective communication in the pandemic situation is effective.
Though this model, managers can find out different perceptions and context of their ideas that
they are thinking to implement. The model basically helps in identifying different patterns and
events which are helpful in creating the structural change or help in creating the model, which
will be helpful in implementing the change. The managers should evaluate that work from home
will require what kind of system support, what kind of working schedule, different protocols
which can make the work from home manageable from a distance also, the study of different
patterns and events can help them to create a model which clearly aims at fighting the challenge
of COVID-19 and maintain the productivity of the organization at the same time (Boelig et al.
2020).

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The change of working environment for a day can be an easier task, but the spread of the
disease have mandated the requirement of these organizational change for longer-term. It
involves effective planning. The managers should plan in advance what will be the challenges
they are going to face in future and work on implementing the changes effectively, which will be
fruitful for the organization. The strategic plans help a lot in these situations. These plans are
developed by the top managers considering future needs. The manager should develop the plan
by thinking the needs of the workers at this crucial hour. The manager must plan tactically and
must not be shy to incorrupt any major change if he thinks it assists the strategic plans as well
(Katz et al. 2020). The operational plans are designed by the frontline departments and the low-
level managers. These managers must look that the employees are also facing difficulties at
home and not getting the same work environment. In addition, these managers are responsible
for assessing the daily works, production, orders of inventory, and executing activities as per
budget. If the workers are slowly doing the work, then work hours can be increased for giving
them more time to achieve their targets.
Continuous evaluation through official mails and video conferencing formal calls with
the team leaders will facilitate the plans of the managers to a great extent (Rosman et al. 2020).
The managers should follow the arrow approach as the communication strategy. The arrow
approach is simple. It does not need feedback from. The participants are only the sender and
receiver. This can be applied successfully in operational plans. The low-level managers can
communicate small information to the workers from home easily. In-circuit approach, there is
the role of feedback. After sending the messages and receipt of the messages, there is the third
step of sending the feedback that the information has been interpreted and it is accepted or not.
This makes communication effective. It should be used by managers’ different departments

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while formulating plans to deal with the COVID-19. The social distancing has made it quite
important that communication which is established from a distance should also be made effective
(Shadmehr and Mesquita 2020). Dance approach motivates people to work together and
understands each other's behaviour. Managers have to draw some rules under dance approach
required for different kind of situations. The circulation of complete and meaning information
helps to reduce the creation of unnecessary rumours and improve the efficiency of
communication. In the situation like COVID-19, managers have a higher responsibility to make
each level of communication, whether verbal or written, to be effective (Brantley 2016).
Answer 3
The possible ethical issues that may arise in the current COVID-19 situation are:
Implementing major changes in the work-life of employees. The managers know the changes
may face resistance from employees. This creates a dilemma for them whether to implement the
change or not.
The major changes in the organization may create more attrition rate. The employees may
feel insecurity to their job skills. For example- some employees may find work at home is a
difficult task as infrastructure facilities are not the same as home. This will harm their
productivity (Turaga 2016).
The rapid change in the external environment, which is concerning their safety is a major
concern for any management. Employees may find difficulty in concentrating on their work. The
change in policy needs full support from different managers and employees who are mentally
motivated to do it. Forcing them to adopt changes will not help in this urgent situations
(Кратенок 2019).

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The other ethical issue is the maintenance of good relationships among employees, even
at the time of adversities like COVID-19. The healthy relations and consideration of employee
needs at this hour of need is an effective way to win the trust of employees and increase their
loyalty towards the organization.
The management team should formulate plans through which the employees who have
been affected by the disease can be provided help, and monetary benefits to their family reduce
their sufferings to some extent (Schramm 2019).
The managers should try to inculcate the social distancing culture within the organization
where work from home is not possible. This will raise some of the issues in business
communications. The easily verbal communication between same level employees becomes
difficult. The time for sending one message to the receiver and interpreting the message in the
right way becomes tough in the case of social distancing. The ambiguous messages like ‘I do not
mean this’ or ‘I like to say’ creates unnecessary misinterpretation to the messages that one
person wants to convey. Managers, while dealing with their employees in urgent situations,
should remain clear and simple about their messages. The employees may be in a panic due to
the current situation. They may not take unnecessary exaggerations as a motivating factor for
them (Bartl 2017).
Answer 4
Under the SCMR model, managers need to give equal importance to the objectives of the
sender, attributes of the messages, channels and characteristics of the receiver. All four attributes
must be coordinated to achieve effective results from communication. When social distancing
has been implemented in the organization, the main objective of the sender remains to educate,
motivate, express, compliment, and inform others concerning some important matter. The

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choices of terminologies should remain simple. Non-verbal communication can be fruitful in
social distancing following organizational culture. The channels that are used for message
transfer can be through a digital method like fax, e-mail, phone, etc. Employees devoted to ‘work
from home’ can be addressed through video-conferencing, telecommunication and through text
messages also. C-R test can be conducted by the organization which are following social
distancing (Marrello 2019). It is a congruency test which will help to determine which channel
would be best suited for the effective communication matching the situation of hour concerning
social distancing.
M-C test will help the organization to test that the channels used for the kind of messages
are effective or not. It will help to match the receiver characteristics and capabilities with the
characteristics of the messages sent. In social distancing, it becomes quite important that
messages which are complex and are meant for the top managers concerning plans and strategic
decisions should be received by the right personnel. The managerial person has the quality to
interpret the messages meaningfully. The messages may contain plans of change in
organizational system and performance style, which should be delivered to the managers only.
The change plans will be communicated after that to the employees in a simpler and easy way to
avoid resistance level for the planned change (Weiss et al. 2019).
As per the world health organization, the communication channels should include advice
and instructions for their employees and contractors who are travelling for important purposes.
These employees should consult the national travel advice before starting their business trips.
The walls of workplaces which were earlier filled with motivation and professional and
informative quote, now filled with posters of messages. These messages are promoting the
importance of hygiene maintenance, precautionary measures for COVID-19, information

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concerning symptoms of this disease, etc. these are the instructions provided by WHO for the
different organization (Porwol and Ojo 2018).
Conclusion
Thus the paper concludes that the outbreak of the disease has disturbed the business
organization. Different organizations like Microsoft and TA (a nonprofit organization) have
given their employees work from home. The step has disrupted the smooth functioning of
different organizations. However, WHO has given guidelines to prevent travelling as much as
possible to stop the spread of the disease. The business communication system has been affected
to a great extent as all the employees are following social distancing. It has impact the business
communication channel of the businesses. The managerial role in maintaining the effectiveness
of the communication channel has increased. The paper concludes that the SMCR model plays
an important role in defining the right communication system for different level employees and
departments. This helps in reducing the time consumption for completing the communication.
The paper also concludes that the hospitality sector is the most affected industry by the COVID-
19 Pandemic. The operations cycle and working hours of employees have increased rapidly
because of the increasing demand for healthcare products and services.

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