Strategies for Business Communication in Multinational Companies

This report examines the business communication challenges faced by a multinational company operating in various countries including Australia, India, and Oman. The report identifies key issues such as communication barriers due to language differences, breakdowns in communication betwee...Read More

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Business communication
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Abstract
The purpose of the topic is to state how the Multinational Company must improve its business
communication with the other staffs and clients residing in the different time zones. It was
lacking in certain aspects such as facing the communication barrier with the people on the basis
of using local languages and effective use of digital platform and social media. The examples of
the two multinational companies are given to ensure their working on the business improvements
and how it must be carried out effectively. The present MNC which is an Australian based has its
branches in the countries that are facing communication barriers for not knowing English
properly and the proper use of digital. To make the strategies clear for the company, it can use
the implementation of the strategy properly and make the workplace a better place for
communication.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Good practices.................................................................................................................................3
Future Strategies..............................................................................................................................6
Timely communication to all staffs and client can happen through the certain strategies..........6
Communication breakdown from top management to staff in the front line and vice versa.......7
Feedbacks from Clients...............................................................................................................7
Issues of Local Language............................................................................................................8
Cross Cultural Communications..................................................................................................8
Addressing Digital Illiteracy and Limited using of social media................................................9
Conclusions and Implications:.......................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The aim of the topic is to state about a multinational organization which carries out
operations in different countries such as Australia, India, Oman and other countries. However
problem lies in the fact that the manufacturers of the organization which distribute the
equipments of agriculture to the international and local clients, faces communication problem. In
total, the organization has 8000 employees in the five countries, yet the company is facing
certain business communication problems. The challenges that the company is facing are about
timely communication to all the clients and staffs, the breakdown in the communication from the
top management and staff, front line manager and vice verse. There are also feedbacks from the
clients to bring improvements in the quality of the product and also the proper understanding of
the local language. There are also lacks of development in the literacy of digital and in some of
the countries with the using of social media by not able to communicate properly. Therefore, in
this regard, it is important to point out the strategies which can be carried out by the organization
to the different employees and the ways should be adopted to find out the relevant ways to
interact with the people as well. In this regard, the different organizations communication
procedures would act as a boosting effect to the this multinational organization which would also
further help out to remove the communication obstacles and remove them accordingly.
Good practices
There are certain good practices which are practiced by the other organizations in terms of
carrying out the effective means of communication (Shokley, 2014; Miller & Barbour, 2014).
There are certain organizations such as Crown Resorts and Bilabong which are the multinational
companies of Australia who practices this effective means of communication (Rajhans, 2012).

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Crown resort multinational organization follows certain effective means of communication
through the usage of proper video conferencing to the staffs and this also helpful to communicate
the staffs from the top management (Goetsch et al., 2014; Richmond, McCroskey & Powell,
2012; Dasgupta et al. 2012) The same process is followed by Bilabong organization. These
organizations also follow electrical methods such as contacting the employees via sending email
which further improves the communication and helps to overcome the obstacles between the
head office and the employees (Eisenberg, Goodall & Tretheway, 2013). The companies also
handle the customers who have less knowledge in the field of technology. Crown Resort uses
acronyms and also they make sure that they identify the acronyms properly (Knapp, Vangelisti &
Caughlin, 2014; Ulmer et al 2013; Evans et al 2017).
Both the organizations have branches in the different countries with maximum digital literacy
rate. Therefore, the staffs do not face any kinds of problems while trying to wage interaction with
the head office (Evans et al., 2017) The using of curiosity of the cultural awareness is also one of
the important aspects of the multinational organization. Bilabong understood the customers well
and that is why they prefer giving value to the written words rather than practicing the oral
statements with the people coming from the low- cultural contexts and the people belong from
high- cultural contexts they take information from the contexts of the messages, prefers
indirectness and also ambiguity (Austin & Pinkleton, 2015; Kinloch & Metge, 2014) The clients
who are working on behalf of the organization carries knowledge of curiosity of understanding
people of different culture. Bilabong send its clients to the other parts of the world who are
multilingual and can easily communicate to the natives regarding their feedbacks and using of
the perfect communication skills.

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Both the organizations follow upward communication and downward communication. The
upward communication consists of feedbacks from the employees and clients through the
process of video conferencing or email procedures as mentioned before (Neves & Eisenberger,
2012). These communications are thoroughly followed by the organizations. The organizations
have the staffs from all around the world therefore, it is not very difficult to carry out
communication on the basis of local languages with the customers while communicating with
them (Suttle, 2014). Initially Bialbong faced numerous troubles in understanding the local
languages of the domestic clients, understanding the requirements; they started recruiting the
people from all around the world and now the flow of business have become quite smooth
(Hackman & Johnson, 2013; Hwang, 2012; Couldry, 2012; Hirst, Harrison & Mazepa, 2014;
Bull & Borwn, 2012). Crown resorts maintain the different websites of the personal
communication such as podcasts, blogs and also teleconferences which are acting as important
strategies for carrying out the effective communication (Carbaugh, 2013; Landis & Brislin, 2013;
Bonvillain, 2013; Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2012). Therefore, these are the important good
practices of the company which are being practiced accordingly to make their workplace
communication a better place. Therefore, in this, it is important for the mentioned multinational
organization to carry out work forces in a very systematic ways and these strategies are
important to carry out the various workforces in a much more effective manner (Matsumoto &
Hwang, 2013; Knapp, 2014).
Future Strategies
By utilizing the transmission model which describes the messages between sender and
the decoder. The messages contain a relevant content and structure. The sender sends the
message through a channel of communication and where the receiver responds to the messages

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to the sender. Therefore, in this respect, through the maintenance of the proper channel, the
sender can send messages to the receiver; the receiver would decode the message and send the
responds. However, the noises might create greater troubles such as mechanical troubles which
already caused problems to the organization in terms of waging a proper communication. Hence,
following this model properly, it is ensured that certain problems can be solved for the
multinational organization (Liu, jin & kuch, 2012).
Timely communication to all staffs and client can happen through the certain strategies
For Staffs: To maintain information with the staffs the organization must devise a solution based
on social collaboration that gives the employees enter a communication based on single platform.
This types of platform means that the work or sharing of information can be integrated through
the productivity apps, which allows the communication to happen in a specific time which
involves problem solving and decision making process from any parts of the world. Such as
skype communication is another video conferencing app which can be utilized well by the
company in order to come in contact with the staffs (Shokley, 2014; Miller & Barbour, 2014).
For clients: To maintain a timely communication to all clients, the video calls, the using
of podcasts or blogs or the ratings can be best available for them to understand the receiver’s
reaction. Even if they face any problems they can contact the head offices via the use of email or
any other video conferencing.
An online forum must be created separately for both staffs and clients so that they can share the
workings with each other, they can work on the projects and also on the different floors of the
various countries who are residing in the different time zones.

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Communication breakdown from top management to staff in the front line and vice versa
It has been found from the front line staffs that they claim to receive the messages of the
digital company. It has been stated that more than 60% of the front line staffs do not have a
company email inbox and also most of them do not have access to intranet (Carbaugh, 2013;
Landis & Brislin, 2013; Bonvillain, 2013; Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2012). Therefore to
manage the better communication with the front line staff and top management, social platforms
are necessary for carrying out higher quality application of mobile apps just to ensure the
information of the company at every location through using tablet or smart phones. With the
using of API, which connects the employees with the top management through only one platform
and single log- in session. In this way both the management and the front line staffs are engaged
in setting feedbacks and a communication can also happen vice versa. By sung the
Communication Model of Barnlund, the sender and receiver are connected reciprocally.
Feedbacks from Clients
Feedbacks from clients are an important part of a communication model. It is the
response that a sender is sending after receiving in the messages in the form of context and
delivery of products. Therefore, response should be taken into account accordingly to maintain a
healthy conversation and this also in turn would determine the quality of the products that their
staffs are selling (Suttle, 2014). In this respect, proper feedbacks forms are necessary to reach out
to the clients through the process of mailing system or rather distributing the survey forms from
the shops from where they are buying. The questions in the feedbacks should be given in such a
way that it is directly addressing the concerns of the customers regarding the quality of the
equipments that they are using. In this way the multinational organization can easily follow the
basic rules and regulations to address the customers feedback and work on the quality and

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services accordingly. In this aspect, concurrency control model can be utilized which would state
about the negative and positive aspects of the messages based on the communication and how it
would leave an impact on the workings of the organization (Suttle, 2014).
Issues of Local Language: Issues of local language poses important threats to the shops of a
foreign based company. The multinational organization must recruit staffs from the countries of
Vietnam, India and Nigeria so that the people of those countries can interact with the people well
and help the organization to sell the products. In this case, the organization must start recruiting
more regional staffs more to improve the system of the communication (Salminen &
Kankaanranta, 2012) Other than this, the foreign based staffs can also learn the local languages
in order to keep proper contact with the customers of that particular country. Therefore, it is
important to for the multinational organization to give training to the foreign based staff as well
to learn local languages in order to communicate with the customers properly. Language barrier
is actually a factor which causes much social problems and misunderstandings to understand the
relevancy of the multinational companies (Salminen & Kankaanranta, 2012).
Cross Cultural Communications: The cross cultural communications include the concepts of
the low context and high context.
The high context people talks about those who believe in many unspoken knowledge and they
can be transferred through the means of communication. The people from the countries such as
Saudi Arabia gives importance to a longer term relations and also loyalty, also the fewer rules
which needs to be structured properly (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013).
Low Context states about a lots of information which is exchanged in an explicit manner and
nothing much implicit or hidden. People who belong to low context cultures belong from United

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Kingdom who believed in the relationships based on short term, follows rules and regulations
closely and they are basically task oriented (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013).
In order to understand whether the colleagues of the organization are high context or low
context which would further helps the organization to adopt the style of communication and also
construct stronger relations with the customers? There are certain misunderstandings which
evolved out of exchanging information with the customers and also shorter contacts because of
the less availability of the information provided. People from lower context, the organization can
provide the meanings more explicitly. To understand the wants about the people from higher and
low context culture, it is important for the organization can conduct the cross-cultural training
programs which incorporate the waging of communication across the cultures and also getting
involved to manage the international teams who are working in the other parts of the world.
Addressing Digital Illiteracy and Limited using of social media: In the countries like,
Vietnam, Oman and Nigeria, the communication problems are causing greater barriers for the
people and also for the head office to address the problems accordingly (Matsumoto & Hwang,
2013). The social media is restricted in these kinds of environment where maximum is
government regulated. Therefore, in this regard, there have been partial benefits provided to the
MNC and its branches to deal with the difficulties of communication with the clients. Also in
terms of digital literacy, Countries like Nigeria is lacking behind, in terms of the digital literacy.
Therefore in this context, the Company in order to make its communication smooth, the
companies in these countries can make different pamphlets, and offering discount coupons and
survey reviews would enable the company to flourish more through the traditional basis of
communication (Matsumoto & Hwang, 2013).

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Conclusions and Implications:
To conclude, it could be stated that the MNC must utilize the future strategies to work on
the levels of the communication. The communication barriers are the important characteristics
when it comes to the working of the Multi National Company in the other parts of the world.
Therefore, the MNC must take care of the different strategies and work on the communication
link with the other staffs residing in the other parts of the earth. The useful lessons which can be
derived from the topic is that how the other companies address the issues of the communication.
The other two organizations of Australia improved on its communication models and applied
them accordingly. However, the MNC in order to make its business flourish, certain models and
strategies as mentioned in the report has to be used. The topic teaches the importance of the
communication which needs to be take place in the workplace and en effective communication
would rather carry out positive vide and success to the workings of the organizations. Through
the utilization of the different models, the company can specify the workings of the company and
make the environment of the company amicable.

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