International Communication Strategy, Conventions, and Methods - of Mercedes Benz - Case Study Example

International Business Communication Contents International Organisational Structures 3 Types 3 Strengths and Weakness 4 Influence of Organisational Behaviour on its structure, culture, performance 6 Theories of motivation and leadership style 6 Theories of motivation 6 Application 6 International Communication Strategy, Conventions and Methods 7 Written Communication 8 Letter 8 Internal and external business communication 9 Key barriers to International Business Communication 9 Use of spreadsheets and databases 10 E-commerce and E-business 11 Advantages and Disadvantages 13 Digital Tools for International Marketing Purposes 14 Name of the Student Name of the Professor Name of the Course Date International Business Communication Assignment International Organisational Structures Types There are various types of organisational structures, which underline the corporate arrangement in an organisation. They are defined as follows: Entrepreneurial organizational structure: This type of structure is most simple in form. It is appropriate for organisations that are owned by a single individual. A small scale industrial unit or a proprietorship exhibits this kind of a structure. Bureaucratic organisational structure: These organisational structures operate with a high degree of policies and constraints. Every department has its own organisational chart, which assigns functions to employees. They have standardized working environment and are suitable for large scale organizations. Functional organisational structure: The expansion of the business necessitates delegation of specialized power to the managers and development of specialized skills in order to look into specific functional areas. Specialization of skills is done according to functions of line and staff. Divisional organisational structure: Geographic expansion, market segmentation and diversification of business render the functional structure inadequate and under these circumstances, the divisional organisational structure is relevant. The work is divided among the product lines and types of customers served, across different geographies. Groups are then created that work under divisional management structure. Matrix organisational structure: This type of structure is basically a hybrid of the functional and divisional organisational structure and is applied by large multinational companies, which have a complex range of business activities (Botten and McManus 153). Strengths and Weakness Type Strength Weakness Entrepreneurial There are opportunities for flexibility. The decision making is quick as it is centralized. The structure is open to innovation and is informal. Owners are under too much pressure. No specialization of task. Expansion of business makes this structure obsolete (Kazmi 352-356). Bureaucratic Centralization of power makes decision-making coherent. The workers can become more productive as knowledge is specialized. Planning process is better. The structure is too rigid. The multiple layers of the structure sometimes make it unproductive (Kazmi 352-356). Functional Specialization contributes to effective distribution of work. Top management takes strategic decisions. Day-to-day operations are the responsibility of employees. Often leads to functional and line conflicts. Problem of coordination among different functional areas (Kazmi 352-356). Divisional Shared authority through grouping of functions according to divisions. Quick response to any changes in the management conditions. Specialization of workforce, so that managers can concentrate on strategic decision-making and the employees on day-to-day functions. Inconsistency in sharing of authority between corporate and divisional level. Inconsistency of policies arising in different departments. Heavy staff requirement, adding to the costs of the organization (Kazmi 352-356). Matrix The projects are divided according to the functional structure. Market needs can be focused on. Decision making is decentralized. Command structures can be dual, leading to conflicts of authority. Changing relationships can create problems. The reward system is poor (Kazmi 352-356). Mercedes Benz has eleven different departments with four core practices in each area. This makes matrix organisational culture an appropriate one for Mercedes Benz, given that it can bring employees from different departments to work together and accomplish the common goal for company growth. As the company operates over various geographies, success of the strategic plan of the company depends on coordination between organizational culture and strategic planning process. Each of the employees in the departments has their separate set of functions and they carry these out with effective diligence owing to efficient division of functions. Influence of Organisational Behaviour on its structure, culture, performance Theories of motivation and leadership style Over the past few years, there has been development of quite a large number of leadership styles. They are (Lussier and Achua 19-20): Behavioural Theory: States that anyone can become a great leader by observing or teaching. Participative Theory: States that all employees have something substantial to contribute to the organization and leader’s responsibility is to choose the best possible option. Management Theory: Believes in a risk reward philosophy, based on overachievement and underachievement of the employees. Contingency Theory: Focuses on the environmental variables in order to choose the type of variable, which suits the situation in the best manner. Trait theory and Best man theory: Believes that great leaders are born and not made. Theories of motivation Broadly speaking, there are two types of motivational theory; namely, content theory and process theory. The content theory is concerned with identifying specific factors that motivate people. There are several theories, which are developed under the content type; namely, the need hierarchy, motivation-hygiene and existence relatedness growth theory. The examples of this theory include satisfaction, which is associated with pay, promotion and recognition. The process type, on the contrary, covers the expectancy, equity and goal setting theory. This group deals with perception of people’s work inputs and requirements as well as rewarding them accordingly (Lunenburg and Ornstein 94-95). Application In recent times, complexity of organizations has made managers use the transformational-transactional leadership theories in organisational development. These particular styles of leadership have gained enough prominence in literature, ever since their introduction. This is because these leaders inspire their subordinates and enable them to perform better. The various departments in the organizational structure make it important for employees to interact among themselves in order to avoid communication gap. In this regard, the leader of an organization plays an important part in motivating the employees through proper guidance. The leader sets a vision for the company and then communicates this vision to the subordinates, thereby fostering collaboration between employees for achieving the common goal. The transactional leadership is focused on “contingent reinforcement”. The leaders of an organization set the goals and subordinates are expected to follow the same, without questioning. These leaders appreciate the employees for their work and appraise them, only if duties are carried out responsibly. If subordinates sense security and are acknowledged for their work, then competitive advantage can be achieved. Irrespective of the organisational structure, a certain degree of autonomy should be granted to the employees to carry out their work. To accomplish this task, planning must be integrated in the mission statement of the company. Changes in organisational structure influences culture of a company and efficient management of this cultural change can lead to better performance (Brooks 153). This becomes imperative in achieving organisational goals. International Communication Strategy, Conventions and Methods Communications strategy is a series of well-planned actions, which is used to achieve certain objectives through communication techniques, methods and approaches. Keegan had developed three major communication strategies that can be used by marketers, namely one product communication strategy, communication adaption strategy and communication extension strategy (Paul 236). The first one relates to the use of same products in all countries, without much modification. This strategy has been mainly used by Pepsi and Coca Cola as their products and communication strategy did not require much modification. The second and third one relates to adaptation of the products to suit the needs of country specific customers and the related communication strategy. International marketers have to operate across various geographies and languages, which make it necessary for them to adapt different communication strategies. Mercedes Benz can make good use of the communication extension strategy as cars must be designed according to specific road laws of the respective countries (Paul 236). Written Communication Letter To The Manager, Mercedes Benz, This is to inform you that I, a student of ABC University, am conducting a research on your organization, Mercedes Benz, for understanding the International communications strategy, conventions and methods of your company. This assignment requires me to interact with the employees of your prestigious organization, who can help me with an insight regarding the communications strategy of your esteemed organization. To conduct this research, I am requesting you to cooperate with me and allow me to access the required details, which I would need for my assignment. I ensure you that the information provided by you will only be used for the purpose of academic research and not for any other purposes. Thanking you, Student Name This form of communication is highly popular in business and involves written words for communicating with the various departments and employees. It must be kept in mind by the business entities that effective communication is extremely important for well-functioning of the business. The use of information technology in business has pushed the use of written communication among managers and employees, operating in different countries. Empirical studies have shown that mostly English has been used as the official language for written communication. However, many non-native speakers have problem in understanding the language, which leads to further complexities. For instance, units of Finland based multinational companies, operating in Europe, Mexico and Far East has revealed that employees had considerable problems with the language of communication, resulting in poor coordination. This clearly indicates that successful written communication must only be conducted in languages, which can be understood by the employees (Palmer, Garrido and Gómez 140). Conventions in written business communication are extremely important for increasing effectiveness of business communication, encompassing mechanics, usage and sentence formation. The parameters in conventions, like, punctuation marks, capital words and proper use of verb, are essential to convey message to the parties involved in business. Internal and external business communication Internal communication is the communication among employees of a company and external communication refers to communication with the external world. Internal communications can be carried out with the help of staff meetings, staff briefing, e-mails, data sharing with employees, memos, notices and face-to-face conversations. External communications, on the other hand, is carried out through advertising, e-mail, business-to-business communication, business-to-consumers communication and websites, to name a few. As multinational organizations operate across various geographies, communication done via electronic media may be lost in transmission or may not be well-understood. This leads to confusion in business operations (Guang and Trotter 6456-6464). Mercedes Benz must develop a well-coordinated network for interacting with internal employees and external clients so as to reap the benefits of business communication. Use of appropriate convention can be useful to increase effectiveness of business. Key barriers to International Business Communication There are several cross-cultural issues that act as impediments for the business to successfully communicate with the markets in which they operate. Three possible reasons are highlighted, which makes it difficult for business houses to communicate in cross-cultural environment: Firstly, consumer behaviour is influenced by culture, which has wide implications on the type of products that consumers will buy. This puts responsibility on the company to come up with products and communication strategy, which is specific to needs of the market and consumers. Secondly, culture also has a significant impact on advertising of the company and its products. The success of advertising campaigns is hugely dependent on the language, which in turn is a part of the culture. The budget of advertising also relies on the consumption pattern of customers. These factors pose a challenge to the company in successfully communicating about the products. Thirdly, culture is also influenced by the business communication and this makes it important for companies to adapt to changes. (“Using effective communications”). The solution to this problem can be achieved by understanding the taboos of respective countries and being sensitive to them. Companies, operating in cross-cultural environment, must involve cultural informants in the decision-making process to have better understanding of people. Mercedes-Benz operates through a wide range of countries due to which cultural consideration is an extremely important consideration. The Indians may have different product expectations, compared to Americans or Europeans. Successful product adaptation and communication strategy become important in communicating these changes. The road laws and other rules, like, carbon dioxide emission, must be kept in mind, while designing products. Use of spreadsheets and databases These refer to sequential arrangement of the vast information of a company in computers through the use of appropriate technology. Businesses often use these systems to access wide variety of data and even to update them. There are various reasons for which effective communication and business operations can be managed through use of databases and spreadsheets (Chisholm 67). Firstly, use of databases or spreadsheets helps the business to transmit wide range of information. This reduces the cost of physically transmitting the data. Secondly, datasheets entail additional benefit of being open to simultaneous updating from two different locations. Thirdly, logical arrangement of the data makes it easy to use (Schniederjans 66). Mercedes Benz can make use of spreadsheets and databases to create reports for monthly sales reports and sales by person, by region and by product. Use of internet based technology has made this process almost costless. E-commerce and E-business The rapid development of technology has been accompanied by development of large number of technological jargon. The use of the term, e-commerce, is supplemented by various other terms like, e-tail, e-procurement and e-business. This part of the essay highlights the concepts of e-commerce and e-business, which has come up in the literature. The common understanding of the term, e-commerce, refers to buying and selling by using web technology. Conceptually, e-commerce goes much beyond electronic financial transactions between organizations and customers. Many authors have pointed out that e-commerce can be used to describe all types of electronically mediated transactions between an organization and any third party. So the transactions of e-commerce not only include financial transactions, but also the information flows. A comprehensive study has been made by Kalakota and Whinston (1997) to describe the range of activities entailed with e-commerce (Dave 6-10). They are: Perspective of communication: Includes delivery of information, products and payments by electronic means. Perspective of business process: Use of technology to make business transactions and workflows automatic. Online Perspective: Includes buying and selling of online information. E-commerce has both buying side and selling side in order to support the business of an organization. The buying side refers to procurement of resources from the sellers; whereas, the sell side refers to attempt of an organisation to sell the products and services to customers. E-business, on the other hand, simply describes transformation of the key business aspects, using internet technology. The word can be used in two ways, either application of technology on operations and processes or to describe any business activity that operates online. The existing literature points out that there are various conceptions regarding the connection between e-business and e-commerce. Some authors propagate that e-business and e-commerce bear a few similarities (figure a); some claim them to be synonymous; and others consider e-commerce as a subset of e-business (figure c). Most of the existing literature agrees with the third view (Dave 6-10). Figure 1: A (Source: Dave 6-10) Figure 2: B (Source: Dave 6-10) Figure 3: C (Source: Dave 6-10) Advantages and Disadvantages International social networking: Kaplan and Haenlain (2010) had defined social media as a group of internet based applications, which use ideological and technological foundations. It allows creation and propagation of user-generated content. Businesses use social media to enhance their visibility by featuring on the network of individuals. There are various tools of social networking like, blogging, microblogging and websites. Internet media: Businesses are constantly trying to use internet as a medium for connecting with their customers. Internet media refers to the use of various web based applications to establish networks with customers. This activity is being taken up by business houses in order to supplement the traditional media use for enhancing organisational performance. The advantages of using social media networking and internet media are: Firstly, marketing of the firm becomes very easy as the latter is able to supply unlimited information to customers without any human intervention. Secondly, social media marketing provides a platform through which organisations can directly interact with their customers. Customers get a better chance to express their needs and the organisation can come up with customized products to meet needs of the customers. In short, customers can effortlessly interact with the organisation. Thirdly, use of social media in business has the great advantage of reducing operational cost of the business. Use of traditional media for marketing involves huge costs, which can be eliminated by switching to internet media. Fourthly, social media also allows organizations to target niche markets by developing products specifically for them. This target marketing has huge potential to raise revenue of the business by offering specialized products. Finally, use of social networking and internet media also offers an effective platform for companies to provide better customer service. The fulfilment of orders on a real-time basis increases loyalty of customers towards a company. The disadvantages of using internet media by a business are: Firstly, the measurement of success following the use of social media is difficult. Effective social media monitoring involves implementation of enterprise level tools. Such requirements can be expensive. Secondly, the process is labour intensive. It takes considerable effort to recruit the content developers and bloggers, who can rightfully and competently present the content. Thirdly, the use of social media has certain trust issues, on part of the consumers, as the latter may be reluctant to share their credit card details, which is necessary for the payment. The security problems also pose a threat for the customers. Finally, there are chances of negative publicity of the business on the open forum. Such negativities can adversely affect reputation of the business. Digital Tools for International Marketing Purposes Marketing is an integral part of the communication strategy because organizations engage with a variety of audiences in order to fulfil their marketing and business objectives. This engagement with the audience refers to communication in marketing. It has been found that organizations employ a mix of emotional and intellectual messages to connect with their audience. This secures that they are heard and understood in order to establish a long-lasting relationship with their clients. As competition between the products is intensifying, differences between the products are seen to diminish. This means that communication about the new products must be conducted accurately at appropriate stakeholders and clients so as to reach out to them. The advent of information technology has transformed the internet and digital tools into the new avenues of interaction with the customers, suppliers, distributers and financiers. There are four primary digital marketing communication channels. They are: WWW pages: These are created as the official website of a company. The official website is under direct control of the company, which has the full control to change the content, as per requirements. The product offerings of the company along with the organisational goals are provided in these pages. Search Engine Optimization: This is done to maximize visibility of a company by simply using certain keywords in relation to the company. This application basically helps visitors on the internet reach the organization. E-Mail: This is also an effective tool of marketing through which companies can maintain an active connection with their existing clients as well as alert them with the updates on discounts and offers. This is also an effective tool for the customer relationship management as companies can use e-mail for direct interaction with customers (Fill and Barbara, “Marketing Communications”). Social Media: This platform is of the highest relevance in the present scenario. The following ways are adopted by companies to engage with their customers on a social network: Social bookmarking: StumbleUpon Social media submission sites: Reddit Forums and discussion sites: Google Groups Media sharing sites: Flickr, Youtube Social network sites: Facebook, Myspace Blogs: Wordpress Podcasts: Podcast.com Micro-blogging: Twitter Mercedes Benz must integrate the use of e-business in their traditional business model in order to create value in the supply chain. This is because the buying and the selling side of e-commerce together constitute the supply chain of an organization. E-commerce provides a huge opportunity for streamlining and restructuring the value chain. It has been observed that the concept of competition in the auto industry has been intensified with the use of e-commerce in their distribution system. This is mainly because value propositions on the web are more visible and customers can interact with Mercedes Benz directly. The virtual value web creation can offer a good platform for the company as the value web is easily accessible from any location and is freely configurable. The study of Metzger (2000) suggests that Mercedes Benz should transform its business into an assembler of mobility services with coordination of the networks of service providers by integrating web services. The company has slowly started the process of transition and is trying to convert itself into an integrated mobility company; rather, than just being a car dealer through IT-enabled strategies (Steinfield 199-200). Mercedes Benz can also use advanced digital tools, which are being used by social media marketing. The company can make use of Facebook and Myspace in order to increase visibility or presence. The list of options that has been discussed regarding the social media digital tools can be effectively used by the company to enhance its visibility. Mercedes Benz has been trying to improve its performance by including options to access Facebook and Google to its automobile dashboard. The company has been trying to develop its social network for a better performance, ever since 2012 (Lee 35-37). Works Cited Botten, Neil and John McManus. Competitive Strategies for Service Organisations. Houndmills: Purdue University Press, 1999. Print. Brooks, Ian. Organisational Behaviour. New Delhi: Pearson Education India, 2006. Print. Chisholm, Malcolm. How to Build a Business Rules Engine: Extending Application Functionality through Metadata Engineering. San Francisco: Morgan Kauffman, 2004. Print. Dave, Chaffey. E-Business and E-Commerce Management. New Delhi: Pearson Education India, 2008. Print. Fill, Chris and Jamieson Barbara. “Marketing Communications.” Edinburgh Business School, 2011. PDF File. Web. 26 Feb 2013. 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