Cultural Means and Communication of International Organizations - Term Paper Example

International Cultural and Communication Introduction Since emergence of globalization in 1990s, the nature of commercial activities practiced by a profit making business firm has become highly complex. Contemporary companies try to enhance revenue and profit in business by conducting operations according to resource based view of management. Under this process, organizations seek new ways of business internationalization whereby they can expand the scale and scope of business after saturation of the domestic commercial market. It must be noted that international trade has generated several opportunities as well as challenges for multinational corporations. At this juncture, companies are exposed to diversified cultural and economic environments (Checkland, 2013). Without the essence of effective means of communication, multinational companies cannot acquire adequate employee voice required for stimulating long-term commercial growth. This essay will make a theoretical as well as empirical analysis about ways in which organizational culture and communication process help to create increased employee voice. Employee voice is a term that refers to the extent of employee participation in the decision making process of an organization. It is believed that success of a company in both its domestic and foreign markets substantially depends on efficiency of its factor resources. Among all resources, human capital (labour resource) is most crucial, given that this helps to channelize other productive resources of the firm. Thus, it is highly rational to analyze the communication and cultural means of an organization, which assist in managing human workforce more efficiently (Carter, et al., 2013). Literature Analysis It is noted that a multinational organization can incorporate better systems of employee representation by encouraging enhanced employee participation. Policies introduced by the public authorities of different economies, such as, the New Labor policy of 1997, European Social Policy and the Employee Information and Consultation Rights, ensure fulfilment of employee’s interests in the workplaces (Johansson, 2013). Such government introduced policies have directly influenced voice of the employees and have also indirectly affected the working environment wherein voicing powers of the workers can be exercised. Voice is a common word used in the studies of Human Resource Management (HRM). A popular international business cultural model was introduced by Howard V. Perlmutter. It was known as the EPG model and included ethnocentric, geocentric and polycentric dimensions to explain the strategic cultural dimensions of an organization. Through these strategies a company can serves moral values to its employees of different ethnic groups. The firm follows the culture of each local business environment and undertakes all activities that would help to enhance the performance quality of the organization. The Royle theory explains that all the activities of a company should be practiced after ensuring it’s underneath social worth (PPT). A scholar named Margaret Prosser claimed that collective voice of the employees can resolve organizational problems in a more proficient manner than the long voice of a single official (Kowtha, 2000). Employee voice helps to civilize and humanize workplaces. This concept implies that the process of collective representation forms the grounds of partnership relationships, which in turn generates special beneficial effects within the state of commercial affairs of an organization. It is noticed that employees’ opinions in workplaces are dependent on the amount of motivational and incentive oriented rewards provided by firms. Nonetheless, certain recent studies state that employee voice substantially depends on organizational culture and communication. The most common method used to entertain employee voice is through non-union or union representation. The second approach is the dualistic method that entertains both direct and indirect opinions of the employees. The other two approaches are minimalist approach and dualistic approach. The above four are the main methods through which organizations communicate with their employees, thereby motivating them to participate in the decision making process. Culture is the term used to explain behavioural pattern of the individuals within an organization or country. The cultural features of a country or organization are least affected by biological inheritance. The cultural environment of each country is different and can be significantly analyzed through theoretical models like, the Hofstede’s cultural dimension model (Kowtha, 2000). Since multinational companies conduct business across numerous international marketplaces, their workplaces are exposed to diverse cultures. As a result, external environment culture shapes the internal operational culture of a multinational firm. Furthermore, the management processes of a firm are highly influenced by workplace culture. Researchers often consider culture as an intangible resource of business (McNally, 1995). Even so, it is believed that in long run, management process of an organization influences the working culture. Figure 1: Components of Organizational Culture (Source: PPT) The above picture presents different components of an organization’s culture. The cultural status of an organization significantly influences quality of its employee management. For instance, if an organization promotes participatory working environment and encourages the culture of rewarding and motivating workforce, then it would be able to render workers more productive and efficient (Johansson, 2013). So, organizational culture helps to enhance the level of employee’s voice or workplace participation rate. The multinational companies recruit a diverse workforce. All employees work together for common business objectives, but belong from different caste, creed, religion and place. Hence, adequate communication and workers’ voice becomes indispensible aspects of modern international organizations. The workplace culture in multinational companies should provide adequate voice to workers (Tucker, 2012). This is because voicing of employee opinions effectively lowers organizational conflicts, improves communication possibilities between employees, enhances motivation within the workplace and ensures fair treatment provision to all business stakeholders. Furthermore, retention and productivity level of human capital are also highly dependent on the workers’ work participation rate. Superior activities and creative ideas of the employees help a company gain core competencies. The behavioural pattern and moral constraints of employees significantly depend upon the features of organizational culture. Organizational culture influences the methods through which employees communicate. The employees’ voice symbolizes the communication process of an origination. From this context, it can be analyzed that if communication process of an organization is improved, then employee’s voice and organizational culture are simultaneously enhanced. Effective communication process provides cultural advantage to an organization and this allows it to combat fierce competition within the industry (Kowtha, 2000). The table below precisely states the different aspects whereby organizational culture influences various approaches pertaining to employee voice. Type of Organizational Culture Type of Employee Voice Market Culture Employees provide adaptive and innovative voices. The workers use both informal and formal communicating channels for voicing opinions. Individual voices of the employees are higher than the collective voices. Finally, dissent and exit is more valuable than neglect and loyalty in such employee voices (Kowtha, 2000). Bureaucratic Culture Employee voices are more adaptive and less innovative in nature. The employee opinions are primarily communicated through formal channels. Workers provide both individual and collective voice, but importance of collective voice is lower in organizations facing bureaucratic culture than ones encountering market cultures. Finally, loyalty and neglecting aspects are significant in such employee voices (Kowtha, 2000). Voice and Fief Culture The employees provide more adaptive voices than innovative participation within workplaces. The voices of workers are communicated through informal channels. Even so, individual ideas are more encouraged in these organizations compared to the collective voices. Voice and exit features are less than the aspects of loyalty and neglect. Clan and Voice Culture The innovative voices of employees in these organizations are more than the adaptive ones. The ideas of employees in such firms are mostly communicated through informal means as opposed to conventional formal approaches. Voice and loyalty attributes are given more importance in comparison to exit and neglect (Kowtha, 2000). It should be analyzed that only organizational cultures cannot promote the employee’s voice within workplace. In order to ensure adequate employee participation, companies should encourage increased upward communication within workplaces. Upward communication is the process through which creative ideas of business flow from lower levels to the upper levels of organisational hierarchy. Upward communication is at present widely used in multinational corporations as a part of whistle blowing policy. Thus, cross-country operational proficiency of the multinational companies can be experienced only with the essence of adequate workers’ productivity and motivation, which are facilitated in form of encouraging employee voices. Empirical Analysis The unique symbiotic relationship between organizational culture, communication and employees voice can be empirically studied through cross-country activities of multinational companies. It is observed that in companies operating in Japan, workers are made to hold doctrine of discipline at workplace, as all firms therein include high work performance assessment systems. Consequently, a Japanese worker primarily concentrates on working individually rather than practicing cooperative working process in workplaces. On the other hand, the companies in America experience a completely different working environment. Work sharing and coordinated working process is encouraged more in American companies than the Japanese ones (Goodness, 2012). The popular multinational computer hardware and software company, Apple Inc., encourages workers’ participation within its workplace (Goodness, 2012). Even so, it is found that the company does not encourage labour unions. This proves that it gives more value to individual employee voice than collective voices of the workers. The popular company of Procter & Gamble openly declares that it trains all its workers with efficient leadership strategies and management skills (P&G, 2009). This is because, the firm believes that knowledge and skill set of each recruited employee is valuable for its business innovation and commercial expansion purposes. According to the National Labor Relations Act, employees of the private sector organizations are allowed to legally file case against their owners if they are not provided with appropriate voicing freedom in workplace (Johansson, 2013). In 2012, it was recorded that few employees working in the U.S. business branches of WalMart had protested against poor labour relationships maintained within the organisation. The employees had joined social pressure groups in order to voice their disapproval through rallies and press conferences. This case empirically proves that if a company does not ethically allow its workers to participate in valuable strategy formulation, then the level of its internal disputes increases, which hampers brand image as well as surplus generation process. Prudential is a U.K. based financial service providing company. Apart from the U.K., the company also conducts business in the U.S. and Asia. Figure 2: Prudential Plc Employee Statistics (Source: IPA, 2012) The above table shows basic employee statistics of the company. Unlike Apple Inc, the company promotes collective voices of workers, thereby maintaining a good relationship with the labour unions. It conducts several focus group sessions to encourage workers’ participation for valuable decision making process. However, time constraints often become a potential barrier for the company’s employee voice enhancement process. The company supports open means of formal and informal communication for ensuring workers’ participation within its business (Simons, 2013). The empirical analysis has proved that contemporary multinational companies, which encourage employee voices through their organizational culture and promotes upward communication, are able to generate greater innovation and economic surplus (Boyle, 2007). On the other hand, if workers are not allowed to participate in the value creating decision making process, then they are de-motivated to work and become less productive. Companies should realize that human capital is a type of business stakeholder. Without ensuring their increased utility, brand value and commercial success of a company can never improve in long run (Kowtha, 2000). Conclusion From the above context, it would be correct to conclude that long-term commercial success of a multinational organization cannot be achieved without the essence of employees’ voice. The voice of workers within a firm signifies the degree of their decision making power (Rothaermel, 2013). The contemporary business world is highly competitive in nature. Without increased competences in business, a multinational company would not be able to increase its profit and market share. Success of business internationalization process of a company is positively related to productivity, motivation and creativity contribution of its employees. However, the analysis points out that all such attributes can be acquired, only if the company encourages increased upward communication. This process facilitates flow of information from lower to the upper sections of a company. Apart from communication, organizational culture also significantly affects the communicating process of employee’s opinion in a concern. The context of the essay has proved that the degree of adaption and innovation pertaining to the workers’ voice relies on the nature of organizational culture. At the same time, the nature of voice communicational channel and the relative importance of collective or selective employee voice are determined as per the type of organizational culture (Kowtha, 2000). Reference List Boyle, S., 2007. Impact of changes in organisational structure on selected key performance indicators for cultural organisations. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 13(3), pp.319–334. Carter, M. Z., Armenakis, A. A., Feild, H. S. and Mossholder, K. W., 2013. Transformational leadership, relationship quality, and employee performance during continuous incremental organizational change. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(7), pp. 942-958. Checkland, P., 2013. Soft systems methodology. In Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science, pp. 1430-1436. Goodness, E., 2012. Overcoming the challenges and complexities of doing international business. [pdf] Dimension Data. Available at: [Accessed 19 June 2014]. IPA, 2012. Rethinking employee voice. [pdf] IPA. Available at: [Accessed 19 June 2014]. Johansson, E., 2013. American rights at work. [pdf] JWJ. Available at: [Accessed 19 June 2014]. Kowtha, N. R., 2000. The culture of voice: Exploring the relationship between employee voice and organizational culture. [pdf] NUS. Available at: [Accessed 19 June 2014]. McNally, K., 1995. Corporate venture capital: the financing of technology businesses. International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, 1(3), pp.9 – 43. P&G, 2009. Principles and values. [pdf] P&G. Available at: [Accessed 19 June 2014]. Rothaermel, F. T., 2013. Strategic management: Concepts. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Simons, R., 2013. Levers of organization design: how managers use accountability systems for greater performance and commitment. Harvard: Harvard Business Press. Tucker, I., 2012. Survey of economics. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Read More