Communication at Carumba Corporation - Case Study Example

Case Analysis – Business Communication Communication at Carumba Corporation Student’s Name Course: Tutor’s Name: Date: Executive summary This report recognises that Carumba Corporation CEO Ramon Valquez’s business communication was done with good intentions – to inform the audience of the need to reform. However, it is the manner, and the tone that Valquez used that captured the attention of his audience and commentators hence drawing a barrage of comments, and affecting the corporation’s share performance in the stock market. Valquez’s choice of email communication when communicating a non-routine issue (it is not everyday that a CEO says he will use the parking lot as a measure of performance) is perceived within the media richness theory, whereby this report indicates that a face-to-face meeting would probably would have been a better medium considering the unique nature of the information that Valquez was intending to pass. The report argues that face-to-face communication would have reduced any ambiguities that the audience had regarding their CEO’s directives. Valquez’s upbringing (hence his cultural values and beliefs) were also found to have played a role in how he chose to communicate. His threats are a reflection of a person used to getting his own way and disregarding opinions from others. In the end, the report recommends that Valquez, having been made aware of his business communication inadequacies, needs to acquire knowledge on how to communicate better in future. Table of Contents Executive summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Discussion 4 Conclusion 9 Recommendations 10 References 12 Introduction Communication is necessary in business just as it is in the political and cultural environments. It enables people to pass on ideas, opinions, values, and expectations to others. In business especially, communication is used to make offers, issue commands, give promises, issue warnings, make appointments, and thank different stakeholders as indicated by Goldkuhl (1998, p. 2). Hana and Wilson (1998, cited by Conrand & Newberry 2011, p. 5) specifically define business communication as the “process of generating, transmitting, receiving, and interpreting messages in interpersonal, group, public, and mass communication contexts through written and verbal formats”. In the featured case study, it is apparent that communication is used dynamically in Carumba Corporation more so to communicate the need for change, issue commands, and issue threats. This report discusses the case of Carumba Corporation as contained in the case study and recommends that having been made aware of his apparent lack of business communication skills through responses to the leaked memo, Valquez should consider acquiring knowledge that will inform his future communication approaches. Discussion Carumba Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ramon Valquez’s message to managers as indicated in the case study is a reflection of what all CEOs who want their organisations to be successful wish for – job commitment, good management, and profitable businesses. The communication is also a reflection of the mistakes that CEOs (or other managers) make when communicating to employees working under them. In the communiqué, Valquez makes it very clear about his dissatisfaction, and the steps he will be taking in order to remedy the situation. Although he makes it very clear that employee management is the responsibility of the managers, he goes ahead to state what he intends to do by the end of the following week. He further states that the managers have a problem, which they should fix or he would replace them. In addition to his message being threatening, it is also contradictory in the sense that he states what he will do to remedy the situation, but still goes ahead to give the responsibility to ‘fix’ the situation to the managers. Despite Valquez inviting responses from the managers, it is evident that his top-down communicative approach was meant to give directions, issue warnings and threats, and stop the apparent ‘less than 40 hours’ work schedules in the corporation, and not in all genuineness open up conversation on how best managers could increase productivity in their respective departments. As explained by Olkkonen, Tikkaneen and Alajoutsijarvi (2000) however, the target audience of such business communications are often likely to influence each other as they interact and share their interpretations of the message. Such interactions are evident in the ‘leaked’ memo on Facebook, and the responses that Valquez received from his managerial audience. Valquez’s selection of email communication as the channel for communicating his concerns and future strategies also reflects that he probably downplayed the significance of his message. Following the media richness theory by Lengel and Daft (1988), it is evident that email communication is a less-rich medium compared to face-to-face communication. As indicated by Lengel and Daft (1988, p. 226) “non-routine communications have greater potential for misunderstanding, and are often characterised by time pressure, ambiguity, and surprise”. In other words, since Valquez does not send similar messages to the managers regularly, his choice of communication channel should have been informed by the need to exchange information with the managers and clear any ambiguities in order to achieve a “meeting of minds” between him (the sender) and the managers (the receivers) (Goby 2007, p. 426). For example, it appears that Valquez’s major contention with the managers is the working hours of employees. Through a different channel (for example through a management meeting), he could have initiated a discussion about whether restrictive working hours are better positioned to increase the company’s profitability as opposed to the prevailing flexible working hours. The case study describes Valquez’s upbringing in a ranch, and it is apparent that his management skills borrow heavily from the same. For example, his advice that “sick cows are shot” is evidence that he believes that underperforming employees should be laid off (probably without even investigating the reasons for their underperformance). Valquez therefore strikes the reader as perhaps a cold and detached person. According to Lengel and Daft (1988, p. 30), communication channels that people use can also be a reflection of the personalities, values and beliefs. For example, managers who practice warm and personal management styles are likely to engage in one-to-one communication when instructing, advising, or even warning their employees. Written messages on the other hand (as reflected in Valquez’s memo), lack the emotional intensity, thus having little effect on their understanding. For example, Valquez is cited to have indicated that he did not intend to convey the parking lot as the measure of employee performance; yet, the memo was fraught with indications that the presence or lack of vehicles at the parking lot at 8:00 am and 5:00 pm was his major contention. Valquez’s use of slang, without caring whether his audience understands him or not, is evidence of his incompetency as an effective communicator. His Audience’s failure to seek clarification from him serves as a reflection of the relationship that the CEO has with his juniors; they fear him, they are intimidated by him, and probably cannot back to him thus making the communication across the power-divides ineffective. In essence, this means that Valquez needs to increase his communication repertoire as this would enable him to use specific communication skills to address a specific situation, hence strategic flexibility. This would then result in better and effective communication. Valquez seems ill equipped to communicate with a culturally-diverse audience as evident in his usage of ranch-based metaphors when communicating with his managers (some of whom are urban born and bred). Additionally, it is obvious that he chose to write the memo based on his perspective as opposed to the receivers’ perspectives as suggested by Guffey (2007, p. 33). In their advice regarding creating effective business messages, Guffey (2007, p. 33) argue that the writer needs to be: audience-oriented (i.e. concentrate on “looking at a problem from the receiver’s perspective” instead of their own); purposeful (i.e. write to convey information that will help solve the problem rather than create new ones); and economical (i.e. ideas should be clear and concise). Additionally, Guffey (2007 p. 34) notes that the writing process should ideally follow three steps namely prewriting, writing, and revising, some of which Valquez clearly skipped. For example, Valquez seemed to have skipped the prewriting stage if the events that took place in the morning of the memo are anything to go by. The memo seems to have been inspired by his conversation with a long-serving secretary, and it is clear that Valquez failed to analyse his audience critically, anticipate their reactions on receiving his message, and he also failed to adapt his message to the audience for purposes of gaining their approval. The latter is especially evident in his use of some phrases like “hell will freeze over” “never again” and/or “pack your bags” in addition to the general tone of the memo. In the end, it is evident that Valquez failed to consider whether the memo as written would convince the targeted managers that timeliness (and overwork hours) was important and necessary. It is also evident that he failed to consider the appropriateness of his message not only to the recipient managers, but also in fulfilling the social expectations of other stakeholders who may access the information contained in the memo. The consequences of all his omissions are evident in his regrets of ever sending the memo. Notably, the leaked memo presents an ethical issue (i.e. was the manager who leaked the memo justified to so; did he/she contravene company policy?), and is also an indication that the company lacks the necessary information security measures that would prevent the distribution of company secrets to third parties. Additionally, leaking the memo was a deliberate act by one of the employee (or probably a group of employees) who was opposed either to the proposals in the memo or its tone. Either way, the act serves to indicate that the company either lacks effective communication channels or the employee(s) are not confident that their views would be considered by the management, which apparently could do with some improvements in how it listens and engages with the targeted managers. The former is especially likely considering the apparent lack of effective communication between the research and development department and the sales managers. Reflecting on Valquez memo, the reader gets the impression that perhaps what the CEO was suggesting was not overly wrong (i.e. people should arrive on time for work and stay until the eight-hours period is over), but the way he expressed it was totally wrong (i.e. by issuing threats). Conclusion From the case study, it is evident (albeit arguably) that the CEO adopted the wrong approach to business communication right from the composition of the message, to the medium choice he made. As indicated by Conrad and Newberry (2011, p. 5), communication skills are critical to organisational success. In fact, how the CEO or other managers communicate can be a source of motivation or de-motivation to the audiences. Words like “pack your bags” are a clear indication that the CEO does not specifically value the input by managers who may not “buy into” his opinions, regardless of whether flexible work schedules is one of the management approaches of motivating employees working under them. Yet, one cannot ignore Valquez’s abrasive nature and the apparent success of Carumba Corporation as indicated in the case study. On one hand, it seems that his abrasive nature comes from his cultural identity having been raised in a ranch, where his main form of communication was probably intrapersonal. Viewed against the apparent success, it is probable that his approach has worked for the good of the organisation. However, the ‘leaking’ of the memo via Facebook is an indication that not every manager agrees with his communication (and perhaps leadership) style. The decline of Carumba Corporation’s share prices is a further indication that not even shareholders would support him in his communication approach. Overall, the case study paints Valquez’s image as that of a person who lacks effective listening skills (considering his argumentative nature in meetings), who does not build rapport (considering his introductory sentence in the memo), and one who does not have emotional self-control. As such, it is likely that a face-to-face communication with the audience would have had similar or worse results, with the exception that the memo would not have leaked and circulated as it did. As a co-entrepreneur in a corporation that needs a large workforce, the response generated by the memo probably made Valquez aware of his inadequacies in business communication and the need therefore to reconsider skills in the same hence the recommendations below. Recommendations Valquez needs to acquire leadership communication skills that include arousing enthusiasm in his audience; acting as a change catalyst (for example, by inviting suggestions on how work targets can be met within a flexible work schedule); creating group synergy (i.e. instead of inviting his audience to pinpoint underperformers as indicted in the memo); encouraging the audience by using positive communication; providing motivation rather than de-motivators (e.g. by not threatening to close the employee gym); by being persuasive (e.g. by connecting low performance, if any, to laid-back work schedules); encouraging the managers to enforce tighter schedules for the employees where need be; and building optimism among his audience (e.g. by mentioning his appreciation for the good work they have done so far) (Conrad & Newberry 2011, p. 11). Valquez further needs to create a culture in which those working under him can disagree or indicate contrary opinions without feeling intimidated by him. The assistants who read the memo before Valquez sent it perhaps did not agree with his style, but were probably afraid of his reaction should they have voiced their opinions. The same case is probably true to the manager who leaked the memo on Facebook. Knowing that his/her opinions were unlikely to change Valquez’s position regarding use of the parking lot as a performance measure, he/she perhaps thought that exposing the CEO was the only redress they had. As indicated by Shelby (1993, p. 244) business communication is oriented towards the acquisition of skills that make the sharing of information effective. Additionally, it is meant to “help a business achieve a fundamental goal, to maximise shareholder wealth” (Shelby 1993, p. 245). With his approach however, it seems that Valquez would create more dissatisfaction on the management level, something that would probably flow to the lower-level employees (especially since they would be forced to change back to the set 8 am to 5 pm work schedules). References Conrad, D, & Newberry, R 2011, ‘24 business communication skills: attitudes of human recourse managers versus business educators’, American Communication Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 4-23. Goby, V P 2007, ‘Business communication needs a multi-cultural perspective’, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 425-437. Goldkuhl, G 1998, ‘The six phases of business processes- business communication and exchange of value’, Accepted to Beyond Convergence: The 12th Biennial ITS Conference- ITS’s 98, Stockholm, 21-24/6, pp. 1-20. Guffey, M E 2007, Essential of Business communication, 7th edn, Thomson Higher Education, Mason, OH. Lengel, R H, & Daft, R L 1988, ‘The selection of communication media as an executive skills’, The Academy of Management Executive, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 225-232. Olkkonen, R, Tikkanen, H, & Alajoutsijarvi, K 2000, ‘The role of communication in business relationships and networks’, Management Decision, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 403-409. Shelby, A N 1993, ‘Organisational, business, management and corporate communication: an analysis of boundaries and relationships’, Journal of Business Communication, vol. 30, pp. 241-267. Read More