Where appropriate you shall introduce a company, give company data or description and site the communication issue or problem or any communication phenomenon according to the attached document; but also remember;
Surname 1
Name:
Instructor:
Course:
Date:
Table of Contents
4 1.2 Statement of the problem
10 2.1 Communication barriers in an organization
12 2.2 Communication problems in an organization
15 2.3 Communication challenges in modern organizations
27 4.1.1 Informing and satisfaction
35 4.1.2 Internal communication channels at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company
37 4.1.3 Functionality of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company communication
38 5.0 Conclusions and recommendations
40 Establish a strategic communication plan
41 Unified corporate mission and vision
42 Translation to local and native languages
42 Live events and office visits
42 Create and encourage a two-way communication
44 Work Cited
1.0 Introduction
Communication in the modern century is one of the significant tools in constructing precise and clear company image inside the organization. Additionally, internal communication supports the company by securing the knowledge and technical know-how about the company among its workers. In other words, one of the challenging issues of the organization as far as communication is concerned in most cases revolves around the internal communication of the company. By definition, organization communication can be termed as transactions that occur between groups and individuals at different levels and areas of specialization, however, those transactions have a sole purpose of redesigning and designing organizations as well as co-ordinate daily activities.
Organization communication is a very complex and imperative process via which workers coordinate their daily work process that is so vital to the functioning of any company organization. Additionally, most modern workers are more likely to be more intersected in getting more information and knowledge of the organization they work for, therefore, communication most especially internal communication serves as a catalyst to company effectiveness and excellence and it should be practiced continuously
It is universally accepted that there exists two kinds of messages and information concepts in the company communication. By way of example, these information concepts include the basic assumptions revolving around the working community as well as the day-to-day matters. Additionally, day-to-day matters are basically those issues that keep employees interested in what they do as work, their working environment as well as their working community. For instance, day-to-day activities involve things such as targets and future plans of the organization, the economic scenario of the working environment, individuals own work, personnel policy, training operations of organization’s other departments, leisure time activities, current issues in the business fields and organization’s products and services.
All organization communication is cultural. By way of explanation, organizational communication draws on ways individuals have cultivated the culture of speaking and give nonverbal cues. Additionally, communication in organizations is interactive making how individuals relate with others as one of the most important attributes and influence on its effectiveness. Moreover, pone challenging factor is that, with all the good intentions in the world, issues to do with miscommunication are likely to occur most especially whenever there is evidence of cultural differences between parties conversing. Furthermore, miscommunication may result in severe consequences such as conflict or worsen conflict in existence. In other words, individual’s cross-cultural communication is basically demonstrated and outlined by examples of attitudes, ideas as well as behaviors of variables such as time. Fate and personal responsibility, face and face-saving and nonverbal communication play a very critical role in organization communication as well.
Although there have been many theories about communication issues in organization, there has not been a clear research work that clearly identifies communication challenges, problems or difficulties most organization encounters. Therefore, this research work is carried out owing to the fact that a well-organized communication is one of the most essential attributes for most employees to delegate work while at the same time keeping other co-workers about their project status and tasks. In other words, in order to realize this, the employee has to be better placed to communicate effectively through a more effective and the right channel. Additionally, in most organization, there should in one way or the other exist a functional way of keeping everyone in the company informed about things revolving around issues that each and every individual in the organization should know.
One of the aims of this project is to find out the functional guidelines as far as Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company communications are concerned and that could be taken into consideration in day-to-day activities. Additionally, the subject of this project is communication challenges, difficulties or problems at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company as well as the challenges it faces owing to the fact that it is a multinational company. In other words, this report will try to establish the most purposeful practices of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company, the current communication situation in the company and recommend on ways on how it can be rectified and improved.
1.1 Background information
Paint Your Face Cosmetics is a well-known multinational makeup company that basically sells its makeup products all over the world but its headquarters are in the United States.. Additionally, the company recently invented a number of marketing ideas as far as new product growth and development are concerned. However, owing to some unknown reasons, their efforts in establishing the final product to the market have not been so far successful. Moreover, the top management team has noticed that, the company departments has been incurring issues but they have not brought them forward but rather they are hiding department challenges such as language and communication difficulties, office locations as well as troubles during some of the sales meetings. Furthermore, the company’s executive manager has the feeling that the company is currently incurring problems with communication difficulties which prompted the need of some research study in order to find out some of the communication issues that Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is currently facing.
The research work uses theoretical study to acknowledge the readers with the main issues and reviews about challenges and difficulties organizations incur in relation to communication issues. Additionally, the research work is basically based on a framework that in one way or the other leads the respondent from the theoretical to the empirical study by first introducing the concept of communication in organizations. There are few limitations regarding this work such that the researcher concentrated much on electronic communication technologies in Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company as compared to other more personal modes of communication. Moreover, another notable limitation of this research work is that, the questionnaires were not emailed to junior level workers who actually produce the products first hand because it is assumed that they do not hold respectable position in the company partly because Paint Your Face Cosmetics company is employing subcontracting as well as contract manufacturing so the employees belong to other organizations but work for Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company on Contracting bases.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Over the past few years, executive management of every organization has concentrated on customer care. However, more recently, most top management teams of organizations have started dedicating the same kind of focus to their very own workers and in the process, acknowledging the fact that workers have a very vital role in the success of the organization. In other words, employee communication is no longer considered as a soft and light function but rather one of the primary business functions that act as a key driver of performance and in the process, contributes to organizations financial success. In other words, the main problem in this research work is establishing why communication in Paint Your Face Company is not working as effectively as expected. By so saying, it means that, this research work will be able to examine and evaluate the internal communication within Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company, information’s; channels of distribution, and how informal and formal communication operates in the company in order to establish the challenges and difficulties as far as communication issues in the company are concerned.
Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is basically a makeup organization that markets its products internationally. Additionally, they recently established some excellent strategic ideas as far as new products development is concerned but for some reasons, their effort in bringing the product to the market has been unsuccessful. Moreover, Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company has also incurred some challenges with issues within its departmental units not being surfaced hence not resolved, issues as far as office locations are concerned, language barriers and trouble within marketing and sales meetings. Furthermore, the CEO of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is of the opinion that there are a number of serious communication difficulties happening within the company.
For instance, the organization’s development specialist based in Europe established an idea that employed yogurt as a primary ingredient for hair color goods and services. Additionally, the specialist took a lot of time sending emails the marketing executive manager based in the United States with the idea, product description and recipe. However, the marketing manager based in the U.S experienced difficulties in receiving answers in relation to the product questions back directly from the European based specialist. Furthermore, there were a number of non-verbal cues that were greatly missed owing to the fact that emails were the only mode of communication. To make the matter worse, the final email was misinterpreted by the European based specialist as that the product was not appealing to the U.S manager when in real sense, the product was appealing to the manager only that there were some concerns that needed clarifications in terms of price. Therefore, the product idea was in jeopardy of getting lost. In simple terms, in this example, the primary concern was a communication issue in terms of physical barrier such that the two employees were separated physically by their work environment which made the completion of the idea very difficult.
Paint Your Face Communication boasts of a good number of males and females sales managers. Quite recently, they employed two male managers to be in charge of the Western region. Additionally, some communication barriers as far as sales are concerned soon emanated as gender-specific differences presumed in preparation for the annual national sales meeting. In this case, Amanda; the Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company manager was of the opinion that the two new recruits were behaving in a rude way when she was trying to put the convention preparations in place. Moreover, they occupied seats furthest from her at a vast conference table which differed with her face-to-face interaction she had planned earlier. Therefore, it can be noted that, there are also evidences of communication challenges in terms of gender differences in Paint Your Face Cosmetics. By way of explanation, research shows that most males do not see the importance of being close to someone when conversing whereas most females prefers a more personal or rather a face-to-face type of interaction. Therefore, owing to the fact that, it is clear that Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is incurring communication problems and there is no research work that has tried to identify communicating issues in a multinational cosmetics company, this offers a research gap making this research work very significant to Paint Your face Cosmetics Company
1.3 Research questions
The main research questions in this research include;
1. How does the personnel at Paint Your Face Cosmetics fell about communication within the company at the moment?
2. What channels of communication does employees and staffs prefer?
3. How can communication at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company be organized so as to function better?
1.4 Research objectives
The main objectives of this research work are to;
1. To investigate the communication channels at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company
2. To determine the effectiveness of the current modes of communication at Paint Your Face Cosmetics
3. To investigate the challenges and problems that Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is facing as far as communication is concerned.
1.5 Research design
In this research work, the adopted methodology involved quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. By way of explanation, Qualitative research is basically a subjective research technique which involves identification of new knowledge and ideas, field-work participation and the employment of the researcher as the primary source of information and data. By so doing, the personnel in charge of the research aims at realizing the meaning of phenomenon as well as the nature of reality. Additionally, the individuals in this type of research approach do not actually concentrate much on the outcomes but rather on the research process.
The researcher in this project chose to conduct an empirical part by establishing questionnaires for the employees at paint Your Face Cosmetics. In other words, as the researcher is part of the environment at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company during this research period, the working environment is described in order to enable the research respondents to understand the questions asked on the questionnaires. Moreover, the research subject had already been send and discussed within Paint your face Cosmetics Company and each and every employee was willing to make the research project a success.
The questionnaires in this research use scales to help in realizing the desired response. Additionally, respondent’s reflections on the communication issues come out clearly whenever questionnaires function properly. By so saying, it means that, the questionnaires help the respondents to give their personal perceptions on communication issues and difficulties within Paint Your Face Cosmetics. Moreover, this is a very significant approach in collecting data that is closely related to the social aspect of individuals. Furthermore, the employment of interviews in this research study aided in establishing a trust environment between the researcher and the interviewee hence easy clarification and validation of data.
Mixed method technique in this research aided in combining a number of research methods in collecting the same information and data. By so doing, it sees to it that data and information collected is free from error and the possibility of biasness is eliminated. Additionally, mixed techniques allowed for employment of both primary and secondary data collection methods which ensured that the information collected was more credible. In other words, mixed research approach in this study allowed for clarifications and cross-checking of any possible ambiguity in data collected. Moreover, during the data collection process, administering of questionnaires was conducted in such a manner that each respondent was given approximately 24 hours to clearly answering the questions. By so doing, it ensured that the respondents had ample and enough time to fill the questionnaires and give them back on time. As such, the allocated time period ensured or rather prevented situations in which respondents may give excuses of not having enough time and privacy to fill the questionnaires. In the mixed research design, Interviews were also employed which comprised of structured questions which helped in collection of desired data in the most effective way. By way of explanation, the kind of interview chosen was more personal interviews revolving around the topic of the study. To sum up, each interview session was allocate a maximum of thirty minutes so as to ensure that the research and the interviewee utilized the allocated for the interview effectively.
2.0 literature review
There have been a number of scholarly articles that have been postulated about organizational communication. The fundamental purpose of organizational communication is to assist in energizing workers to perform the company’s strategic intent. Additionally, it is of utmost importance for organizations to possess the ability to send and receive, quickly identify issues, and comprehend strategically relevant company information. Moreover, when arriving at decisions revolving around the policy and strategy, the challenge and necessity as far as communication is concerned should factored into consideration, and organizing organizational communication so as to ensure that communication functions effectively must be part and parcel of the organization’s strategic priorities. In other words, organization communication can flow in three distinctive directions such as horizontally, upward, and downward. By way of explanation, upward type of communication involve communication flows to a very higher organization level whereas downward communication involves conversations or any form of communication that takes place between the top management team of the organization and the their subordinates, the form of communication that occurs between employees who share the same structural level in an organization is what is basically called horizontal communication.
Communication should therefore be an equal process that occurs between the receiver and the sender so as to get the message and information through. In other words, the ability to communicate is necessary for cooperation in any organization as well as minor groups and societies. By so saying, it means that, communication irrespective of the size of the group is basically a two-way communication. Therefore, issues that affect communication in an organization can be discussed in many literatures as communication barriers, communication challenges and in other scholarly articles, they are classified as communication problems.
2.1 Communication barriers in an organization
Many organizations incur organization’s difficulties as a result of communication issues. Additionally, this communication issues may portray itself in terms of problems, barriers or challenges within an organization. Some of the well-known communication barriers within an organization include; language, gender differences, status differences, cultural diversity, status differences as well as physical separation. In other words, these communication barriers are specific items that are well-known to prevent and distort communication within most organizations. Additionally, the ability for any organization to acknowledge and recognize communication difficulties and work towards a resolution, can in one way or the other drastically improve the sales, working conditions and organizational ,culture.
Physical separation barrier
Communication may at times incur difficulties due to a physical barrier. In this case, workers who have a physically separated working environment incur difficulties in cooperating and finishing the work idea. Additionally, technology in most cases is basically the primary answer in solving physical barriers. In other words, phone calls, emails, webcams, video conferencing plays a very big part in eliminating the communication barrier and in the process helps in providing a closer employee communication hence reducing physical barriers.
Status differences
It is universally accepted that status differences causes communication barriers in an organization most especially as a result of differences in the hierarchy of the organization in which the employees experience problems or challenges in communicating ideas either down or up the corporate ladder. However, this barrier can be reduced or eliminated by organization managers who are very good in understanding and relating with their employees.
Gender differences
There have been a number of research works that have been postulated about how females and males tend to communicate. Additionally, it has been realized that most males prefers to converse in a side-by-side manner whereas most females enjoy a conversation that is more of a face-to-face conversation. Moreover, Males do not actually feel the need of being closer to someone when conversing whereas ladies enjoy a more close and personal setting for communicating. However, barriers to do with status differences in communication can be clearly corrected if both gender parties are educated and made aware of the communication preferences during company briefings and discussions.
2.2 Communication problems in an organization
Apart from the well-known communication problems that involve a nurse and a doctor about patient medication or a co-pilot not being able to communicate to the pilot that their landing lane is already occupied by another plane, most people do not actually understand what communication problems actually means. Some of the communication problems that occur in an organization occur in terms of miscommunication between the organization and its staffs most especially employees. For instance, Not keeping all the employees informed about an organization issue, inconsistent communication from the managers, untimely communication from the managers to employees are some of the communication problems that affect organizations.
Not keeping all employees informed
In this case, the assumption is that the common and the usual communication mode will be able to communicate significant information to every organization member who needs to get the information and in the process; the information will get to everyone. However, in most organizations, the intended recipients do not actually get the information especially if they are not subscribed or interconnected to such kind of communication networks on a regular basis for instance those types of emails that cannot be read by front-line employees.
Inconsistent communication to employees by management
In this type of communication problem, different managers and supervisors are sending conflicting messages, or sometimes different messages as far as priorities are concerned. By so doing, this causes distrust and confusion among workers.
Untimely messages to employees
By definition, this type of communication problem occurs when information is not received by workers where and when they need it. Additionally, without significant information in the right place and at the appropriate time, the process of decision making is slowed down and in the process, the overall performance and completion of projects is affected tremendously.
Not sending the right information to the right people
It is universally known that this type of communication problem occurs when critical information of the organization such as market data is not equally shared among the organization’s primary stakeholders. Additionally, this communication problem in an organization may also present itself whenever the top organization’s management is not clearly engaging workers who boast of a rich customer contact in making organization decisions. Moreover, there can also be a communication problem whenever the employees are not better placed to get important information to the organization’s management.
Unclear organization expectations
In this case, communication problem presents itself whenever the the top management team fail to discuss the organization expectations with the organization’s mid-level managers. By so doing, the mid-level managers are not in a position to have the same expectation levels or clear strategic objectives in realizing organization’s goals. Owing to this fact, the workers may not have clear goals and objectives to compare and benchmark their organization progress.
The future organization plan is not known
In this case, the organization leaders do not discuss and involve their workers in their vision for the organization. Additionally, there is no clear sense of direction toward which each and every organization member is striving to achieve. By so doing, the workers morale is down and in the process, they are not inspired to give their best for the organization.
Poor collaboration of functional areas
Departments and units form a very important part in the organization structure. Owing to this fact, this type of communication problem occurs whenever the department s and units fail to share significant information that in one way or the other may help all the organization’s department s realize their goals or rather achieve a common objective. By so saying, it means that, most organizations department s engage in premature competition other than collaborating to achieve a common goal. By so doing, it reduces the capability and the ability of the company as a whole.
Workers not open and honest with one another.
Communication between workers forms a strong bond across departments and the organization productivity teams. In other words, this type of communication problem occurs when workers do not share organization information with each other. In other words, the employees do not have a working trust with each other. By so doing, they compromise the organization productivity teams, the organization’s departments and units as well as the overall functioning of the organization.
Communication problem as a result of distance between departmental units.
It is universally known that those departments that are based in different locations incur difficulties in communicating as much as compared to those units that are closely located. By way of explanation, the distance in-between makes departmental face-to-face interactions difficult to arrange and in the process, it makes collaboration to drag along. In other words, even in this modern era where emails, video conferencing, cell phones and text messaging is rampant; critical communication between top leaders, management and employees does not occur as much often and as much as required.
2.3 Communication challenges in modern organizations
It is accepted that all forms of communication involves message transmission to the sender from the receiver. Additionally, communication is very central to effectiveness and survival of the organization owing to the fact that the essence of most organizations is cooperation which can never be possible without effective communication. As much as communicating effectively in any organization has never been an easy task, communication has incurred some special challenges in the modern era organizations. Some of the most common challenges are the information overload and the sterility of the communication technologies.
Information overload
It is the duty of every organization to solve the challenge of the type of communication pattern that shall be instituted and the type of information that needs to be directed to what organization’s office. In other words, one issue that involves such a communication challenge is what is known as information overload. By so saying, it means that, there are restrictions or rather limits as far as they type of communication information that can be coded, received and effectively dealt with by any one organization member.
Sterility of the communication technologies
We live in a century that is characterized by disruptive electronic technologies that in one way or the other have resulted into powerful and new communication and information technologies. In other words, e-mail, voice mail, data-based reporting information systems, websites, bulletin boards and video conferencing are breaking down large distances cost effectively by providing data and information to a large chunk of individuals in relatively cheap but more appropriately fast manner. However, one funny thing about this type of communication technologies is that, most of them are impersonal and sterile and in the process, they are not as meaningful and powerful as compared to personal communication modes.
Owing to the fact that change initiates within an organization can often cause passionate and strong emotions, these electronic marvelous communication and information technologies are always found short in terms of operations or rather they are not basically up to the role. Additionally, since visual communication form a significance part in all communications involving humans, non-visual cues disconnected from the communication context such as text messages and e-mails may not relay the information well. Moreover, because the relationship of humans is very much important to communication, any communications mediums that in one way or the other do not help or add to the relationship, for instance, electronic bulletin boards; can send different signals to different receivers. Furthermore, since impersonal electronic communication technologies are easier and faster to do as compared to more personal modes of communication, the senders are in most cases not as practiced in the more personal communication modes. To sum up, electronic communication to today’s organizations are to some extent invaluable but they possess some considerable limitations as far as bringing about change is concerned.
3.0 Methodology
Questionnaires were administered and they consisted of questions that need a response from the research study respondent. Additionally, the questions asked comprised of factual questions, questions directed at personal opinions of Paint Your Face Cosmetics staff, attitude and self-perception based questions, projective questions and those questions that revolve around the desired information about the topic of study. Moreover, the questionnaires were scaled and disseminated in order to help in getting the required data and responses from the top management team of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company across the globe. Furthermore, the questionnaires were constructed in such a way that they contained similar questionnaires irrespective of the work level and branch so as to ensure response uniformity and in the process, this ensured that there is effectiveness in analysis of the response trends of the population responses. In other words, the sample population; the Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company staff and top management needed prior examination so as to identify and point out any prior limitations or barriers in administering the questionnaires.
The process of data collection commenced with a pre-test of the questionnaire. By so doing, it enabled the research group to identify the complexity involved in administering the questionnaires.Additionaly, pre-test procedure assisted in setting up of measures necessary in overcoming the research limitations.By so saying, it means that, during a pre-test procedure, possible limitations and challenges as far as the research work is concerned are effectively identified.
The secondary data of this research work was collected from the company data bases, websites, handbooks, and journals, written articles about Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company as well as exclusive reading and skimming through academic publications. In this case, data and information about the current communication situation at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company was obtained through extensive reading and analysis of the secondary sources mentioned earlier.
However, the informants or rather the respondents needed careful selection so as to elicit high quality and reliable information. In other words, the viability of data collected is basically based on the credibility of the respondents.by so saying, it means that, the attitude, opinion and perception of the sample population towards the research study as well as their wi8llingness plays a very vital role in the research study credibility.
One of the major objectives of this research work is determining communication challenges in paint Your Face Cosmetics Company. Owing to this fact, the population of interest included the employees and primary executive management team of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company. By so saying, it means that the target population included the junior staff members, the company management board as well as the company customers. In each target population category, 100 individuals were randomly chosen, 30 individuals from each category will participate in the interviews whereas the remaining 70 will fill the questionnaires emailed to them
4.0 Data and Data Analysis
From the data collected, there is no doubt that communication is indeed prevalent in Paint Your face Cosmetics Company. Additionally, there exists a number of communication channels employed in their day to day working life. However, some communication channels are indeed working effectively but others exist just for the sake of it. Therefore, the point of this research work on the current communication situation in Paint Your Face Cosmetics is to identify the challenges and the difficulties incurred in communication and to point out the communication channels that indeed function effectively and the ones that are dormant.
Face-to-face conversations
Face-to-face communication has basically a natural remarkable function in the day to day life of Paint Your Face Cosmetics. The offices are planned and established in such a manner that no particular individual has their own room separate from the others except the top management team and the CEO’s. In this case, whenever an individual needs to inquire something about a particular project, they go directly and inquire. Additionally, each and every individual sites in an open space which practically portrays each employees working space since it is separated by thin walls which makes it possible for individuals to ask something they need without necessarily standing. By so saying it means that, face-to-face communication within the same office in Paint Your Face Cosmetics is easy. However, face-to-face conversation has been noted to be a challenge when it comes to communications between offices and departments since they are located in different office spaces.
Group meetings
In Paint Your Face Cosmetics, all the employees and staffs gathers together for briefing a number of times annually. Additionally, there is usually a staff meeting scheduled before the Christmas party where individuals come together to discuss and evaluate what has changed over the past one year, the company achievements as well as the company’s future plans. Sometimes, the staff members gather together whenever the company wants to make some major changes so as to let everyone be in the know.
Personnel meetings
It was noted that, personnel meetings are organized within one department in each separate company branch in terms of sales meetings, board meetings and accountant meetings, but not all of the meetings together. Additionally, those kinds of meetings are usually organized each week where they discuss the current issues in their respective departments, who will be assigned which task, what needs to be conducted, what has already been done and such like issues.
Email is basically the most predominantly used mode of communication in Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company. Additionally, it is used vastly in the company to pass information to customers, informative purposed or across personnel. In other words, each working day of each Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company employee commences with checking their emails. By so doing, it means that every information regarding the company that an employee feels like they want to pass or share with their co-workers goes through the email. Moreover, the product certificates are also first send to the consumers as scanned documents which is followed by originals through the post office.
Skype messenger
In Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company, Skype messenger is basically used to communicate with office colloquies commencing with those within the same office right up to the working colloquies in different countries. Additionally, Skype messenger is not very much expensive and is easy to use. Moreover, most employees of Paint Your Face Cosmetics uses Skype whenever they need to convey an urgent message to their co-workers. As much as messengers are prohibited in many organizations, in Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company, they are allowed.
Company’s web pages
Paint your face cosmetics websites and web pages are written in five different languages. By so doing, it makes it possible for any individual to find out information and data about the company, products, contact details, services as well as other useful information. From the survey, it was noted that large chunks of the external users benefit from the information portrayed on the websites much as compared to the employees themselves.
Corporate calendar I outlook
As stated earlier, emails form a very vast part of communication in Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company. It is acknowledged that each and every individual associated with the company uses Microsoft outlook to carry out that purpose. Additionally the Microsoft outlook Programme possesses characteristics such as folders, corporate calendars, and client addresses. Moreover, in the corporate calendar, each and every person belonging to the network can locate the information revolving around who is around the office, which department has a meeting, when the individual is busy, which group is on a business trip and such kind of stuffs making it easy to be in the know without necessarily asking individuals about their schedule. In that manner, whenever an individual needs to arrange and plan a vacation or a meeting and you would like a certain member of the office to be in attendance, it is easier to establish the most suitable schedule by just analyzing his schedule on the calendar outlook. By so doing, it is also possible to find information regarding holidays in different departments and offices. For instance, national holidays in the United States are quite different from those in China or Finland. In other words, it is very much essential to understand when some of the company’s offices are closed.
Data-CD and Data-DVD
Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company boasts of its own Data-CD and Data-DVD, which basically possesses information revolving around the company as well as its products. Additionally, this Data-CDs and DVDs can be taken as a means of communication but in most cases, they are given to the new members of the organization so that they may assist them in getting familiar with the company products as well as the company operations. Moreover, those means of passing information or rather communication are as well employed for external communication whenever they are given to consumers. However, questions in the questionnaires basically wanted to see whether the company personnel find the drivers very effective.
News bulletin
Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company periodically sends external information bulletins to its customers to enable consumers find out news about the company and in the process, the workers of the company read it so as to peruse through and see any information or news they might have missed. Moreover, the top management team of the company is basically interested if at any one point there is an internal news bulletin. From the data collected, it was clear that internal news bulletin used to exist initially but the question that is being raised is whether it should be brought back.
Company’s internal server
The company’s internal server serves as one of the most significant source and means of communication in the Paint Your Face Cosmetics. Additionally, by the company’s server, it basically means the Paint Your Face Cosmetics database located on a server that is made specially. Moreover, each and every member of the company can easily access it. In this server, any information regarding the client’s data, project information, product information and any important information about the company’s employees is easily found. Furthermore, the internal server is also significant especially when the company projects is in progress since one is able to see the necessary documents that are bade and sent to the consumer, the missing parts, the customer orders and the requirement of the project.
4.1 Content Analysis
In this section, all the research background variables were clarified basically for two main reasons. One major point is to establish in clear details they type of group respondents behind the data collected. By so doing, it will help Paint Your Face Cosmetics identify whether the communication challenges affect all kinds of employees or whether it affects a particular division who are basically interested in communication issues. According to the results, the respondents were of different ages, English skills, different employment times, different structural positions in the company, and from different company branches.. In other words, the respondents clearly seem to represent each and every work of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company and the responses can be taken to clearly represent the opinions and self-perceptions of the company workers.
Another fundamental reason of evaluating and analyzing the research study’s background variable is to point out some of the factors that can limit or rather impact the research outcome or summaries of all the responses. Additionally, it is of utmost importance to analyze and compare the results with the average results representing each background variable sample group so as to establish whether respondents who share the same characteristics have produced divergent responses. From the data collected, it was noted that 20 percent of the respondents were below the age of thirty years, fifty percent were between the age of 30-49 years old and those above fifty years old were approximately 30 percent.
Figure 1; sales
As mentioned in the background information, Paint Your Face Cosmetics is a multinational company based in the U.S and it has some branches in Europe as well. At the moment, Paint Your face is mainly focusing on its branches in Europe and in the United States. The diagram below shows how the answers were clearly responded in both branches of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company.
Figure 2; offices that responded
On establishing on how long each respondent have been associating with Paint Your Face Company indicated that most employees have been working together for almost the same period or rather the working period was more or less even, apart from one individual who stated that he was working with the company for over ten years. Eighteen of the respondents have been working with Paint Your Face Cosmetics for almost 2 years whereas twenty-one have been with the company between two to nine years as shown in the figure below.
Figure 3; work duration
The questionnaires also required the respondents to fill information relating to their divisions level such as sales, administration, assistant work or production. Additionally it was perplexing to learn that administration which represents the top management team participated active in this research work. The research work results are shown below. Moreover, in this section, an open ended question was included where each participant was asked to indicate his company position and to much surprise, two executive managers took part in the survey which clearly shows their interest in the research study survey results.
Figure 4 divisions
The final question as far as the background variables were concerned revolved around the respondents or rather the personnel’s English. In this section, the respondents were required to rate their English proficiency according to alternative basic, moderate and high. From the figure below, it can be seen that most of those who participated approximately 64 percent rate their English proficiency highly, three percent believe that their English proficiency is basic while 33 percent rate their English proficiency as being moderate.
Figure 5: English proficiency
4.1.1 Informing and satisfaction
The modern type of workers is increasingly demanding to be involved in communications and conversations that are working towards organizational change. Additionally, this participation is very important in ensuring that all workers regardless of the level, responsibility, job role remain trapped in the company’s projects and fosters a more genuine community sense in companies. Owing to this fact, communication in any organization must be a two-way communication process. Moreover, most modern employees expect that whenever their personal opinions are closely solicited and have enough time to share and manage their feedback, the top management team will be in a position to listen and take it into consideration.
Informing is considered as one of the fundamental factors in company communication contest. By so saying, it means that, communication is required to let the personnel know about what is happening in the working environment. By way of explanation, this is realized and achieved through phone calls, meetings, mails as well as through indirect channels. In Paint Your Face Cosmetics questionnaires, there were questions that specifically revolved around the personnel’s desires and needs. Additionally, the main objective of these questions was to establish whether the workers obtain enough information that focuses on the company’s products, operations, economy, customers and its future plans. Moreover, these questions aimed at identifying what the employees would appreciate if they are given more information about and to establish on whether the respondents find the information that is communicated to be necessary.
The results indicated that approximately seventy percent of the respondents indicated that they obtained enough information regarding Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company. 58 % get communications about customers, about 50 % respondents are not informed adequately about companies operations, approximately only 45 % get communications about company’s future plans and economy. Of all the categories, the smallest of them approximately 40 % confessed that they obtain enough information as far as the company strategy is concerned , and of the respondent that took part 47% clearly knew the Paint Your Face Cosmetics mission, values and vision.
Figure 6; Informants responses on the questions on whether they obtain enough communication on operations, company strategy, missions and values, company’s products, economy and future plans
Paint Your Face Cosmetics personnel based on the mentioned results that most of them are very happy with the information they obtain revolving around the products of the company. However, the company should work towards improving communication on the other company’s operational spheres. According to the results, Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company personnel require more information most especially about the company’s economy, strategy as well as future plans.
Taking into consideration that background variables, it can be concluded that individuals who have been working for Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company less than two years are eager to obtain more information. Additionally, they indicate not to obtain enough information in every other aspect but not about the future plans of the company. Moreover, individuals who are above 50 years old are recorded as the ones who are most willing to obtain information revolving around the company’s future plans as well as those individuals between ages 30-49 years old.
According to the data collected, the sale personnel seem to ask more information related company while those personnel in charge of production are more interested in the company’s customers. Additionally, three of all production, assistants needs more information revolving around the operations of the company as well as the economy whereas the company’s administration seems satisfied with the information amount they are getting as far as the four mentioned communication aspects are concerned. Moreover, those individuals who are working in the European based offices of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company are clearly satisfied with the level and the amount of information conveyed to them as far as the operations of the cpomnapny is concerned but most of them are more interested in obtaining information revolving around the future plans of the company.
Whenever the respondents were inquired o whether the company personnel would like to be equipped with more information and the type of information besides the aspects mentioned earlier, approximately 47 % of the informants admitted that they would like to be acquainted with information regarding things related to Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company itself such as current information relating to available new products and updated information as far as the current products are concerned. However, one notable challenge that was raised was that, those employees operating from the U.S cannot access the internal server of the European based offices. Almost fifteen percent of the informants to the raised question indicated that they would ve4ry much appreciate information regarding the company’s success stories for instance, orders received or big tenders so as to motivate other office members. Altogether, approximately 5 % of the informants were more interested in information regarding the company’s competitive information, product feature, pricing and performance compared to Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company.
The next question that was administered in this section was determining if the company’s personnel obtained information that they believe was unnecessary. Of the sampled population, only 20% responded yes. For instance, one of the most common unnecessary information from the European based offices indicted that private photos should be removed from the company’s internal server, offices based in the U.S responded by clarifying that they would very much prefer to get information sent to them in a number of languages not English alone. In other words, in their opinion, the company’s global communication system should be reorganized.
The questions made using the famous Likert’s agreement-disagreement scale required the respondents to choose their position on either side of the agreement-disagreement scale. In this case, the employees were given a number of positions to choose from such as, neither agree noir disagree, strongly agree, agree, disagree and strongly disagree. Additionally, the informants responses have been clearly analyzed using the median since the Likert scale was afterwards coded in codes of five such that strongly agree was rep[resented by 5 while strongly disagree was represented by 1. The guiding question in this section asked the informants about their personal opinions on communication in Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company as shown below. In other words, this question is closely related with the number one research question of this research work.
Communication at Paint Your Face Cosmetics effective enough
Value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 4
Disagree 2 15
Neither agree nor disagree 3 8 3
Agree 4 12
Strongly agree 5 1
The analysis arrived at the median as 3 which clearly indicate that the current communication in Paint Your Face Cosmetics is not good enough but it cannot be classified as bad either. In other words, some communication issues need to be rectified.
The next question aimed at establishing which communication channels best help to convey information inside the office. Additionally, this question allowed the listing of all communication modes and channels at Paint Your face Cosmetics office. By way of explanation, this move was meant to establish the type of communication channels that are effectively used and more essentially find out which channels of communication are in use.
Company’s websites value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 5
Disagree 2 11
Neither agree nor disagree 3 15 3
Agree 4 9
Strongly agree 5 0
Email value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 0
Disagree 2 1
Neither agree nor disagree 3 1
Agree 4 15
Strongly agree 5 23 5
Skype messenger value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 2
Disagree 2 3
Neither agree nor disagree 3 6
Agree 4 13 4
Strongly agree 5 16
Outlook corporate calendar value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 5
Disagree 2 11
Neither agree nor disagree 3 15 3
Agree 4 9
Strongly agree 5 0
Data-DVD value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 1
Disagree 2 6
Neither agree nor disagree 3 18 3
Agree 4 4
Strongly agree 5 1
Data-CD value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 2
Disagree 2 6
Neither agree nor disagree 3 15
Agree 4 6
Strongly agree 5 1
News Bulletin value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 2
Disagree 2 0
Neither agree nor disagree 3 1
Agree 4 33 4
Strongly agree 5 4
Staff meetings value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 1 5
Disagree 2 1
Neither agree nor disagree 3 4
Agree 4 13
Strongly agree 5 21
Face to face communication value frequency median
With top management
Strongly disagree 1 1
Disagree 2 0
Neither agree nor disagree 3 4
Agree 4 14
Strongly agree 5 21 4
Company’s server value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 1
Disagree 2 2
Neither agree nor disagree 3 8
Agree 4 21 4
Strongly agree 5 8
Staff meetings, emails and face-to-face communications with the top management team are basically one of the most significant channels of communication in Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company. Additionally, Skype messenger, internal company’s information server, and external news bulletin seems to serve as better channels than Outlook corporate calendar, Data-DVD and Data-CD, and company websites. Moreover, no median below 3 was witnessed meaning that generally, communication channels are performing their duty, however, not all of the channels are functioning as effectively as they should.
4.1.2 Internal communication channels at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company
From the informant respondents, it can be noted that the most effective way of conveying information is through email since almost all the informants preferred it as the most appropriate source of obtaining company information. Additionally, news bulleting ranked second with a whopping 75% and staff meetings scored 67% which makes it the third effective way of conveying internal information in Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company. However, the most shunned channels of conveying information was Data-CD with 15% which was followed closed by Data-DVD with 21%. Moreover, approximately half of the respondents indicated that face-to-face communication with the top management team (62%) as well as company’s internal server (57%) play a very useful and effective role in internal communication within Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company. Very unlikely way of obtaining information within the company is through the employment of the outlook corporate calendar (48%) followed closely by Skype messenger (45% and finally through the company websites (42%).
Figure 7; use of different information channels at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company
When the respondents were asked on whether there are other preferred ways of obtaining internal information in Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company, 25 % of the informants responded with the answer Yes. Some of the ways the respondents thought can be useful in obtaining internal information other the ones mentioned earlier was through things like rumors, informal discussions, gossips as well as telephone conversations.
When the informants were inquired about their most preferred internal communication channel, half of the informants (50%) responded with the answer email Skype messenger, personal contact, and internal information server, additionally, there were also some other funny or rather odd answers such as; product descriptions from quotes .
4.1.3 Functionality of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company communication
Through the questionnaires, the workers had a chance to estimate and determine the functionality of a number of communication aspects and give their personal opinion on the innovations that the company’s management team is considering implementing. In this section, the information is analyzed using the Likert scale where the respondents have to raise their opinion on how effective the information flows downward, upward or horizontal. From the following illustrations below, it can be noted that all the three identified directions produced median 4. By so saying, it means that, information flows effectively to all company directions which is of utmost importance in every company as much as some individuals disagreed.
Upward value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 0
Disagree 2 2
Neither agree nor disagree 3 13
Agree 4 19 4
Strongly agree 5 1
Downward value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 0
Disagree 2 2
Neither agree nor disagree 3 8
Agree 4 20 4
Strongly agree 5 10
Horizontal value frequency median
Strongly disagree 1 0
Disagree 2 3
Neither agree nor disagree 3 8
Agree 4 27 4
Strongly agree 5 2
5.0 Conclusions and recommendations
It is universally known that communication difficulties persist in most organization mainly because urgent visible priorities are always on the forefront over the invisible priorities. By so saying, it means that, when individuals are mainly focused with goals, meetings, and deadlines, it’s always very challenging to stop and concentrate about fixing organization’s infrastructure. Additionally, communication improvement is rarely included on the organization’s performance appraisals. Furthermore, the challenges and difficulties in communication within an organization persist partly because the top management team sometimes does not actually visualize the problems associated with poor communication. Communication in multinational organization can in one way or the other become more complicated. However, with proper planning coupled with good effort, improving the level of communication process will have a direct implication on the organization’s decisions
It is therefore clear that Most of Paint Your Face personnel would very much like to witness a change revolving around the organizations communication channel. By way of explanation, this reaction was arrived upon when the company’s personnel reacted to the questionnaire with a whopping 65% which is basically a high percentage. Additionally, all the data and information that was collected from the company’s workers clearly indicated that Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company possess a lot of information for instance on the products of the company and markets, however, most of this vital information can be difficult to trace along the communication flow. Moreover, with the introduction of the new products and product server, it is kind of difficult for the company personnel to locate required information and feedback because of lack of visual and face-to-face interactions between the European based cosmetics company and the U.S headquarters. In this case, the personnel experience difficulties simply because they are used to the old company server and products.
In general, the overall impression of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is that , as much as a number of communication channels are well designed, most of them indicate lack of communication and information professionals who will be responsible for initiating and coordinating communication flow while at the same time supervising a very united communication system. Owing to this fact, it can bre induced that no one in the company has ability or time to focus on the communication issues which makes the company to employ varying communication systems and in the process resulting into many mixed communication folders. Otherwise communication in Paint Your Face is rather informal and open.
Therefore, in order for Paint Your Face Cosmetics company to solve its communication difficulties, its management as well as their subordinate staff must work together in realizing the following recommendations.
Establish a strategic communication plan
It is of utmost importance for Paint Your face Cosmetics Company management as well as its staff to examine and identify any communication gaps that exist in their company, research on any possible solutions of moving forward and discuss them within the organization heads and staff in order to write a clear international communication strategy. Additionally, depending on the organizations corporate needs, the discussion and examination can take the form of regular international teleconferences, a number of electronic communication optimization technologies as well as regular and frequent visits to organization’s branch offices. However, whatever the strategy the Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company may use, it must ensure that the strategy is well-documented and the top management as well as the leadership team is well prepared and aligned in its execution.
Unified corporate mission and vision
The most significance idea that the Paint Your Face Cosmetics management has to communicate to all the organization’s staff at every level as well as at every branch of the company is what is known as the organization’s mission statement and vision. Additionally, whatever other communication lines exist, establishing a clear vision and mission statements will see to it that each and every individual associated with Paint Your Face Cosmetics is on the same page as far as its direction and purpose and in the process, they both work to realize the same goal. Moreover, Paint Your Face Cosmetics should get its mission and vision statements translated into a language that is comprehensible for each office in every branch, encompass them into workers handbooks as well as on-boarding documents related to the organization, and display them clearly and proudly on the official Paint Your Face Cosmetics websites.
Communication technology
In the modern technological era that is coupled with the cornucopia of information and communication technology available depending on the needs at all stages, there is no tangible reason why Paint Your Face Cosmetics cannot benefit from such technological solutions even if email is not enough. Additionally, depending on the Paint Your Face Cosmetics communication gaps, the company size, company budget and other miscellaneous factors, it is clear that the technology that is best suited for another company may not necessarily be good enough for Paint Your Face Cosmetics. Therefore, owing to the fact that Paint Your Face Cosmetics is a multinational organization with different departments and a number of employees globally, it must establish a feature-rich intranet as well as community-engagement platform that is coupled with internal social networks.
Translation to local and native languages
Any Paint Your Face Cosmetics company-wide messages in the form of brand guidelines, employee handbooks or organization announcements should be well interpreted and where possible, localized for the sake of the local culture and language. In other words, such company information uniformity will assist in seeing to it that everyone associated with Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company receives and decodes the information and messages in the intended manner and in the most appropriate way to the receiver.
Live events and office visits
It is universally argued that, the most effective way of passing a message in an organization is sometimes through interaction. By so saying, it means that, annual Paint Your Face Cosmetics tours and roadshows may serve a great deal in ensuring that workers remain connected to their top management team, and vice versa, offer the leadership and management team a good chance of comprehending their off-shore workers. For instance Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company should organize biennial or annual events in which its employees gather in one location in what is commonly known as a multi-day, organization-wide event. By so doing, it will help its top management to meet and interact with other branches staffs, their individual contributions to the organization as well as some messages and information the staff may have for the executive management.
Create and encourage a two-way communication
By definition, a closed information and communication loop is generally made up of a sender transmitting information to a receiver who in the process of communication provides message feedback. By so saying, it means that, listening to its workers can play a very vital role in Paint Your Face Cosmetics operational effectiveness by ensuring that its workers feel appreciated and highly valued, sourcing creative-bottom-up opinions, improving morale and clear-cut solutions to Paint Your Face Cosmetics’ problems. Additionally, one way of realizing this is through establishment of an email address or a social networking site that may enable all branch managers and staff to submit their ideas and feedback. Furthermore, in case of a language barrier, Paint Your Face Cosmetics should incorporate a service such as TransBox, by One Hour Translation that automatically decodes foreign language emails which in the process allows the management and the staff to communicate in the best language that they may comprehend.
Work Cited
_1508825781.xls
Chart1
| European based branches |
| U.S based companies |
Sheet1
| Sales | |
| European based branches | 43% |
| U.S based companies | 57% |
| To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range. |
_1508825784.xls
Chart1
| below 30 years |
| 30-49 years old |
| over 50 years old |
Sheet1
| Sales | |
| below 30 years | 20% |
| 30-49 years old | 50% |
| over 50 years old | 30% |
| To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range. |
_1508825776.xls
Chart1
| administration |
| sales |
| production |
| Assistant |
Sheet1
| Column1 | divisions |
| administration | 23% |
| sales | 32% |
| production | 27% |
| Assistant | 18% |
| To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range. |
_1508825778.xls
Chart1
| less than 2 years |
| 2 years or less |
| over 10 years |
Sheet1
| work duration | |
| less than 2 years | 2.50% |
| 2 years or less | 45% |
| over 10 years | 52.50% |
| To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range. |
_1508825771.xls
Chart1
| products of the company | products of the company |
| customers | customers |
| operation | operation |
| economy | economy |
| future plans | future plans |
| strategy | strategy |
| mission and values | mission and values |
Sheet1
| yes | No | Series 3 | |
| products of the company | 70% | 30% | 2 |
| customers | 58% | 42% | 2 |
| operation | 50% | 50% | 3 |
| economy | 45% | 55% | 5 |
| future plans | 45% | 55% | |
| strategy | 40% | 60% | |
| mission and values | 47% | 53% |
_1508825773.xls
Chart1
| high |
| Moderate |
| Basic |
Sheet1
| english profficiency | |
| high | 64% |
| Moderate | 33% |
| Basic | 3% |
| 4th Qtr | 1.2 |
| To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range. |
_1508825768.xls
Chart1
| websites | websites |
| emails | emails |
| skype | skype |
| Outlook corporate calebdar | Outlook corporate calebdar |
| DVD | DVD |
| CDs | CDs |
| Bulletins | Bulletins |
| Staff meetings | Staff meetings |
| face-to face interactions | face-to face interactions |
| internal server | internal server |
Sheet1
| YES | NO | Series 3 | |
| websites | 42% | 58% | 2 |
| emails | 100% | 0 | 2 |
| skype | 45% | 55% | 3 |
| Outlook corporate calebdar | 48% | 52% | 5 |
| DVD | 21% | 79% | |
| CDs | 15% | 85% | |
| Bulletins | 75% | 25% | |
| Staff meetings | 67% | 33% | |
| face-to face interactions | 62% | 38% | |
| internal server | 57% | 43% |