Biz-commPulse

Effective cross cultural communication is increasingly becoming more important in a business. Employees usually consist of diverse cultures with different backgrounds.  Although all employees need to adhere to the corporate culture in a business (the way things are usually done), a manager needs to have good cross cultural communication skills when it comes to dealing with employees with different cultural backgrounds.  Many managers want to achieve better cultural communication, but still face many barriers.  The following are the most common cross cultural communication barriers  many managers still have to overcome in their attempt to communicate better with diverse employees: Values and attitudes : The manager may have different values than his or her employees or the employees may even have different values and attitudes. At the end of the day it is the task that has to be completed and having different values and attitudes can be overcome if all employ...

Dealing with conflict in a business is inevitable because of cultural diversity among employees.  How managers communicate during conflict situations is of utmost importance.  Bad choice of words and even the tone of the message can strain relationships even more.  Employees interpret messages according to their own frame of references and if there are poor interpersonal relationships because of a conflict situation, misunderstandings can easily occur.  During conflict situations, employees are generally suspicious and distrustful.  It is important for managers to remember that employees assign meaning to words and that meaning thus resides in people and not in the words that are used. During conflict the manager needs to use effective communication skills.   Effective communication skills are of utmost importance during conflict resolving situations. Messages should be clearly conveyed in a logical manner to ensure that there are no misundersta...

Business communication can also enhance a business’ brand, including its products, through what is known as employee branding.  But what exactly is employee branding? Employee branding refers to employees’ behaviour that shapes the identity of the brand.  The employee basically projects the brand by acting in specific way when dealing with current or potential customers. This can be through good customer service and other work behaviour that creates a specific perception of the business in the minds of customers. Effective business communication can play a role in employee branding because employees are empowered through how motivated they feel, how they understand their different roles in the business and if they completely understand the mission and vision of the business. If the business is committed to being a learning organization, employees even take ownership of their roles and tasks in the business. A learning organization generally provides more opportuniti...