Factors Influencing Interpersonal Communication

This essay is based on the interpersonal communication issues prevailing in the organizations and nestle is used as an instance. This organization is selected because I have worked in the sales team of Nestle Singapore for 3 years. My work experience has provided me the opportunity to work with a diversified team from different cultural background. I had to interact with my team members where a number of factors had affected the communication process. The factors, which I came across, while working in the sales team included relationship with the team members, perceived emotions, personality of the individual team members, spiritual orientation, gender, a disabled member in the team and culture. All these factors played important role in bringing up the communication issues in the sales team of the organization. As the members of the team belonged to different nationalities and cultures, therefore there were certain issues regarding communication with the stakeholders and the customers (Anyanwu & Nweake, 2014). For instance, my colleague Jim Simpson faced difficulty while making a stakeholder understand about the product that they are going to launch in the market. Cultural barrier came in between the communication between Jim and the stakeholder, as Jim was a British and the stakeholder was a local of Singapore.

Moreover, the analysis of the communication issues focused on the major factors of relationship with the team members, perceived emotions, personality of the individual team members, spiritual orientation, gender, a disabled member in the team and culture. Each of these individual factors and demographic factors such as age, gender and culture had their significant impact on the communication process of the sales team in the organization (Conrad, 2014). I have found out that there is not much awareness among the management of the organization regarding the communication issues prevailing in the organization. There was no action taken to resolve these issues and that is why it has taken much worse shape.

In terms of emotions, I found out that there is no such bonding among the team members apart from their work in the team (Gamble & Gamble, 2010). For instance, one of the team members, Cherry Ling was mourning the death of her father but no other members in the team seemed to be bothered about it or show her some concern. I was taken aback at such an inhumane behavior of the sales team in the organization. As I was new to the organization at that moment, I did not know if it was the same in the entire organization. Gradually I understood that there were similar instances faced by others throughout the organization. They were not aware of the fact that emotions can have a strong impact on communication while creating positive relationships. Another team member, Xing Ru had a negative, rude and aggressive tone in his voice. It can be mentioned that it is not always right to express emotions freely as it might result in disrupting relationships. Once he became judgmental about another member’s performance in the team and it had led to internal conflicts in the team. In this manner, the bonding among the team members was disturbed.

Impact of Factors on Communication in Workplace Groups

On the other hand, there was another member in the team named Shira Bull, whose behavior was in contrast with that of Xing Ru. She was a happy and free individual and I had fun interacting with her. Her casual attitude always irritated Xing and it led to a major clash between them. Their difference in personality was responsible for hampering the workplace relationship.  I was astonished to see that none of the team members was bothered to mitigate the clash between Xing and Shira as everyone was busy with their own work. I assumed that the differing personalities might be the result of their difference in age, but later found out that the main reason was their work tenure. Xing was senior to Shira in terms of work tenure in the organization and he could not tolerate the fact that a new comer will rule over him or supersede him in terms of work. It was a negative point on the part of the organization not to eliminate the cause of clash at the grass root level. Instead of reacting to the situation by providing proper remedy, they used to stereotype the situation by assuming different things, which were not even valid. The behavior, which I did not like among the team members, was they judged a person based on what they assumed and perceived and not going into the detail of the situation. Because of this workplace situation, halo effect of negative emotions was created towards each other. The errors in perception created negative attitude between Xing and Shira and they reached at the saturation point of tolerating each other. Shira always wanted to irritate Xing with her carefree attitude, whereas Xing always wanted to harass Shira by giving her work, which was out of her expertise.

Apart from the bitter relationship between Xing and Shira, there were plenty of other instances where team bonding was hampered. Each member had difficulty in letting go of his or her ego and agree to the others’ opinion. This was not how a team should work; rather it is the duty of every member to listen to each other and respect each other’s opinion to come to a valid decision. It can be stated that confusion, hostility, anxiety and fear are considered as the most common perceptions and a source of conflict within team members especially when there is a difference in the individual and demographic factors. As per the conflicts in my organization, Xing is a person who tries to avoid open conflict and therefore takes support of work to harass Shira. On the other hand, Shira is an individual who is not afraid of anything so she does not care what her senior is planning against her. Rather she enjoys the fact that her attitude is able to irritate Xing.

Organizational Policies Affecting Interpersonal Communication

According to Baker (1991), in terms of spiritual orientation, the organization was not concerned about the religious beliefs and practices of the employees coming from different backgrounds. As the company was situated in Singapore, therefore the employees got leave from work only on the national holidays of Singapore. They did not respect the cultural and religious beliefs of other members of the team and when they asked for leaves on the particular days, it was not paid heed. Disrespecting others’ religion is not a professional attitude and it must not be entertained in the organization. I found out that they were not at all serious about this issue and the cultural clash that took place as an outcome was not conveyed to the higher authorities. It is the liability of the senior authorities too, to look into the fact that their employees are working happily in the organization without any inconvenience (Crossman, 2014). I felt that the members of the sales team who belonged to different cultural backgrounds were not founding the team environment appropriate for them to work. Therefore, in my 3- year’s duration at the workplace I experienced that most of the members from diversified culture resigned from the organization. It hampered the reputation of the organization but they were not at all active to take any strong decision against this issue.

Working with the Nestle Company for three years have enabled me in dealing with several issues at workplaces. It has also helped me in gaining huge experience related to the professional world. However, the most common issue, which several workers face, is the gender issue (Graf, Koeszegi & Pesendorfer, 2012). As per my experience is concerned, dealing with the gender issues at the workplace, can sometimes become a challenging job for the workers. Being a female employee, I found that majority of the male and female workers had trouble in communicating with each other, in an effective manner. In fact, the differences among the genders have been a topic of discussion, for decades.

However, when it comes to organizations, it is immensely important for the workers to learn and understand about gender differences (Hargie, 2011). The topic is vast as well as exhaustive and therefore, the employers need to adapt the skills, which are required to work together by maintaining peace and harmony. Moreover, it is true that the women employees are often discriminated at the workplace, which is a fact. It is true that the female workers get those positions, which are formerly held by men. However, it is also true that only few male workers show respect towards professional women, at the workplace.

Solutions for Improving Communication in Workplace Groups

At my organization, I found that few male workers believed that women only belonged at home, they are best at cooking meals for their male counterpart and nurturing kids. The discrepancies between male and female still exists in our society and our organization also promoted discrimination. Being a female employee, I found that women workers did not earn the same salary as compared to the men, for the similar amount of work, job position or status. Even I found that the female workers were more qualified, while the men workers were only graduates.

These differences kept on continuing and the management was not even communicating the issues of the female workers to the higher authorities (Hill et al., 2007). All throughout their careers, the women workers earned less money as compared to their male counterparts, which is not correct at all. The basic reason for such differences in the pay scale reflects the cultural and societal views on children and family, at large. In addition to this, I found that few female employees even got pregnant in the middle of their careers and that is the reason they got passed up for organizational promotions.

Similarly, while discussing about persons with disabilities at the workplace, I would like to share an instance regarding the same. At Nestle Company, John was an employer with disability. However, he had excellent knowledge and skills, along with a vibrant personality and as a result, everybody loved him. John’s short-term memory was caused by his neurological condition, which at times posed a greater threat for the overall process. He had certain barriers while communicating with his co-workers and supervisors as he found difficulties in remembering names and important facts related to the job. He faced severe challenges in understanding of the languages and at times, he became nervous.

On observing him, I noticed that the customers and other employees can anytime become frustrated because of his disorder. His nervousness also revealed the fact that he lacked confidence at certain point of time. The human resource department of the organization made other employees aware of John’s condition and asked for their cooperation. A mail was being sent to the staff members in order to promote an understanding and support from the employees regarding John’s sensitive condition. Moreover, since John’s induction, an action plan for disability was being constructed, which was then forwarded to the operational management of the company.

This proves that the organization adopted a well built strategy in order to point out the disabilities of the employees (Inoue, 2007). In addition to this, they have also created a supportive workplace environment, where the employees could communicate their disability issues with each other, in an effective manner. John is aware and he discussed his issues with the management, without feeling confused or uneasy. The most important factor, which the employees need to take care of in such cases, is that everyone is equal irrespective of the gender, disabilities or ethnicity. If a company is willing to adapt the needs of the disabled employees, it will increase the team morale and organizational culture as well. With the support from the team members, John became more comfortable, confident and even he shared jokes with both staff members and customers.

However, there were cultural differences at the organization, which marred its reputation to some extent. The cultural differences mainly resulted from the dissimilarities, differences in the language, non verbal misinterpretations, high anxiety and stereotypes. These preconceived notions or the thinking ways damaged the culturally diversified workforce. Moreover, I found that some of the employees had the mindset of, “we have always done it in this way; we cannot change our working pattern.”

This type of mindset is bad and limits creativity within the workplace (Beekman, 2011). This is similar to the low context cultural theory. The high context cultural theory refers to the one, which communicate ways that rely heavily and are implicit to the contexts. On the other hand, the low context cultural theory relies on explicit verbal communicational factor. The high context cultural theory is generally collective in nature that values interpersonal relationships and have the members forming stable as well as close workplace relationships.

However, the organization which I worked for was totally following low context cultural theory. The workers did not communicate with the expatriate employees, due to their varied culture. Moreover, the expatriate workers faced severe discrimination from the management as well and as a result, they could not share their opinions or communicate freely. As per my opinion is concerned, intercultural miscommunication takes place when an individual does not change their opinions in accordance to the rules or patterns of the other culture. I observed a misunderstanding, which occurred between Rachel (an expatriate worker) and Monica (Business Associate). They were discussing the process of sales management, where Rachel raised her point but Monica, being the boss, simply ignored it because of the cultural differences between them.

To conclude, it can be recommended that the Nestle Company needs to reshuffle their processes in order to bring in huge creativity and talent within the organization. Moreover, the employees should be more cooperative in such cases. The human resource manager of the company should also be effective in order to manage these issues with utmost efficiency. The management of the company should not discriminate the workers on the basis of their gender, disabilities or ethnic origin. Furthermore, the company should introduce stricter laws and regulations, which would allow the workers to work by maintaining peace and harmony. In addition to this, the expatriate and diversified workforce should be given with a number of opportunities to raise their opinions and showcase their talents.

Moreover, the organization should promote diversified workforce as it brings in huge creativity and talent with the workplace, which in turn proves to be beneficial for the company. The organizations should always keep this into consideration and encourage their staff members to communicate freely. It should be always considered that intercultural communication occurs only when an individual change their speech as per the patterns and rules of the other culture. In this way, workplace conflicts can be resolved to a huge extent. Last but not the least; organizational leaders and managers should always encourage their workers to communicate and interact among the inter-cultural groups.

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