Gender Barriers in Internal Communications for Multinational Organisations

Introduction

Internal communication is the transmission of information among the workers in an organisation taking different levels and units in a company. In this regard, communication in an industry assists in ensuring that all members of the business work collaborative in achieving goals. The conversation is useful in developing a cohesive culture and empowering workers in making right choices according to the organisation mission. Communications barriers in an industry may result in misinterpretation in the business because of the difference in language. Additionally, a lack of knowledge by employees can result in issues created by barriers as employees lack skills about the company’s products and the jobs.

Communication Process

The communication process starts with the sender who initiates the conversation by conveying the information to others. The sender encodes the information by selecting, symbols, words or gestures to use, thus composing a message. The report refers to the outcome of the encoding taking the form of written language, verbal or non-verbal sent through a medium. The receiver gets the message and decodes it into meaningful information and responds to the message by sending feedback (Usha).

The Difference in Communication in the Workplace and Other Social settings

Workplace communication can be different from other social settings. For instance, communication in a multinational company occurs in various forms including internal, external, upward and downward, formal and informal. The structure of the presentation is different from the other social setting who consider informal communication without utilising upward and downward communication (Huczynski and Buchanan).

The conversation in multinational companies is cross-cultural, considering that the businesses are based in different countries that comprise different culture. The type of communication allows the company to compare the kind of lifestyle to come up with an effective communication process. In contrast to the other social setting, communication does not require learning the culture (Wilson). For instance, conversation in a social context such as school, or a national company will not need to learn the lifestyle as the conversation will be within the same country. The dialogue in multinational companies requires unique marketing tools suitable for producing products or services that vary for different countries with different advertisements. In contrast, communication in the other social setting marketing tools is set for ads of one country where the organisation or the institution is set (Huczynski and Buchanan).

Communication Barriers

Communication barriers refer to anything capable of preventing people from receiving, understanding the messages that have been sent by the other people through the use of medium requiring us to convey their ideas, thoughts and information. The communication difficulties are capable of blocking or interfering the message being sent (Usha). Various companies face communication obstacles in their environment that create problems. The firm may meet cultural, language, diversity, gender differences, physical separation and status differences as barriers. The barriers affect communication in the corporation distorts communication within the company (Usha).

Effect of the Communication Barriers to a Company

Communication barriers in an organisation may result in unorganised information that may result in ineffective conversation in the business. The ineffective information may result in the suffering of the partnership and creating unclearness among the employees (Huczynski and Buchanan). Psychological barriers may impact the information communicated in the industry. Stress, as one of the mental element, may result in an individual communicating information that is not required in business or make the receiver to translate the info poorly, giving unethical feedback (Mullins). Language obstacle as a communication barrier may create misinterpretation of the message as the receiver may fail to understand the information. For instance, a message may comprise of abbreviations that are not understandable to the receiver (Mullins).

The difference in Gender Barriers

Gender barrier is different from the other communication obstacles as it is concerned with the habit of the individual. Where women consider developing a relationship that they will use in making the work be collaborative which may take the time in an organisation while men find using tasks as means enabling them in working with their colleagues in a firm (Huczynski and Buchanan). The solving issues in other communication limitations may include training or involvement of all employees in the business. Consequently, it is different with the gender barriers where when the problem arises among women they have to consult advice from the colleagues while for a male worker will have to use product-driven communication style in case a problem arises (Wilson).

The gender obstacles difference in non-verbal communication in ladies may prefer using non-verbal communication as they believe that it demonstrates investment in the conversation. At the same time, men feel difficulty in interpreting the women’s non-verbal responses, thus creating a weakness in women’s dialogue (Huczynski and Buchanan). The other forms of communication may create equal engagement which is different with the gender barriers as it creates unequal participation where men rarely seek information, but provide which is incompatible with the women who ask, listen and understand the message for both genders (Wilson).

Prevention of Gender Barriers in an Organisation

Encouraging diversity in business may prevent gender barriers. Meetings held by the companies should include individuals of different races, genders, and backgrounds that will assist in ensuring that the decisions are made considering both groups in the organisation and solving the issues affecting both genders (Mullins). Additionally, educating the company’s team about the gender and gender bias may assist in identifying the bias in the working areas, making aware of them and creating a possibility for positive change thus showing the individuals when they make a mistake and the action to take to correct the behaviour (Wilson). Establishing network initiatives that aim at all employees assist in breaking down barriers between the sexes as it creates relationships and connection among the employees. Moreover, emphasising on the inclusion of the opposite sex that excluding them reduces sexual harassment from the workplace that is among the gender barriers (Huczynski and Buchanan).

J Sainsbury

Sainsbury’s is ranked as the third-largest chain supermarket in the UK with a range of 15.3% shares of the supermarket sector. The company faces different communication barriers in its daily activities of trading. Cultural, religious, and language difference and gender barriers in Sainsbury results to arising of communication barrier as different norms will create social interaction among the employees in the company considering that the business is a multinational company (Dudovskiy). The obstacles occur through the employment of different employees with different norms and stakeholders, making communication in the organisation to be challengeable as it will create different objectives (Dudovskiy). In this regard, the communication obstacles in Sainsbury has various impacts, including that they cause delaying in serving customers as buyers may be speaking a different language than that of the seller. The cultural difference affects Sainsbury trading activities as sellers while negotiating with the buyers who are of a different culture may make stereotypical assumptions based on the buyer’s cultural backgrounds (Dudovskiy).

Dealing with the Barriers Issues

Sainsbury has developed a communications strategy that is comprised of elements of accessible communication including emails, reports, magazines and formal letters that are generated based on common language thus breaking the language barriers among the employees, stakeholders and customers (Dudovskiy). Additionally, Sainsbury has devised a strategy that takes into account the difference customs, values and beliefs among its stakeholders, thus reducing isolation and bias. The company has been generating integrated marketing communication messages that do not consider the cultural difference that may be perceived by stakeholders with different cultures, causing misunderstandings and negative association of the company’s products (Dudovskiy). For instance, the company may not risk by advertising pork meat to countries with Jewish and Muslims who does not consume the meat due to their religious beliefs; thus promoting such messages may cause loss of customers. Sainsbury ensures corporate social responsibility initiatives that ensure that differences of norms in different society are dealt with to avoid communication barriers (Dudovskiy).

Effectiveness of Measures Taken

Sainsbury communication strategy that takes into account the different customs and beliefs is said to use celebrities and magazines in the marketing without taking into the other cultural difference thus remaining differences that will affect the communication messages sent to Sainsbury. Sainsbury stakeholder has differences in beliefs and norms, making it remain a communication barrier as its strategy (Dudovskiy).

Recommendations

Sainsbury’s marketing strategy should take into account all stakeholders differences, including beliefs, religion, values, languages, traditions and customs apart from using magazines and celebrities in the advertisements without considering the other measures. In this regard, to provide a valid marketing message to all the stakeholders, Sainsbury’s should put into account all the differences of the stakeholders (Dudovskiy).

Conclusion

Communication barrier has been a challenge to various organisations, including the multinational companies that are based in countries with different religions, beliefs, values or languages. In this regard, it is more useful for the businesses to consider all the differences while sending internal messages and in marketing to avoid bias or loss of customers. Additionally, gender barriers have been among the communication barrier that affects the companies considering that men are different form women in solving differences and finding solutions to challenges. Sainsbury’s as one of the multinational corporations has come up with communication that will put into account all the stakeholders’ differences.

Works Cited

Dudovskiy, John. Sainsbury’s Communication Strategy. 15 July 2012. <https://research-methodology.net/sainsburys-communication-strategy/>.

Huczynski, A A and D A Buchanan. Organisational Behaviour. 9. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2017.

Mullins, L J. Management & Organisational Behaviour. Harlow: Pearson Education, 2016.

Usha, Rani Kumbakonam. “Communication Barriers.” Journal of English Language and Literature 3.2 (2016): 74-76.

Wilson, F. Organizational Behaviour and Work. 4. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.