In order to solve and over come the barrier, difficulties, or problems of cross-cultural communication in Thai organizations in Taiwan, the researcher will identify the solutions to those cross-cultural communication, which provided by both Thai expatriate managers and Taiwanese employees. The lists are being shown in table 4.4.
Table 4.4. The solutions to overcome the cross-cultural communication difficulties or problems in Thai organizations in Taiwan
Research Topic Category Code Key Concept
4. The solutions 1. Thai 4-1-1 Use clear words, which easy for both to overcome Government parties to fully understand
those cross representative 4-1-2 Create the feeling of being cozy and Cultural organizations easiness in the workplace
communication difficulties or problems
4-1-3 4-1-4
4-1-5 4-1-6
4-1-7
4-1-8
4-1-9
Lower the feeling of overcautious Cut those necessary procedures off if possible, be easy and effective
Lower the layers of hierarchy concept Set the atmosphere not to be too formal
Always create more two-ways communication
Be open-minded to one another, with the sense of respects.
Balance with direct conversation (get to the point with being not hurtful)
2. The private and privatized multinational organizations
4-2-1
4-2-2
4-2-3 4-2-4
Use clear words, which easy for both parties to understand
Always create more two-ways communication
Be free with those opinions, thoughts Encourage employees to be more creative
4-2-5 Balance with the direct conversation (get to the point with being not hurtful)
From the perspective of the people who work in Thai Government representative organizations; to begin with, it is strongly suggested from both parties that words are being used in workplace must be clear and easy to be understood by both senders and receivers. Basically, an effective communication is process that receivers are able to clearly understand of what senders wish for (Adler & Elmhorst, 2002; Beamer & Varner, 2001; Goman, 2006; Hunt, 1980; Robbins & Judge, 2007).
In addition, due to those formal procedures, Taiwanese employees wish to see the workplace to be more cozy, since it can create such a feeling of easiness and comfortable to everyone staff in the workplace. Therefore, they mentioned that Thai managers should lower the feeling of overcautious, cut down unnecessary procedures if possible, and try to be easy and effective while working as well as try to set the working atmosphere not to be too formal. Practically, what researcher found in the book written by Schuler and Jackson (2006), they mentioned that in some organizations such as Yahoo, the cofounder and chief of company reviewed that their employees are working with them with the attitude of working hard and playing hard. Truly and undeniably, with the great surrounding and nice atmosphere, employees will be happily satisfied (Robbins & Judge, 2007).
Not only those wishes from Taiwanese employees, they; also, would love to see Thai expatriate to lower the layers of hierarchy in the workplace. They believe that, according
to the drawback of this hierarchy concept, employees will not be able to work effectively since everything have to be waited and done after the permission of Thai managers.
For the next solutions that both parties do have in common, they note that creating the two ways communication in the workplace is strongly recommended. Consequently, the two way communication has lead to the concept of being open-minded to one another.
This researcher finding indicates that since both nations are Asian and are concerned with
“face”(Lien “
”and Mien-Zi “”), then be open-minded with sense of respects is suggested.
Lastly, it is necessary to consider how to balance polite conversation with direct communication. Both Thai expatriate managers and Taiwanese employees heavily emphasized that conversation should be reached to the point with being not hurtful to one another.
In the category of “private/ privatized multinational organizations”, interviewees provided the same idea as those who work in Government sector, which is about the clear words that both sides can fully understand.
In this aspect, one of Thai expatriate managers who speak Chinese with his employees, told the researcher that sometime he had to state the time carefully whether in the afternoon or morning, since some Chinese words are very difficult to pronounce clearly by the Thais and it can be the cause of misunderstanding; for example, “Shi (
10 ) and Si (4)” in the sentence of 10 AM in the morning (
) and 4 PM in the afternoon (
). He told the researcher that he has to put “in the morning” and “in the afternoon” into the sentences so that there would not be any misunderstanding between him as a sender and his employees as receivers.
Both parties suggested that not only the clear words in any conversation, but also the two ways communication is needed. Rather than having just a top-down communication, two ways communication create a better situation in the workplace; especially, Thai expatriate managers, do wish to communicate with their employees freely without any so called “Kreang Jai” (เ ก ร ง ใจ); “Kreang Jai” (เ ก ร ง ใจ) means one has to be careful with what he says and what he does so that he will not in anyway offend, upset, or displease others. Thus, it is mentioned that employees are free to state their opinions and thoughts.
Moreover, Thai expatriate managers claimed that they strongly wish to support Taiwanese to be more creative and think out of the box. Many managers and researcher questioned how individual and organizations can stimulate employees’ creativity.
Robbins and Judge (2007) provided three components to support employee to become more creative, which are expertise, creative-thinking skills, and intrinsic task motivation.
For “expertise”, it is such a fundamental basis for all creative work. The ability for creativity is improved when individuals have knowledge, ability and similar expertise in their field of attempt. Second; “creative thinking skills”, it complies of personality characteristics together with creativity and the talent to see something in different perspective. The last one is the intrinsic task motivation. If the task does not have anything interesting to engage the interest of us, we would not feel attached to do so.
Again, to this aspect, it is important for employees to practice themselves to be more creative not only in the workplace but everywhere.
Last but not lest, as it was mentioned in the Government organizations that it is necessary to consider to balance polite way of having conversation with direct communication; in the same fashion, working in private/privatized do require the same.
We all have the way of speaking, talking. I’m certain that Taiwanese cultural background and our culture; Thai, politeness and respectfulness is not the concept used not only with bosses, but everyone in daily life. (Thai manager: 8)
Truly speaking, based on an informal interview with Thai expatriate managers and Taiwanese employees, working with Asian; especially with the Thais and Taiwanese, it is strongly recommended to be polite and respectful.