解決溝通與文化上的缺陷 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學. 企業管理研究所(MBA 學位學程) 碩士學位論文. 立. 政治大. between cultures within. n. al. y er. io. sit. Nat. an organization. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Filling the communication gaps. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 指導教授: 林月雲博士研究生: 施智明. 中華民國一○四年七月 0.

(2) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v.

(3) Table of content. Table of content ................................................................................................................... 1 Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................... 2 Abstract ................................................................................................................................ 3 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 4 Literature review.................................................................................................................. 5 Communication gaps and problems existing ..................................................................... 10. 政治大 Communication conflicts, types, signs, causes and effect ..................................... 13 立 Definition ................................................................................................................ 10. Culture difference ................................................................................................... 19. ‧ 國. 學. Hofstede’s five dimension score............................................................................. 20 Methodology & Procedure ................................................................................................ 21. ‧. Findings & Discussion....................................................................................................... 22. sit. y. Nat. Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 46 Conflict management.............................................................................................. 47. io. a. er. Role of internal communication and employee development ................................ 52. n. iv Management strategy forl change ........................................................................... 55. n U i e Strategic employee communicationntog facilitate c h major change ............................. 61. Ch. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 70 Research limitation and future direction ................................................................ 71 Reference ........................................................................................................................... 72 Chinese reference .............................................................................................................. 74 Appendix A (Interview questions) .................................................................................... 75 Appendix B (Interview responses) ................................................................................... 78. 1.

(4) Acknowledgement First, I am grateful to the God for the health and wellbeing that were necessary for me to complete this work, then I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Lin for the continuous support of my related research, for her patience, motivation, and immense knowledge. Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor. Besides my advisor, I would also like to thank the thesis committee: Prof. Han and Prof. Chen, for their insightful comments and encouragement, also the suggestions which incented me to widen my research from various perspectives.. 政治大 regardless, and all the classmates who have helped me throughout through the ups and 立 the downs.. I would also like to thank my parents who always support me in all my decisions. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 2.

(5) Abstract The aim of this thesis is to investigate and identify the present communication gaps between cultures within an organization. For these couple decades, there has been numerous international joint ventures happening in China by the Taiwanese firms in order to reduce cost and to reach both economies of scale and economies of scope. In doing so the international joint venture firm has to hire and employee the local Chinese people where the culture is much different than Taiwanese people.. This thesis studies and examines the possible communication issues and problems. 政治大 conducted in this thesis, composed of 5 Taiwanese managers and 3 Chinese managers 立 inside the organization. The interview consists of 19 questions which were divided into that could arise due to differences in culture. The qualitative method of interview was. ‧ 國. 學. three categories as follows: Communication, differences between ethnicity, and leadership and change. The responses were carefully examined and compared to see. ‧. whether the difference in culture created some communication issues in the organization.. y. Nat. io. sit. The results from the interviewees and through chart comparison it was clear to. er. conclude that there indeed have been communication issues and problems between the. n. a lculture at the workplace. Thei vthesis provides four types of Taiwanese culture and Chinese C. n. h e n g c hinternal recommendation, including conflict management, i U communication and employee development, management communication strategy for change and strategic employee communication to facilitate major change. This thesis hopes to offer and improve a. successful communication change between the different cultures within the organization.. Keywords : Communication conflict, Culture difference, Individualism, Employee development. 3.

(6) Introduction In the recent decades, many Taiwanese firms have migrated to China in order to exploit the low cost to reach both economies of scale and scope, in doing so, many local Chinese employees and managers have to be hired for the organization to grow and settle. In this case, Taiwanese managers and Chinese managers were put to work together, yet cultural differentiation was underestimated. Communication issues and problems were created and became detrimental in reaching better efficiency and productivity.. The aim of this thesis is to find out the communication gaps and issues between. 政治大 Taiwan. Although Taiwan and China are similar in some way, yet totally different, in the 立 thesis, studies are done to carefully examine the differences and the communication cultures (Taiwanese vs Chinese) in an international joint venture firm in China from. ‧ 國. 學. difficulties that Taiwanese managers and Chinese managers are facing in the organization to examine the research questions of. ‧. 1. What are the main causes of internal communication gaps in international. y. Nat. joint ventures?. n. al. er. io. managers?. sit. 2. What style of leadership is preferred between Taiwanese and Chinese. Ch. i n U. v. In the study, a manufacturing firm i target group, qualitative e was n gthec hprimary method of interview was conducted with 8 staffs of managerial position or similar; consist of 5 Taiwanese managers and 3 Chinese managers, and they were asked 19 questions regarding to communication, differences in ethnicity, and leadership to focus the differences between the Chinese subcultures of Taiwanese vs Chinese followed by careful analysis and comparison of the responses.. The study hopes to solve the issues and problems of communication between the cultures through the use of the communication strategy, employee development, internal communication style, and conflict management. 4.

(7) Literature review. Miscommunication are most likely to happen when individuals within an organization are different in culture, the expression and demonstration of thoughts, ideas, attitudes and behaviors are different in ways. With the high-context culture of Chinese, communication is characterized with indirect speech allusions and indirect emotional expressions and reactions (Swierczek, 1994).. People do not communicate the same way because factors such as context,. 政治大 internalized that influence our choice. Communication is interactive, so an important 立 influence on its effectiveness is the relationship with others (LeBaron, 2003). individual personality, interact with the variety of cultural influences people have. ‧ 國. 學. Cultural distance can lead to (Hieu, 2013) communication problems, may hamper. ‧. knowledge exchange and organizational learning. Managerial conflicts due to. y. Nat. misunderstanding may result in further costs and deteriorate certain partner’s. er. io. sit. competencies, thus decrease the overall benefit of the firms (Chen & Boggs, 1998).. n. a l dimension, it includes the In Hofstede’s (1994) cultural i v dimensions power distance C. n. h e ningthe (the extend that the less powerful members i Uaccepts the fact that power is c hsociety. distributed unequally), individualism (the degree to which the individual is integrated into groups), uncertainty avoidance (the society’s tolerance of uncertainty and ambiguity), masculinity (the distribution of genders) and long-term orientation (describes the time horizon). For the purpose of this thesis we will only focus on the factor of individualism versus collectivism to examine whether there is a substantial difference between the Taiwanese and Chinese in working with groups.. According to Hofstede (1994), “individualism” is the degree to which people in a country prefer to act as individuals rather than as members of groups. The opposite of 5.

(8) individualism is “collectivism”. In collectivist societies, an individual learns to respect the group to which it belongs, usually the family, and to differentiate between in-group members and out-group members. (Edward Wong, 2001). Ever since the separation of the PRC and ROC has been established, although the two countries share similar histories in some ways, but under different ways of learning, the values, norms and perspective ought to yield different cultures between the two. According to Schein (1992) has stated that the analysis based on culture has three different levels, namely artifacts, espoused values and basic assumption. Where artifacts. 政治大 goals, philosophies, the subconscious part of human regarding to the values and beliefs, 立 yet basic assumption is hidden under the conscious, has also been seen as the source of. means the physical environments, language usage, where espoused values focuses on the. ‧ 國. 學. the value, beliefs and the culture.. ‧. Chinese-majority society has been found with the characteristics of collectivism. y. Nat. (Hofstede, 1984). Leung and Bond (1984) also found that the concern of collective. io. sit. Chinese subjects was more oriented toward enhancing in-group harmony. Besides, group. er. orientation is considered as a key feature of Chinese culture, and is common to the PRC,. n. a l Chinese (Lockett, 1988). (Edward Hong Kong, Taiwan and overseas Wong, 2001) iv Ch. n engchi U. According to Yeh (1988), Hofstede’s analysis about Chinese and Japanese was inadequate because of the different value of scale, such that Chinese shows loyalty to their family but not non-family organization but the Japanese have no issues shifting their loyalty from family to work. Yeh (1988) also concluded that Chinese are rather individualist at work rather than collectivist, which is a contrary to Hofstede’s findings.. Growing spirit of Chinese-style individualism has been observed by Ralston(1995) over the past two and half years, western ways of thinking have been adopted by the young Chinese managers, therefore it is reasonable to challenge the collectivism of China 6.

(9) today.. Environment has been defined by Duncan (1972) as the “totality of physical and social factors that are taken into account in the decision-making behaviors of individuals in the system”; the environment then is broken down into internal and external. Internal environment is described as the employee component within the organization level, yet external environment is described as the external forces such as suppliers, customers and competitors.. 政治大 within an organization, values and cultures are emphasized, such as the beliefs, rituals, 立 myths, norms etc (Goldhaber, 1990). As the external environment not only concerns with Since internal environment mainly concerns with the personnel and the staff. ‧ 國. 學. the entire possible factor the organization could be in contact with and also the factors without contact, such the politics, community, government, economics and much more.. ‧ y. Nat. Communication conflict is a process of social interaction and social situation,. io. sit. where interests and activities of participants apparently confront, block and disable the. er. realization of one party’s objects (Jambrek and Penic, 2008), which in return these. n. a l problems throughout thei vorganization. conflicts will cause communication Ch. n engchi U. Conflict cases can be separated into personal and organizational according to Petkovic (2008). Both personal and organization level conflicts will be address in this study, but the focus will be on the personal level compared to organizational level conflicts. Factors of personal level conflicts are categorized into four groups, namely bad estimation, errors in communication, distrust, and personal characteristics (Petkovic, 2008). Bad estimation of a person basically describes the unexpected behaviors from both sides which leads to conflicts. Errors in communication referred to the inability to understand the given information, regardless of upward, downward or horizontal 7.

(10) communication. Distrust among people in the organization will lead to suspicions between sides that will create potential conflict, as trust is based on integrity, competence, consistency, loyalty and openness. Personal characteristics arise when personal traits are extremely different for individuals working together.. According to Hener (2010), there are four types of conflicts, described as follows. Vertical conflict arises because superiors consistently order subordinate on what and how to do his/her assigned tasks instead of allowing the subordinates to work freely. Horizontal conflict occurs between subordinates under the same department, such as. 政治大 supporting staff and line employees within a department or organization. Role conflict 立 arises from incomplete understanding of assigned tasks. Conflicts do not just occur at a. having different ideas for the same case/project. Line staff conflict happens between. ‧ 國. 學. point in time; instead it is a dynamic process that slowly builds up.. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 8.

(11) Communication gaps and problems existing Definition: Communication by definition has three basic perceptions (Goldhaber, 1990). 1. Organization communication occurs within a complex open environment that is influenced by and also influences the environment it operates in, both internal and external 2. Organization communication flow consists of basic components of message, purpose, direct and media 3. Organization communication messages are received and passed through people. 政治大. and their attitudes, relationship, status, feelings and skills. 立. A simple process (emphasize on the process because this flow is an ongoing and. ‧ 國. 學. continuous) of the flow of the information flow is as follows described in the paradigm. y. ‧. Nat. io. sit. Environment. n. al. er. (Goldhaber, 1990). Ch. i n U. Organization/culture. engchi. People. v. Message. Organization/culture. Environment. Paradigm of organization communication (Goldhaber, 1990). 9.

(12) The process is an ongoing, endless cycle. Commencing from the people, known as the employees of the organization, collects data on the environment that it operates in, in order to receive useful information, as known as the message, then the people pass this message both upward and downward (in hierarchical terms) and so forth into the organization/culture, which will directly influence the environment simultaneously. Once the environment varies or changes, the employees will again collect the relevant data, therefore known as the continuous ongoing process cycle.. 政治大 social factors that are taken into account in the decision-making behaviors of individuals 立 in the system”; the environment then is broken down into internal and external. Internal Environment has been defined by Duncan (1972) as the “totality of physical and. ‧ 國. 學. environment is described as the employee component within the organization level, yet external environment is described as the external forces such as suppliers, customers and. ‧. competitors. Since internal environment mainly concerns with the personnel and the staff. y. Nat. within an organization, values and cultures are emphasized, such as the beliefs, rituals,. io. sit. myths, norms etc. (Goldhaber, 1990). As the external environment not only concerns with. er. the entire possible factor the organization could be in contact with and also the factors. n. a l community, government, economics without contact, such the politics, and much more. iv Ch. n engchi U. 10.

(13) Upward communication Downward communication. Top manager. Middle managers. First-line managers. 政治大. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Horizontal communication. Types of organizational communication (Spaho, 2013). ‧. y. Nat. Communication network is the combination of the pattern of communication within. sit. an organization (Goldhaber, 1990 ), including both upward and downward. er. io. communication and horizontal communication. The direction of the communication will. n. a l role in the organization. The directly depend on the employee’s i v most often seen flow of C. n. h ine the managerial communication is downward, as a role i Uor superior position pass down ngch. any information characterized by directional, orders, goals or discipline down to the subordinates. Or it could also be upward flow of information most commonly seen characterized by proposals and feedbacks from the subordinate to the managerial or superior positions. Last but not least, horizontal communication is the lateral exchange of messages among people on the same hierarchical level, yet the messages are most commonly related to problem solving, coordination, conflict resolution, and rumors. (Goldhaber, 1990). 11.

(14) Close channels. Distant channels. Direct. . Immediate superior. . Briefings. communication. . Other superiors. . Cooperation. . Department meetings. . Committees. . Colleagues. . Meetings and negotiations. . Transmitted. . communication. . 政治大 Department’s letters  立 Personnel magazine . Department’s bulletin board. . Web communication.  . departments Customer magazine CEO’s review Annual report. 學. ‧ 國. . Colleagues in other. Video news Mass media. ‧. io. sit. y. Nat. Channels for internal communication (Aberg, 2000). a. er. Channels for communication are the ways to communicate within an organization. n. between the superiors and the subordinates. It is typically divided i v into two types as l follows:. Ch. n engchi U. Close channels are referred to within one’s department, meaning there are restraints and limitations for other departments to receive the particular information. Whereas distant channels distributes the message to the entire working community, rather than a specific group of individuals, also known as the mass communication most of the time (Aberg, 2000). Communication is extremely significant between the managers and employees especially when the organizational hierarchical levels are geographical and multiple levels. Managements and employees should arrange regular informal meets and chats in order to learn and improve.. 12.

(15) Communication conflict, types, signs, causes and effects Communication conflict is a process of social interaction and social situation, where interests and activities of participants actually, or apparently, confront, block and disable the realization of one party’s objects (Jambrek and Penic, 2008), which in return these conflicts will cause communication problems throughout the organization over time. According to (Hener, 2010), analysis of the four types of conflicts is described as follows:. 1.. Vertical conflict arises because superiors consistently order subordinate on what and. 2.. 政治大 Horizontal conflict occurs between subordinates under the same department, such as 立 having different ideas for the same case/project. 3.. Line staff conflict happens between supporting staff and line employees within a. how to do his/her assigned tasks instead of allowing the subordinates to work freely. ‧ 國. 學. department or organization. ‧. 4.. Role conflict arises from incomplete understanding of assigned tasks. y. Nat. Conflicts do not just occur at a point in time; instead it is a dynamic process that slowly. n. al. Latent conflict. Perceived conflict. er. io. sit. builds up. The following is Pondy’s (1967) model of conflict approach:. iv n Manifested C hTangible conflict e n g c h i Uconflict. Consequence Unsolved conflict. Conflict solution. Conflict process according to Pondy’s model (Bozac, 2008). 13.

(16) . Latent conflict is described as when the conflict is still hidden, usually the main causes are difference in goals, and fighting for scarce resources. . Perceived conflict is the stage where the conflict has been noticed and aware, yet no action has been taken yet. . Tangible conflict is when both parties realize the existence of the conflict and are anxious or uneasy about it. . Manifested conflict is the stage where low spirits and enthusiasm is lower. . Consequence stage is the obvious results of the conflict. If the conflicts have not been solved, then the unsolved conflict will return back to the latent stage. 政治大 Conflict cases can be separated into personal and organizational according to 立 Petkovic (2008). Both personal and organization level conflicts will be addressed, but the. ‧ 國. 學. focus of this research will be more on the personal level compared to organizational level conflicts.. ‧. Factors of personal level conflicts are categorized into four groups as follows (Petkovic,. y. Bad estimation of a person basically describe the unexpected behaviors from both. io. sit. . Nat. 2008):. er. sides which leads to conflicts. Errors in communicationareferred to the inability to understand i v the given l. . Distrust among people in the organization will lead to suspicions between sides that. n. . C. n. U h edownward information, regardless of upward, communication n g c hori horizontal will create potential conflict. As trust is based on integrity, competence, consistency, loyalty and openness.. . Personal characteristics arises when personal traits are extremely different for individuals working together. Organizational conflicts occur mainly due to the organization design, system and resources, as the factors of organizational level conflicts generally are (Petkovic, 2008): . Dependence in work activities 14.

(17) . Differentiation of organizational unit and on compatibility of operating goal. . Sharing limited resources. . Compensation system. . Organizational indistinctness and neglect. Signs/Types/Symptom/Effects Signs that could be an indicators of future potential communication problems within an organization (Ford,2009): 1.. Difficult to incorporate people to cooperate. 4.. 政治大 Replies to messages are delayed or ignored 立 Mistakes are happening more often. 5.. Morale of organization is lowering. 6.. Productivity is diminishing. 7.. More complaints. 8.. Significant employee turnover. 9.. Lateness of employees. 學 ‧. io. er. n. al 11. Lack of teamwork. y. Nat. 10. Poor work quality. sit. 3.. Some employees are left out of communication loop. ‧ 國. 2.. Ch. 12. Hearing more criticism and e nblames gchi. i n U. v. When signs are showing more regularly and have been noticeable, possible communication problems will emerge if the overall performance does not improve over time.. Communication problems in organization will arise when conflict arises, and possible signs are observed, the most occurred and occurring communication problems are listed hereunder:. 15.

(18) Types of communication Descriptions: problems: . Not all employees. When general information are send to all the. are kept informed. employees via certain means of communication such as emails or letter that are not read by workers. . Employees are not. Confusions are created through different managers. receiving consistent sending different priority emails, also when and timely. significant messages are not received at the right. 政治大立making process and slows it down. messages. The right. Top management does not engage the right. 學. ‧ 國. . time and the right place could harm the decision. information is not. employees to the critical information. being sent to the. ‧. right people. Expectations are. Managers have different expectations on specific. not clear. goals and performance which leads to unclear. sit. bench mark. a lEmployees do not trust eachi other, v therefore not n Ch i U sharinge thencrucial g c hinformation. n Employees are not open with each. er. io. . y. Nat. . other . Communication. Departments that are distant by geographic. become unclear. location tends to not communicate with each other. between units. as much, the distant makes face-to-face meeting harder.  . Misinterpretation of People tends to describe things differently than communication. how the original message was stated. Cultural barriers to. Style of communication and is different in how. 16.

(19) effective. employees express themselves. Employees from. communication. different culture could misinterpret what is being stated that leads to misunderstandings. . Language. Miscommunication is easily to occur when. differences. involving people speaking even different dialects or accent. . Lack of. When there are not much available sources of. communication. communication channels such as letter, bulletin. channels. boards or report, information could be easily. 政治大立One-way communication is ineffective and the missed. . Lack of feedback. management level will not learn about obstacles. ‧ 國. 學. . and problems occurring at the front line. New hires. Learned inappropriate ways to communicate due. ‧. to poor training and orientation. io. sit. y. Nat. Common causes and symptoms of communication problems: (Ford, 2009). a. er. The companies are most likely to encounter or is already under communication. n. iv problems when they are observing which will paralyze l the following common symptoms. n U i e and freeze the communication network: n g c h. Ch. . Lack of team work. Unable to collaborate with each other too well. . Poor planning or. Overwhelming, bad time managements and too. workload. much workload in too less time. Insufficient. Problems when employees need assistance to. resources and. finish their tasks properly. . support. 17.

(20) . Lateness. Arriving at meetings late, not being able to meet deadlines and don’t respond to request in time. . Poor work quality. Products and services do not meet the standard quality. . Difficult people. Employees’ personality issues or personal problems affects the workplace ambience Effects of poor communication in business (Ford, 2009). Poor communication in business often have serious consequences throughout time,. 政治大 including the management level employees. The following are few most commonly 立. not only the front line employees are affected, the whole organization will be affected. effects of poor communication in an organization that could lead to:. ‧ 國. 學. Lower efficiency. Poor communication as a whole within an organization will deteriorate the efficiency. ‧. gradually. From the most simple email messages. io. sit. y. Nat. that requires explanations to uniformed presentation or speechless, could all lead to lower efficiency level of work. When specific messages. er. . n. a lare not received in a timely fashion, iv the network n Ch i U e n down chain slows affecting the efficiencies. g c hthus An effective communication with employees. collaborating and working together could improve the efficiency tremendously . Employee morale. When employees are not provided with sufficient proper instructions or directions, questions will arise, could possible result in demoralize of the employees because of confusion and chaos. . Decreased. The skills of employees to innovate is proportional. 18.

(21) innovation. to the communication direction, meaning that when employees have good and unclear communications with each other, innovated ideas would eventually be brought up for improvement. Cultural Differences. Cross culture issue is definitely an important obstacle when it comes to communication. In short, cultural distance can lead to (Hieu, 2013) 1.. 政治大. communication problems may hamper knowledge exchange and organizational. 立. learning. managerial conflicts due to misunderstanding may result in further costs. 3.. deteriorating certain partner’s competencies may decrease the overall benefit of the. ‧ 國. 學. 2.. firm(Chen & Boggs, 1998). ‧ sit. y. Nat. All communication is cultural, it draws on ways people have learn to speak and given nonverbal messages. People do not communicate the same way because factors. io. a. er. such as context, individual personality, interact with the variety of cultural influences. n. people have internalized that influence our choice. Communication i v is interactive, so an l. C. n. h eis nthegrelationship important influence on its effectiveness c h i U with others (LeBaron, 2003). Miscommunication are most likely to happen when individuals within an organization are different in culture, the expression and demonstration of thoughts, ideas, attitudes and behaviors are different in ways. With the high-context culture of Chinese, communication is characterized with indirect speech allusions and indirect emotional expressions and reactions (Swierczek, 1994). Such as when Chinese employees simply says “yes” just to please the orders given, and not actually because they will meet the deadline, unlike when Taiwanese says “yes”, most of the time they mean the works or job will be able to meet the deadline. Given the simple example, communication will easily arise because the Chinese employees and Taiwanese employees will already have a communication gap 19.

(22) regarding to the actually deadline of the project or work., which we will focus the most in this thesis, that will bring us to the next topic of the methodology that will be used for the interview.. Hofstede’s five dimension scores (China vs Taiwan). 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. As the individualism score of China vs Taiwan has reached 20 and 17 respectively, although at the score of 20 obtained by China, it is considered a highly collectivist culture where people act in accordance to the group instead of individuals, however, the Chinese employees tends to prefer working as individuals relative to the Taiwanese employees, meaning that the Taiwanese employees focus on in-group considerations that also manifest in a close long-term commitment to the member group. The sign of strong collectivism by the Taiwanese employees signified the strong relationship and the responsibility of taking care of each member in their group. 20.

(23) Methodology/Procedure Study Design: Qualitative study was conducted for the purpose to understand and elaborate the miscommunication between the employees and their direct managers, who could be either Taiwanese or Chinese manager, also the interactions between the managerial positions with their subordinates. Most of the questions required short answers along with examples that directly related to the past experiences of the managers. The main focus of the interview questions were divided into three categories: . Communications between direct subordinates. . Differences between ethnicity. . Leadership and change. 立. 政治大. The interviews will also provide insights to the manager’s view of leading change. ‧ 國. 學. and leadership style, along with the comparison of the Hofstede’s cultural dimension used as a frame side of reference in valuing the cultural differences.. ‧ y. Nat. Case Company. io. sit. Sunfree Trading Enterprise has been in the manufacturing business for over 30. er. years and has been achieving excellent customer service while exceling perfect product. n. quality and satisfaction at the asame a wide range of iv l time. Sunfree features manufacturing. C. n. h e n gmotorcycle products, such as safety glasses, ski goggles, c h i Ugoggles, basketball glasses,. sports glasses, adults and kids sunglasses. Customization and moulding fabrication are available upon request; professional & experienced technician are in house to fulfill demand any time. Sunfree Enterprise is a scalable ISO certified factory to satisfy customers' audit requirement, like Disney and Wal-Mart. As of the establishment of the Sunfree Trading Enterprise based in Tainan, Taiwan in 1995, the company has quickly expanded the offices and factories to GuangZhou, China in 2005, obtaining more than 200 employees.. 21.

(24) Research subjects The targeted group was a total of 8 managers, composing of 5 Taiwanese managers and 3 Chinese managers that are working in a Taiwan invested international joint ventures in Guangzhou, China. An interview invitation was sent to those employees who were qualified for the qualitative interview, a possible candidate have to qualify the following: . Currently working in China. . Must work in a managerial position and have direct subordinate. . Worked in the company for at least 2 year. 政治大 The interview responses were recorded, collected, and mailed by the human 立 resource assistant. The qualitative research design was meant to keep the sample size. ‧ 國. 學. under 10, with the ratio of half Taiwanese and half Chinese. Unfortunately, the ratio that was both requirements-qualified and willing to conduct the interview was 5 Taiwanese. ‧. manager and 3 Chinese managers.. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. Table 1. sit. Finding & Discussion:. Respondent Demographics Degree. Major. i n U. Ch. v. Nationali Gende e n g cAge h i Position ty. r. Tenur. #. (Manage. e. su. r). (Years. b. ) 1 Bachelo. Econ. rs 2 Bachelo. Male. 52. Sales. 9. 6. 47. Marketin. 12. 4. 3.5. 5. e Comp. rs 3 Bachelo. Taiwanes. Taiwanes Female e. Procure. Chinese. g Female. 36. Project. 22.

(25) rs 4 Associat Mechani e 5 Bachelo. Chinese. Male. 43. Distribute. 7. 6. Chinese. Male. 42. Informati. 6. 4. c MIS. rs 6 Bachelo rs 7 Masters. on Busines. Taiwanes. s. e. Relation. Taiwanes Female e. 8 Masters. Male. MBA. Taiwanes e 立. 34. HR. 3. 3. 29. PR. 2.5. 3. 5. 13. Male 治 35 Productio 政大n. The research subjects of the interview respondent includes 5 Taiwanese managers which. ‧ 國. 學. consist of 3bachelors and 2 masters, positions are sales, marketing, human resource, public relation and production manager respectively. The rest 3 Chinese managers are. ‧. a. er. io. Table 2. sit. Nat. bachelor’s degree and one of them obtain an associate’s degree.. y. project, distribution and information managers respectively, while 2 of them obtain a. Degree. 1 Bachelors. n. v l How satisfied are you with the communication & example* ni Position. Sales. Ch. U. e n gSatisfactio Nationalit chi y. n. Taiwanese. Very. Question 1. Communication network is great, staffs responds to information. 2 Bachelors. Marketing. Taiwanese. Very. Short communication. 23.

(26) passage, management transmit information through most levels simultaneously. 3 Bachelors. Project. Chinese. Neutral. Aren’t too many issues, just regular. Distribute. 立. to do as directed. ‧ 國. 學. 5 Bachelors. 治 Subordinate always 政 Satisfied 大listen and are willing. Chinese. Info. Chinese. Very. ‧. provide enough information. sit. io. HR. y. Nat 6 Bachelors. Management always. Taiwanese. n. al. Very. Ch. engchi. Have good direct. er. 4 Bachelors. iv communicate and n U employees are. willing to listen. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Very. Everyone work as team, share issues and problems to be solved. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Neutral. Not too much. 24.

(27) different than other companies. As we can see that the satisfaction level in communication for the Taiwanese managers are mostly “very satisfied”, while only 1 out of 7 managers gave a “neutral” rating. On the other hand, for the 3 Chinese managers, they have rate the communication “neutral”, “satisfied” and “very satisfied” respectively. From the response from the Chinese managers, it is clear to see that communication has not been a great success to the Chinese manager.. 政治大 organization yet numerous communication gaps and issues are occurring, this issue will 立 *In this table, every manager has answered satisfied with the communication within the. be discussed in the limitation area after the conclusion.. How do you feel about the information you receive & example. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Table 3. Nationality. Question 2. 1. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Very consistent most of the time. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. 3. Bachelors. Project. Chinese. Pretty consistent mostly. 4. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. Accuracy and right to the point. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Always on time and accurate. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Very useful and related to day to. er. io. sit. y. Position. Nat. Degree. n. aTaiwanese Consistent itov departments l C hengchi Un. day activity. 25.

(28) 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Always relevant. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Usually the information is timely and directions are clear. The responses in the information receiving have been very clear cut that the information received is “consistent”, “accurate”, “on time”, “relevant”, and “directional”. 政治大 Are there any barriers to open and efficient communication between departments? 立 Table 4. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. No. Marketing. Taiwanese. Yes, usually different project. Associate. Project. sit. al. n. 4. Bachelors. io. 3. y. Nat. based, not much same interest. Distribute. Chinese. Ch. er. 2. Question 3. ‧. Bachelors. Nationality. 學. 1. Position. ‧ 國. Degree. Not too much communication. engchi U. Chinese. v. between n idepartments. Minimal communication between departments. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Not enough communication channels. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Sometimes, other department isn’t willing to share progress. 26.

(29) 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Yes, there isn’t a convenient communication medium. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. No, usually the head of department talk one on one. Clearly we can see from all respondent regardless of nationality that there is a clear barrier between the departments, issues mainly being there is not too much. 政治大 channel, or simply that departments are not close with each other. 立. communication between departments, no convenient communication medium and. ‧ 國. Position. Nationality. Question 4. 1. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Yes. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. Taiwanese. er. 學. Degree. Table 5. Do you understand how your role contributes to achieving business outcomes?. y. sit. n. Project. ‧. io. Bachelors. Nat. 3. al. Ch. Yes. i n U. v. h ito guide and supervise Chinesee n g cYes, employees. 4. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. Yes. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Yes. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Yes. 27.

(30) 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Yes. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Yes , my role directly link to the business outcome. The responses for this specific question are very coherent, that every manager understands how their role is contributed to the business outcome.. Table 6. 政治大 Nationality Question 5 立. Degree. Position. Bachelors. Sales. 2. Bachelors. ‧ 國. Are you kept well informed about company’s plans and progress? If not, please indicate. Marketing. 3. Bachelors. Project. 4. Associate. Distribute. 5. Bachelors. Info. Taiwanese. Plan yes, progress not so much.. 學. Do not receive lots of feedback. Chinese. Yes. io. sit. y. Yes. ‧. Nat. Taiwanese. er. 1. n. a l Chinese Yes, but it takes i v time to see the n Ch i Uprogress period is long e n gresult, c h the Chinese. Sometimes, once I heard the new plan from other managers. I was not informed by the management. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Yes, meeting are often held for discussion and the progress. 28.

(31) 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Yes. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Plans no, progress yes. Plan is uncertain sometimes. 3 out of 8 managers are not kept well informed about company’s plans and progress. For the sales manager was not kept informed about the progress and does not receive feedbacks as planned. The information manager heard the new plan from some other manager and was not informed by the management.. 立. Table 7. 政治大. Is there good communication in your group? Nationality. Question 6. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Yes. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. Taiwanese. Yes, by having small meeting and communicate. er. io. sit. Nat. y. ‧. Position. 1. ‧ 國. 學. Degree. n. a l Chinese v iYes n Ch engchi U. 3. Bachelors. Project. 4. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. Yes. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Only when the deadline is close. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Yes. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. In my team, yes. 29.

(32) 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Most of the time, but sometimes difficult with the counterparts. The responses for having a good communication in the group is very consistent except for the production manager observed that communication is sometimes difficult with the counterparts. For the information manager and public relation manager, the good communication happens conditionally, information manager stated that there is only good communication when the deadline is close, and the public relation manager stated that there is only good communication within her team.. 立. Table 8. 政治大. 學. Degree. Position. Nationality. Question 7. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Yes, precise and accurate along. ‧. with direction. y. Nat. Bachelors. Marketing. 3. Bachelors. Project. 4. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. Yes. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Yes. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Yes, though sometimes not very. io. 2. Yes. er. Taiwanese. sit. 1. ‧ 國. Is most of the information you receive on a daily basis detailed and accurate?. n. a l Chinese Usually receivei vemail first thing, if n Ch U i e n g cnot h there is a bulletin board. timely. 30.

(33) 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Yes. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Yes, instructional and selfexplanatory. The information that the managers receive on a daily bases has been very consistent with every manager regardless of nationality. There has been no information asymmetry or biased information throughout the departments.. 政治大 How do you most effectively communicate with your employees? 立 Table 9. Position. Question 8. Sales. Taiwanese. Face to face. Taiwanese. Face to face. Chinese. Face to face. 學. Nationality. ‧ 國. Degree. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. 3. Bachelors. Project. 4. Associate. Distribute. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Face to face. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Face to face. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Face to face. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Face to face. er. io. sit. y. ‧. Bachelors. Nat. 1. n. a l Chinese i vto face Face n Ch engchi U. 31.

(34) All the managers found the most effective communication between the employees is face to face instead of using skype, email or telephone.. Table 10 What are some challenges in management change or communication in an International Joint Venture?. 1. Degree. Position. Nationality. Question 9. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Lack of enthusiasm sometimes, do tasks minimally. 2. Bachelors. 政治大 Marketing Taiwanese Sometimes hard to manage new 立 hired employees. Project. Chinese. Different values and language tones. 4. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. Attitudes and objective sometimes not very clear. er. io. sit. Nat. a l Chinese i v unfamiliar Cultural differences, n Ch engchi U. n. 5. Bachelors. Info. 6. Bachelors. HR. y. ‧. Bachelors. ‧ 國. 學. 3. Taiwanese. Culture difference, style of work, and presenting styles. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Managers held different views. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Culture difference, language spoke, body language, norms and values. In the question asked if there has been any challenge or problems in communication in an 32.

(35) international joint venture, all the managers are experiencing some sort of communication problems regardless of the nationality. The main reasons being “culture difference”, followed by managers not having the same views are different norms and values throughout the organization.. Table 11 Have you find miscommunication due to cultural difference from different ethnic? Please describe Nationality. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Project. Chinese. Language difference. Chinese. Always, not being able to. y. Associate. expectations. Distribute. io. al. understand clear directions. n. 5. Bachelors. Info. 6. Bachelors. HR. ‧. 4. Yes, different understanding and. 學. Bachelors. Taiwanese. Nat. 3. Marketing. 治 barrier as the main issue 政 Language 大. sit. Bachelors. 立. Question 10. er. 2. Position. ‧ 國. 1. Degree. Ch. i n U. v. Chinesee n g c Yes, h idifferent values and value. Taiwanese. Yes, different understanding on the same agreements. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Not too much in particular. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Yes, always somehow the work done usually not up to the standard. 33.

(36) In the question of finding miscommunication due to cultural difference from counterpart, every manager except the public relation manager find miscommunication issues between the counterpart, mainly due to the “language difference” and the work done or style being different. The possible explanation that the public relation manager has not find communication issues between the counterpart might be of her tenure in the company being only 2.5 years, the shortest duration out of all the interviewed managers, meaning that she possibly have not encountered with too many counterparts and inexperienced in dealing with them.. 立. Table 12. 政治大. Do you find any difference in dealing with issues between your counterparts? Nationality. Question 11. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Not very often. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. Taiwanese. Mainly not being able to be punctual. er. io. sit. Nat. a l Chinese Nothing major,i vemployees always Ch U n what to do e n g c h i know. n. 3. Bachelors. Project. 4. Associate. Distribute. y. ‧. Position. 1. ‧ 國. 學. Degree. Chinese. Yes, finish assigned tasks on their own and in different ways. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Different values, stubborn and will not take short cut. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Yes, they always say yes and ok to. 34.

(37) request even when they don’t fully understand the job tasks and requirements. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Yes, time management is poor managed. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Yes, different ways in dealing with matters, more individually based. 政治大 When the interview respondents were asked if there has been issue dealing with 立. counterpart, 6 out of 8 managers agreed there has been some sort of issues or problems.. ‧ 國. 學. While one of the Chinese manager finds no issue dealing with counterpart reason being “nothing major, employees always know what to do”.. ‧ sit. y. Nat. Table 13. Are there any oral communication issues between your counterparts?. io. Position. Nationality. Question 12. 1. Bachelors. Sales. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. Taiwanese. No. 3. Bachelors. Project. Chinese. Misinterpretation of messages at. er. Degree. n. aTaiwanese i v always ask to Speaks too fast, l C n h e n g c h i U repeat. the most. 4. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. Yes, therefore demonstration of the process would take place. 35.

(38) 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Not really. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Usually says yes and ok, but do not finish by the deadline. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Not much. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Yes, but always solve it with. 立. direct commands or orders 政治大. In the question of whether there has been oral communication issue, 5 out of 8 managers. ‧ 國. 學. agreed there has been oral communication issue, such as speaking too fast, misinterpretation of the message. While other 3 managers that do not observe oral. ‧. communication issue are marketing, information and public relation managers.. io. sit. y. Nat. Table 14. er. What would be the preferred way in communicating with your counterparts?. n. aNationality i v 13 l C Question n h e n g c h i UFace to face Taiwanese. Degree. Position. 1. Bachelors. Sales. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. Taiwanese. Face to face. 3. Bachelors. Project. Chinese. Face to face is good, preferably writing to keep record. 4. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. Face to face is preferred, but showing and demonstrating is also. 36.

(39) helpful. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Face to face. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Face to face along with orders. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Face to face, sometimes using skype to reconfirm. 8. Masters. Production. face, followed by 政治Face to大 bookkeeping. Taiwanese. 立. ‧ 國. 學. The most preferred way in communication with the counterpart is face to face, with some sort of help of record keeping and work demonstration, for clarification and. ‧. reconfirmation purposes.. What differentiate you from your counterparts?. aNationality i v 14 l C Question n h e n g cDifferent h i U opinion, different Taiwanese. n. 1. Degree. Position. Bachelors. Sales. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Table 15. standpoint and different reasons and logic. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. Taiwanese. Do not understand the long-term goal, see short-term as it is. 3. Bachelors. Project. Chinese. Sometimes the feedback or message are delayed. 37.

(40) 4. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. Always looked confused as if no directions were given. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Very efficient, tough, and like to do thing in teams. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Sometimes coercion have to be applied for them to get started. 7. Masters. 政治大立Taiwanese Willingness to learn, though short. PR. vision. ‧ 國. Masters. 學. 8. Production. Taiwanese. Always have great confidence, and. ‧. does not ask for help when unclear. sit. y. Nat. io. er. There has been a great difference between the ethnicity of Taiwanese and Chinese in the workplace. From most of the Taiwanese managers perspective is that their counterparts. a. n. v l and logic. The responses have different standpoint, reasoning n i also suggested that the Ch. U. e nterm Chinese managers do not see goals in long g cbuth ini short term, along with some. coercive forces to be applied to initiate work. On the other hand, for Chinese managers, the responses of what differentiate them from Taiwanese managers are not core value related, such as “feedback being delayed”, and “very efficient, tough, and like to do tasks in teams”.. 38.

(41) Table 16 What is your attitude towards change?. 1. Degree. Position. Nationality. Question 15. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Depends on the circumstances, if needed then it’s a must. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. Taiwanese. Necessary if need, yield more opportunity in the market. Project. 政治Depends大on the situation. Chinese. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. Indifferent. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. Observation, optimistic. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Organization always need to. 學. 4. 立. sit. io. aTaiwanese iv l C Enthusiastic n hengchi U. n. 7. Masters. PR. 8. Masters. Production. y. ‧. Nat. transform to adapt to the market. er. Bachelors. ‧ 國. 3. Taiwanese. Positive attitude. In the question asked for the attitude towards change, none of the mangers are against the idea of change, but the degree of enthusiasm of the responses varies. Such as the Chinese managers responded “depends on the situation”, “indifferent” and “observation, optimistic”, though the responses does not oppose the idea of change, but the degree of participation seems minimal, however, the responses from Taiwanese manager are very enthusiastic, with responses such as “necessary if need, yield more opportunity in the market”, “organization always need to transform to adapt to the market”, “enthusiastic”, 39.

(42) “positive attitude”.. Table 17 How do you define the effectiveness of a leader?. 1. Degree. Position. Nationality. Question 16. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Have achieved greatness and able to manage. Marketing. Taiwanese. Project. Chinese. time, competence. ‧. Associate. Distribute. 5. Bachelors. Info. Nat. 4. io. Chinese. Ethic, knowledge, expertise. al. Chinese. Good judgement and utilize. n. 6. Bachelors. Knowing what to do at the right. sit. Bachelors. planning skills and enforce it 政治大 accordingly. 學. 3. ‧ 國. 立. Being able to have strategic. HR. y. Bachelors. Ch. er. 2. i v well sources. n engchi U. Taiwanese. Have visions, plans, implementations, progress, and succeed. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Incorporate the useful resource to reach optimal level. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Timely, punctual and leading. 40.

(43) When asked for the definition of a leader, the responses are not consistent because everyone’s definition of the effective of a leader is different, ranging from “being able to have strategic planning skills and enforce it accordingly”, “ethical, knowledge, expertise” to “have visions, plans, implementations, progress, and succeed”. Being timely, punctual and leading is also listed as one of the effectiveness of a leader by one of the managers.. Table 18 Please rate the following from 1 to 5 as the most important factor that will lead to successful change Nationalit y. 4 Distribute. 5. 2. 2. Taiwanese. 4. 3. 2. Chinese. 5. 4. 4. Chinese. 5. 4. 2. 4. 2. er. io. 5. Info. Chinese. 6. HR. Taiwanese. 7. PR. Taiwanese. 5. Taiwanese. 5. n. 8 Productio. al. Ch. 5. 5. e n5g c h i 3. 1. 5 5. y. Project. Taiwanese. e. Nat. 3. n. ‧. 2 Marketing. acceptanc. ‧ 國. Sales. acceptance. communicatio. 學. 1. ship. 5. sit. Position. 政治大 Leader Organization Individual 立. i5v n U. 2 3 5. 5. 5. 3. 4. n When the respondents were asked the rate the four elements out of 5, all the Taiwanese manager believed that both the leadership and communication are extremely important with the average rating of 4.8/5 for both element. While the Chinese manager’s rating of communication only averaged 3.33/5, yet having a rating of leadership averaged 4.67/5. Therefore, for the Chinese employees they believe the leadership skill is extremely important, but the communication is not as important.. 41.

(44) With the lowest rating being the individual’s acceptance to change averaged 3/5 followed by the organization’s acceptance to change with the average of 3.5/5. The rating from the highest to lowest is as follows: Leadership, Communication, Organization’s acceptance to change, Individual’s acceptance to change.. Table 19 What is the most important characteristic of a quality leader? Position. Nationality. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Bachelors. Marketing. 3. Bachelors. 4. Associate. 治 and persuasiveness 政 Innovativeness 大. Taiwanese. Logical, visionary, experience. Project. Chinese. Responsible. Distribute. Chinese. Competence, knows everything. 學. 2. 立. Question 18. ‧ 國. io. sit. y. ‧. Nat. inside out. er. 1. Degree. n. a l Chinese Experience, logical i v and rationale n Ch engchi U. 5. Bachelors. Info. 6. Bachelors. HR. Taiwanese. Punctuality, responsible. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. Charismatic, willingness to listen and teach. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Vision, well-educated. The responses regarding to the question of the most important characteristic of a quality leader varies from individual to individual, but the repeated characteristics are 42.

(45) “visionary”, and “logical”. Other responses include “responsible”, “innovativeness”, “experience” etc.. Table 20 Describe a case where an approach of leadership was used. 1. Degree. Position. Nationality. Question 19. Bachelors. Sales. Taiwanese. Gather feedback, responses and openness to comments. 2. Bachelors. Marketing. Communication. Associate. Distribute. Chinese. N/A. 5. Bachelors. Info. Chinese. N/A. 6. Bachelors. HR. er. sit. y. ‧. 4. 學. Chinese. io. Project. Nat. Bachelors. ‧ 國. 立 3. Lead the team by sharing of 政治大 experience. Taiwanese. n. aTaiwanese i v of conflict l C During an incident n h e n gbetween c h i aUTaiwanese and Chinese staffs, sat them down and negotiate the terms.. 7. Masters. PR. Taiwanese. N/A. 8. Masters. Production. Taiwanese. Communication. When asked to describe a case where an approach of leadership was used, 2 of the 3 Chinese managers did not describe a case where 1 of the 5 Taiwanese managers did not 43.

(46) include a case as well. In having managers willing to take on the role of a leader and also taking on the responsibility will reduce conflicts and chaos in the departments. In the case of production manager, the communication leadership skill was used mainly because the number of direct subordinates is relatively more compare to the others, therefore, communication and coordinating skills must be applied to make sure the production process is running smooth.. The following table will obtain five main communication problems observed from the interview responses, and the possible causes of the problems. The five main. 政治大 employees not open with each other, incompetence in understanding instructions, and 立 functional areas are not being collaborated. communication problems observed are, Expectations not clear, misinterpretation,. Observed key communication problems. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. Table 21. Causes. Expectations not clear. Managers do not discuss expectations with. sit. subordinates, therefore no agreements on. n. er. io. al. y. Nat. Communication problems. Ch. reaching the i vstrategic goals, and not. n U i a clear benchmark or goal, have e n g chaving h difference in interest. Misinterpretation, not being able to. Cultural differences, language barrier. understand each other, not being on the same page Employees not open with each other. Employees do not trust each other; do not share information with each other across departments. Prefers to work individually rather than groups.. 44.

(47) Incompetence in understanding. Does not have the required skill sets, no. instructions. trust between employee and superior. Functional areas are not being. No interactions between the departments.. collaborated The following table is a comparison of the communication problems stated in the literature review and the actually communication problems observed through the interview responses. Table 22 Comparison of the communication problems from literature review vs. interview findings Communication problems (through 政治大interview findings). Communication problems (literature. 立. review). of doing work. (Yeh, 1988) also concluded. Expectations not clear. 學. ‧ 國. Different expectations and different way. that Chinese are rather individualist at. io. due to when individuals within an. y. sit. Miscommunication and misinterpretation. Misinterpretation, not being able to understand each other, not being on the. er. Nat. contrary to Hofstede’s findings.. ‧. work rather than collectivist, which is a. n. a i vsame page organization are different inl culture n Ch engchi U (Swierczek, 1994). Minimal level of social interaction and. Employees not open with each other. social situation between the employees (Jambrek, Penic, 2008), leads to employees having no trust in each other. Errors in communication referred to the. Incompetence in understanding. inability to understand the given. instructions. information, regardless of upward, downward or horizontal communication. 45.

(48) (Petkovic, 2008) Horizontal conflict occurs between the. Functional areas are not being. departments because each functional. collaborated. departments have minimal contact and interact with each other (Hener, 2010). Recommendations Conflict management In order to improve poor communication skills within an organization, simple. 政治大 solving conflicts, instead of reducing, eliminating or limiting their duration. This means 立. conflicts that exists needs to be solved to the minimal. Conflict management suggests. that each organization should have a macro strategy, reducing the negative consequences. ‧ 國. 學. of conflicts (Gonan Bozac et al, 2008).. The following conflict management process introduced by (Rahim, 2002) will be used to. ‧. examine the simple conflict solving mechanisms.. io. aLeadership  Amount of i v l C conflict n Culture Design h e n  i Ustyle g c hConflict. n.  . Measurement Analysis.   . Conflict. Learning. er. Intervention. sit. y. Nat. Diagnosis.   . Individual Group Organization. Feedback. 46.

(49) . Diagnosis. Diagnosis is considered the most important factor in the cycle because being able to recognize the right problem is the most difficult. In this stage, the main purpose is to figure out exactly the direction and the numbers of the conflict, exploring the relationship between the managers and the subordinates, as well as the effects of the issues simultaneously.. . Intervention Follow by diagnosis, it will be easier to find out the intervention approach needed to apply to the conflicts. 政治大 to match the style of handling conflicts and adjust the 立. Process approach. In the process approach, managers try. intensity of conflict.. ‧ 國. 學. Structural approach. Structural approach tries to change the perception of the intensity of the conflict at different. ‧. level by changing organizational design for improvement. There are two dimensions to the conflict element at work,. y. sit. Conflict. Nat. . io. Disagreement relating to task issues.. n. a. i n U. Emotional and l interpersonal issues. . Ch. er. yet they affect the different segments at work.. v. Learning. eprocess The main goal of the h i from diagnosis to n g c cycle. and. intervention to conflict solving is to learn the knowledge,. effectivenes distribute the knowledge, and preserve the knowledge s. which will prevent the same conflicts happen again. Conflict management process (Rahim, 2002). Conflict management strategies and styles Strategies After we have introduced the conflict management process, recognizing the general problems and the appropriate steps of the cycles, now we need both strategies and styles 47.

(50) in dealing with the specific problems because not all problems have the same contents and occurs in the same way. Managers must have a clearly defined strategy for stimulating conflict and followed by an adequate conflict management style (Petkovic). The most commonly seen strategy and the main strategy that we will focus on is the strategy of negotiation, it is most useful when opposite sides have different thoughts and ideas to be settled through bargaining, there are few techniques that could be applied: . Face to face tactic. The most commonly used tactic because it builds the foundation and the confidence of both parties. . Persuading tactic. Using courtesy and manner to reach a better negotiation outcome. . Deceitfulness tactic. Presenting wrongful and false data to the other party in order to. . Threat tactic. The specific tactic only works when the side that is imposing this tactic. 政治大 find out how much the other party knows, the tactic usually success when the 立 information is asymmetric. ‧ 國. 學. holds a stronger position and power, also present the consequences to the weak side. ‧. if the proposal is not accepted. Promise tactic. The specific tactic also requires the party to have more power in. y. Nat. . n. al. er. io. Styles. sit. hand, convincing the weak side that it will hold the promise if the deal was complete. Ch. i n U. v. Choosing different styles of conflict management i on the objective and the final e n g c hdepends goal of the party, such as stating authorities, develop good images and compromising. Five styles of conflict management that are successfully used are (Fox, 2006):. 48.

(51) High Obliging. Concern for others. Integrating. Compromising Avoiding. Dominating. Low Low. High. 政治大 Style of conflict management (Munduate et al, 1997). Concern for self. 立. Style content. Situations where. 學. management. Integrating. . Complex issues. concern for self and others,. . One party alone. Nat. This style requires both high. therefore, confrontation of. n. a. This specific style is most l. Ch. cannot solve. . Abundant of time. er. io. attitudes and joint problems.. y. . sit. style. appropriate. ‧. ‧ 國. Conflict.  iv n U. Commitment. suitable for complex e n gproblems chi. needed from both. that is meant to be solved in the. parties. long run . Obliging. By obliging, the concern for. . Issue is more. self is low, meaning the. important to other. reduction of differences and. party. focus on the commons, to. . could be wrong. promote cooperation, however, this style does not solve the. You believe you. . You are willing to. 49.

(52) root of the conflicts. . Dominating. give up something. This style emphasizes on the. . Weaker position. . Issue is important. concern for self, employees are. to you. to obey the commands from the . Need fast response. managerial positions. This style . You have stronger. is usually implied during. position . situations such as tight. Issue is trivial. 政治大 unpleasant working solutions, 立 deadlines or applying. applied. . In this style of conflict. ‧. management, barely any action. period . io. n. a. insteadl of solving them, only. Ch. e nproblems suitable for trivial gchi. er. concern for self and others are low. This style hides issues. i n U. Compromising Compromising allows the. v. . achievement of balance between personal and common. . democratic phenomenon, but. No consensus reached. . Needs a temporary solution. intervention, negotiation or voting. This style creates a. Parties are just as powerful. interest, participants are to change through means of. Trivial issue. y. Nat. will be taken because both the. . Need a cooling off. sit. Avoiding. 學. . ‧ 國. this style of coercion is to be. . Goals of both parties are. 50.

(53) not necessarily the most. mutually exclusive. effective or creative solution to the conflict. To reduce conflict within an organization in the long run, previous problems and issues needs to be recognized and solved, also be examined from the start of how it was initiated to the end of how it was handled through which kind of conflict management strategy and the style applied. Managers undertake structural changes, modify goals, redefine relations between authority and responsibility and, if necessary, change the. 政治大 related to the effectiveness of the communication within an organization. Conflicts, most 立 entire organization structure (Kiss, 2007). The importance of solving conflicts is directly. of the time should already be solved by the first-line managers before the conflicts. ‧ 國. 學. reaches the top managers or the management.. ‧. In the communication problem through the interview findings, the issue of. sit. y. Nat. employees “incompetent to understand instruction” could be resolved from this solution of conflict management strategy and style. The process is described as follows:. io. a. er. In the first phase of the conflict manage, the communication is diagnosed, intervened,. n. analyze the amount of conflict, land learn. In this particular communication problem of iv. C. n. h e ncaused incompetence in understanding instruction g c hbyi notUhaving the required skill sets, or having no trust between the employees and the superior, during the diagnosis phase, we can successfully measure the exact type of skills required by the employees, and examine which type of authority can be given to the employees to gain more trust, then followed by the intervention of the communication problem with the correct strategy and style.. Strategy: Promise tactic and Threat tactic In promising tactic, supervisors could convince the employees to learn or to spend more effort in learning the related skills during their own time in exchange for a better compensation such as a pay rise. 51.

(54) Threat tactic could be used if the managers see no progress in the promise tactic, the managers could present the consequences such as a lay off if the managers continue to see no results.. Style: Integrating and Dominating In the style of integrating, managers could confront the employees of the problem directly and try to solve it together.. The style of dominating could be used as well, forcing the employees to obey the. 政治大. commands from the managers, with coercion applied.. 立. Role of internal communication and employee development. ‧ 國. 學. Within an organization internal communication change or improvement, roles of individual employee must be carefully examined and well enforced. Employees. ‧. experience stress under many different kinds of situations, and resist from many sources. y. Nat. such as fear of unknown, lack of information, threats to status, fear of failure and lack of. io. sit. perceived benefits (Lawrence and Greiner, 1970). These sources could originate. er. anywhere from the lack of resources, lack of commitment or ideas, procedural obstacles,. n. al political issues to lack of cooperation. Therefore, employee development must be well iv C. n. h e n g c hstrategies considered and emphasized before communication i U are put into place.. A study was established (Proctor, 2003) to reveal the feelings of employees during a shift or a transformation in the organization. The response rate was only 30% with approximately 1000 completed forms. The responses mostly were rather negative instead of positive. Staffs understood that transformations were needed to improve, but they believed that financial objectives were the main priority over the employees, and the style of management has become secretive rather than transparent. Having laid off a numerous of employees was considered indiscriminate and poorly managed, quickly the feeling of management wanting to pay people off and did not bother to disclose the detail was rose. 52.

(55) In conclusion, employees quickly felt pressured and had the fear that whether they could be the next one getting laid off in the next transition.. The phenomenon was further studied into details to examine internal communication in depth. The poor communication was seen as the major factor of the negative feeling that the employees were feeling. Employees were finding out the related news or event through rumors and local newspaper, they were not directed informed by the senior management team, employees felt the senior management was dishonest and not open. Then further interviews were conducted with numerous of employees after the. 政治大 problem, specifically in the segment of quality of the people management which is 立 directly related to the upward and downward communication. The middle management study. The management team had realized that the middle management was the main. ‧ 國. 學. was not able to transmit the information timely and accurately downward to the employees. Before the middle managers, who hold the key information which was. ‧. supposed to pass down through other middle and front line managers, the information. y. Nat. was already being withheld, changed, manipulated, or being delivered late. As a result,. er. io. sit. employees start feeling insecure and ignorant.. n. a l issues, the management had After the realization of such i v come up with three C. n. h e ninternal solutions that could possibly fix the current problem. i U g c h communication. 1. Through the usage of IT to shorten the passage of information, information will be available to various level of middle management all the way to the front line manager to obtain information symmetry 2. Providing middle management with training such as awareness and sound training since the main issues originated from the middle management 3. Introduction of employee development system which mainly focus on the communication issues that creates synergy with the first two solutions. The third solution of implementing employee development program will be focused 53.

(56) and examined carefully here. In the employee development program, main elements that will be incorporated are trust, empowerment, and effective communication (Tony Proctor, 2003). • Trust. Being confident on knowing that people will do what they say they would and live up to their expectations, throughout the daily activities such as returning calls, meeting deadlines and attendance. People also trust one another on the competence on things they promised to do. To build commitment and loyalty managers within. 政治大 own team that embraces them to both the external 立their and internal environment (Tony Proctor, 2003). the organization needs commitment and loyalty from. ‧ 國. 學. • Empowerment. Empowerment is about training, communicating, recognizing and motivation. Employees need to be able. ‧. to accept the responsibility of their own tasks and be. allows employees to have more authority without the. a l tasks, given the opportunityiinv accomplishing their own n C U i workhwithout e n ginterference. ch. n • Effective communication. supervision of supervisor giving direction on their job. er. io. sit. y. Nat. able to make mistake without fear. Empowerment. Providing means of creating and implementing behavioral changes both within and without organization. Main key to effective change to involving people in the process early, allow them to take ownership of the new ideas that will be faced (Coch and French, 1948).effective communication ensures the successfulness of the change that will overcome ambiguity and provide useful information to the ones in. 54.