CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

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CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

In this chapter, 2 sections were included: conclusion of the thesis, recommendations for business and future research.

Conclusions

This study was aimed at understanding the factors that affect Taiwanese managers’

cross-cultural communication in the global corporation. Five of the factors were discussed in this thesis: awareness of national cultural differences, openness of corporate culture, multinational team structure, cross-cultural communication obstacles and company resources.

A few research methods were applied in this thesis. A case study approach on Trend Micro Inc. was employed to collect research data as primary data resource. Snowball strategy was applied to find the target interviewees, Taiwanese mid-level managers, and 8 of them accepted the interview. Secondary data were collected from published books and related websites/ magazines. Pre-interview questionnaire was applied as minor research method, in order to understand interviewees’ background information, current stage of global diversity integration of the case company, and type of Trend Micro’s corporate culture.

Contents of interview and pre-interview questionnaires were recorded and made as transcripts for data analysis. Through process of data collection and analysis in chapter 4, findings and discussions were deducted. Relationship of all findings was presented as Table 5.1.

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Table 5.1 List of coding- All

Topic Category Item Key concept

1-1 Perception of values

1-1-1 1-1-2 1-1-3

Life terms

Standard of quality Time/ schedule

1-2 Working style/

attitude

1-2-1 1-2-2 1-2-3 1-2-4 1-2-5 1-2-6 1-2-7 1-2-8 1-2-9

American: creative;

American: lack of execution Taiwanese: efficient;

Philippine: no passion to work Japanese: scrutinous

Japanese: high quality standard Germany: careful

Indian: American style

China: small company thoughts/ ways 1. Awareness of

national culture differences

1-3 Communication

style 1-3-1

1-3-2

1-3-3 1-3-4

1-3-5 1-3-6 1-3-7

1-3-8 1-3-9 1-3-10

Western people Direct

Public

Eastern people Indirect Private

With English speaker Less language barrier Less misunderstanding Passive

With non-English speaker Equal speaking chance Lengthy communication Active

2. Openness of corporate culture

2-1 Value of corporate culture

2-1-1 2-1-2 2-1-3 2-1-4 2-1-5 2-1-6 2-1-7

Creativity Accept change

Open communication Customer insight Trustworthiness

No ego

American style

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2-1-8 2-1-9 2-1-10

Connect to company strategy Freedom

Respect

2-2 Upward and downward communication

2-2-1 2-2-2 2-2-3 2-2-4

No hierarchical limitation Accept employees’ ideas To peer: direct

To upper management: indirect

2-3 Ways to enhance

corporate culture

2-3-1 2-3-2 2-3-4

Recruitment qualification CCO (Chief Culture Operation) Cultural competition

3-1 Features of organizational structure

3-1-1 3-1-2 3-1-3 3-1-4

Region/ geographical structure Corp (global) departments Customer-oriented segment Project-based structure (RD)

3-2 Strength of customer-oriented segments

3-2-1 3-2-2 3-2-3 3-2-4 3-2-5 3-2-6 3-2-7

Focused resources Clear goals

Small report line gap Small job scope

Customer need focused Relationship building Technology sharing

3-3 Weakness of customer-oriented segments

3-3-1 3-3-2

3-3-3

3-3-4

Interaction among segments Technology sharing among segments

Low communication efficiency among segments

Messy segment structures 3. Influence of

organizational structure on cross-cultural communication

3-4 Strength of Multinational project-based structure

3-4-1 3-4-2 3-4-3 3-4-4 3-4-5

World-class products Knowledge exchange Skills sharing

English improvement Global vision

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3-4-6 Cross-functional interaction

3-5 Weakness of multinational project-based structure

3-5-1 3-5-2 3-5-3 3-5-4

Team forming efforts Knowledge management Miscommunication Communication overhead

4-1 Language proficiency

4-1-1 4-1-2 4-1-3

Expression accuracy Wording selection Accent

4-2 Cultural difference

4-2-1 4-2-2 4-2-3

Ways of work Stereotype

Perception of values 4. Cross-cultural

communication obstacles

4-3 Distance/ time difference

4-3-1 4-3-2 4-3-3

Communication efficiency Low interaction

Partnership building

5-1 Language proficiency

5-1-1 5-1-2 5-1-3 5-1-4 5-1-5 5-1-6

Speed adjustment Interpreter

Key words Drawing

Pre-meeting proposal Post-meeting confirmation

5-2 Cultural differences

5-2-1 5-2-2 5-2-3 5-2-4 5-2-5

Follow company goals

Consensus before cooperation Adjust in co-work process Unify language: English Escalate

5. Ways to overcome CCC obstacles

5-3 Distance/ time difference

5-3-1 5-3-2

Meeting at midnight Meet at third place

6. Company support on cross-cultural

6-1 Training courses

6-1-1 6-1-2 6-1-3

Language courses

Email writing skills training General communication skill

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6-1-4 6-1-5 6-1-6 6-1-7

training

Presentation skill training On-the-job training Experience sharing Mentor

6-2 Activities 6-2-1 6-2-2 6-2-3

6-2-4

Team building Engineering camp

Quarterly: “High-communication meeting”

Annual: “Paramount”

6-3 Environment 6-3-1 6-3-2 6-3-3

Open internal environment Business trip

On-site visit

6-4 Equipment/

channel 6-4-1

6-4-2

6-4-3 6-4-4 6-4-5 6-4-6 6-4-7

Internal communication CEO blog

Intranet

External communication Phone

Webex system Email

MSN

Visual equipments communication

6-5 Top manager support

6-5-1 6-5-2

Role model

Frequent emphasis

Extensional findings about relationship among affecting factors: multinational team structure is typical structure in global companies which pushes global partners corporate with each other in high frequency. Due to frequent interaction, managers encountered cross-cultural communication obstacles such as language proficiency, time differences, perceptions of values, etc. These obstacles impacted efficiency of cross-cultural

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communication in a team, and previous cooperation experience strengthened managers’

awareness to national cultural difference. Responses from interviewed managers proved this statement. Past trials and errors in cross-cultural communication stimulated them to be more aware of cultural differences and find out solutions for future cooperation. Managers realized their needs in facilitating cross-cultural communication--- framing open corporate culture--- to build up a communication platform for diverse workforce. Trend Micro provided a good example to frame open corporate culture, as well as showing supports and provide sufficient resources, ultimately achieved the goal to reduce impacts of communication obstacles.

To sum up, “environment” is the core influencing power to impact, on the other hand, to enhance managers’ cross-cultural communication as well in the global company. Because of the environment (multinational team structure), managers notice the importance of cross-cultural communication. And because of the environment (open corporate cultural and company support), manager may overcome most of the communication obstacles.

Environments directly influence efficiency of managers’ cross-cultural communication, which are considered much more powerful than trainings and stimulations. Enhancement of managers’ cross-cultural communication involved various approaches and fully execution, especially on climate setting in the global company (open corporate culture).

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Recommendations for Business

Based on the purposes of the study, a few recommendations are provided for business:

1. Environment of global companies should be fully provided for cross-cultural communication/ interaction.

When concept of open communication is successfully installed in employees’ minds, providing direct-contact environment would be the following actions to take. From most interviewees’ feedback, they appreciated the environment and chances Trend Micro provided for direct cross-cultural communication. Experiences on direct contact and cooperation are more useful than other forms of training. “Learning by doing” will help managers adapt multicultural working environment as early as possible. Through process of coordination and communication, partnership with foreign colleagues will be built.

2. Corporate culture framing should be connected with open communication.

Many Taiwanese companies ignore the power of corporate culture framing, and the case study of Trend Micro provided a very positive example in climate setting for open communication. Continuous installations of culture values will strengthen morale, trust, power of teamwork among employees, and ultimately, become a unique competitive advantage of the company. If employees/ managers in the company are willing to communicate with one another, mistakes and conflicts will be prevented. Various activities such as cultural games and competitions are frequently used in Trend Micro so that employees are impressed and gradually influenced by Trend Micro’s corporate culture. Soft ways to promote corporate culture would be much better than forcing employees/ managers to follow. The most important is, managers need to be role models and lead employees to follow corporate culture.

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3. Company structures should be considered tightly with global needs.

Company structures contain invisible power in building connection among diverse workforce, or, on the other hand, block the interaction of them. Thus, the arrangement of company/ organizational structures should be considered carefully to fit various global needs.

To facilitate managers’ cross-cultural communication, matrix organizational/ team structure may break the barrier among different departments and involvement of multinational workforce in team structures may continuously stimulate Taiwanese managers to enhance cultural awareness and cross-cultural communication skills.

Recommendations for future research

For future research of related topics, the researcher suggests to expand numbers of the interviewees and increase research methods such as field observation and focused group, so the results of primary data will be more reliable. More in-depth findings might be explored during the process of field observation or focused group. Internal document may also strengthen researcher’s viewpoint and discussion if available. Building good relationship with the case company will help the researcher to arranged interview easier. If people in the case company (such as Trend Micro) are open and willing to share their experiences to the researcher, process of data collection will be much smoother.

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