nternal communication problem in an organization

UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business HUYNH THI HA VY INTERNAL COMMUNICATION PROBLEM IN AN ORGANIZATION MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Ho Chi Minh City - 2017 Individual Assignment Cover Sheet Subject Name Thesis Lecturer’s Name Le Thi Thanh Xuan Internal Communication problem in an organization MBUS 6.1 Huynh Thi Ha Vy_22150082 Title of Assignment Class Student Name_ Student Number Contact Number or Email huynhhavy@yahoo.com Due Date 47 sheets (include cover page) 25th Jan 2018 Date Submitted 25th Jan 2018 Length Declaration: I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from any other student’s work or from any other source except where due acknowledgement is made in the assignment No part of the assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other person except where collaboration has been authorized by the subject lecturer/tutor concerned I am aware that this work may be reproduced and submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for the purpose of detecting possible plagiarism (which may retain a copy on its database for future plagiarism checking) Signature: …………………………………………………………………… … Note: An examiner or lecturer/tutor has the right not to mark this assignment if the above declaration has not been signed) Mark: Comments: UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS HO CHI MINH CITY International School of Business HUYNH THI HA VY INTERNAL COMMUNICATION PROBLEM IN AN ORGANIZATION MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION SUPERVISOR: LE THI THANH XUAN Ho Chi Minh City - 2017 Abstract Communication is a very important factor which effect to a corporation’s performance Katherine stated in his study that communication is the method of sharing ideas, information, massages with others in a specific time and places Communication is an important part of personal life and is also in business, education and other circumstances where people meeting each other (Encarta, 1998) This study examines the communication challenges between managers and employees in My Life Viet Nam, a start-up company, which is the main reason for the high turn-over rate in the company Employee turn-over is a very important factor to a successful organization especially a start-up business We cannot development a sustainable organization without stable labor force So, to reduce turn-over is an important thing that company need to solve The consequences of high turn-over is that costly, take time to recruit the new one and impact on employee’s morale This study also included the solutions and action plans for the company to enhance My Life’s internal communication so that can help the company to keep their employee’s royalty and get higher performance Table of contents ABSTRACT CHAPTER 1: COMPANY INTRODUCTION 1.1 General information 1.2 Company background 1.3 Vision, Mission and Strategy CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 2.1 Problem context: 2.2 Symptoms: 2.3 Problem Identification: 2.3.1 Methodology and Measure 2.3.2 Analysis and results: 2.3.3 Initial cause and effect map 2.4 Identify the potential problems: 2.4.1 Literature review 2.4.2 The central problem 2.5 Definition of central problems: 2.5.1 Internal communication 2.5.2 Verify the important of the exist problems 2.6 Potential consequences 2.7 Determine potential causes of problems: 2.7.1 Literature review 2.7.2 Determine potential causes of problems CHAPTER 3: SOLUTIONS AND ACTION PLANS 3.1 Solution identification 3.2 Action plans a For solution b For solution c For solution d For solution e For solution CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION CHAPTER 5: SUPPORTING INFORMATION 5.1 Interview transcription 5.2 References CHAPTER 1: COMPANY INTRODUCTION 1.1 GENERAL INFORMATION My interest in communications when working for My Life Viet Nam, as I had never worked for a start-up company before When beginning to work for My Life, I was so interesting with the company’s vision, mission and strategy which aim to help disability people to improve their life, and I found that all staffs in the company feel like this They eager to work, they accepted to multiple tasks, or whatever the CEO/manager asked them to because they knew the company in start-up period And they also liked the products of the company, organic products, which were good for life and environment But after two months, more and more people wanted to leave the company and the number of leaved people increased dramatically compare with the number of people that the company want to recruited From this day forward, I began to observe and find the reason for this high turn-over and I found that there are some problems between the CEO/manager of the company with employees that related to communications Employees they even agree to multiples task, they a lot but the job didn’t complete as the manager require They didn’t understand each other and employees didn’t know what company/CEO/manager expect from them Employees were not receiving enough information in the time they need or the information they got were not correct or incomplete From this point, I became more interested in how organizations communicate with their employees I wanted to learn more about internal communication, what is the reason led to ineffective communication, its affect and the various methods that organizations use to enhance communication and the pros and cons of each method From that propose the best solutions for the company to improve communication so that can help to reduce turn-over and make employees more and more interesting in their job and make them more loyal to the company 1.2 COMPANY BACKGROUND Good Works is a Netherlands-based foundation established 2012 which dedicated to sustainable development, socially responsible business solutions for disadvantaged people around the world The foundation penetrated in Vietnamese market in 2016 with the brand name WOO (Worlds of Opportunities) WOO was launched by social entrepreneur Saskia de Knegt She has a strong mission to create a positive impact on the lives of one million people within the next 10 years In her own words, “Whether you are considered fortunate or not, nobody in this world has a choice over the economic class into which they are born My aim is to build a bridge between all social tiers I want to cross borders to stimulate local economies and empower those born with fewer opportunities I believe this will give people a real chance to take control of their lives.” Her brand concept was simple; bring quality to the lives of people purchasing the products WOO has nothing to with charity However, the foundation helps people to enrich their own lives by creating authentic handmade products 1.3 VISION, MISSION AND STRATEGY Vision: bring a better life for disadvantaged people around the world WOO mission is to impact the lives of one million people in a positive way in the next 10 years It not only brings quality the lives of people who buy the products but also gives the benefits to the farmers and artisans that create the products BUSINESS STRATEGIES Sustainable Development anywhere in the world We closely involve local and community-based organizations and development organizations to work together and implement projects effectively and successfully We develop methods to predict, compare and planned and actual impacts Products The way WOO produced is unique WOO is so conscious about how to create products WOO concerns about a positive ethical, socially and environmentally responsible production WOO products are created by collaboration between many people and communities all over the world This is a perfect luxury gift to experience all exquise perfumes Radiance, treasure, tranquilty, lime scents and a natural tea light This product is given up to 20 hours This Vodka mini Bottle deep luxury candle gives up to 25 hours of beautiful light and subtle scents of beautiful light Each tealight burns up to hours CHAPTER 2: PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION 2.1 Problem context: My Life Viet Nam (MLV) is a foreign own company and its strategy is to be a global organization So, MLV recruited a diversity work force to adapt their strategy Their employees with different language, different culture, they learned how to work together They used their own laptop working since the company didn’t have a cleared policy Good Works always build sustainable developed business models not just of delivering profit but creating more opportunities for disadvantaged people WOO is about passion, quality and craftmanship The way WOO produced is unique Instead of reducing the costs and producing a cheap product, WOO creates partnerships between people and a positive impact on the planet WOO also creates outstanding products out of natural ingredients, using time-honoured techniques and brings special products to the customers Why we choose this strategy? “We believe that poor people living in developing countries have a great deal of inherent strength and potential and the only way out of isolation, stigma and poverty is through empowerment and development” said founder of GW And poor people they need money for their living, pay for medical and their children school fee but much higher goal then getting money is to earn money themselves and want to be an appreciated part of the organization What we do? We engage, connect and empower all kinds of people around the world We incubate and establish viable business venture We create partnerships with multiple parties at an early stage to increase the success rate of the ventures We create methods for on-going quality assessment, quality assurance, capacity development and monitoring and evaluation We create and disseminate knowledge in the field of sustainability and poverty and effective ways to make a better world We create opportunities to change the imbalance in the market (company’s policy) How we it? We combine economic opportunities with social and human capital We create smallscale working environments that are better suited to vulnerable people and serve as a project model This can then be used as a blue-print for similar social enterprises Interviewer: Did you meet any difficulty in communication with your line manager? Respondent: Not really difficult but they just not really to listen, so maybe the answer is yes My English is really good so I can understand what my manager talks and want me to but when I talked about my ideas, she didn’t want to listen She treated like she was my manager so I had to what she said She was always too busy to reply my email when I wanted to get her approval Interviewer: Were you comfortable talking to your manager about work problems? Respondent: Not really comfortable I could talk with them but they didn’t feedback and show me the way to solve problem They just care about the results, I must finish my job, they didn’t have time to train or help staffs in their job Interviewer: Did your supervisor/manager provide you with clear instruction and expectation? Respondent: Not at all, the demand always sounds very general and never clear She didn’t have any plan for what she wanted to sell, what she wanted to produce so she didn’t know what she wanted to purchase When she feels like the product, she asked me to purchase urgently and sometimes she didn’t use what I purchased The problem is they didn’t have any production plans Interviewer: Did you feel you were kept up to date on new developments and company policies? Respondent: Not thing I didn’t know what happen, what issues, or any policies of the company officially I just knew from my co-worker or when the thing related to my job, I have to ask someone for my knowledges Interviewer: Do you think your performance was fairly assessed? Respondent: Well, I think they appreciate me, just cannot work with the way they manage their business Interviewer: Do you think your efforts were appreciated? Respondent: Some cases yes, some cases no Interviewer: Are you satisfied with your salary? Respondent: Salary is not the problem with my situation Besides salary, I want to get more experiences, want to learn more from my manager, so salary wasn’t the most important thing Interviewer: How you think about bonus/incentive structure for your position? Respondent: Nothing much to talk about because I didn’t really get it The company didn’t have a policy for bonus or incentives for staffs as they said that they were start-up It was ok for me because as I talked before, salary, benefit was not a very important thing in this time Interviewer: How you think about your career development at WOO? Respondent: I developed a lot and learnt a lot from my own lessons I did multiple task here, have some problems with my job and then I try to solve them by my ways so I think that I get some experience from this But if I could learn from my manager, it will be a very good experience for me Respondent Interviewer: Hello, I’m doing my research on the problems that company facing, so would like to ask you some questions that supports for my research Respondent: ok Interviewer: What’s your job in this company? Respondent: I worked for legal department Interviewer: What factors contributed to your decision to resign? Respondent: Well, I did not like the structure of Legal department and how to communicate with my CEO/Manager And there were many opportunities outside, most of all, director’s attitude and working skills Interviewer: Do you think you were suitable for this position? Respondent: Yes Boss had ad-hoc lawyers and wanted me to work as a supporter, and I knew I could it well Interviewer: Were you sufficiently trained and oriented for the job? Respondent: There was only staff in legal department, it’s me I have basic knowledge and eager to learn more I worked with consultant for all legal issues and learn by myself Interviewer: What additional training you believe would have assisted in your job’s requirements? Respondent: I’m just new, less experience so there were many things to learn from this position Beside legal, I had to support for accounting department and sometimes work as CEO’s assistant, so I need to learn more to perform good my job Interviewer: Did you meet any difficulty in communication with your line manager? Respondent: Yes, maybe language issue, sometimes I could not explain my idea for her in legal field since Viet Nam’s law is different from her country and her major was not legal so I had to explain for her to understand It was not an easy task Interviewer: Were you comfortable talking to your manager about work problems? Respondent: No She always required higher than what I could She didn’t think that were problems, she think that due to my ability for the job Interviewer: Did your supervisor/manager provide you with clear instruction and expectation? Respondent: Nope I have trouble on that Interviewer: Did you feel you were kept up to date on new developments and company policies? Respondent: No I think that communication in the company had problem All staffs worked multiple task and sometimes they had double work And there no clear job description for each staff and for each department so it’s hard to update new developments and company policies Interviewer: Do you think your performance was fairly assessed? Respondent: Sometimes I was disappointed about myself because I did not know about that issue As I said before, it’s hard to update information so I didn’t know if the company have any policy about this Interviewer: Do you think your efforts were appreciated? Respondent: I felt that the bosses did not trust anything in VN including Vietnamese, so I didn’t think she was appreciated me Interviewer: Are you satisfied with your salary? Respondent: Not really It was not really good when you knew all the others’ salaries Interviewer: How you think about bonus/incentive structure for your position? Respondent: I did not know that they have bonus structure  Maybe I could negotiate to raise my salary, but all I wanted at that time was finding new environment Interviewer: How you think about your career development at WOO? Respondent: At first, yes But I was scared that I could make big mistake (in legal field, you know) and messed everything up Respondent Interviewer: Hello, I’m doing my research on the problems that company facing, so would like to ask you some questions that supports for my research Respondent: I’m ready Interviewer: What’s your job in this company? Respondent: I don’t what exact my job was Well, I worked as a shop assistant, CEO’s assistant and admin job Interviewer: What factors contributed to your decision to resign? Respondent: Well, I always try my best to finish my job, but didn’t meet my CEO’s demand I think that because of I did multiple task without training I didn’t have any plan for my job The managers did not say I have to since the company didn’t have any policies or procedures for me to follow Interviewer: Do you think you were suitable for this position? Respondent: Yes The company need a flexible employee to multiple task, eager to learn and good at English I was the one could adapt this require Interviewer: Were you sufficiently trained and oriented for the job? Respondent: No There were a mess Sometimes I ask managers for help but no feedback She always complained when trouble happened Interviewer: What additional training you believe would have assisted in your job’s requirements? Respondent: I loved the company, loved the job and the company’s products I want to work longer for the company So, I wanted to be trained more so that I can perform well for my job, can contribute my knowledge for the company Besides, I want to enrich my knowledge for my future career path Interviewer: Did you meet any difficulty in communication with your line manager? Respondent: Yes, it’s not language issue It’s about her management All staffs here work multiple task so sometime she cannot manager our job, she didn’t know who did what job and she never feedback or reply my email She was always busy And when she wanted me to something, she wrote very short without subject, so I didn’t know she wrote for whom and what she wanted us to do, the information in the email was not cleared and hard to understand Interviewer: Were you comfortable talking to your manager about work problems? Respondent: No Really uncomfortable She didn’t like problems, so when problems came, she just complain without any support, at the end, I had to solve the problems myself Interviewer: Did your supervisor/manager provide you with clear instruction and expectation? Respondent: Never She even didn’t know what she wanted so that couldn’t have cleared instruction Interviewer: Did you feel you were kept up to date on new developments and company policies? Respondent: No This was a big problem People here didn’t how to get information and how to communicate with others to get information they need And because the company lacked of policies and procedures, and as I knew that no one responsible for this task Interviewer: Do you think your performance was fairly assessed? Respondent: No, even I was ready to a lot of tasks But the company like a mess so what I did like a mess too  Interviewer: Do you think your efforts were appreciated? Respondent: I felt that the bosses did not trust anything in VN including Vietnamese, so I didn’t think she was appreciated me Interviewer: Are you satisfied with your salary? Respondent: Yes It’s ok Interviewer: How you think about bonus/incentive structure for your position? Respondent: I didn’t hear anything about this Interviewer: How you think about your career development at WOO? Respondent: Maybe no development here  If yes, I didn’t resign Respondent Interviewer: Hello, I’m doing my research on the problems that company facing, so would like to ask you some questions that supports for my research Respondent: I’m ready to answer your question Interviewer: What’s your job in this company? Respondent: I worked for Marketing department Interviewer: What factors contributed to your decision to resign? Respondent: Well, the CEO make me stress with my job She didn’t have any procedure or standard about the products, about the company’s strategy I didn’t know exactly what she wanted me to do, I had to change what I did until she agreed And sometimes, my job was delayed because waiting for her late confirm Interviewer: Do you think you were suitable for this position? Respondent: Yes I had experience for the job Interviewer: Were you sufficiently trained and oriented for the job? Respondent: No training in this company The managers always busy so all staffs here did their job themselves, learnt on job Interviewer: What additional training you believe would have assisted in your job’s requirements? Respondent: I could my job, but it’s good if the company have a policy to train for employees I need to train more about the company’s products, about the company’s strategy so that I could perform my job in the best way Interviewer: Did you meet any difficulty in communication with your line manager? Respondent: Yes, it’s about her management, her knowledge about the products and she always made everything become more and more complicated She cannot give clear information about the product, I think that she didn’t want to share about the company product, she didn’t trust Vietnamese, she worried that her brand will be stolen  Interviewer: Were you comfortable talking to your manager about work problems? Respondent: No it’s uncomfortable She didn’t like problems, so when problems came, she just complain so no need to talk to her about the problems if I could solve them by myself Interviewer: Did your supervisor/manager provide you with clear instruction and expectation? Respondent: I wished she could But never received any instruction from my managers Maybe they didn’t have time to give instruction  Employees must to find out what they have to and try to finish it Interviewer: Did you feel you were kept up to date on new developments and company policies? Respondent: No This was a big problem Communication is a problem of this company People didn’t know how to communicate with the managers for instruction and didn’t know how to communicate with other departments for information or policies Interviewer: Do you think your performance was fairly assessed? Respondent: No, I don’t think so Interviewer: Do you think your efforts were appreciated? Respondent: No, never Interviewer: Are you satisfied with your salary? Respondent: no, it didn’t match with what I did for the company Interviewer: How you think about bonus/incentive structure for your position? Respondent: I didn’t hear anything about this Interviewer: How you think about your career development at WOO? Respondent: Maybe I can develop here but I cannot wait until that date Respondent Interviewer: Hello, I’m doing my research on the problems that company facing, so would like to ask you some questions that supports for my research Respondent: Yes, I’m ready Interviewer: What’s your job in this company? Respondent: I worked for production department Interviewer: What factors contributed to your decision to resign? Respondent: Well, the CEO make me stress with my job She didn’t have any plan for production She even didn’t know what the company would produce Sometime she wanted to produce this product and sometime the others I always changed my production plans as per her requirement And another reason was that my English was not good, so i didn’t understand very clear what she wanted Interviewer: Do you think you were suitable for this position? Respondent: Yes off course I had a lot of experience for the job Interviewer: Were you sufficiently trained and oriented for the job? Respondent: No As a manager of production department, I just wanted to be trained for products of the company But…, I studied by myself But that was no problem Interviewer: What additional training you believe would have assisted in your job’s requirements? Respondent: I could my job, but it’s good if the company have a policy to train for employees I need to train more about products of the company, about the company’s strategy so that I could perform my job in the best way And maybe need to practice my English more Interviewer: Did you meet any difficulty in communication with your line manager? Respondent: Yes, with the CEO, she’s a foreigner, my English was not good so I can not explain clear for her about my idea and couldn’t understand very clear her idea too I had an assistant, her English was very good but she didn’t work for production before, she didn’t have any experience about this field so she couldn’t explain all my ideas as the way I wanted to explain Interviewer: Were you comfortable talking to your manager about work problems? Respondent: No it’s uncomfortable Problems didn’t come from me or from my department, sometime it came from the CEO and the Director because of no plans for production I did my job in urgent situation so problems came Interviewer: Did your supervisor/manager provide you with clear instruction and expectation? Respondent: No, as I said above And I wished she could But never received any instruction from the CEO and Director Sometime I asked for their instruction or wanted them to make decision but no feedback Interviewer: Did you feel you were kept up to date on new developments and company policies? Respondent: No I think that was a big problem of the company Communication was a problem of this company I didn’t who was in charged for what position because I worked at district and the office was in district 2, employees always changed but no information about the new one I didn’t see any policies or procedures from the first day I worked for this company Interviewer: Do you think your performance was fairly assessed? Respondent: No, I don’t think so Interviewer: Do you think your efforts were appreciated? Respondent: No Interviewer: Are you satisfied with your salary? Respondent: Yes, my salary was ok Interviewer: How you think about bonus/incentive structure for your position? Respondent: I didn’t hear anything about this Interviewer: How you think about your career development at WOO? Respondent: I don’t know, maybe no Respondent (Director) Interviewer: I’m preparing for my research about problem solving in an organization, so may I ask you some questions for my research? Respondent: Yes, of course Interviewer: What you think about turn over in MLV? Respondent: Some position we need stable and some position we have to accept such as workers, we cannot avoid For key position, we need to build a stable team When they familiar with the job then they leave and the new comer come, and the company always in the new stage, new in ideology, new in many thing and these make everything difficult Interviewer: Do you think high turn-over is an important thing that you need to consider? Respondent: Yes, exactly We want to build a sustainable labor force for sustainable development so this is a very important thing we want to care about Then we need to find what are problems for this high turn-over, then we will find out the most important problem that we need to solve and make plan for it We need to see if the leader goes the right way and why employee leaved Interviewer: For you, what was the main reason make employees leave? Respondent: From two sites One was from the company policy And the main reason was the unstable thought of the CEO, when she feels enthusiastic, she decided to a lot of things, but when she feel bad she saw everything was bad The leader need to have political views She makes everything complicated So, we need the find the right people for the right position Interviewer: Do you think communication between employees and manager is important? Respondent: Too important Central problem is communication All problem happens due to communication Problem not belong to the ability of employee, it come from the way we share information is not good Because she didn’t have any plans so she could not communicate with her staffs clearly, this made them so confuse and didn’t know what should they and always in the passive situation Interviewer: Do you think manager and employees didn’t understand each other? Respondent: Exactly The CEO never talked clearly about what she wanted employees to and both party expected from each other and didn’t have common view And sometime due to different language, different culture so it’s hard for both to understand each other at the beginning And another problem is that we built the strategy and the way we implement the strategy, the company didn’t have a good action plan for its strategy Interviewer: The company didn’t have any cleared plan so didn’t have cleared direction for employees to follow? Respondent: Yes We did everything in urgent way to adapt something as per the CEO’s requirement (was not in her plans) and when we finished, the fire was turned off And another thing is that we didn’t have some stable products Employees must follow her and it make them stress Interview Transcripts for solutions (with Director) Interviewer: For communication problems, you have any solutions? Respondent: Yes, first the company lack of procedures so staffs don’t know how to communication such as communication procedure, payment procedure, sales procedure… - Second when having solutions, we need to train for employees, need to spend time for employees and train them Employees come and run to work and make everything like a mess So, must support them in working, training them - Third, company must create a business culture, mean that must have a core culture so that employees know the goal or direction of the company to help employees avoid to communicate wandering, concentrate on the common goal of the company Interviewer: Mean that the company should have a clear instruction? Respondent: Yes, must help employees understand where the main energy of the company goes And the fourth solution is that company should find the right person that have the same idea, the same career path…If employees want to follow this way but the company goes to a different way, mean that the company didn’t choose the right person Interviewer: And how about cultural diversity? Respondent: Cultural diversity related to training and choosing people, company need to choose the right people and training them, it is not a problem, it’s an opportunity for employees to growth, company need to training employees follow with the company working environment All solution must be simple and easy to understand ... communication in general but the relation is between managers and employees in an organization Silinile6(p3) stated that internal communication is communication inside an organization and it is the... assumed by management This will be more pertinent in organizations that need expand their interest in communication within a company and are in front of challenges when it comes to linking communication. .. give the information in their meetings that can bring about a change in the organization CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION This study has shown the important of internal communication of an organization