Buddong Systems Case Study Analysis

Buddong Systems Case Analysis MGMT2002

Submitted by Jiayu LUO 3219847

25/09/2013

Buddong Systems Case Analysis Submitted by Jiayu LUO z3219847

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 2 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 3 2. Communication Issues .......................................................................................................... 3 2.1. Communication Competency ......................................................................................... 3 2.2. Organisational Communication ..................................................................................... 4 2.3. Corporate Social Responsibility ...................................................................................... 5 2.4. Intercultural Communication ......................................................................................... 5 3. Solutions ................................................................................................................................ 6 3.1. Task-Media Fit Model ..................................................................................................... 6 3.2. Communication Clinic .................................................................................................... 6 3.3. External Facilitation of Communication ......................................................................... 6 3.4. Enhancement of Cultural Intelligence ............................................................................ 6 4. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 6 5. Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 7 6. Reference List ........................................................................................................................ 8 7. Appendix ................................................................................................................................ 9 Appendix A ............................................................................................................................ 9


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Executive Summary

This report outlines and clarifies the communication problems of Buddong Systems

(hereafter referred to as BS). In particular, the CEO Young’s poor choice of communication

means and media, as well as his lack of intercultural communication skills is analysed and

discussed. Organisational communication in this firm is also quite poor, from the gossip

rumours of the new CEO to the poor team communication in Johansen’s team. Moreover,

there is no balance in the direction of communication, as most communication seems to

occur in the downward direction with little to no feedback. Upward direction is actively

discouraged by Young’s verbal and non-verbal reactions to questions and other feedback.

The majority of employees in the firm appear to be quite ethical, with the exception of the

new CEO, which meant there was ethical conflict between the different levels of

management.

Overall, it is recommended that Young undertake some communication clinic trials, as well

as enrich his cultural intelligence through training and cross-cultural experiences such as

international travel. Moreover, he should consider hiring external facilitators for

communication, such as a secretary for himself, and agents to help the teams learn to

communicate better. He also needs to implement the task-media fit model, so that the

means used to communicate complements the message he intends to send out, decreasing

the possibility of misunderstanding or misinterpretation.


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1. Introduction

BS has clear communication issues, from the competency of the CEO, Ken Young, down to

the manager’s abilities to speak up about their ethical conflicts. These issues will be

examined in detail, starting from the means of communication, as well as the competency

of communication. The lack of corporate social responsibility will also be analysed, as the

CEO obviously does not care about the ethical dilemmas faced by the employees, and as a

result, would lead to lower job satisfaction and hence performance. Moreover, Young’s

inability to adapt to the cultural environment at BS has led to poor intercultural

communication, which will also be examined in detail as it affects both employee job

satisfaction and job performance. Possible solutions will also be discussed, followed by

recommendations to prevent further damage from communication problems in the future.

This report has been prepared using secondary research of relevant journal articles as well

as lecture notes and textbook material.

2. Communication Issues

2.1. Communication Competency

2.1.1. Computer Mediated Communication

The new CEO, Young, appears to favour computer mediated communication when

outlining his expectations for performance figures. The connotative meaning of these

messages can be misconstrued, distorting Young’s intended message, which is not

helped by Young’s use of clichéd and informal language. Moreover, the asynchronous

nature of these emails and texts would add to the distortion of his intended message,

as the managers are unable to discern from other verbal and nonverbal cues. In

addition, Young’s use of capitals will imply anger and too much force, leading to

mistrust and anxiety from the lower management and employees. The lean medium of

emails, while sufficient for the delivery of his message (Suh, 1999), is not the best

medium in this particular case, especially in part due to the content of the message with

the use of capital letters, which suggest a rather threatening tone, adding to the

rumours that he was “tough, ruthless and not particularly fair”. As such, the email

messages emphasized the rumours, further increasing the distrust and lowering the

confidence of the managers to speak up and add to group discussions involving the

CEO.


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2.2.2. Face-to-Face Communication

While there is research showing that face-to-face communication leads to a higher

degree of trust compared to computer mediated communication (Alge, Weithoff &

Klein, 2003), Young’s behaviour and tone at the staff meeting was not conducive to

building employees’ trust in him, which should have been his priority as he is new to the

company.

Moreover, his use of tone and body language at the end of the meeting as a response

to one of the sales manager’s question discourages other managers from giving him

feedback. This feedback is necessary in this case as the majority of managers have

doubts about the new program and this should be cleared up so they are encouraged to

implement the program. Moreover, the exclusion of technical workers and other staff

at the meeting means that these employees cannot voice their disagreement, resulting

in delayed implementation of the programs (Guth & MacMillan, 1986), which, in turn,

contributes to the low sales and low morale at the company.

2.2. Organisational Communication

2.2.1. Team Communication

In terms of team communication, there is a problem with both the project team

Johansen formed and the group of technicians and staff workers. Johansen’s project

team was too hastily formed, leading to a distrustful team, which created hostility

between the members, resulting in poor quality decision processes (Mooney, Holahan

& Amason, 2007).

Group leaders are in the best position to manage team conflict (Amason, Thompson,

Hochwarter & Harrison, 1995); however, the team leader appeared not have taken any

action to ensure the team reached a conclusive opinion on the problem. The complaints

made by the group of technicians and staff workers were never taken seriously, as

Johansen failed to inform upper management of the issues he discussed with that

group. Johansen needed to push on the topics he felt were more relevant in the

meeting, such as the inclusion of the technical workers or the complaints made by other

staff members.


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2.2.2. Communication Direction

A balance in communication direction is needed for effective communication – there

needs to be have an effective downward direction with an accompanying upward

direction of communication (Addison, 1968). BS has no such balance, as communication

primarily takes place in the downward direction due to Young’s attitude putting off the

upward flow of communication. For example, Young’s reaction to Wang’s question is

clearly a precursor to all future questions, leading to the managers not speaking up

about their doubts in regards to the demands from Young, which will result in lack of

implementation of the work necessary to carry out his demands.

2.3. Corporate Social Responsibility

Young appears have high egoism – as long as the profits are high, he does not care what

needs to be done to achieve that profit. A result of this was the resignation of CFO Cheng,

who obeyed Young’s demand to pay a bribe but ultimately resigned from the company.

This conflict of ethics will continue to affect company performance as the employees

disagree with the CEO’s decisions. Moreover, should it become public knowledge that BS

went to such tactics to achieve higher sales, it would be highly probable to have negative

effects on the corporation’s future and the stakeholders (Frooman, 1997). As such, it

would be in the best interests of the firm to focus on getting the new system online rather

than “telling customers what they want to hear”.

2.4. Intercultural Communication

Cognitive cultural intelligence combines knowledge attained through learning and new

experiences, which represent the cultures and beliefs held in different cultures (Ang and

Inkpen 2008). Unfortunately, Young displays low cultural intelligence, restricting himself to

generalisations and avoiding communicating with the Asian technical staff, characterizing

them as “sneaky”, and generalizing that they only “smile and nod whenever you ask them

something”. This means that they do not get the information firsthand from the CEO, and

consequently may feel discouraged and demotivated, which will negatively impact both

technological innovation as well as job satisfaction and performance.


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3. Solutions

3.1. Communication Clinic

A communication clinic such as one described in Sexton and Staudt (1957)’s article

would facilitate improved communication competency in both management and

employees. Appendix A tabulates the typical 4 steps in the clinic operation. Application

of the clinical approach would lead to more motivation and an increase in morale for

the employees of BS, leading to better job performance and future profit.

3.2. External Facilitation of Communication

Employment of external agents may encourage more efficient upward communication,

as well as improve the quality of downward communication, so misinterpretation is less

likely to occur.

3.3. Enhancement of Cultural Intelligence

Young needs to consider improving his cultural intelligence so he is able to

communicate with the technical staff to clearly state the necessity of the new programs

in order to improve job performance and innovation. Cultural intelligence can be

improved through formal preparation (such as training) or cross-cultural experiences

(such as travelling; Van Dyne et al. 2007).

4. Conclusion

As discussed, the communication problems at Buddong Systems lie mainly with Young’s

poor communication competence, as well as the lack of upward communication within the

firm. Young needs to send his messages through a better medium, as he comes across harsh

and arrogant via email and verbal face-to-face. He needs to mediate his tone and body

language to avoid discouraging feedback and upward communication. Moreover, Johansen

needs to encourage communication within the team as well as be more confident in

discussing key issues with Young at the meeting. In addition, Young needs to consider the

damage in the long run to the company if he continues to maintain his egoism in terms of

social responsibility. Not only is it a source of conflict within the firm, but the negative

effects on the future of the firm and its stakeholders is substantial. Overall, the firm needs

to undertake the recommended solutions immediately in order to prevent future loss.


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5. Recommendations

5.1. The communication clinic is undertaken by the whole company, such that all

employees are able to improve their communication skills.

5.2. Enforced feedback from the employees should be handed in every two months in

order to improve team communication.

5.3. Young needs to undertake communication training to control his tone and body

language in order to improve his image at the firm and earn the trust of the management

and employees.

5.4. Young should undertake an international trip, preferably an Asian country, and employ

a local tour guide to familiarise him with the culture and beliefs.

5.5. A rewards system should be implemented to improve morale at the company and

boost technological innovation and job performance.

5.6. External agents should be employed for the first year or two to encourage upward

communication and mediate downward communication.

5.7. Young should employ an assistant or secretary to assess his messages to minimise the

excessive language and tone.

5.8. Young needs to sit down and discuss the ethical conflicts within the firm with

management to minimise the damage to the firm in the future.

5.9. Johansen should reform the project team and manage it himself to discover where the

problem is with sales figures.

5.10. Weekly meetings with the entire staff need to be conducted for the next few months

in order to raise morale and trust, and obtain feedback from the employees.

5.11. The company needs to look into better technological innovation in order to improve

future company prospects.


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6. Reference List

Suh, K. S. (1999). ‘Impact of communication medium on task performance and satisfaction: An examination of media richness theory.’ Information Management, 35(5), 295–312.

Ang, S., and Inkpen, C. (2008), ‘Cultural Intelligence and Offshore Outsourcing Success: A

Framework of Firm-Level Intercultural Capability,’ Decision Sciences, 29, 3, 337– 358. Alge, B. J., Weithoff, C., & Klein, H. J. (2003). ‘When does the medium matter? Knowledge-

building experiences and opportunities in decision making teams. ’ Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 91, 26–37.

Guth, W. D., & MacMillan, I. C. (1986). ‘Strategy implementation versus middle

management self-interest.’ Strategic Management Journal, 7, 313–327. Mooney, A. C., Holahan, P. J., & Amason, A. C. (2007). ‘Don't take it personally: Exploring

cognitive conflict as a mediator of affective conflict.’ Journal of Management Studies, 44(5), 733–758.

Amason, A. C., Thompson, K. R., Hochwarter, W. A., & Harrison, A. W. (1995). ‘Conflict: An

important dimension in successful management teams.’ Organizational Dynamics, 3(2), 20.

Addison C. Bennett (1968) ‘Improving Downward Communication: focus on Management

Methods’, Hospital Topics, 46:6, 58-60 Frooman, J. (1997). ‘Socially irresponsible and illegal behaviour and shareholder wealth.’

Business & Society, 36(3), 221–249. Hymes, D. (1972). ‘Models of the interaction of language and social life.’ In J. Gumperz & D.

Hymes (Eds.), Directions in sociolinguistics: The ethnography of communication (pp. l-72). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Van Dyne, L., Ang, S., and Nielsen, T.M. (2007), ‘Cultural Intelligence,’ in International

Encyclopedia of Organization Studies, eds. S. Clegg and J. Bailey, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 345– 350.

Sexton, R & Staudt, V (1957) ‘The Clinic Approach to Business Communication’, The Journal

of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, 44:1, 109-110


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7. Appendix

Appendix A

Typical 4 Steps

1. Each clinic member takes a battery of standardized diagnostic tests of intelligence, reading ability, vocabulary, English usage, and critical thinking.

2. A work sample of his writing is submitted by each individual, and a speech recording is made by each as well.

3. Each participant prepares a self-report of his problems in writing, reading, and speech.

4. In an interview which the clinic director schedules with each participant to analyse his individual problems and objectives in communication, the self-appraisal and the summary profile of test findings together are interpreted and discussed.

Buddong Systems Case Study Analysis

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