Communication Strategies

Identify and explain the potential benefits of conflict

Conflict is beneficial in a number of ways. First, it is through conflict that members of the community acknowledge and resolve unethical behavior. By this, conflict in an organization serves the crucial role of promoting awareness among members of problematic situations that exist in an organization. Another benefit of conflict is that it motivates members to consider, appreciate to find solutions to problems, a factor which brings positive change in the organization. In addition, conflict enhances morale and cohesion among members of the organization.

According to management professionals, the open discussion in resolving a conflict is instrumental in improve acceptability, appreciation, and commitment of the team members in implementing decisions. Therefore, conflicts can function to strengthen interpersonal relations among community members. To the organization, conflicts are instrumental in influencing high quality decision making for the benefit of the organization. Conflict leads to the legitimizing of individual or group interests. It is commonly asserted that it is only by saying ones heart that others get to understand and appreciate you.

This is because such exposes ones personality in an organization, an element which is vital in establishing strong interpersonal relations among team members. Thus, conflict is important in legitimating peoples interests. Still, conflict is beneficial in stimulating and sustaining interests and creativity among members of an organization. Innovation or creative resolving of underlying problems in an organization is crucial for the long term sustainable development in the organization.

On the other hand, conflict among members serves the ultimate purpose of identifying and dictating for resolution of complex issues affecting an organization. This has the implication that positive conflicts promote creativity among members.

Our ability to listen effectively is compromised by a number of internal factors. First, being emotional during a conversation negates ones ability to listen. It is commonly asserted that the receiver during a conversation must be aware of their emotions. For example, engaging in messages that are offensive to the listener threatens a potential breakdown of the communication process. The second factor hindering communication is failure to allow the sender to finish before giving a response. It is a common problem with poor listeners to be judgmental and conclusive during the communication process. This has the ultimate purpose of demoralizing the speaker with reactions. In addition, drawing early conclusions can lead to negative response from the speaker. It is worth noting that it is hard for an individual to speak and listen at the same time.

Another internal factor hindering has from listening is faking attention. It has been established that the behavior by some individuals to fake attention is quite detrimental to the listening and communication practice. On the other hand, the practice of faking attention is not only offensive but also hard to hide the speaker. This factor encompasses practices like being distracted or turning out during a conversation. The last factor compromising our listening ability is personal attitude or perception of the speaker. According to psychological evidence, speech acceptability by the audience factors much in defining their listening. Still, speech appreciation by the audience depends of their perception of the character of the speaker and the relevance of the speech in the community. Therefore, attitude and personal perception is a major internal factor hindering our listening.

Intercultural communication is the process of exchanging both meaningful and non-meaningful information across people of different cultures and in a way this reduces misunderstanding and it enhances mutual respect (Bennett, 1998). In the modern world, we have a variety of cultures living with us so one must learn to cope. It is important for a person to be conversant with simple things like the greetings, knowing their types of food and the things that to them might appear inappropriate (Bennett, 1998). Although it is not necessary that you know this things into detail little knowledge of them may help you secure their respect and trust. When it comes to a firm or an organization, it becomes very important for an individual to know how to communicate with the people of a different culture other than which they hail from starting from the senior most to the junior most employees.

Internationally it has created a social pathway that allows people to exchange ideas and this helps in important issues such as in the international trade. In a global aspect, the uses are more or less the same as in the international and day-to-day uses in dealing with many people from different cultures (Bennett, 1998). There are two types of communication in the business world normally used and these are verbal and non-verbal communication. Failure to communicate in an appropriate manner leads to information breakdown, which in most cases is disastrous to a business because it may lead to people who are not satisfied for instance the customers, suppliers and even employees. Good communication is a very important base for a successful and profitable business because with poor communication you tend to loose your workers faith, trust and decrease their motivation meaning they will end up giving the client poor service. In the end, this leads to the business running losses instead of much required profits.

Strategies
Communication strategy is developing of a way of communicating to people you are targeting for example workers and customers trying to sell your idea to them and to create awareness of a certain issues (Bennett, 1998). Many firms now days are making sure that the management teams have the intercultural communication skills. The reason to this is that these days organizatons contain many people from many different cultures and when communicating to people you do it in an appropriate manner for instance avoiding some expressions that may be misinterpreted and you end up embarrassed and your intended message not passed. This leads to a communication breakdown and the workers may end up doing the direct opposite and the impact of this is unwanted losses. Workers like supervisors also need the intercultural communication skills to be able to communicate to the workers under them in a cool, respectful and polite but assertive way hence avoiding shouting that may seem confrontational to some of the workers (Bennett, 1998).

These lead to a motivated work force that gives good results and in the end the results are usually good profits. Employees in the same rank also need the intercultural communication know how for effective communication for instance using a language the other understands during telephone conversations and simple aspects like respect and avoiding racist remarks that one does not need training to have and this is to avoid a communication breakdown that is bad for business (Bennett, 1998). The most tricky and important part comes when communicating to consumers. When a firm wants to cater for a global, multicultural and international market the choice of language, expressions and symbols to promote or advertise your product becomes a very tricky piece of work. To communicate to people you must be careful not to sound racist, insulting, you must also show some respect for their cultures and at the same time be creative enough to market and sell your products. This calls for a lot of research and knowledge of the markets that you as a firm want to position yourselves to the many cultures internationally and the whole world at large.

Implications
Inter cultural communication has had both negative and positive implications in the business world. Generally, it has increased the budgets over the years for firms who want to cater for the many cultures in the world. This is because of the communication training given to some of the workers and costs of market research, which lead to some firms having to face the tough decision of having to close its operations of serving a wider market consisting of the many cultures both internationally and globally (Bennett, 1998). This means you must have the financial strength to undertake a business venture towards that direction.

To the firms involved and with the financial ability intercultural communication has helped them widen their market and increase profits and this has led to rise of very successful companies like the coca cola company. International communication has also made it possible to get increased cheap and skilled labor from the multicultural, international and global firms this leads to increased productivity and cheaper goods and services (Bennett, 1998). Intercultural communication has improved understanding between many nations and this has made countries come to agreements of reducing tariffs and taxes incurred by foreign investors hence leading to many firms being able to cater for a wider multicultural, international and global market and in addition offering cheaper goods and services to the consumers.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, intercultural communication is a very important aspect of business today although many people might view as just being a way of socializing without any benefits. If you deeply look at it, you will notice it is the basis if you want to make money in a different country apart from where you come from country and more especially among a different culture of people (Bennett, 1998). This is because communication is the key to business anywhere in the world. This is why many firms that have a plan of serving a multicultural society are investing in their employees training like the management teams to have multicultural communication skills.

With the advent of globalization, borders have been transcended, so much so that the workforce has become truly global. The market for labor now goes beyond nationalities and in fact tries to encompass as many cultures as possible in order to harness the synergies created by multicultural diversity.

This is turn has created a multitude of management and Human resource issues that seek solutions in organizations communications strategies, to manage and satisfy all employees regardless of  their ethnicity.

Intercultural Communication when handled professionally and profoundly can become a competitive advantage for the company who masters the art of keeping their people happy and contented.
With regards to everyday situations, a company that operates or conducts business in many geographical localities and countries is bound to come face-to-face with intercultural communications. Take the example of PG, which is headquartered in the US but has operations and country offices in more than 180 countries, serving a multitude of customers coming from various backgrounds. In light of this PG needs a workforce that comes from the very same background to understand its target market and design strategies in order to gain the maximum out of them.

Real-Life case Scenario
Consider the scenario where the manager at PG is American, while the subordinates are Arab and Chinese. In such a case intercultural communication would truly need to be maximized in order to even communicate.

In order for a manager to communicate effectively with the people from various cultures, the cultural dimensions of each of the countries that the subordinates belong to will have to be taken into consideration.

Cultural Dimensions
Culture is a subjective value to measure and that is why various dimensions of culture and values have culminated into a ranking measure provided by Geert Hofstede in order to help quantify, to an extent how various cultures compare to each other.

The dimensions that are scaled on the Hofstede measures include, Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity (MAS), Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) and Long-Term Orientation (LTO).

Summarizing what each of these dimensions entail, PDI measures how the weaker members of a cultural group or institution are treated and how they perceive the power distribution. It could be equal or unequal and this illustrates how a societys weaker individuals accept that power distribution. Some societies might accept it as a part of life and some may view it as a weakness. No matter what the case, inequality exists and it is how the members perceive it and whether or not they want to change it that quantifies this dimension. Moreover, where PDI is high, senior members have more power and exert more influence and are respected and awed by the weaker or less significant members.

IDV is measures again collectivism. This scales how a society holds together and how the individual members of the society view their ambitions and goals versus that of the society or the group. Countries high on IDV have individuals who are looking to further their own goals even if it is at the expense of the group. Moreover in an individualistic society, organizations tend to hire on the basis of merit of the individual and his or her qualifications vis--vis collectivist societies which tend to protect the interests of the employees at large and might retain employees while incurring higher costs rather than take in new and more efficient people.

Another scale is the MAS which is one extreme in the continuum. The other is femininity. The MAS extreme consists of an assertive attitude that is more result oriented in a society versus the softer, feminine skills.  The dimension measures these values to see which is more predominant in a society. For countries with a high MAS, they are more assertive in their goals and are more ambitious in terms of technological advancements where are those high on femininity are more focused on peoples welfare and their issues.

The UAI measures how a society responds to uncertainty and risky situations where much of the information is unknown.  Countries that rate low on UAI are generally more tolerant of half-truths and are comfortable with risky situations, knowing how to tackle them in their stride. Whereas in countries that rate high on this index are more prone to being more structured and systematic and are very focused on finding as much information as they can about a situation to deal with it. A high UAI indicates that the people are geared towards seeking the truth and the facts about everything before they decide on anything. Whereas a low UAI means that people are more willing to work in loosely structured environment with a minimal of rules and are more tolerant toward view points other than their own or the authorities.

Long-Term Orientation (LTO) is the last dimension that the Hofstede scale measures. Long-term oriented societies are generally more prone to value time as a tool for getting where they want to be. Such societies persevere despite of the conditions and prepare for the future even if they have to incur short-term losses to achieve this end.

These scales, while subjective and prone to human bias are a very useful tool in comparing societies and eventually helping managers faced with a diverse set of employees understand and communicate better.

Arab Cultural Dimensions
With regards to Hofstede analysis for Saudi Arabia, the country is seen to have a large power distance and high on uncertainty avoidance, which means that the leadership separates itself from the masses and has little interaction with them and what the king says, is the law while opponents are punished severely. This also means that specific and detailed instructions are issued on every matter and there is no space left for ambiguity. These two scales when seen in combination indicate that the authorities have all the power and that they are not held accountable for any of their actions, which may be detrimental to the very spirit of Islam, which they claim to abide by.
     
Another Hofstede characteristic indicates that Saudi Arabia ranks very low on the Individualism (IDV) ranking at 38, compared to a world average ranking of 64.1 This indicates that people are not very individualistic and tend to think of themselves as part of the group. This also implies that people put family and community before themselves and group goals are met before any individual aims are pursued while loyalty to the group and family is prioritized over any other values.

Chinese Cultural Dimensions
The most striking factor about the Chinese is that they are a very collectivist society and that the team or the organizations values are given more priority over any other individual objectives, hence the Chinese rank very low on the individualism index. In fact it is even lower than any other Asian countries rakings.

In addition to this, the Chinese are high on LTO, and low on UCI. They have a high power distance which is generally true of collectivist societies that place high importance on seniority. As per the Masculinity measure, China is more focused on its people having communist roots and therefore is more masculine than feminine in its cultural dimensions.

Personal Communications and Methods of Improving Communication Competencies
Before trying to improve communication competencies one should keep in mind the barriers to effective communication. This follows from theory that problem identification is the first step in problem resolution. The barriers to great communication are physical, cultural, perceptual, emotional, language, gender, and interpersonal. In the situation we are considering, all these apply in varying degrees. With regards to this scenario and backdrop, the main concern here are the language, cultural, perceptual and emotional barriers.

In order to improve the groups communication competencies it is important that each know what background the other is coming from in order to better understand their colleagues. This is important not only in terms of the top-down and bottom-up flow of communication, it is also important for a horizontal flow of communication as colleagues need to understand each other to do better team work.

Therefore, as a solution, a preliminary presentation should be in place where each person in the team, including the manager details their cultures and about their expectations from working in that group. This presentation will be of vital importance where all the learning of effective communication needs to be applied. The presenter should make the right word choice and ensure that his body language and the image that he portrays convey the message that he indeed does care about getting along with his co-workers. In addition to this, the presenters should each in turn ensure that their sincerity is conveyed via their non-verbal communications i.e. their demeanor, body language, aides to presentation, pitch and clothing. All these will factor in conveying the right meta-message that the presenter wants to genuinely work together and be on the same wavelength in order to facilitate team-work.

However an issue that arises out of this ideal scenario is that one member might take advantage of others. This is the case for ethics in communications. This is because it is compulsory for the workers to give out cultural information about themselves and their expectations. This is the reason why those who give out correct and genuine information about themselves are at a risk of being manipulated. For example the American manager might think that he can easily persuade the Chinese employee to forgo his own goals for that of the team and in the meanwhile the American manager would be furthering his own personal motives. This may lead to ill-will and manipulative games at the end of the manager. And once the employee realizes that he is being used, chaos may ensue.

Therefore in order to protect the employees interests an external check by the higher-ups should be done on a regular basis as should informal evaluation where the employees and their manager all have a chance to speak for themselves and describe their experiences so that it can be readily assessed as to who should be given credit for the work done.

Another factor in improving communications competencies should be that rather than deciding on one language, which should be the case initially, each member try and learn the others language in order to fully realize the power of each language as there are nuances and subtleties in each language that the other cannot full capture. This may be time consuming, but it can be done at the expense of added incentives in order to achieve long-term coordination.

This solution will be particularly useful in dealing with conflicts caused by communication barriers as in our case here, difference in language too is a barrier.

Words have the power to create and affect attitudes, behavior, and perception.
Words have indeed the power to create and affect attitudes and influence behavior and perceptions. A difference in word choice can change the imagery created. For example, fire described as an orange, cozy flame warming the soul and a cruel red tongue consuming all within its reach creates different emotions by way of words in the minds of the receiver. These words describe the same element, but create a different imagery, the same way different words hold different meaning in different cultures. For the Arab, words such as family would describe a setting where he is the leader and members have to all but listen to him. Whereas to the Chinese this word would entail a collective group of his immediate and extended family where the head is  his grandfather and he is considered as an important but less powerful and less significant member. Therefore when the manager wishes to appeal to the employees roots he should be very careful in referring to family, because while for the Arab, the Arab might be the sole provider, the Chinese employee would feel that the manager was trying to make him feel insignificant in the decision making processes.

Strategies for managing interpersonal conflicts
Interpersonal conflicts can gain precedence in this example where there is a variety of cultures and hence barriers in place.

There are several factors that need to consider before proceeding to managing conflicts. These factors are your relationship, the situation, the other person whom you are in conflict with and your goals.
Keeping all these in view, if there are problems between the manager and the employee then the manager should try and focus on what the basic issue was. Having a boss, sub-ordinate relationship can mean that the manager can fall into the trap of dictating a solution which the employee will have to follow. However this is not the solution as the employee will still feel that the decision is imposed on him rather than there being a mutually agreeable solution. Therefore in considering the relationship, the manager should avoid the trap of dictation and try and forge a solution that takes into account both their perspectives.  If the situation is such that a joint decision should be taken fast and there are interpersonal conflicts among the culturally diverse team, the American will know that the two belong to collectivist cultures and he can persuade than that the decision is for the betterment of them all and that they all will benefit with the differences set aside. Another factor to consider here is the goal of the manager or the parties involved. When the aggregate goal in kept in mind, many conflicts resolve easily as there tends to be agreement on mutually beneficial issues. Moreover when one considers the background of the relationship with the other person involved and is reminded of the positives, that person is easily brought in for negotiations.

Conclusion
This course on effective communication has been very helpful in realizing and understanding fully the importance of communications and has bought to light simple solutions that have existed always but have not been implemented because their simplicity has been viewed with suspicion.
Thus it is imperative that even in everyday situations, if we consider these aspects of conflict resolution and are more tolerant problems can be resolved easily. Furthermore, when everyone is geared to find a win-win situation there can be better conflict resolution and a much more peaceful society than which exists.

The recent enactment of the healthcare bill was meant to streamline the operations of the healthcare sector that has been regarded as deficient in different ways. In deed, the industry has witnessed many deficiencies including increased number of people without healthcare coverage and near bankruptcy of healthcare organizations. As we enter into the transition period, there is tension since the impact of the healthcare care bill is still unknown. Since the system may remain as it is for a long time before new legislation makes an impact, there is need to stay focused on the provision of healthcare to the target population.

As you read this article, you should understand that the Institute for Family Health aims at providing healthcare for the underserved population. The mission of the Institute for Family Health is to improve the quality and availability of family practice services that fits the needs of medically underserved population.  This is achieved through different services including development of healthcare facilities which operates on a family practice model, training healthcare professionals, engaging in health service research on primary healthcare, formulating health policies supporting direct patient care, and promoting diversity of its workforce (The Institute for Family Health, 2010). Therefore, one of the most important activity in achieving its mission is to develop and operate health facilities which are based on family practice model and integrating the works of a number of healthcare professionals.  To achieve this noble objective of providing the best healthcare services for you, the Institute for Family Health is in the process of acquiring North General Hospital which is on the verge of collapsing due to bankruptcy.   The acquisition is likely to affect the operation of the Institute for Family Health in different ways but you should be assured of continued operation of the facility at your service.

North General Hospital has served the people living around Harlem for more than 30 years. This area has a population of about 117,743 people in East Harlem and 151,113 people in Central Harlem (North General Hospital, 2010). The communities living east and Central Harlem are considered poorest in New York City with 7 out of 10 residents being African Americans. The bankruptcy of North General Hospital has not been by accident. It has been orchestrated by the operation factors in the healthcare system that is considered flawed by any standard. I feel that our healthcare system has not been well formulated and this may be the reason why some healthcare facilities like North General Hospital are collapsing. Then new healthcare bill is staged to revolutionize the provision of healthcare but as the fear fall in the industry about the uncertainty of the impact of the new healthcare bill, there is need to maintain sobriety and realize that the healthcare system is meant to serve Americans and there is no need to get tensed and regret the noble goal.

The Institute for Family Health may also be uncertain about the impact of new healthcare legislation. However, the hospital management has not neglected its goal of providing healthcare for the deserving cases. You should be aware that the operation of the Institute of Family Health and North General Hospital will not be affected by the new legislation. Institute for Family Health acquisition of North General Hospital can be considered as a way of ensuring continued provision of healthcare to Harlem community. The new healthcare bill is meant to improve healthcare delivery system in the country and, by all means, stakeholders will do what they can to ensure that it fulfills its mandate.  Even though the new healthcare law has been enacted, it is important that the Institute for Family Health ensure continued operation of North General Hospital in order to meet the healthcare need of the Harlem community. I would call all leaders and concerned stakeholders in Institute for Family Health to do all they can to ensure that North General Hospital continue to offer services as before. Leaders and all staff at Institute for Family Health and North General Hospital will strive despite the odds, to provide medical services to the community.

Communication has no specific description but main essence of it revolves around conveyance, exchanging, giving or sharing of ideas  information. Communication can be both verbal and nonverbal. Communication takes place all around us in school, colleges, homes, markets and most importantly businesses. Businesses use communication in Public Relations (PR) to maintain image of company toward public, organizations, and programs and to gather employees, customers, investors or even general public. For effective communication, message should be clearly conveyed and interpreted by both parties. Our communication, perception and interaction can greatly be effected by noise, which is a barrier in communication. Literal meaning of noise is not what is meant here. Noise can be anything that effect communication in one way or another.

Some people are better at communication for several of reasons. They convey their message easily because they are extremely good listeners and to be a good communicator first key is effective listening. They are patient listeners and try to read between the lines of the communication. This makes their grip on the subject matter very sound. This in turns helps them to communicate effectively. Along with effective listening, they have good presentation skills and have ability to make sure that each word is understood by the audience. They have clear vision of the message to be conveyed and are well prepared for it. Simplicity in conveyance also makes them better communicators. All of this comes down to effective listening for effective communication.

Yes, I somewhat agree to this. The advancement in IT and other technological advancements in internet usage have proved beneficial for companies to advertise on internet. This trend is increasing rapidly and with the creation of facebook, skype, twitter, other social networking sites and many other web platforms has made companies go for internet advertising more. People of almost all age groups have now easy access and availability of internet. So this mode of communication is becoming more important for organizations and will continue in future. But nevertheless, newspaper has always been more accessible and easy to carry source of information. Newspaper will lose some of its significance but this mode of advertising can not be ignored by organizations.

A persuasive text is a writing that can cause somebody to believe the truth about something, and has power to tempt action or believe. Duo process theories provide an account on how an occurrence can occur in to different ways. Verbalized explicit processes or attitudes may change with persuasion. Persuasion is found everywhere and the persuaders make one to believe them, get what they have and trust them (Larson, 2009). They use languages or images that make one believe or take an action. The following is an example of persuasive text, If you think what you have been using to clean your mouth is right then you are wrong, Sensodine is the best for you, it eliminates sensitivity and bad smell in your mouth. Hurry before we clear the stock, the price is consumer friendly. This particular text communicates because along side it there were some illustrations showing very white and was surrounded by blinking images which were meant to trap eyes of the readers.

The text was meant to advertises this particular product and convince the consumers that their teeth will be the same as of this person in the picture. The advertiser has assumed that customers will not make a scrutiny of this product when he writes that it is the only product that can eliminate sensitivity and bad smell. The text has made some conclusions that seem to be true for example the product will remove bad smell in the mouth meaning that those ho will buy have a problem of bad odour and need sensodine. The advertiser has come up with this conclusion because he is aware of the problem that is affecting many people.

There is no evidence of whether the text is true or valid. There is the use of linked assertions that somehow seems to be reasonable but if they are examined logically, they will be incorrect. The text has deliberately used assertions by using logic that seems to be valid and persuasive. There is a possibility of this advertiser landing into risk if somebody realizes his false logic.

The reasoning of the advertiser was vague because he assumed that more customers will turn up on hearing that the stock will end while at the same time he forgets that many may not buy thinking that after a short while it will run out of stock. Therefore, they may lack a place to replace another one and may lack confidence in it.

The text has used syllogism reasoning because it contains a lot of generalization of the product that the public has been using as not having the same result as sensodine. The advertiser only considered his product as the best without considering that some people could have used it and did not get better results.

Duo process theory is well use in this text and at the same time elaboration likelihood model is present (Larson, 2009). In this text, a customer will have conscious scrutiny of the product before making his final judgment. The customer will make a careful scrutiny of various chemicals that make up this product and at the same time check on expirely date. The customer will do his evaluation and check the effectiveness of the product. The text  has put motivation to many because the customer will hurry up to buy it before it runs out of stock and at the same time safe thinking that what she had been using is very expensive. Therefore, he will do his best to see that he has attempted this product.
The consumer will use a comprehensive route before he makes his final judgment regarding this advertisement. For example, one can look for somebody who has been using it before purchasing one. The text has some aspect of telling a consumer to act very fast before the stock runs out. The customers judgment will be fast because the price is customer friendly meaning that everyone can afford it.

Once you read this text you will immediately change your attitude towards this product.  There is likelihood that one will like sensodine and hate the previous product. On seeing the advertisement a customer will automatically buy the product, forget the one he was using, and go on encouraging others to use even before experiencing the results. The process will continue, every one convincing each other the advantages of using this product but the truth of the matter is they will not follow one another to confirm that you really used the product.

Conclusion
This particular text was very effective because it was able to hit on what customers look for. The advertiser had used some assertions that really seemed to be true and valid. It has assumptions of being the best product, and eliminates sensitivity and bad smell in the mouth. There is also a believe that it is cheaper than any other product and anyone can afford it. The other thing that could have made this text to be effective is the use of diagrams that are catching the eye.