Introduction
Communication is one of the most important elements in a firm’s operations. Through effective communication, a firm can establish a strong relationship with the various organizational stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, government, and employees amongst others (Griffin, 2011).
In the course of executing their duties, business executives experience communication problems, and thus they are concerned on how to understand better the various stakeholders especially the employees. Jackson (2006) is of the opinion that it is paramount for firms’ management teams to overcome internal and external communication barriers.
The communication interactions and approaches adopted by organizations directly influence the functioning of their departments and hence their overall business performance. This paper evaluates the case of Jebel Ali Free Zone in a bid to develop a better understanding of the communication difficulties experienced by organizations.
The paper also evaluates a number of barriers and difficulties that the firm experiences in its communication processes. They include the existence of cultural barriers, lack of feedback, lack of clarity, system design faults, and lack of honesty and complexity of the organization. Finally, the paper proposes a number of solutions to deal with these problems.
General information about Jebel Ali Free Zone
Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) was established in 1985. It is a member of the UAE’s Economic Zone World. In its operation, Jafza is committed at delivering optimal customer service. Its commitment to customer service enabled Jafza to attain ISO 9001: 2000 certification (Business Services, 2012, Para. 1).
Since its establishment, the organization has undergone a significant transformation. Currently it acts as a hub for over 6,700 companies, which are both domestic and foreign companies. The companies are from 150 different countries across the globe. The organization was founded on the premise of becoming an international business hub.
Its establishment was also intended at providing its clients with an opportunity to access a wide range of valuable business features such as optimal location, effective and efficient infrastructure, and logistics. Over the years, the organization has become a key driver within the rapidly growing United Arabs Emirates economy (Business Services, 2012).
The organization is situated at Dubai, which serves as an optimal midway between various continents such as Africa, Europe, and Asia. Consequently, Jafza provides its clients with the opportunity to increase their customer base. As an international business hub, Jafza enables businesses to access a customer base of over 2 million people.
Jafza also acts as a gateway to other economies within the United Arabs Emirates, Middle East, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which are less than 24 hours away. The zone is located between Al Maktoum International Airport, the largest container port, and Jebel Ali Port in Dubai, which ranks as the sixth biggest cargo port.
Jafza is unique in that there is no other free zone that lies between two major logistic enablers. The organization also prides in a 6-lane highway, which facilitates transportation of custom bound goods between ports within 20 minutes. Establishment of an effective and efficient infrastructure is one of Jafza’s key strengths (Business Services, 2012).
In a bid to increase its client base, Jafza has incorporated a number of commercial incentives such as full repatriation of capital and profit earned from the firm’s operations, zero income and corporate taxes for the duration of fifty years, 100 per cent foreign ownership and elimination of local labor restrictions for investors.
Additionally, Jafza has also eliminated currency restrictions. The organization also provides diverse state-of-the-art facilities some of which include Light Industrial Unites (LIU), warehouse and showroom facilities, land, and office space. The purpose of establishing the light industrial units was to provide clients with an opportunity to store their light industrial products and undertake light assembling and production.
The firm ensures that the LIUs are adequately supplied with sufficient power, which enables them to undertake their business operations smoothly. Other facilities that LIUs have include sufficient parking space and a container loading dock. Jafza has established eight blocks, which compose the 68 showroom-cum-warehouses to meet the needs of its clients. The rooms serve various purposes such as distribution, display, and storage. On the other hand, Jafza owns a sizeable plot of land, which is available for leasing.
Management problem – communication difficulties Jafza
Jafza is cognizant of the importance of attaining operational efficiency. Consequently, the firm has established a number of departments, which include sales and marketing, property, civil engineering, and administrative services departments (Business Services, 2012, Para. 3). The departments’ operations aim at attaining one objective, which is to appraise the applications made by the various clients who intend to establish their operations in the Free Zone.
Upon the client’s approval, the departments provide additional vital services to clients. In spite of existence of goal congruence between the various departments, their responsibilities differ. Successful communication forms the foundation of Jafza’s operations. However, in the course of its operation, Jafza faces a number of communication difficulties as discussed below.
Cultural barriers
Culture is one of the major issues that organizations have to take into account in the course of their operations (Krizan, 2011). However, companies that are involved in cross-border activities are the most affected by the existence of cross-border cultural differences. In its operation, Jafza has established itself as an international business hub. Consequently, the firm faces a number of cultural challenges.
Jafza serves clients who are characterized by diverse language and cultural backgrounds. The cultural differences emanate from the fact that the clients come from different countries. Some of the major cultural differences that Jafza experiences are associated with differences in ethnicity, physical challenge, religion, lifestyle, age, and gender. Consequently, the firm experiences a number of communication barriers.
One of the main cultural barriers associates with cultural ethnocentrism and relativism. According to Krizan (2011), cultural relativism emanates from differences in values and behaviors amongst the parties involved. One of the standards of measuring cultural relativism is ethics such as what one culture considers being right or wrong.
By developing such an approach, some of the Jafza’s employees experience a challenge in the process of interpreting the intended meaning by the clients. On the other hand, the firm also experiences communication difficulties within its departments due to ethnocentrism.
In a bid to develop a strong human resource base, Jafza has sourced its employees from different countries. However, some of the employees consider their culture as more superior compared to other cultures. As a result, this aspect leads to lack of effective collaboration between the firm’s departments. Collaboration between departments in an organization is attainable by ensuring effective communication.
Despite the existence of similarities between employee behaviors, their culture may be completely different, which leads to the formation of stereotypes and distrust amongst employees in various departments.
In its operation, Jafza experiences a major problem due to the existence of stereotypes within its departments, which fail to appreciate the importance of cultural diversity. Consequently, the firm suffers through reduction in the level of integration between departments.
Additionally, some employees in Jafza departments consider their culture as superior to others. Consequently, they prefer working with employees of their cultural background compared to others. This aspect means that there is a substantial level of distrust amongst the firm’s employees. However, the success of Jafza is dependent on the operations of all the departments. Existence of communication difficulties due to cultural barriers is adversely affecting teamwork within the firm.
Considering the fact that Jafza deals with a wide range of clients from different countries, the organization has to deal with the issue of cultural diversity. In an effort to deal with this challenge, Jafza has to train its workforce continuously to manage the existing communication gaps effectively.
One of the issues, which the firm has to focus on in its training process entails helping the employees to appreciate cultural diversity. Additionally, Jafza has to ensure that its employees in the various departments are bilingual (Hartley, Chatterton, & Bruckmann, 2002).
Lack of feedback
For complete communication cycle, there has to be feedback from the intended recipient (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2008). The feedback enables the initiator of the communication process to determine whether the recipient has understood the intended message. Decoding the sent message is paramount in ensuring the implementation of the appropriate action. However, Jafza’s communication process faces a major challenge due to lack of feedback.
One of the factors that lead to lack of feedback associates with ineffective collaboration between the various departments. In the course of executing their duties, the firm’s departments carry diverse responsibilities. For example, the sales and marketing department is charged with the responsibility of receiving, approving, and analyzing the applications made by clients.
On the other hand, the civil engineering department’s responsibility entails analyzing the clients’ projects. Therefore, operations of the two departments are interlinked. The civil engineering department cannot execute its duties if the sales and marketing department receives the applications and fail to communicate the same.
Lack of clarity
In a bid to attain the desired effectiveness in the communication process, it is paramount for the firms’ management teams to ensure that the employees understand the intended message. However, there are some instances when the message is not adequately decoded (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2008).
One of the reasons why the message may not be understood is associated with the fact that the employees might interpret the message differently. In the course of its operation, Jafza experiences a major challenge in communicating to the various departments, which arises from the fact that there are some instances when the message is not clear. This aspect forces the employees to act in a manner that is contradictory to the intended action.
System design faults
Considering the importance of communication within and across departments, most organizations are cognizant of the importance of implementing communication systems and structures. One of the communication systems that firms should implement relates to information communication system.
In the course of its operation, Jafza has implemented an information communication system across all its departments. However, the communication system is not well configured to meet the firm’s communication needs. Consequently, Jafza has been experiencing a major challenge when communicating to its employees and clients (Means & Rankin, 2010).
The communication system entails relying on the clients and employees’ personal emails IDs. This element presents a major challenge because the firm would not have managed to track the clients or employees in the event they left Jafza. Additionally, the firm also faced a challenge because most clients lost their email IDs.
Consequently, Jafza suffered a major challenge with regard to implementing and maintaining an effective and reliable e-mail communication system especially with regard to its clients operating outside the free zone. Therefore, to improve the efficiency of its customer service delivery, Jafza needed an effective communication channel that would improve communication consistency.
Lack of honesty
Honesty is one of the indispensable elements of every successful business entity, and the lack of the same is a clear indication of an imminent failure. During difficult times such as recession, Jafza experiences a major challenge in its communication process. The challenge emanates from the fact that employees may not be honest in their communication process.
For example, during difficult times, the firm requires employees to give honest answers on some of the issues that the firm is facing. However, upon sensing the problems, the employees may fail to issue the intended information.
Complexity of the organization
According to Fielding (2006, p. 20), organizations experience a challenge due to the existence of numerous people to whom the message should be passed. Passing information to many individuals may result in the message being distorted due to extensive filtering and omission errors as the message is being passed on from one party to another.
This phenomenon is very rife in Jafza due to the hierarchical organizational structure that the firm has adopted. In an effort to meet the customers’ needs, the firm has organized itself into a number of departments, which include sales and marketing department, administrative services department, civil engineering department, and the property department.
The operations of every department are greatly dependent on other departments. As a result, the firm experiences communication breakdown due to the occurrence of distortions and omissions.
Solutions to deal with the problem
In order to continue with its high rate of growth, it is paramount for Jafza to deal with the communication difficulties experienced, and to achieve this objective, the firm should take into account a number of issues as outlined below.
Incorporating an audience-centered approach
Jafza should incorporate effective measures to deal with communication difficulties across and within departments arising from the existence of cultural differences. Firstly, the firm should stimulate the employees to appreciate the prevailing cultural diversity, and to achieve this goal, the firm should ensure that the employees understand each other’s cultural differences with regard to education, race, religion, status, gender.
This move will play an important role in eliminating discrimination amongst employees. Thus, the firm will undertake effective communication. One of the ways through which this goal is attainable is by taking into account the message needs of the intended receiver.
Fostering an open-communication environment
Existence of restrictive environment is one of the reasons why organizations are not efficient in their communication process, and to deal with this challenge, Jafza should ensure that there is open communication. One of the ways through which the firm can achieve this aspect is by modifying the number of organizational level.
For example, the firm can adopt a more flat organizational structure, which will lead to an improvement in the degree of interaction between the firm’s departments.
Additionally, Jafza should ensure that it incorporates the concept of teamwork. The firm should assign some responsibilities to employees from various departments. This move will play an important role in improving the level of trust amongst employees, and thus there will be an increment in the rate of interaction amongst employees, hence improving communication (Fielding, 2006, p. 20).
Incorporating ethical communication
Jafza should ensure that it integrates ethical communication to improve the effectiveness and efficiency with which it delivers its customer service. The firm can achieve this goal by motivating employees to be transparent in their communication process. Therefore, they should desist from all deceptive tactics and issuing negative information.
Improve the efficiency of the message
Jafza is a very complex organization; therefore, it is important for the firm to ensure that it creates lean and efficient messages. In a bid to achieve this objective, the firm should motivate departments to report in a concise manner, for such a move will play an important role in preventing the audience from losing interest in reading the intended message.
Additionally, incorporation of lean messages will tend to increase the level of concentration amongst the employees. By keeping the messages lean, the firm will avoid overloading its information communication network (Fielding, 2006, p. 20).
Updating its communication infrastructure
In an attempt to deal with the communication systems challenge, Jafza outsourced the services of FVC, a renowned value added distributor of Google Enterprise solutions in North Africa and the Middle East. The firm offers a wide range of e-mail solutions specifically the ready-to-use email solutions.
In addition to being secure, the email solution provided by FVC is also compatible with that of Jafza and its clients. The technology utilizes Google’s cloud computing technology. Additionally, the technology can be implemented immediately and accommodate numerous users of information communication without undertaking major infrastructural changes.
By outsourcing, the services of FVC, Jafza has been in a position to deal with the communication challenge it experienced due to system design defaults. One of the ways through which the firm has benefited is that it has customized its clients and employees’ e-email addresses.
Employees can use addresses such @jafzamail.com. Through this technology, the firm’s management team can communicate with its employees and clients. Additionally, the firm has continued to ensure that it maintains the integrity of the communication medium. One of the ways through which the firm has attained this aspect is by ensuring that there is a two-way communication amongst the firm, its clients, and employees. Implementation of technology has extensively benefited the firm.
For example, its deployment is both quick and convenient. Additionally, the firm is not required to undertake extensive training in enabling the employees and clients to use the technology. Therefore, the firm has minimized the cost of implementing the new technology in addition to improving its communication effectiveness and efficiency.
Conclusion
This analysis underscores the importance of communication within an organization. However, firms experience numerous communication challenges in their operations. Due to its cross-border operations, Jafza experiences numerous cultural barriers in its communication process.
These barriers emanate from the existence of cultural diversity amongst the firm’s employees, which is well illustrated by the fact that some employees consider their culture as more superior compared to that of their fellow colleagues. Consequently, stereotypes emerge within the organization.
The cultural differences also lead to the emergence of an inefficient feedback mechanism due to language barriers, thus leading to lack of inter-departmental collaboration. Lack of collaboration has adverse effects on the firm’s operational efficiency. System default designs are another factor that had adversely affected the firm’s communication process.
As a result, the firm’s management team could not stay in touch with the firm’s employees and its clients. Lack of honesty amongst its employees is another challenge that the firm experienced in its communication process. Some employees were not willing to give transparent information regarding the firm’s operations.
In a bid to deal with the communication difficulties due to the system default design, Jafza has incorporated a new Google email solution. The new system has significantly improved the firm’s communication effectiveness and efficiency. In spite of this move, the firm should address a number of issues.
Firstly, the firm should incorporate an audience-centered approach, which will improve its focus on the communication needs of the employees. It is also important for the firm to foster open communication in the firm by adopting a lean organization structure. This move will reduce the complexity associated with the reporting process. Fostering ethical communication practices will also improve the firm’s communication efficiency. Additionally, the firm should continuously update its communication infrastructure
Reference List
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Jackson, J. (2006). The organization and its communication problems. Journal of Communication, 9(4), 158-167.
Krizan, A. (2011). Business communication. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Lunenburg, F., & Ornstein, A. (2008). Educational administration: concepts and practices. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Means, T., & Rankin, D. (2010). Business communication. Mason, OH: South Western Cengage Learning.