Communication Structure And Climate In Woolworths: A Survey-Based Essay.

Overview of Woolworths and its Business Strategy

Question:

You should analyse the communication hierarchy and structure of an organisation or another situation if you have not worked in an organisation institution, club, charity, association, school or University in which communication is systemic.

The present report is focused on Woolworths, a large Australian company with extensive retail market in Australia and New Zealand. It is the second largest company in Australia and New Zealand. The mission of the organization is to deliver the best in convenience, value and quality for the customers. Currently, the organization has a team of 205,000 members which serve more than 29 million customers, with different brands. It is a trusted business partner and has collaborations with a large number of local manufacturers and farmers. The strategy of the organization is to build a loyal customer base, and lead a store-led culture and team. The organization proposes to become a lean retailer through system excellence. The primary aim of the organization is to develop a retail team, which focusses on the customers, employees, as well as the suppliers. The organization has developed a specific climate for hard work and integrity. The company also provides opportunity for all the employees to grow within the organization as most of the senior leaders have grown from the shop floor. The strategy of the organization is focused on keeping the customers first. It has a diversified portfolio of business and includes several large brands such as Big W, Quantium and ALH.

Each brand has separate board, which ensures delivery of high shareholder value. The business strategy of the organization is focused on five fundamentals, including the development of one team, refreshment stores, and, reducing the costs, develop cohesive brand and update product offering. The company has built a trustworthy relationship with the partners, which is based on three fundamentals, namely, collaboration, fairness and local sourcing of the products. All the relationships with the suppliers are underpinned on the mutual trust (Papa, Daniels & Spiker, 2007). The company also engages in extensive market research to understand the needs of the customers. Each of the store is fully stocked and the company’s brands are famous in all the households. The intra-organization communication is important in the success of the organization. The communication structure of the organization is important in establishing the communication in the organization.

The communication hierarchy and the structure are analyzed through the medium of a survey. The survey has been conducted with 100 employees working in Australia. All the employees are working at various hierarchy levels of the organization ranging from floor sales executive to sore managers. The different kind of communication strategies and methods used in the company significantly impacts on the service quality and the variety of services provided to the customers. It develops the core competency of the organization as well as impacts on the profitability of the organization.

Effective Communication and Team Dynamics

Leadership and Management Communication Style

The communication is a significant medium, which can be used to influence the perception of others towards self. All the great leaders are great speakers. Moreover, in contrast to the personality traits, communication can be enhanced through training. The leadership influences the internal public communication in an organization. The transformational leadership makes use of the effective communication channels, employee satisfaction and symmetric communication to transmit their message (Scott & Lewis, 2017). The use of face-to-face channels is highly associated with the employee satisfaction. Moreover, most of the employees prefer getting emails for receiving the information regarding the new decisions, policies, events, and changes. In ideal situations, they should be followed by the employee meetings and the interpersonal communication with the managers. The transformational leadership is a communication and leadership style in which the leaders try to create change in the organization. The survey results have yielded that the leadership focuses on positive communication with the team members. All the major changes, policy developments and other organizational features are communicated to the employees through formal and informal communication. A positive organization climate is cultivated in the organization, which promotes transparent and positive communication between different team members.

Figure: Leader focus on Development and Needs

Team and Group Dynamics

The most popular model for the formation of group is Tuckman model, which proposes that there are four stages of group evolution, namely, forming, storming, norming and performing. Later, another stage, called adjourning stage is added. The model further states that in order to facilitate a group, the leader has to move through various leadership styles at a single time. Initially, the leader remains directive, then he needs to serve as a coach, and later, his responsibility shifts to that of the delegator (Harris & Nelson, 2008). In the formation of the group, the team members come together for the first time. At this time, there is formality, anxiety and guardedness. There is high level of uncertainty; therefore, the team members are polite, conflict avoidant, and observant. The storming is another phase, in which all the group members start to feel safe and incorporated within the group. They become more authentic and argumentative. The norming is another phase in which the team members becomes aware of the market competition and work towards the success of the team goals. The performing is another phase in which, the employees are motivated and knowledgeable and becomes competent to achieve the goals of the organization. As per the survey results, the team dynamics and the group formation in the company are appropriate. The company focuses on developing a positive atmosphere in the organization. All the team leaders listen to their colleagues and team members. It is made to realize each team member that they are inclusive and an essential part of the team.

Emotional Intelligence and Communication Climate

Figure: Employer motivation

Emotional Climate of the team

The emotional intelligence refers to the ability of the team members to monitor or control his own and other’s emotions. It is the ability of an individual to differentiate between positive and negative effects of the emotions and use the emotional information to guide one’s behavior and thinking. The emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive the emotions, manage them and use them for the personal growth (Miller, 2012). It is not only individual competency, but also group competency. The emotional intelligence is a skill, which can change the orientation of the team members towards the emotions. The team members can manage their as well as other team member’s emotions, if they have emotional intelligence. The team members should have emotional intelligence to handle the workplace conflicts and increase productivity in the organization. An empathetic atmosphere should be created in the organization, which should facilitate a social and emotional atmosphere in the organization (Ayoko, Callan, & Hartel, 2008).

When the survey respondents were asked about the emotional climate of their team, the respondents stated that they have a positive emotional climate. The team managers motivate the employees and inspire a positive culture. All the team members have strong bonding and they understand the emotions of each other and work to achieve the common goals.

Oral and Written communication process

According to the research findings, the oral and written communication processes have been well-developed and matured in the organization. There is a specific communication structure and all the employees follow it in the organization. All the major changes and the policy changes are intimidated to the employees with the help of written communication which includes notices and emails. Other than that, the employees also communicate with the help of chat software. It promotes informal communication between all the team members (Miller & Borbour, 2014). In case of any doubt, they can communicate with the software instead of going through the formal procedure of writing emails. The written communication is often followed by meetings and one-to-one talks. When there is a significant change in policy or the operations of the organization, oral communication is used for making communication with the employees.

Intercultural Communication

The intercultural communication has a meaningful context for the workplaces in which people from different countries come together, identify with different ethnic groups who speak different languages to collaborate and develop relationships. The interpersonal communication is also important in the technology-mediated encounters, relationships and developing teams in the public and the private sector (Mumby, 2012). The intercultural communication policies are important to create a positive and supportive work environment in the organization. The organizations have developed several proactive policies to recognize the differences in the functional culture of the people.  Therefore, the organization has developed a strong communication structure in the organization.

Communication Structure and Organizational Policies

Figure: Interorganization Policy

Success of the Organization Communication Structure

The organization has developed a strong communication structure in the organization. A transparent and easy-going communication structure has been created in the organization. The organization has developed several policies so that the employees can easily communicate with each other. Several software and communication channels have been established in the organization so that the employees can easily communicate with each other at different hierarchal levels. It can be perceived that the employees working at different levels technical fields often have different education backgrounds and work experience. It is quite different from the workers in the creative fields. It results in differences in communication. The engineers tend to think in a logical manner, whereas the marketing industry professionals are extrovert and intuitive (Putnam & Mumby, 2013). There are several differences in different functional cultures, which can be addressed through education and proactive policies regarding the legitimacy of different cultures. However, the work culture in the organization is highly competitive; therefore, there is need to implement more changes in the communication structure of the organization. There are different communication structures in different organizations. The decision to choose one communication structure is dependent upon the size of the organization. The chosen line of communication must facilitate accurate messaging, timely responses and timely completion of the work (May & Mumby, 2004). The line of communication is important as it direct the employees to communicate within the organization. The line of communication will create less interaction with the employees and other co-workers. Other than that, the business also uses different communication methods, such as streamline reporting, using evaluation or reimbursement form, which established structure in the organization communication.

There are also several restraints on the organization communication, which can prevent chaos resulted from high level of communication. It also reduces problem caused by the lack of communication between different organization’s roles. The company has created strict communication line, which assures that the employees are not left out of the important communication.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The present research report is developed around Woolworths, which is one of the largest retail business organizations in Australia. The report evaluates the communication structure of the organization. It has been evaluated that the communication structure is well-developed and matured. A positive emotional climate is a developed in the organization. All the team members are considerate of the emotions if other employees. The team leaders are well-equipped with skills to handle the emotions of other people. A survey is conducted with the employees of the organization to evaluate the perception of the employees regarding the communication structure of the organization. The research findings have also identified other important factors in the communication structure of the organization. It includes that intercultural communication policy, team dynamics and the leadership communication.

Effective communication is important in the organization as it will help in the product development, customer relations and employee management. The company can improve communication structure by establishing clear expectations for the employees as well as the customers (Putnam & Mumby, 2013). It is important to convey to the employees how their performance will impact the organization and provide a positive feedback to the employees. It is also necessary to create strong relationships with the help of communication structure. The communication structure should be focused on meeting important needs, convey information and providing feedback to the employees (O'Sullivan, Smith & Esposito, 2012). The organization communication should be able to foster knowledge, structure and positive work environment within the organization

References

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Harris, T.E., & Nelson, M.D. (2008). Applied Organizational Communication: Theory and Practice in a Global Environment. Taylor & Francis.

May, S., & Mumby, D.K. (2004). Engaging Organizational Communication Theory and Research: Multiple Perspectives. SAGE.

Miller, K. (2012). Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes. Cengage Learning.

Miller, K., & Borbour, J. (2014). Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes. Cengage Learning.

Mumby, D.K. (2012). Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach. SAGE.

O'Sullivan, P., Smith, M. & Esposito, M. (2012). Business Ethics: A Critical Approach: Integrating Ethics Across the Business World. Routledge.

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Putnam, L.L., & Mumby, D.K. (2013). The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Communication: Advances in Theory, Research, and Methods. SAGE Publications.

Scott, C., & Lewis, L. (2017). The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication, 4 Volume Set. John Wiley & Sons.