Boston Pizza Communication plan
Boston Pizza is headquartered Richmond Canada and its management intends to expand its operation in South Korea. The company owns various franchise restaurants in Canada, Mexico and United States.
Steps to training on new culture
For Boston Pizza managers to understand the new culture in the Korean corporate environment there is a need to create awareness on multi-cultural environment. Johnson, Lenartowicz, and Apud (2006) stated that cultural awareness enable the managers to deal with challenges or conflicts arising from exposure to the new culture so as to enhance management competence .The managers should be aware of the importance of showing respect to cultural differences so that to enhance a favorable working environment in a diverse workplace. On the other hand Selmer and Lauring (2015) argued that training should be carried out through a thorough process that will ensure the employees adapt easily to the new culture. Korean culture involves a quite high context culture with many implicit peculiarities which are followed while conducting business activities. The rules form and inflexible structure but which is greatly corrected through an authoritative rule implementation process. The steps for training include the following:
- Establishing a training program
The leadership should start by making the vital decision that gives priority to cultural change. In the new Korean market, it will be important for the executives and the managers to put the customers in front and this will require them to adapt to the new culture. The plan should entail an established training program that enables executives and functional managers to identify with both individual and cultural difference in Korea.
- Training on employee relations
This should be included in the training program so that to managers and executive can learn how tolerate with Korean employees given that cultural differences extend to corporate culture , religious views , sexuality and even political perspectives. The managers should b trained to be sensitive to concerns expressed by employees regarding their welfare in the workplace and specific issues that may prevent their productivity. This will improve communication between the expatriates and the locals by eliminating any cultural hindrance that my affect interactions.
- Practicing effective communication
Communications skills are very essential in adapting to a different culture and building relations with individuals from such culture. The training should focus on how the executives and managers can communicate with people not familiar with local language including the employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in the Korean different environment. This involves learning the communication process, language used and undertones that are commonly used to avoid offending people from the Korean community.
Boston Pizza should export only executives and pat of functional managers to the Korean Branch while recruiting the locals for most functional positions. Sending the entire team of functional managers be costly due to immigration requirements, allowance and cultural adjustment that may be needed for the entire team. Having a mixture of both the expatriates and the locals will enable the foreigners to be oriented by their local colleague to the new culture.
Ensuring an effective transition of expatriates will ensure that they understand easily the host culture and adapt easily to the new environment. To prevent lack of productivity in this new environment, Boston Pizza leadership should ensure that they consider individuals background, their social needs and personal growth and development which will ensure that they achieve work-life balance. This involves providing some time for the expatriates to visit their families and engage in social activities.
Workplace culture
The working culture expected in Korea is based on centralized authoritative leadership where pressure is applied from the hierarchical upper level to ensure work is duly done. Unlike in the Western working culture where teamwork is highly regarded, the decision making is less focused on teamwork contributions but individual inputs is highly regarded. Dastmalchian, (2000) stated that coordination and control of production process is carried out through laid down procedures and the local workers are expected to deliver results individually. Due to the hierarchical leadership the communication involves a top-down process unlike the flat communication used in the Boston major offices in Canada. With the lack of autonomy in decision making the, the expectations of the local workers is pegged on their individual performance and any success or reward is rarely attributed towards teamwork. However, Daniel& Reitsperger (2004) argued that Korean workers consider having a good relationship with their superiors as a key commitment determinant which also affects the communication process.
Dastmalchian, (2000) asserts leadership methods and management style favors a verbal but formal communication instead of formal and written communication in the decision making process. This implies that the communication process to be adopted by Boston Pizza branch in Korea will involve eliminating the many barriers that hinder a flat communication process that creates good working condition in the company’s head office in Canada. It will also enable the facilitation of frequent communication given that formal and verbal communication in Korean Culture needs a lot of follow up for confirmations and clarification. The new management in the Korean Branch of Boston Pizza will introduce more open working culture which allows workers to work as a team rather than individual efforts to enhance productivity. According to Petersen, Kushwaha and Kumar (2015) involvement of all workers in decision making ensures that companies do not sabotage teamwork efforts by placing too much attention on individual achievement.
Communication with head Office in Canada
Effective communication between the Korean Boston Pizza branch will aim at improved engagement and hence productivity for the management and the workforce. The communication between the two sides needs to be frequent so that information on decisions made and feedback can reach at the right time and relevant head office managers or colleagues. As such a centralized communication will be necessary especially where the decisions are to primarily be made by the executives located at headquarters in Canada. Centralized communication allows for a focused vision or goal and elimination of any inconsistencies while delivering a common message.
Communication with customers
Communication between the firm and customers will be based on the interpersonal communication between the customers and frontline employees. In order to achieve this, changes on interpersonal communication will be facilitated so that to establish a Customer Service Culture that will enhance customer interaction. The key message for customer interaction will be delivery of high quality products that exceeds customer expectation and this will be aimed at communicates the Boston Pizza brand. The approach to be used involves a center for customer communication, where aspects such as customer concerns can be addressed while correspondence will be used as a tool for differentiating the Boston Pizza from local competition. Therefore any inquiries about the products can be addressed while other after sales services will be communicated to the relevant customers. This approach will also involve establishing an online communication platform to tap into the huge online masses in the Korean market.
References
Daniel, S. J., & Reitsperger, W. D. (2004). Challenges of globalization. 120-125
Johnson, J. P., Lenartowicz, T., & Apud, S. (2006). Cross-cultural competence in international business: Toward a definition and a model. Journal of International Business Studies, 37(4), 525-543.
Selmer, J., & Lauring, J. (2015). Host country language ability and expatriate adjustment: The moderating effect of language difficulty. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 26(3), 401-420.
Dastmalchian, A., Lee, S., & Ng, I. (2000). The interplay between organizational and national cultures: a comparison of organizational practices in Canada and South Korea using the Competing Values Framework. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 11(2), 388-412.
Petersen, J. A., Kushwaha, T., & Kumar, V. (2015). Marketing communication strategies and consumer financial decision making: The role of national culture. Journal of Marketing, 79(1), 44-63.
