Category: MBA Dissertations

There are two main research approaches namely inductive and deductive.  Any of these approaches are used  depending on the nature of the research problem. An inductive approach attempts to probe the research problem by gathering ideas and meanings about an aspect from the people concerned or the participants. These ideas are collated, analyzed and presented as findings to provide plausible solutions to the research problem. A deductive approach attempts to deal the research problem by formulating a hypothesis and testing this hypothesis with quantitative techniques.

In this dissertation, an inductive approach is followed as the nature of the problem demands gathering in-depth information about improving the communication abilities of international students working as service employees in Sainsbury and the insights of the customers about their satisfaction with the communication style of the international students. 

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Introduction

The research methodology section describes the research methodology employed to solve the research problem. After the framework for research is established in the literature review, certain gaps pertaining to the research problem are identified and these gaps are addressed by conducting a suitable research enquiry. The relevant research strategies, approaches, philosophies that are applied in the process of conducting the research are dealt with in this part. Moreover, a brief mention about the data collection methods and sampling techniques is presented in this section.

Research Philosophy

The philosophy of research serves as an underlying framework for the appropriate research methodology to be chosen. The research philosophy enables the researcher to follow a certain direction upon which the research strategies, approaches, techniques are followed. Factors like the nature of the research problem, the philosophical stand of the researcher, the context of study determines the kind of research philosophy to be chosen. There are two general research philosophies, namely positivism and interpretivism.

Positivists believe in pure scientifical methods for the conduct of research. Their approach to studying phenomena concludes with a set of laws and generalisations and the validity of these laws and generalisations are tested by employing suitable scientific methods. The view of positivists is objective and they concentrate on the external phenomena.  Positivists work with quantitative techniques. They claim that the participants in the research usually do not consider any values attached to their opinion in responding to a survey or a questionnaire. In a sense, they don’t attempt an in-depth understanding of human nature or behaviour like the interpretivists.

A positivist generally looks for facts and not the meanings in the gathering of data from the opinions of the respondents. The phenomena constructed with the positivist philosophy takes the form of simple elements in the course of its construction. Positivism attempts at choosing a large sample for the conduct of research and  devise methods of operationalisation that are generally used for testing the formulated hypothesis.

Interpretivism assumes that reality originates in the mental construct of human beings and they believe that reality is not an absolute truth based on fundamental laws. They believe that reality has multiple dimensions according to the context, attitudes, behaviours and cultural differences of the human beings. Interpretivism attempts to follow an inductive approach in understanding the reality. Interpretivism attempts to make the sense of the expressed opinions through the meanings attached to an opinion rather than facts.

Interpretivism proceeds by consolidating the information from the meanings observed and from the situations analyzed in order to gain deep understanding of the phenomena researched. The limitations of interpretivism are that the researcher should be in proximity with the participants to further probe questions in order to gain deeper understanding of the situation. In terms of reliability, as different people attach different meanings to the observed phenomena, generalisation of the research findings is difficult.

However, in the ongoing dissertation, the research favours an interpretivist appraoch as the researcher attempts to find the solutions from the opinions of the respondents in an inductive manner. As the research revolves around the case of  Sainsbury to take note of the opinions gathered from the respondents through semi-structured interviews, the use of interpretivism as a research philosophy is justified. 

SUMMARY

The section identified key concepts and theories related to communication such as rapport, communication barriers, and the role of management in improving employee communication. These findings helped the author build a conceptual framework and informed the research design and the wording of questions used in primary data collection .Although the section indicates that some studies were carried out in relation to the above topics, there is not enough research about communication challenges of Sainsbury employees who are international students, compared to local employees, students or otherwise. Helping international students who are part time staff to improve their communication skills is a priority task that every Sainsbury manager needs to take on board.  This research aims to address this lack of information while attempting to answer the following research questions:

• What communication strategies can managers implement to improve the performance of international students who are part-time employees in a supermarket?
• How do customer satisfaction levels from engaging with local supermarket staff compare with those resulting from engaging with employees who are part-time international students?
• What are the major barriers in the communication style of supermarket employees who are part-time international students?

The leader-member exchange theory has a special relevance for the understanding of communication issues in Sainsbury’s.  According to leader-member exchange theory, a supervisor may have a biased relationship with the subordinate in the group compared to an out of group member. This is due to the context of the relationship between them. A supervisor may show a more open behaviour and share more with a subordinate in his/her group rather than with a subordinate of a different group. Every subordinate and supervisor is set to have a different relationship.

Researchers attempted to find the antecedents of such a relationship. The research attempted to identify the casual factors that are responsible for difference in interaction levels between various pairs of supervisor and subordinate. These relationships are characterised by the perceptions and actions that shape up the relation based on their work environment. Each relationship is built up on a unique set of characteristics. The intimacy of the relationship of a pair is determined by the behaviours of the supervisor and the subordinate.

There are no specific behavioural attributes identified in perceiving the quality of relationship. Relational coordination has emerged to fill this gap. It provides scope for open thought characterised by features of shared knowledge and problem solving. When there is a scope for such open thought sharing process, the employee perceives that the manager is empathetic about the progress of employee in the organisation. 

The service employees’ performance plays a crucial role in forming the perception of customers about the firm. The role of management lies in improving their employee performance by considering three perspectives namely customer-employee interface, management employee interface and employee-role interface.

Customer-employee interface

The employees’ interactions with the customers affect the perception of the customers about the firm. Customers look for certain attributes in the service encounter to form perceptions. The employee interaction with the customers is characterised by their behaviours, their self efficacy, adaptability and their discretion to exercise their problem solving abilities. All these characteristics are said to have a positive correlation with the customer’s perception about the firm. So, the manager must provide a conducive environment for the employees to exercise these attributes at the time of service encounter. Adaptability, problem solving are the behavioural attributes backed by attitudinal attribute of self efficacy. The managers play a key role in nurturing such qualities in the service employees by training them and  by empowering them.

Employee-role interface

The role ambiguity and role conflicts are the major hindrances in the performance of service employees. Empowerment and self efficacy at times may also lead to role ambiguity. As the service employees are faced with boundary spanning, they often face role ambiguity. Role ambiguity can be mitigated with training and socialisation processes. The aspects of good communication with the manager makes the employee understands better about his role.

Employee management interface

The relationship between employees and managers can be strengthened by proper coordination. This coordination can be evaluate through behaviour based evaluation involving evaluating the behavioural attributes of the employees. Such behavioural attributes include commitment, effort, adaptability etc. The behavioural evaluation should be followed by empowerment. Empowerment enables the employee to use his/her discretion in day to day basis while performing the tasks.

The positive aspect related to empowerment is that the employee can exercise his skill of adaptability and problem solving in meeting the specific requirements of the customers. However, empowerment may also lead to role ambiguity. Empowerment can be carefully directed by openly sharing the firm’s goals and objectives. In that way, the service employee who is empowered makes a decision keeping in view the larger perspective of the firm’s goals and objectives.

The retail sector is different from other sectors, in the way the customer evaluates the organisation, namely in the service sector the evaluation is carried out by the interaction with the lower-level employees. This is not evident in other sectors such as the manufacturing sector, IT sector etc. Within the retail sector even the lower-level employees play a key role in improving the reputation of the firm.

In this sector the service delivery process includes the end delivery of the products to the consumers. This is where the service employees play a key role in reinforcing a positive image of the firm in the view of the consumers as the final delivery of the product demands amicable interaction of the service employees with the customers.

For this interaction to be effective, proper communication is a key.  This includes leadership skills, negotiation skills, proper language, spontaneity and responsiveness. So, the role of management is to reinforce and streamline these attributes in the employees for a better interaction which results in positive business implications. Moreover, in the service sector employee, represent a considerable part of human element that requires careful management.

Relational Co-ordination

              The aspect of relational coordination is evolved from human relations. It emphasises the role  the employee listening to the manager. The aspect of relational coordination revolves around three elements namely shared goals, shared knowledge and mutual respect. This fosters easy communication between the employee and manager and it also contributes to a better employee performance. Moreover, communication is said to have three constructs namely frequency, timeliness and problem-solving. This mode of communication empowers employee to perform better.

Service encounter is a two-way interaction between the service provider and the customer. The customer attempts to evaluate the service received based on certain constructs like service value, surroundings and the customer’s behaviour.  

Communication style is another important determining factor in enforcing a strong sense of bond between customers and employees. The communication style is said to impact the listener’s feelings of confidence, sense of control, self esteem etc. Managers need to know which communication style has a positive impact on customers in the direction of positive service evaluation. Important factors related to the communication style are service specific, situational specific and customer related..

Yan Ma (2010) and others discuss the social interaction model centred on a customer faced with a service encounter with no prior knowledge about the service, in which case s/he may feel a sense of anxiety due to inability of choosing alternative courses of action. In such a situation, the affective component of service employee’s communication comes into picture. The affective component refers to the employee’s mode of communication which is evident from his verbal and non verbal communication. The customer deals the situation in the perspective of a person rather than looking at service as a case. The affective component can be viewed as the time spent with the customer, the explicit concern for the customer and the extent of interest shown by the service employee.

The affective component discussed here belongs to one of the communication styles. A communication style refers to the verbal or a paraverbal expression of the literal meaning of a communicator’s intention conveyed and it determines how it is interpreted, filtered, and absorbed by the listener based on the context. The communication between the individuals may be in any of the friendly, contentious, animated, attentive, dramatic, dominant, open and relaxed manners. These constructs determine the style of communication. The affective component of communication is associated with friendly, attentive and open approach while the dominant style of communication takes the characteristics of animated, contentious dramatic approach.

In general, the affective component of communication is said to have a positive impact on the perception of the service. The dominant style witnessed a less favourable evaluation of the service as it involves lack of clear cut explanation and it involves technical jargon. So, in service contexts, management should aim at developing a affective component of communication in their service employees as it involves features like warmth, empathy, humour and attentiveness.

           Although the communication style is said to have direct implications on customer satisfaction levels based on customer’s evaluation of service, it is known from certain studies that some moderators like service criticality and the service nature intervene with the communication style that affects customer satisfaction. Another noticeable variable which is known to have a significant effect in the communication style is the factor of empowerment. The empowered employees exhibit the features of high self efficacy, adaptability and problem solving skills which reflect in the accommodative communication style.

Regarding the aspect of criticality, if the situation is perceived as very critical and crucial by the consumers, their attitude is influenced markedly with the communication style. Service contexts involve critical situations where the customer perceives it to be very crucial in his view. The customers tend to form positive perceptions and disposition when dealt in an accommodative style characterised by empathy, warmth, friendliness. Likewise, the customer forms negative perceptions when the service is dealt in dominant communication style in critical situations.

           Another moderator of the communication style in connection with the service evaluation is the service nature. The nature of service may vary according to the product purchased. Moreover, service encounters that require the purchase of innovative products call for a knowledgeable, persuasive style of communication. Less innovative services call for a friendly, gregarious and accommodative style of communication which involves an affective component. The customer attains satisfaction when he receives desired quality in the service provision such as professionalism and guidance. Customer services that occur in retail outlets attempt to reinforce satisfaction levels among consumers while using a compassionate and highly affiliative style of communication. 

Some of the cultural differences and misinterpretations which lead to communication barriers are identified by the human resource professionals while engaging with the immigrant employees are listed below.

 Status and Roles: Social hierarchy exists in some countries and this may lead to “bumps” in the communication process especially in the workplace. In some countries, women are considered less superior than males. A woman with a high position in the managerial hierarchy may experience communication blockages while relating to a man from a different culture. The result may be a communication gap because of the difficulty in adapting to the situation.

 Personal Space: It relates to the level of comfort zone while speaking to others face to face. Generally, in some countries like England, people are comfortable conversing while standing at a distance of five feet from each other while in some other countries like Germany and Japan, they rather prefer more distance.  Arabs and Latinos, on the other hand, usually prefer to get closer.

 Body Language: The physical gestures, which are the part of body language, can be interpreted in different countries. The people in some countries express “no” by shaking their heads while in some countries, they express that by raising their chin.

Religion:  People are largely influenced by the religion with respect to their life style.  For instance, usage of some words may be considered a sin in some religions while it is used freely in some other countries where there is no sin attached in usage of such word.

Personal Appearance: The personal appearance of the people varies with different countries. It has been suggested that the attire of people in the organisation should be made uniform to mitigate these differences.

The quality of the communication process is largely determined by the elements involved in such process. The more effective the elements are, the more effective is the process of communication.  identified the following components:  the media, the  channels in the communication process, the sender’s body language, the receiver’s understanding, perception, attitudes etc. The misplacement or the ineffectiveness of these elements leads to barriers in the communication process.   Four kinds of barriers in the communication process can be identified, namely the process barriers, physical barriers, semantic barriers and psychosocial barriers. 

Process barriers:

Sender barrier:  A new junior manager with a novel idea hesitates to convey his idea in the meeting, chaired by the vice-president, due to fear of criticism.

 Encoding barrier: A Welsh-speaking customer cannot absorb an English-speaking service employee to understand the special offerings of a store.

Medium barrier:  A very disgusted staff member conveys his hard feelings in a letter to the manager instead of expressing such feelings face-to-face.

Decoding barrier: An old senior manager is unsure of what a younger junior manager meant when he referred to a employee as “spaced out”.

Receiver barrier: A manager who is conveying the operational strategy of the company to the employee asks him/her to repeat the statement as she was not listening carefully to the conversation

Feedback barrier: During a strategic meeting in the organisation, employees failed to respond to the conveyed strategy by the manager making the manager wonder if proper interpretation had occurred.

Physical Barriers

There may be some physical interruptions in the process of communication which may be anything like a telephone call, distance between people, walls, and drop-in visitors. Usually physical barriers are not taken into account seriously but they can be evaded. For instance, a wall may be a hindrance while communicating in the work space and it can be re-positioned.

Semantic Barriers

 Communication barriers are evident when we use some words in some situations which may have different meanings in other. This problem is said to be semantic where the same word may be understood differently by other people. The words efficiency, potentiality, enhanced productivity may mean one thing to a manager and it may be understood differently by a staff member who may be an employee. 

 Psychosocial Barriers

Coskun identifies three important aspects of psychological and social barriers, namely fields of experience, filtering and psychological distance. The main elements of ‘fields of experience’ include perceptions, needs, background of people, values and expectations. The role of such fields appears during the encoding process of the sender and the decoding process of the receiver: they  occur on the premise of their fields of experience.

When the sender and receiver belong to the same fields of experience, the communication process is smooth without many barriers. Nevertheless, the communication becomes difficult when their fields of experiences coincide very little. Filtering refers to our emotional filters which determines what we see, hear and listen and he also points out that psychological barriers occur with respect to the psychological distance between the people rather than the physical distance