Corporate Sustainability – Solving a Business Problem

Corporate Sustainability – Solving a Business Problem

Definition of the Problem: Communication Problem among Diverse Teams

According to Foma (2014), most organizations today hire diverse people to add value to the company. However, diverse teams face many problems, the language barrier being one of these organizations’ predominant problems. For instance, while English may be the most used language by most American-based corporations, not all workers are able to communicate well in English. These corporations hire a mix of both local and mother country employees, and others from elsewhere in the global environment. A language barrier means that these employees will not understand each other effectively. When employees fail to comprehend messages, the company’s productivity and synergy among teams are lowered. Organizations experiencing language barriers tend to encourage their members to use slang to facilitate the communication process. Unfortunately, such slang could have different meanings among diverse employee demographics. For instance, female employees tend to use polite speech and tag questions when communicating, a stack difference from their male counterparts. Communication hurdles resulting from language affect employees’ productivity and day-to-day lives outside the workplace.

Importance of the Problem

Research shows that miscommunication directly impacts the profitability of a business. That is true because the language barrier hinders customer interaction, with the possibility of the business losing customers for good. However, it is worth noting that corporations have justified reasons for sending ex-pats from the mother country. Expats help the mother company gain solid control over foreign subsidiaries besides advancing the mother country’s development policies (Duclos, 2013). If these expats lack fluency in the foreign language, they are likely to be isolated from local country employees, affecting delivery. For instance, the language barrier costs the British economy $63 billion annually. The problem of language barriers in diverse teams results from companies that focus on work competence, ignoring cultural and language knowledge when constituting global teams.

Also, the impact of the language barrier on global power relations cannot be overstated. Employees who are competent in the local language will achieve greater informal power than their colleagues on the same level who lack language proficiency in the relevant language. That means organizations with a unilingual workforce will not access some of the benefits that come with knowledge of the local language (Duclos, 2013). Potential customers would rather associate with companies that understand them instead of where the communication process itself is a struggle.

Possible Solutions

Organizations need to encourage their employees to use plain language in a diverse workplace. Even though using heavy and complicated words makes one look competent in their jobs, their usage negatively affects other employees who may not comprehend some words. Usage of jargon erodes the whole purpose of communicating, which is to pass a message and offend those who cannot understand. The company should make it a matter of policy that employees use simplified language and express themselves straightforwardly.

Also, an organization experiencing language barriers can enroll in the services of a translator. The translator should be charged with translating all organizational documents deemed vital into all primary languages of employees serving different offices (Polaszewski-Plath, 2021). However, there is a need to be careful when enrolling a translator to ensure they are competent enough not to erode the intended meaning as per the original language.

A company operating in a global environment should also consider hiring employees with bilingual abilities. That may not be easy to achieve, but it is worth the investment. Having employees with bilingual abilities drives organizational success, especially on the global stage (Polaszewski-Plath, 2021). However, the company must be patient with such employees as they may understandably take longer to adjust to the new language fully.

Finally, the company should design a language survival course for non-native speakers. Such a course does not necessarily need to instruct them comprehensively, but only relevant bits to the business. The course will help organizational employees to handle the overseas market better.

Advantages and Limitations of the Solutions

Language competence training comes with many advantages for the organization. Some of the notable benefits from language competence training are increased profits, sales, and higher organizational satisfaction (Lloret, 2016). Language competence training also alleviates conflicts by helping employees from different lingual bases to understand each other better.

Also, hiring bilingual employees helps the organization to expand. The bilingual employees can grow the company by improving business-to-business relationships in the host country. Also, they can help the business acquire more clients and customers, as the latter are comfortable interacting with businesses that they believe understand them most. Bilingual organizations are better positioned to expand internationally and generate more business.

However, some strategies to solve the language barrier problem, such as language competence training, may be costly. In the US, for instance, the average cost of employee training can go as high as $1 888 per employee. Such high costs make the company have a second thought before incorporating training programs (Foma, 2014). It would be counterproductive to train employees, yet the return on investment fails to make business sense.

Recommended Solution

Instead of going the traditional way of training employees or rehiring those with bilingual competence, the organization can adopt AI-based solutions to address the problem of language barriers. A real-time AI translation program provides accurate solutions better than enlisting translation staff. AI-based solutions such as Amazon Echo, Siri and Alexa, provide anywhere between 60-90 translate accuracy (Polaszewski-Plath, 2021). However, users should be wary of the limitations that characterize these machines that require human intervention.

Organizational Sustainability

Today’s corporations struggle to find the right talent pool. Being forced to hire staff from the already diminished home country labor market due to a language problem can exacerbate the problem. The availability of AI-based translation programs helps the company access a diverse global workforce. In return, the diverse team brings a rich mix of cultural, experiential, and familiarity competencies into the business (Polaszewski-Plath, 2021). Another benefit of using AI-based solutions is the cost sustainability they bring. Unlike hiring translators or training employees on language competence, AI translation services are less costly.

Conclusion

Today’s global business environment has led companies to employ diverse teams. However, these teams face many workplace challenges, with the language barrier being one of the problems. Due to the language barrier, these communication problems chase potential clients and customers away. Besides, expats working in global environments face isolation from their colleagues. Companies employ many strategies to address the problem, including language training, hiring bilingual employees, and enlisting translators. However, these solutions may not provide the expected solutions, hence the need to adopt AI-based translation programs that are more sustainable.

References

Duclos, T. G. (2013). Defining corporate sustainability. Machine Design, 85(14), 44.

Foma, E. (2014). Impact of workplace diversity. Review of Integrative Business and Economics  Research, 3(1), 382.

Knieriem, A., Silverman, C., Eichen, S., & Moriarty, K. (2014). Focus on corporate sustainability. The Corporate Governance Advisor, 22(2), 30–34.

Lloret, A. (2016). Modeling corporate sustainability strategy. Journal of Business Research,        69(2), 418–425.

Polaszewski-Plath, A. (2021, September 10). Council Post: How Companies Can Overcome Language Barriers To Tap Into Global Talent Pools. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/09/10/how-companies-can-overcome-language-barriers-to-tap-into-global-talent-pools/?sh=38745cae6eff

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Corporate Sustainability – Solving a Business Problem

For this week’s assignment, you will evaluate and recommend a solution to a business problem of your choosing. This requires you to define the problem, explain why it is important to the organization, propose and evaluate possible solutions to the problem, and support your recommendation with evidence and sound reasoning. If you began working on the assignment last week, this week, you will finalize the work you have already done and add a section explaining how your recommended solution would increase corporate sustainability.