During the first couple weeks of my internship, I have
noticed a reoccurring theme that leaders bring up throughout meetings and
presentations; the breakdown of management.
I have come to realize that each and every company, whether it exists as
a tangible document or not, has a Christmas tree (top leaders, down to the
lowest subordinates) of leaders/managers that will ultimately be the key
components to the running of the company.
This “Christmas tree” not only represents the chain of command within a
company, but the dynamics of how employees are expected to communicate
important information in order to meet the higher commands approval and
awareness.
During a human resource management presentation by SeungMyun
Lee, the head of the HR delivery team, a heavy concentration was given to the
awareness of the communication processes that exist within different management
teams. For example, when the director of
treasury receives a proposal from a subordinate for collection of payment from
a customer, he/she must receive approval from the deputy CEO. If the deputy CEO deems the request simple
enough to approve himself, there is no need to follow up with the CEO of the
company. This small example of the existing
communication processes between employee’s displays the importance of
effectively and appropriately sharing information in order to meet an end
result.
Ericsson-LG Korea is an international company. Their Korean operations employs over 1,200
employees, the majority whom are Korean.
That being said, the vast majority of top management heads are
Swedish. Even though all Ericsson
employees speak fluent English, I have witnesses a fair amount of existing
communication conflicts within the company.
For example, some departments are all Koreans, and others have one, two,
or maybe even three western workers. Being
that none of the western workers speak Korean, this imbalanced ratio of western
to Korean department members creates for inconsistent processes throughout the
company. For example, there are
departments that operate entirely in Korean and find themselves managing
themselves in very Korean habits, that for the most part work just fine. And then the mix of Korean and Western
departments find themselves adjusting (speaking in English, writing memos in
English, etc.) to make the department run as efficiently as possible. What this creates is an inefficient
communication dynamic between departments.
Because each department operates in their own certain way, the
standardized system of communication has more of less been abandoned, hindering
the ability of superiors to monitor the effectiveness of each department.
This conflict has in no way disallowed Ericsson-LG to be
successful, but it is very interesting to monitor how a multiracial company
adjusts their operation and communication techniques in order to compensate for
racial and linguistic difference. Even
though I am an employee of the company, and am very much so involved in
everyday activities, I have a privileged perspective on these type of
relational dynamics within the company.
