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1.0 Introduction

Communication in the modern century is one of the significant tools in constructing precise and clear company image inside the organization. Additionally, internal communication supports the company by securing the knowledge and technical know-how about the company among its workers. In other words, one of the challenging issues of the organization as far as communication is concerned in most cases revolves around the internal communication of the company. By definition, organization communication can be termed as transactions that occur between groups and individuals at different levels and areas of specialization, however, those transactions have a sole purpose of redesigning and designing organizations as well as co-ordinate daily activities.
Organization communication is a very complex and imperative process via which workers coordinate their daily work process that is so vital to the functioning of any company organization. Additionally, most modern workers are more likely to be more intersected in getting more information and knowledge of the organization they work for, therefore, communication most especially internal communication serves as a catalyst to company effectiveness and excellence and it should be practiced continuously
It is universally accepted that there exists two kinds of messages and information concepts in the company communication. By way of example, these information concepts include the basic assumptions revolving around the working community as well as the day-to-day matters. Additionally, day-to-day matters are basically those issues that keep employees interested in what they do as work, their working environment as well as their working community. For instance, day-to-day activities involve things such as targets and future plans of the organization, the economic scenario of the working environment, individuals own work, personnel policy, training operations of organization’s other departments, leisure time activities, current issues in the business fields and organization’s products and services.
All organization communication is cultural. By way of explanation, organizational communication draws on ways individuals have cultivated the culture of speaking and give nonverbal cues. Additionally, communication in organizations is interactive making how individuals relate with others as one of the most important attributes and influence on its effectiveness. Moreover, pone challenging factor is that, with all the good intentions in the world, issues to do with miscommunication are likely to occur most especially whenever there is evidence of cultural differences between parties conversing. Furthermore, miscommunication may result in severe consequences such as conflict or worsen conflict in existence. In other words, individual’s cross-cultural communication is basically demonstrated and outlined by examples of attitudes, ideas as well as behaviors of variables such as time. Fate and personal responsibility, face and face-saving and nonverbal communication play a very critical role in organization communication as well.
Although there have been many theories about communication issues in organization, there has not been a clear research work that clearly identifies communication challenges, problems or difficulties most organization encounters. Therefore, this research work is carried out owing to the fact that a well-organized communication is one of the most essential attributes for most employees to delegate work while at the same time keeping other co-workers about their project status and tasks. In other words, in order to realize this, the employee has to be better placed to communicate effectively through a more effective and the right channel. Additionally, in most organization, there should in one way or the other exist a functional way of keeping everyone in the company informed about things revolving around issues that each and every individual in the organization should know.
One of the aims of this project is to find out the functional guidelines as far as Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company communications are concerned and that could be taken into consideration in day-to-day activities. Additionally, the subject of this project is communication challenges, difficulties or problems at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company as well as the challenges it faces owing to the fact that it is a multinational company. In other words, this report will try to establish the most purposeful practices of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company, the current communication situation in the company and recommend on ways on how it can be rectified and improved.
1.1 Background information

Paint Your Face Cosmetics is a well-known multinational makeup company that basically sells its makeup products all over the world but its headquarters are in the United States.. Additionally, the company recently invented a number of marketing ideas as far as new product growth and development are concerned. However, owing to some unknown reasons, their efforts in establishing the final product to the market have not been so far successful. Moreover, the top management team has noticed that, the company departments has been incurring issues but they have not brought them forward but rather they are hiding department challenges such as language and communication difficulties, office locations as well as troubles during some of the sales meetings. Furthermore, the company’s executive manager has the feeling that the company is currently incurring problems with communication difficulties which prompted the need of some research study in order to find out some of the communication issues that Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is currently facing.

The research work uses theoretical study to acknowledge the readers with the main issues and reviews about challenges and difficulties organizations incur in relation to communication issues. Additionally, the research work is basically based on a framework that in one way or the other leads the respondent from the theoretical to the empirical study by first introducing the concept of communication in organizations. There are few limitations regarding this work such that the researcher concentrated much on electronic communication technologies in Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company as compared to other more personal modes of communication.
Moreover, another notable limitation of this research work is that, the questionnaires were not emailed to junior level workers who actually produce the products first hand because it is assumed that they do not hold respectable position in the company partly because Paint Your Face Cosmetics company is employing subcontracting as well as contract manufacturing so the employees belong to other organizations but work for Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company on Contracting bases.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Over the past few years, executive management of every organization has concentrated on customer care. However, more recently, most top management teams of organizations have started dedicating the same kind of focus to their very own workers and in the process, acknowledging the fact that workers have a very vital role in the success of the organization. In other words, employee communication is no longer considered as a soft and light function but rather one of the primary business functions that act as a key driver of performance and in the process, contributes to organizations financial success. In other words, the main problem in this research work is establishing why communication in Paint Your Face Company is not working as effectively as expected. By so saying, it means that, this research work will be able to examine and evaluate the internal communication within Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company, information’s; channels of distribution, and how informal and formal communication operates in the company in order to establish the challenges and difficulties as far as communication issues in the company are concerned.

Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is basically a makeup organization that markets its products internationally. Additionally, they recently established some excellent strategic ideas as far as new products development is concerned but for some reasons, their effort in bringing the product to the market has been unsuccessful. Moreover, Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company has also incurred some challenges with issues within its departmental units not being surfaced hence not resolved, issues as far as office locations are concerned, language barriers and trouble within marketing and sales meetings. Furthermore, the CEO of Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is of the opinion that there are a number of serious communication difficulties happening within the company.

For instance, the organization’s development specialist based in Europe established an idea that employed yogurt as a primary ingredient for hair color goods and services. Additionally, the specialist took a lot of time sending emails the marketing executive manager based in the United States with the idea, product description and recipe. However, the marketing manager based in the U.S experienced difficulties in receiving answers in relation to the product questions back directly from the European based specialist. Furthermore, there were a number of non-verbal cues that were greatly missed owing to the fact that emails were the only mode of communication. To make the matter worse, the final email was misinterpreted by the European based specialist as that the product was not appealing to the U.S manager when in real sense, the product was appealing to the manager only that there were some concerns that needed clarifications in terms of price. Therefore, the product idea was in jeopardy of getting lost. In simple terms, in this example, the primary concern was a communication issue in terms of physical barrier such that the two employees were separated physically by their work environment which made the completion of the idea very difficult.

Paint Your Face Communication boasts of a good number of males and females sales managers. Quite recently, they employed two male managers to be in charge of the Western region. Additionally, some communication barriers as far as sales are concerned soon emanated as gender-specific differences presumed in preparation for the annual national sales meeting. In this case, Amanda; the Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company manager was of the opinion that the two new recruits were behaving in a rude way when she was trying to put the convention preparations in place. Moreover, they occupied seats furthest from her at a vast conference table which differed with her face-to-face interaction she had planned earlier. Therefore, it can be noted that, there are also evidences of communication challenges in terms of gender differences in Paint Your Face Cosmetics. By way of explanation, research shows that most males do not see the importance of being close to someone when conversing whereas most females prefers a more personal or rather a face-to-face type of interaction. Therefore, owing to the fact that, it is clear that Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is incurring communication problems and there is no research work that has tried to identify communicating issues in a multinational cosmetics company, this offers a research gap making this research work very significant to Paint Your face Cosmetics Company
1.3 Research questions

The main research questions in this research include;

1. How does the personnel at Paint Your Face Cosmetics fell about communication within the company at the moment?

2. What channels of communication does employees and staffs prefer?

3. How can communication at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company be organized so as to function better?

1.4 Research objectives
The main objectives of this research work are to;

1. To investigate the communication channels at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company

2. To determine the effectiveness of the current modes of communication at Paint Your Face Cosmetics

3. To investigate the challenges and problems that Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company is facing as far as communication is concerned.
1.5 Research design

In this research work, the adopted methodology involved quantitative and qualitative research methodologies. By way of explanation, Qualitative research is basically a subjective research technique which involves identification of new knowledge and ideas, field-work participation and the employment of the researcher as the primary source of information and data. By so doing, the personnel in charge of the research aims at realizing the meaning of phenomenon as well as the nature of reality. Additionally, the individuals in this type of research approach do not actually concentrate much on the outcomes but rather on the research process.

The researcher in this project chose to conduct an empirical part by establishing questionnaires for the employees at paint Your Face Cosmetics. In other words, as the researcher is part of the environment at Paint Your Face Cosmetics Company during this research period, the working environment is described in order to enable the research respondents to understand the questions asked on the questionnaires. Moreover, the research subject had already been send and discussed within Paint your face Cosmetics Company and each and every employee was willing to make the research project a success.

The questionnaires in this research use scales to help in realizing the desired response. Additionally, respondent’s reflections on the communication issues come out clearly whenever questionnaires function properly. By so saying, it means that, the questionnaires help the respondents to give their personal perceptions on communication issues and difficulties within Paint Your Face Cosmetics. Moreover, this is a very significant approach in collecting data that is closely related to the social aspect of individuals. Furthermore, the employment of interviews in this research study aided in establishing a trust environment between the researcher and the interviewee hence easy clarification and validation of data.

Mixed method technique in this research aided in combining a number of research methods in collecting the same information and data. By so doing, it sees to it that data and information collected is free from error and the possibility of biasness is eliminated. Additionally, mixed techniques allowed for employment of both primary and secondary data collection methods which ensured that the information collected was more credible. In other words, mixed research approach in this study allowed for clarifications and cross-checking of any possible ambiguity in data collected. Moreover, during the data collection process, administering of questionnaires was conducted in such a manner that each respondent was given approximately 24 hours to clearly answering the questions. By so doing, it ensured that the respondents had ample and enough time to fill the questionnaires and give them back on time. As such, the allocated time period ensured or rather prevented situations in which respondents may give excuses of not having enough time and privacy to fill the questionnaires. In the mixed research design, Interviews were also employed which comprised of structured questions which helped in collection of desired data in the most effective way. By way of explanation, the kind of interview chosen was more personal interviews revolving around the topic of the study. To sum up, each interview session was allocate a maximum of thirty minutes so as to ensure that the research and the interviewee utilized the allocated for the interview effectively.
2.0 literature review

There have been a number of scholarly articles that have been postulated about organizational communication. The fundamental purpose of organizational communication is to assist in energizing workers to perform the company’s strategic intent. Additionally, it is of utmost importance for organizations to possess the ability to send and receive, quickly identify issues, and comprehend strategically relevant company information. Moreover, when arriving at decisions revolving around the policy and strategy, the challenge and necessity as far as communication is concerned should factored into consideration, and organizing organizational communication so as to ensure that communication functions effectively must be part and parcel of the organization’s strategic priorities. In other words, organization communication can flow in three distinctive directions such as horizontally, upward, and downward. By way of explanation, upward type of communication involve communication flows to a very higher organization level whereas downward communication involves conversations or any form of communication that takes place between the top management team of the organization and the their subordinates, the form of communication that occurs between employees who share the same structural level in an organization is what is basically called horizontal communication.

Communication should therefore be an equal process that occurs between the receiver and the sender so as to get the message and information through. In other words, the ability to communicate is necessary for cooperation in any organization as well as minor groups and societies. By so saying, it means that, communication irrespective of the size of the group is basically a two-way communication. Therefore, issues that affect communication in an organization can be discussed in many literatures as communication barriers, communication challenges and in other scholarly articles, they are classified as communication problems.
2.1 Communication barriers in an organization

Many organizations incur organization’s difficulties as a result of communication issues. Additionally, this communication issues may portray itself in terms of problems, barriers or challenges within an organization. Some of the well-known communication barriers within an organization include; language, gender differences, status differences, cultural diversity, status differences as well as physical separation. In other words, these communication barriers are specific items that are well-known to prevent and distort communication within most organizations. Additionally, the ability for any organization to acknowledge and recognize communication difficulties and work towards a resolution, can in one way or the other drastically improve the sales, working conditions and organizational ,culture.

Physical separation barrier

Communication may at times incur difficulties due to a physical barrier. In this case, workers who have a physically separated working environment incur difficulties in cooperating and finishing the work idea. Additionally, technology in most cases is basically the primary answer in solving physical barriers. In other words, phone calls, emails, webcams, video conferencing plays a very big part in eliminating the communication barrier and in the process helps in providing a closer employee communication hence reducing physical barriers.

Status differences

It is universally accepted that status differences causes communication barriers in an organization most especially as a result of differences in the hierarchy of the organization in which the employees experience problems or challenges in communicating ideas either down or up the corporate ladder. However, this barrier can be reduced or eliminated by organization managers who are very good in understanding and relating with their employees.

Gender differences

There have been a number of research works that have been postulated about how females and males tend to communicate. Additionally, it has been realized that most males prefers to converse in a side-by-side manner whereas most females enjoy a conversation that is more of a face-to-face conversation. Moreover, Males do not actually feel the need of being closer to someone when conversing whereas ladies enjoy a more close and personal setting for communicating. However, barriers to do with status differences in communication can be clearly corrected if both gender parties are educated and made aware of the communication preferences during company briefings and discussions.

2.2 Communication problems in an organization

Apart from the well-known communication problems that involve a nurse and a doctor about patient medication or a co-pilot not being able to communicate to the pilot that their landing lane is already occupied by another plane, most people do not actually understand what communication problems actually means. Some of the communication problems that occur in an organization occur in terms of miscommunication between the organization and its staffs most especially employees. For instance, Not keeping all the employees informed about an organization issue, inconsistent communication from the managers, untimely communication from the managers to employees are some of the communication problems that affect organizations.

Not keeping all employees informed

In this case, the assumption is that the common and the usual communication mode will be able to communicate significant information to every organization member who needs to get the information and in the process; the information will get to everyone. However, in most organizations, the intended recipients do not actually get the information especially if they are not subscribed or interconnected to such kind of communication networks on a regular basis for instance those types of emails that cannot be read by front-line employees.

Inconsistent communication to employees by management

In this type of communication problem, different managers and supervisors are sending conflicting messages, or sometimes different messages as far as priorities are concerned. By so doing, this causes distrust and confusion among workers.

Untimely messages to employees

By definition, this type of communication problem occurs when information is not received by workers where and when they need it. Additionally, without significant information in the right place and at the appropriate time, the process of decision making is slowed down and in the process, the overall performance and completion of projects is affected tremendously.

Not sending the right information to the right people

It is universally known that this type of communication problem occurs when critical information of the organization such as market data is not equally shared among the organization’s primary stakeholders. Additionally, this communication problem in an organization may also present itself whenever the top organization’s management is not clearly engaging workers who boast of a rich customer contact in making organization decisions. Moreover, there can also be a communication problem whenever the employees are not better placed to get important information to the organization’s management.

Unclear organization expectations

In this case, communication problem presents itself whenever the the top management team fail to discuss the organization expectations with the organization’s mid-level managers. By so doing, the mid-level managers are not in a position to have the same expectation levels or clear strategic objectives in realizing organization’s goals. Owing to this fact, the workers may not have clear goals and objectives to compare and benchmark their organization progress.

The future organization plan is not known

In this case, the organization leaders do not discuss and involve their workers in their vision for the organization. Additionally, there is no clear sense of direction toward which each and every organization member is striving to achieve. By so doing, the workers morale is down and in the process, they are not inspired to give their best for the organization.

Poor collaboration of functional areas

Departments and units form a very important part in the organization structure. Owing to this fact, this type of communication problem occurs whenever the department s and units fail to share significant information that in one way or the other may help all the organization’s department s realize their goals or rather achieve a common objective. By so saying, it means that, most organizations department s engage in premature competition other than collaborating to achieve a common goal. By so doing, it reduces the capability and the ability of the company as a whole.

Workers not open and honest with one another.

Communication between workers forms a strong bond across departments and the organization productivity teams. In other words, this type of communication problem occurs when workers do not share organization information with each other. In other words, the employees do not have a working trust with each other. By so doing, they compromise the organization productivity teams, the organization’s departments and units as well as the overall functioning of the organization.

Communication problem as a result of distance between departmental units.

It is universally known that those departments that are based in different locations incur difficulties in communicating as much as compared to those units that are closely located. By way of explanation, the distance in-between makes departmental face-to-face interactions difficult to arrange and in the process, it makes collaboration to drag along. In other words, even in this modern era where emails, video conferencing, cell phones and text messaging is rampant; critical communication between top leaders, management and employees does not occur as much often and as much as required.

2.3 Communication challenges in modern organizations

It is accepted that all forms of communication involves message transmission to the sender from the receiver. Additionally, communication is very central to effectiveness and survival of the organization owing to the fact that the essence of most organizations is cooperation which can never be possible without effective communication. As much as communicating effectively in any organization has never been an easy task, communication has incurred some special challenges in the modern era organizations. Some of the most common challenges are the information overload and the sterility of the communication technologies.

Information overload

It is the duty of every organization to solve the challenge of the type of communication pattern that shall be instituted and the type of information that needs to be directed to what organization’s office. In other words, one issue that involves such a communication challenge is what is known as information overload. By so saying, it means that, there are restrictions or rather limits as far as they type of communication information that can be coded, received and effectively dealt with by any one organization member.

Sterility of the communication technologies

We live in a century that is characterized by disruptive electronic technologies that in one way or the other have resulted into powerful and new communication and information technologies. In other words, e-mail, voice mail, data-based reporting information systems, websites, bulletin boards and video conferencing are breaking down large distances cost effectively by providing data and information to a large chunk of individuals in relatively cheap but more appropriately fast manner. However, one funny thing about this type of communication technologies is that, most of them are impersonal and sterile and in the process, they are not as meaningful and powerful as compared to personal communication modes.

Owing to the fact that change initiates within an organization can often cause passionate and strong emotions, these electronic marvelous communication and information technologies are always found short in terms of operations or rather they are not basically up to the role. Additionally, since visual communication form a significance part in all communications involving humans, non-visual cues disconnected from the communication context such as text messages and e-mails may not relay the information well. Moreover, because the relationship of humans is very much important to communication, any communications mediums that in one way or the other do not help or add to the relationship, for instance, electronic bulletin boards; can send different signals to different receivers. Furthermore, since impersonal electronic communication technologies are easier and faster to do as compared to more personal modes of communication, the senders are in most cases not as practiced in the more personal communication modes. To sum up, electronic communication to today’s organizations are to some extent invaluable but they possess some considerable limitations as far as bringing about change is concerned.

3.0 Methodology

Questionnaires were administered and they consisted of questions that need a response from the research study respondent. Additionally, the questions asked comprised of factual questions, questions directed at personal opinions of Paint Your Face Cosmetics staff, attitude and self-perception based questions, projective questions and those questions that revolve around the desired information about the topic of study. Moreover, the questionnaires were scaled and disseminated in order …