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An analysis of internal communication practices in Marvell and tentative optimization suggestions
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An analysis of internal communication practices in Marvell and tentative optimization suggestions
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Content
AN ANALYSIS OF INTERNAL COMMUNICATION PRACTICES IN MARVELL
AND TENTATIVE OPTIMIZATION SUGGESTIONS
by
Xing Ju
________________________________________________________________
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(STRATEGIC PUBLIC RELATIONS)
August 2012
Copyright 2012 Xing Ju
ii
Dedication
This thesis would not have been possible without the strong and warm
support of my family and dear friends. Thank you all for your love, patience, and
words of encouragement throughout this journey. Dear father and mother, I hope
I have made you proud. Without you, I would not have followed my heart and
chased my dreams here.
iii
Acknowledgements
While writing a thesis can be an overwhelming task, it is much less
daunting with a network of supporters rooting for your success. I would like to
thank my thesis committee chair and mentor, professor Matthew Le Veque, for
always being in my corner. His positive words of encouragement and vision for
my work were a great inspiration to me. I am so appreciative of his guidance,
help, and support not only during this process, but also throughout my graduate
journey at Annenberg, USC. I would also like to thank my committee members
professors Jerry Swerling and Burghardt Tenderich for their insightful feedback
and direction. In addition, I would like to thank my interview sources, Mr. Dan
Shaw, the west coast VP of employee engagement and internal communications
at Edelman, and the three wonderful engineers in the Central Designing
department at Marvell, for providing me a wealth of knowledge on this wonderful
subject.
iv
Table of Contents
Dedication ii
Acknowledgements iii
List of Figures v
Abstract vi
Introduction 1
Chapter One: The Evolution of Internal Communication in Corporate America
1.1 Defining Internal Communication 4
1.2 Where does Internal Communication Nest 9
Chapter Two: Why Does Internal Communications Matter 11
Chapter Three
Marvell, A Case Study of Top IT Company’s Internal Communication Practices
3.1 An Industry Overview 17
3.2 Target Subject Matter: Marvell 19
3.3 Marvell’s Key Markets and Competitive Advantages 20
3.4 Internal Communication Practices in Marvell: Research Methodology 22
3.5 Major Findings 25
Chapter Four
Diagnosis and Tentative Solutions to Optimize Marvell’s Internal Communications
4.1 Internal Communication Practices Analysis At Marvell 30
4.2 Internal Communication Practices Between Marvell and Qualcomm 34
4.3 Tentative Solutions 39
Chapter Five: Conclusions 48
Bibliography 53
v
List of Figures
Figure 1: Traditional Internal Communication Flow
Figure 2: Internal Communication Flow at Web 2.0 Time
Table 1: Internal Communication Practices Measurement at Marvell
vi
Abstract
This paper examines the internal communication practices in Marvell, one
of the world’s largest semiconductor corporations based in Silicon Valley, USA,
and offers suggestions for optimization. To be more specific, Marvell, as the
leading player in the highly competitive chip-making arena, has a very
professional engineering team on board to deliver quality circuit designs to a
wide range of customers including Microsoft, Dell, Google and Hewlett-Packard,
just to name a few. However, being the most valuable asset in the company, the
central engineering team is not taken as well care of compared with Marvell’s key
competitors such as Qualcomm. Internal communication, whose major functions
are to keep employees well informed, motivated and happy, is still conducted in a
rather hierarchical and one-way manner at Marvell. Given the information
explosion in the Web 2.0 time and the high prevalence of mobile devices,
effective communication is usually achieved through an interactive and two-way
module. This article aims not only to diagnose existing problems in the target
organization’s internal communication structure through face-to-face interviews
with engineers in the central designing department, but also to provide
suggestions along the engaging, two-way, and social media line of thoughts,
which are inspired by the extensive researches on effective internal
communication practices and an interview with Dan Shaw, the west coast vice
president of employee engagement and internal communications at Edelman
who has thorough experiences in the field.
1
Introduction
The advent of Web 2.0 technologies and the dramatic changes to the
digital communications ecology, especially the increasing prevalence of mobile
devices, have radically changed the way people communicate and consume
information. Internal communication, as a critical function of any organization to
leverage employees’ working efficiency and motivation, has also been deeply
affected by such changes. While extensive studies have been conducted to
explore the roles and best practices about internal communication in many
organizations, similar research on high tech companies’ internal communication
practices has heavily concentrated on only giant business-to-consumer
corporations such as Google, IBM and Microsoft, leaving most business-to-
business companies under-served with regards to the potentials of such function.
Therefore, this thesis will cover the internal communications subject and the
challenges B2B high tech companies face due to the changing communication
ecology. The major part of the thesis will be consisted of a case study of Marvell,
one of the leading chipmakers in the United States whose central engineering
workforce is comprised of an international, multi-cultural team, which is becoming
a more and more common phenomenon in the engineering talent market owing
to the high competitiveness in the field and a shortage of US American
engineers.
Traditionally being a function of the human resources department, internal
communication now has taken on a much more sophisticated role other than a
simple informer of miscellaneous notifications. Extensive research has shown its
2
positive connections with working efficiency, employee morale, return on
investment and many other important factors of any large corporation. The
subtlety of practicing internal communication also requires a high level of
communication expertise, which has gradually transferred the management of
such function to the hands of public relations and corporate communication team.
Internal communication’s critical importance to the success of organizations is
also gaining wider recognition both in the academia and the business circle.
Silicon Valley has long been the incubator of technology innovations,
producing wealth fuelled by one third of all the venture capital investment in the
United States and countless high-tech companies that drive the industry’s
development. (Money Tree Report, 2010) Being one of leading semi-conductor
companies in the United Sates, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. has witnessed
rapid growth since its foundation in the year 1995. Surrounded by strong
competitors such as Intel, Qualcomm, and Broadcom, the company is able to
survive and thrive with a highly professional circuit designing team and
comparatively lower price. However, there is also a high level of employee
distress and a higher turnover rate compared with industry average in the
company’s central designing team.
Selecting Marvell as the target organization, this thesis aims to understand
the internal communication structure and practices currently adopted in the
company through interviews with engineers from the central designing
department and provide suggestions to optimize those to increase
communication efficiency, employee engagement level, and ideally return on
3
investment, which always stays on top of the C-suite’s agenda. The thesis will
conclude with the author offering recommendations from the following
perspectives: internal communication audit, channel diversification, information
customization, employee engagement, and potential social media platform
integration.
4
Chapter One: The Evolution of Internal Communication in Corporate
America
1.1. Defining Internal Communication
Internal communication is generally defined as the communication flow
among people within the boundaries of an organization. Many scholars
emphasize that effective internal communication is a prerequisite for a positive
external corporate image or reputation (Tench and Yeomans, 2006; Argenti and
Forman, 2002; Kitchen, 1997; Sholes, 1997; Goldhaber, 1993; Grunig and Hunt,
1984). Other authors note the role of internal communication as a relationship
management and commitment-building function (Cutlip et al., 2006; Jo and Shim,
2005; Ledinghan and Bruning, 2000; Grunig, 1992).
Many scholars also draw attention to a lack of satisfactory theoretical
models to describe and interpret internal communication. New theoretical
perspectives have been applied to internal communication, including stakeholder
theory (Welch and Jackson, 2007) and a multidisciplinary approach (Kalla,
2005a). In those studies, the terms internal communication(s) are often used
interchangeably with employee communication. While this thesis aims to discuss
the components of effective internal communications on the operational level,
these terms would also be used interchangeably to express the same concept,
which is the exchange of information both informal and formal between
management and employees within the organization.
Scholars often distinguish internal from external communication by
referring to organizational boundaries. They implicitly or explicitly consider the
5
organization as a system continuously interacting with its external environment
(Cutlip et al., 2006; Tench and Yeomans, 2006; Argenti and Forman, 2002;
Kitchen, 1997; Sholes, 1997; Goldhaber, 1993; Grunig and Hunt, 1984).
But organizational boundaries are an inaccurate criterion to use in defining
internal communication for a number of reasons. First of all, in this digital age,
abundant information is created and disseminated via various channels in an
almost seamless manner. In today’s Web 2.0 world, creating, publishing, and
distributing breaking news, information or announcements is no longer limited to
the leadership within corporations, companies and organizations. The digitization
of information and the various distribution networks combined with the Internet
has radically altered communication flow within organizations. Personal mobile
devises are one example of this change. With the prevalence of smart phones
and advancement of mobile technologies, employees within a certain
organization can easily acquire information through various sources. For
example, if a publicly traded company has announced disappointing revenue
numbers, before hearing it from the official internal source, employees may catch
the news through a Tweet they get on their iPhone, or an hourly news update
from a CNN podcast that they subscribe to. In other words, employees are
connected to the ongoing information flow from both inside the organization and
the world beyond it all the time. Thus it is increasingly difficult for the internal
communication function to exert full control on how and where employees get
what information. As a result, simply defining internal communication by setting
6
an organizational boundary would be both unwise for the company and
meaningless for employees.
Secondly, having multiple channels as information carriers makes internal
communication an even more complicated and tricky task for whichever the
function is nested in an organization. Referring back to the example given in the
above paragraph, employees might have already learned about the disappointing
news from various external channels before the internal communicator reaches
them, and each of them may have different interpretation and explanation for the
loss. Then rumors may start to form and spread among peers, and that can only
serve as a distractive factor for employees’ productivity. In a word, all employees
are members of the external public and receive messages from dozens of
sources and media channels. Organizations must be careful to communicate
news internally before employees learn about it from other sources.
To better understand the differences between traditional internal
communication mode and how things have been changed by the ability of
anyone with an Internet connection to publish or spread information, the author
has utilized the following graphs to show the different information flows.
7
Figure 1. Traditional Communication Flow, in a Hierarchical Manner
As the above graph indicates, traditional communication mode within an
organization is mostly one way. Information flows from the top management level
to employees in a hierarchical manner. With the internal communication function
unit as the exclusive channel to acquire information about the organization they
work for, employees have to rely heavily on such method, as no other
communication channels are conveniently available to them.
Top
Management
HR/PR
Departments
Senior
Managers
Mid-‐level
Managers
Employees
8
Figure 2. Communication Ecology in the Web 2.0 Time
When it comes to the Web 2.0 communication ecology, information is fluid
and not constrained by the traditional hierarchy and approval process. It can be
accessed anywhere at any time with the high prevalence of portable devices
connected to the Internet. As a result, internal communication function’s
exclusivity and importance as the information sender are somewhat diminished
to employees as they now can acquire abundant information through various
channels. This makes the internal communication task even more challenging as
the department that handles it now has to compete with all other channels to
attract employees’ limited attention. Sometimes if a certain situation is not
communicated in a timely, credible, and trustworthy manner, rumors might start
to spread and unexpected results might happen.
Employees
Internal
HR/PR
Mass
Media
Social
Media
Collegues
9
1.2 Where does the internal communication nest?
Internal communication is traditionally considered to be a function fulfilled
by the human resources department. Yet with public relations’ increasing
importance and communication expertise, the line gets blurred, especially when it
comes to whether programs directed to employees draw more on pubic relations
concepts than on those developed from the traditions of human resources.
(Broom, 2006) The most frequent source of conflict between these two functions
lies in the control of employee communications. Compromise usually comes
when PR practitioners and HR specialists realize that internal relationships
inevitably produce impacts externally. (Ibid.)
Surveys in the field indicate the changing nature of the place where
internal communications nest. Results of the Benchmark 1997 survey show that
88 percent of corporate communications are responsible for employee
communication and that this function ranks second in importance only to investor
relations for achieving corporate goals. (Ibid.) Seventy percent of PR Reporter
newsletter’s readers reflect that the public relations department handles
employee communication, whereas only 22 percent report that such function falls
under the duties of human resources department. (Ibid.)
However, more recent surveys conducted by the consulting firm Watson
Wyatt Worldwide, which primarily deals with human resources and personnel
departments, present different results. About fifty-three percent of the responding
companies place employee communication under human resource, whereas
10
thirty percent put it under public relations. (Watson Wyatt Worldwide 2005-2006
survey, 2006)
No matter the internal communications function is under which
department’s control, one thing obvious is that the communication environment
both within and outside of an organization is getting more and more dynamic,
which requires those who handle it to have a certain level of expertise and
experience. Just as Paul Sanchez at Watson Wyatt Worldwide summarizes:
“many communicators, once identified as part of the human resources or public
relations function, are now a separate and distinct communication department.
As senior management looks for more strategic integrated communication
programming, they are finding that other staff agencies often lack the expertise or
time to provide the required focus or skills spectrum. This is especially true for
the types of broad communication initiatives that organizations must undertake to
support organizational change.” (Broom, 2006)
While the thesis’s primary focus is on what constitutes effective internal
communication for large IT companies in the United States with a case analysis
of Marvell, the third-largest semiconductor company in the field, the author has
included the above organizational settings of internal communications for readers
to better understand the context of the subject being discussed.
11
Chapter Two: Why does Internal Communication Matter?
Internal communication deals with the most valuable resource of any
organization: its people. While it may seem to be common sense knowledge that
happy employees are the best employees, few corporations are actually fully
leveraging the potential of its staff through internal communications.
According to Alvie Smith, former director of corporate communications at
General Motors, most organizations miss out on a sizable share of their
employees because they do not put a high priority on effective two-way
communication as the foundation for management-employee relations and
overall job performance. The consequence can be very costly: employee
disloyalty, lack of commitment to organizational goals, high turnover rate, labor
grievance, absenteeism, and perhaps most costly of all is inaction by employees
who withhold their best efforts and ideas. (Broom, 2006)
Another example to illustrate the importance of internal communication
would be Apple Inc., the world’s largest consumer electronics company. Apple
Inc. views internal communication “as a key factor in maintaining a wide-open
progressive work environment as well as the most important channel in keeping a
far-flung, empowered and decentralized organization aligned and coordinate.”
(Apple.com)
Besides, various studies show that effective internal communication is an
indispensible part for any organization to achieve collective goals and success.
Internal communication attracted the attention of scientists and managers in
Europe, USA and Australia about half the century ago and reached its peak of
12
popularity in 1970-1980 (Žibūda, 2007).
A considerable amount of research has linked effective communication
practices to organization’s performance outcomes. According to the
communication ROI study conducted by the Towers Watson Group in 2009 and
2010 among 328 organizations that represent 5 million employees in many
regions around the globe, effective employee communication is a leading
indicator of financial performance and a driver of employee engagement.
Companies that are highly effective communicators had 47 percent higher total
returns to shareholders over the last five years compared with firms that are the
least effective communicators. Further more, companies that communicate with
courage, innovation and discipline, especially during economically challenging
times, are more effective in terms of employee engagement and achieving
desired business goals.
While research on internal communication spans only a few decades, it
has experienced a number of organizational shifts in that short time. In 1982,
D’Aprix wrote of a critical time for communicating with employees and called for
the reevaluation of internal communication. In regard to communication within
organizations, he believed there existed a “lack of definition, inadequate budgets,
limited professional staffing, and nearsighted vision.” This “nearsighted vision”
coupled with changes occurring in the workforce, demanded improvements in
internal communication. D’Aprix expanded, “companies are dealing with a
different kind of employee than heretofore an employee who is looking for job
satisfaction, who believes in personal options, and who wants meaningful work.”
13
Prior to the introduction of employee engagement, organizations focused
on measuring employee satisfaction to gauge how their employees felt about
where they worked. D’Aprix speaks of a change in employees where they now
demand more from their organization than a paycheck. Employees now looked
beyond their pay for additional qualities in a workplace. They desired a company
they could believe in, and a genuine feeling that what they did everyday made a
difference. With these changes the old measurements used to gauge employee’s
opinions about their organization had to be reevaluated. Research that measures
internal communication’s link to job satisfaction finds there to be a causal
relationship between the two (Asif & Sargeant, 2000; Goris, Pettit, & Vaught,
2002; Hunt & Ebeling, 1983; King, Lahiff, & Hatfield, 1988).
However, while the wealth of research supports the link between internal
communication, job satisfaction, and productivity, “there was nothing strategic or
business-focused about these communications” and “strategically managed
employee communications is a relatively new phenomenon” (Holtz, 2004). The
shift toward internal communication being strategically aligned with
organizational goals is in response to the changing business environment. It
brings new ways of reaching employees to ensure organizational success. Holtz
explained:
Given all the changes to the world of work, the function of
communication to employees have evolved from the kind of reporting
that populated most “house organs”---the name given to fluff-filled
company publications---to a strategic business activity, the kind that (in
14
the words of a 2002 study by the Society of Human Resources
Managers (SCM)), “influence internal perceptions of organizational
reputation and credibility.” (Holtz, 2004)
What Holtz explains is the major shift in the way businesses structured
their internal communication. Employees would no longer be satisfied with “fluff-
filled” company propaganda and demanded honest and direct communication.
Members of the SCM Editorial Board were brought together in 2006 to discuss
major trends in organizational communication. They believed that because of
growing public distrust in big business, there existed for employees “an erosion of
trust” toward management (SCM, p. 17). This distrust posed challenges for
internal communication in creating campaigns that solidified the organization’s
values, beliefs, and the credibility of its management.
Strategic communication goes beyond announcing birthdays, births, and
bar gatherings in the monthly newsletter to an integration of all communication
messages along with the internal marketing of that information. The variables for
internal communication and job satisfaction do not encompass the depth that
organizations now demand. Organizations can no longer get by with a survey
that says their employees are happy; they must develop methods for engaging
the workforce. However, organizations with a formalized way of communicating
with employees on a regular basis are not necessarily successful in business.
Merely communicating with employees does not secure an organization’s
success, rather those who have a formalized method for effective communication
find they stand out from the rest. The Watson Wyatt Worldwide (2004) survey
15
found that, “organizations that communicate effectively overall are significantly
more likely to be effective in a number of aspects of communications”(p. 5).
The hierarchy of effective communication is comprised of three tiers:
foundational, strategic, and behavioral. The foundation tier establishes “a strong
foundation by addressing process and resource issues” (p. 6). This tier includes a
formal communication process, employee input, linking desired behavior to
employee compensation, and the effective use of technology (p. 6). The strategic
tier is utilized once the foundation is in place and moves towards a “more
strategic and targeted approach more directly linked to business results” (p. 8).
This tier focuses on facilitating change, continuous improvement, and connecting
employees to business objectives (p. 8). The final tier is behavioral, “where the
most significant increase in shareholder value can be realized” (p. 10). At the
behavioral level businesses focus on communication that drives or changes the
behavior of management and creates a “line of sight” where employees clearly
understand their role in the organization’s success (p. 11). Watson Wyatt
summarizes, “creating a communication program that encompasses each of the
three tiers of the communication and all its underlying elements will open the
pathways of communication within the workforce and enhance the value of the
organizations significantly” (p. 6).
To sum it up, internal communication’s importance to an organization is
mostly reflected through its positive connection to employee engagement, which
has been identified by both consulting firms and survey administrators as a key
factor to reduce turnover, increase shareholder value and serve as the catalyst
16
for outperforming competition (Woodruffe, 2006; Harley, Lee, & Robinson, 2005;
Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 2004). Vice versa, organizations that have effective
internal communications with employees show a higher level of engagement
(Baumruk et al., 2006; Debussy, Ewing, & Pitt, 2003; Yates, 2006).
17
Chapter Three: Marvell, A Case Study of Leading Technology Company’s
Internal Communication Practices
3.1 An Industry Overview
Since the second half of the twentieth century, Silicon Valley has made its
name as an incubator where many of the world’s largest high-tech corporations
sprang and thrived, producing wealth fuelled by one third of all the venture capital
investment in the United States and countless innovations that drive the
industry’s development. (The Economist, 2009)
The 2008 global recession, however, not only was a huge blow to the
country’s financial and housing sectors. With its ongoing ramifications to the
world’s economy as a whole, the comparatively recession-proof information-
technology (IT) industry has also been deeply affected.
From early 2009, big names in the industry have been laying off
employees to cut costs one after another. Motorola, Microsoft, and IBM were all
on the list. Even Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker and bellwether in the
semiconductor industry, has been reporting drops in financial earnings from time
to time. (PWC World, 2010)
Amid such depressing environment and gloomy industry forecasts,
employees who made it through the tough time have to work even harder to keep
their jobs and working overtime seems to have become the most common
phenomena across the IT industry. Constant pressure from peers and workload
prevail among employees, causing distress, low-level of motivation and
efficiency.
18
At the same time, internal communications, an important relationship
management and commitment-building function, has long been under-valued in
many of the IT companies in Silicon Valley. As demonstrated in the literature
review chapter, both theoretical and empirical evidences show that internal
communication is critically important to an organization in terms of boosting
employee motivation, enhancing their satisfaction, and improving working
efficiency. Furthermore, with the gloomy industry environment and the ever-
increasing working pressures, the demand for better internal communication
within an IT company appears to be even greater. Just as the old saying goes,
happy workers are a company’s most valuable assets.
Therefore, this thesis aims to research on how the internal communication
function is used in Marvell, a leading publicly traded semiconductor company
based in Silicon Valley, and to explore tentative solutions for optimization.
19
3.2 Target Subject Matter: Marvell
Founded in 1995, Marvell Technology Group Ltd. is one of the world’s
leading fabless semiconductor companies by revenue numbers. (Marvell
company profile) It has operations worldwide and approximately 5,700
employees. Marvell’s U.S. operating subsidiary is based in Santa Clara,
California and Marvell has international design centers located in the U.S.,
Europe, Israel, India, Singapore and China.
Marvell ships over one billion semiconductor chips a year and the
company’s expertise in microprocessor architecture and digital signal processing
drives production and sales across multiple platforms including high volume
storage solutions, mobile and wireless, networking, consumer and green
products.
One of Marvell’s key success factors is its world-class engineering team
that enables the company to deliver critical building blocks to its customers, most
of which are multi-national hardware companies, at a comparatively lower price,
thus giving them competitive advantage to succeed in today’s highly dynamic
and recession-stricken market.
20
3.3 Marvell’s Key Markets and Competitive Advantages
Key Markets
• Mobile and Wireless
Marvell’s key strength lies within its advanced mobile and wireless
technologies, which are currently widely used in laptops, smart phones, gaming
devices, and other portable devices. The company also provides customers with
superior power management with great ease of use and security.
• Storage Solutions
The second core business of Marvell’s is the data storage silicon solutions
for individual consumers, mobile, desktop and enterprise market segments. The
company offers storage solutions that enable business customers to engineer
high-volume products such as hard disk drives, tape drives, optical disks, solid
state drives, and host adaptors.
• Networking
Marvell also designs networking products for huge enterprises and small
businesses. The company caters to varied customer needs and creates
networking solutions with high reliability and resiliency, which power every point
in the networking ecosystem seamlessly.
• Green Technology
Green technology and sustainable development are also on top of
Marvell’s business agenda. Over the past years, the company dedicates itself to
the development of green technology both as a supplier and user to save energy
and reduce collective carbon footprint. One example would be the digital Power
21
Factor Correction (PFC) controllers, which is a leading energy-efficient
technology for AC/DC power supplies and low power LED and CFL lighting
solutions.
Marvell’s technology advantages are reflected through the following four
categories:
1) Proprietary DSP, mixed-signal IP portfolio,
2) CPU technology for industry-leading performance and power optimization
3) Low power, complex system-on-chip (SoC) design techniques,
4) System-level and software expertise.
One thing that needs our attention is the company’s acquisition of Intel’s
XScale technology. Combined with Marvell’s prior generation of Feroceon CPUs,
this acquisition increases the scalability of the company’s embedded CPU
technology in terms of size, performance, and power consumption.
Customers
Marvell’s operations and businesses are largely depended on the B-to-B
level. Some of its major customers include: Panasonic, Lenovo, Netgear, Dell, D-
Link, Sony Ericsson, Cisco, Samsung, Hewlett and Packard, Toshiba, etc.
22
3.4 Internal Communication Practices in Marvell: Research Methodology
To analyze the internal communication practices in the target company,
the author has conducted three interviews with engineers in its Central
Engineering Department, which is comprised of about 400 employees.
The author has selected interviewees from this department for three
reasons. First of all, the Central Engineering Department is the largest unit in
Marvell and the author believes that results from this department would be
representative of the rest of the company. Secondly, this department shoulders
the most important and crucial task in Marvell, which is to design, test, and
produce the prototypes of circuits and other key components that will be widely
used in many portable devices. The working efficiency and employee motivation
of this department thus become a very crucial factor for Marvell and presumably
would attract most attention in many aspects, including internal communications.
Thirdly, being the most valuable asset for Marvell, the central engineering team
deserves the most attention from the management level to control turnover rate
and ensure a certain level of work satisfaction, both of which are important
functions of internal communications.
The three interviews were conducted separately face-to-face with each
individual near their working site during lunch break. Among the three
interviewees, two are Chinese with H1B visa and the third is Chinese-Canadian.
Before selecting interview candidates, the writer has briefly exchanged emails
with the HR department in Marvell and was informed that the Central Engineering
department has a staff of around 400 people. About 300 of them are Chinese,
23
and the remaining 100 are mostly Indian and Korean. The other characteristic is
that the majority of them are first generation in the U.S. The author thinks the
three interviewees represent the characteristics of the whole department and
therefore results should be reflective of the general situation.
The three interviews were conducted in Chinese because all three
interviewees’ first language is Chinese and the author thinks that using the
mother tongue enables them to express their meaning most effectively and
accurately. Each interview took about 17 minutes and all three engineers being
interviewed acted very cooperatively and responsively to the author’s questions
with regards to internal communication practices in Marvell, their effectiveness
and how they can be improved.
As briefly mentioned above, the three interviews have focused on the
following issues:
1) What communication channels does Marvell use to communicate with its
employees?
2) Through each channel, what kind of information is being transferred to
employees?
3) How effective do employees think about those practices?
4) How satisfied are they with current internal communication practices?
To better understand communication satisfaction and how to measure it,
the author has adopted the following theoretical framework.
Traditional definitions of communication satisfactions usually view it as a
one-way construct. Yet the idea was challenged by Downs and Hazen (1977),
24
whose research indicated that communication satisfaction is a multi-dimensional
construct and can be understood from eight perspectives.
I. Satisfaction with communication climate;
II. Satisfaction with supervisory communication;
III. Satisfaction with organizational integration;
IV. Satisfaction with media quality;
V. Satisfaction with horizontal communication;
VI. Satisfaction with organizational perspective;
VII. Satisfaction with personal feedback;
VIII. Satisfaction with subordinate communication.
5) From the employees’ perspective, how can the current practices be
improved?
25
3.5 Major Findings
The author has recorded the three interviews with permission. A content
analysis was followed after transcribing the recordings and below is the major
findings.
I. Internal communication channels and content being transferred
In general, Marvell uses three communication channels to convey
information internally: a news website exclusively for employees, emails, and
weekly meetings.
The news website is managed by the Human Resources department in
Marvell and is constantly updated with positive news about the company. Some
examples would be Marvell has signed new contract with Google to design and
manufacture several key components of Google TV, co-founder Weilie Dai’s
interview with CNBC, and satisfying quarterly earnings report. Negative news and
news about competitors are rarely covered. For example, the author has noticed
that the latest Q4 financial report of 2011 has a decreased revenue number and
this news didn’t appear on the website.
Another major channel for internal communications in Marvell is email.
Employees receive emails from the HR department regularly for information
about company-wide events, new policies, regular service notification (haircuts,
exclusive discounts from retailers, etc.), and monthly birthday alerts. Usually
there would be two rounds of emails about the same information. The first round
goes to employees a few days before the actual event and on the actual date HR
would send out a second round as a reminder.
26
The third channel is a monthly newsletter sent out from the HR
department, which summarizes latest progresses, new policies and other
information about the company. Yet none of the three interviewees have thought
of this channel when asked to tell the interviewer about the most commonly used
internal communication methods in Marvell. It was when the author mentioned
general communication mechanisms within an organization that they
remembered about the newsletter.
Lastly, each department would hold weekly meetings on a fixed date with
a group of about 10 people (classified based on the projects employees work on)
to discuss working progresses, problems, and plans for the next week. A director
would always attend the meeting to ensure work schedule, timeliness, and
coordinate with other groups that work collaboratively to achieve the same goal.
II. Internal communication effectiveness and satisfaction from the
employees’ point of view
All three interviewees have expressed that they were placed in a very
passive role in the communication process. They could only receive information
from those who manage the channels. They could not voice their needs and
opinions. Communications within the company is largely confined within the
group they work with and no information about other departments is available
through either channels. Furthermore, when asked about Marvell’s current
organizational business goal, none of the interviewees had a clue and they were
only aware of the deliverables that each of them was working on.
27
In terms of the effectiveness of the internal news website and regular
emails, all three interviewees said that they felt “fine” with them with regards to
acquiring information about the company and that both channels “have provided
a fair amount of information.” However, there was no way for them to interact with
the information sender to voice their need or talk with follow co-workers to
express any concern or problem that they might have. And as mentioned
previously, the monthly newsletters seemed to have no effect on employees as
they were only summaries and re-caps of the content that has already appeared
on the news website.
In terms of seeking work-related help, however, Marvell has a very flexible
policy. Typically speaking, a manager would have three subordinating designers
and each of them can seek immediate help from the manager whenever they
encounter a problem. If the manager cannot offer suggestions to the designer,
the problem would then be reflected to the director. But such mechanism only
works with work-related situations. If an employee has a problem with other
issues, say receipts reimbursement or a certain new policy, they could only rely
on personal connections with colleagues working in that specific department. No
communication channel is available to meet such needs and employees would
often feel frustrated and distracted if they are under heavy workloads (which they
often do) while similar situations occur.
III. How do interviewees think the current communication practices can be
improved
28
When asked what suggestions they would make to the internal
communication team to make the current practice more effective and useful to
them, all three interviewees mentioned that it would be great if there could be a
platform to voice their problems and concerns about non-work related issues and
get credible and accurate feedback in a timely matter. For example, does the
company provide service about tax reporting? Or what progress their green card
application is in right now?
With respect to the actual form of the communication channel to address
such need, different opinions were brought up. One interviewee said that if the
HR department, or whichever department that had the expertise to answer their
questions, could assign a staff member to their group to provide help whenever a
question arises, that would be quite effective. The second interviewee mentioned
some sort of an internal social media platform where they could post their
questions and get answers from whomever that knows about it. The third
interviewee expressed interest in regular information sessions where they could
have face-to-face interaction with staff members that have answers to their
questions.
Yet no matter what channel Marvell might use to address such needs, one
thing that approved true across board for the talented designers in the Central
Engineering department is that their time is pretty limited with the heavy
workloads they have all the time and communication solutions should be very
effective and help them save time so that they could spare more energy working
29
on their projects, the results of which directly affect Marvell’s stakeholders and
the investment community.
30
Chapter Four: Diagnosis and Tentative Solutions to Optimize Marvell’s
Internal Communication Practices
4.1 Internal Communications Practices Analysis at Marvell
I. Theoretical framework: what does effective internal communication look
like?
As discussed earlier in this article, internal communications are
operationally defined as the informal and formal exchange of information within
an organization. Communication methods may include: newsletters, circulation
materials, surveys, meetings, in-house televisions, face-to-face interactions,
emails, hotlines, suggestion boxes, Intranet, Internet, telephone calls,
videoconferences, memos, letters, notice boards, formal presentations, reports,
open forums, blogs, and wikis (Argenti, 1998; Asif & Sargeant, 2000; Baumruk et
al., 2006; Cutlip, Center, & Broom, 2005; Debussy et all., 2003, Goodman &
Truss, 2004; Hunt and Ebeling, 1983; Yates, 2006; )
According to Broom in his Effective Public Relations, effective internal
communication develops in a climate of trust. Ideally, working relationships are
characterized by at least seven conditions:
A. Confidence and trust between employer and employees;
B. Candid information flowing freely up, down, and sideways;
C. Satisfying status and participation for each person;
D. Continuity of work without strife;
E. Healthful surroundings;
F. Success for the enterprise;
31
G. Optimism about the future.
Combining the above set of criteria with other major studies about
effective employee communications, the author has developed the following
matrix to assess internal communication practices in Marvell.
Table 1. Measuring Internal Communication Practices at Marvell
Criteria Performance
Communication Channel Versatility Among all forms of communication
channels, Marvell has only adopted the
most common three: a website, emails,
and monthly newsletters.
Media Quality All three interviewees viewed the
quality of the above channels as “fine,”
“showed what needs to be done.”
Communication Interaction Internal communication channels in
Marvell don’t provide any interactive
mechanism for employees to
participate in the process.
Information Flow Direction Information is flowing only one way,
from sender to intended receivers.
32
Table 1 Continued
Responsiveness Employees don’t even have a platform
to voice their questions, let alone
getting responses from those with the
expertise to answer them.
Trustworthiness of Information Being
Conveyed
Being the only source for employees to
acquire information about the company
and other self-related information, the
website, all emails and newsletters
enjoy a high level of trustworthiness
among target audience. All three
interviewees deemed it as very
credible.
Content Content is selected by the HR and
internal communication team in Marvell
without consulting with target audience.
It is also high confined within the
categories of corporate news and
policies.
Communication Climate The climate is pretty passive.
Employees seldom seek information
through internal communication on
their own.
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Table 1 Continued
Horizontal Communication No communication is facilitated
horizontally through internal channels
in Marvell. Employees in one
department rarely communicate and
get to know those working in other
departments.
Supervisory and Subordinate
Communication
Communication flows very freely
between employees and their
immediate supervisors. But content is
concentrated on work for most of the
time.
34
4.2 Internal Communications Practices between Marvell and its Key
Competitor Qualcomm
In the fabless semiconductor arena, Qualcomm, Broadcom and Marvell
are widely recognized as the top three competitors. This part would examine and
compare the internal communication practices in these two companies from
publicly available resources with those adopted in Marvell, and identify some of
the best practices among the three.
Qualcomm
Established in July 1985, Qualcomm is a publicly traded multi-national
telecommunication company that specializes in the designing, manufacturing,
and marketing of digital wireless products and services based on its core CDMA
technologies and others. The company currently has about 16,100 employees
across 146 locations worldwide and holds 12,600 US patents and pending patent
applications for CDMA and related technologies. (qualcomm.com/whoweare) In
term of business operations, licensing its core technologies to other companies
generates a huge part of revenues, which is a very different source of revenue
compared with Marvell and Broadcom, whose revenue numbers are largely
driven by the designing and manufacturing of semiconductors.
Qualcomm puts heavy emphasis on employee communications. Dan
Sullivan, executive vice president of human resources at Qualcomm, once said in
2011 that “many things have changed in the 25 years since Qualcomm began as
a small high-tech start up with a big vision to change the world of wireless
communications. One thing that hasn’t changed is our belief that the success of
35
our company is entirely based on our employees’ hard work, innovative thinking
and dedication.” Qualcomm has also been on Fortune’s annual “100 Best
Companies to Work For” list for 13 consecutive years since 1998. (“Qualcomm
Named One of FORTUNE’s ‘100 Best Companies to Work For’”)
Coming to the actual internal communication practices in Qualcomm,
Michelle Gerevas, director of employee communications in the company, said
that her team uses a variety of two-way communication methods to keep
Qualcomm’s 15,000 employees spread across more than 30 countries informed,
engaged, connected and inspired. (“IABC Presents: Employee Communications
at Qualcomm”)
To be more specific, Qualcomm uses the self-developed system
“MySource,” which is centered on a Web portal, to manage both human
resources and internal communications. The system covers areas including
employee profiles, pay stubs, benefits administrations, open enrollment,
performance evaluations, 360-degree appraisals, employee training, new policy
updates, and so on (Frauenheim, 2006). According to Nancy Hemry, director of
human resource management systems in Qualcomm, because MySource is built
from the employee’s perspective, a wide variety of information of use or interest
to employees can be snagged from the site, including a to-do-list, benefits,
payroll stubs, most up-to-date links to company policies, and many others. (Ibid.)
The platform is not only a one-way information provider to employees at
Qualcomm, any enrolled staff member can also articulate their needs, questions,
or concerns through the platform to the HR department and the internal
36
communications team (Ibid), who would then provide answers or refer a certain
situation to the related department. This way, information flows in a two-way
manner, making the management team and employees from both ends
communicate in a more effective and efficient way.
Other than the MySource web portal system, Qualcomm also manages a
blog named OnQ
®
for employees to discuss work-related issues. Blog posts on
the site are mostly questions, opinions and insights on mobile technologies and
the wireless industry. There are approximately 76 contributors to the blog, most
of whom are highly professional designing engineers at Qualcomm. Viewers can
also find questions posted by prospective employees and students learning
related subjects on OnQ
®
,
and they would always get answers from those with
expertise at Qualcomm. The blog facilitates information flow among employees
with similar interests within the organization. It also serves as a window to those
outside the company but work or study in the same industry, which helps to
establish credibility and facilitate discussion among people who have a vested
interest in the field.
Furthermore, the company also has a wide presence on social media
platforms that offer a variety of internal and external audiences additional
information touch points. Qualcomm has ten separate Facebook pages that
highlight the company itself, its core products, careers and intern information.
The “Qualcomm” page has more than 30,000 “likes” and is constantly posting
industrial insights, new moves within the company, and major events Qualcomm
has attended. Comments and “likes” are commonly seen on the “wall.” The page
37
also does cross-platform promotion of Qualcomm’s other social media platforms
such as the YouTube channel and Twitter accounts. To summarize, Facebook is
used as an interactive channel for the company to communicate with the
community around it, most of who are assumedly related to Qualcomm.
As for the Twitter and YouTube channels, Qualcomm also utilized them in
a very engaging way to convey tailored information to different target groups. To
be more specific, the company has 15 Twitter accounts for marketing, investor
relations, government affairs, its key products, and how life in the company is like.
Qualcomm also uses Flickr to showcase events and parties held internally
and major industrial conferences it attends (Mobile World Congress, MWC for
example). Beside, the company also uses Flickr as a public relations channel to
show pictures of celebrities using one of their app, SWAGG.
Through these social media “windows,” Qualcomm is able to establish a
well-rounded virtual presence on the web, which is readily available to be viewed
not only by the general public, but also by any employee who is interested in
knowing more about the employer. And in turn they can also engage with the
organization through theses channels to voice their opinions, concerns, and
problems and get feedbacks in a timely manner. A virtuous communication circle
is then formed where information starts to flow both ways. By taking a part in the
process, employees can also feel a stronger sense of belonging, and be
encouraged to participate and share more.
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4.3 Tentative Solutions
Today, communication is instant. It can come so forcefully and in such
volume that many liken it to drinking information from a fire hose. The ways we
as individuals use new technologies and devices to better filter information flow
and reach key groups will be essential to corporations as well. Doing so, however,
will require an organization to rethink its approaches in terms of content
production, customization and the adoption of new tools and electronic gateways
to moderate and fine-tune information flow among employees.
Meanwhile, employees have also changed dramatically over the last half-
century. James Houghton, CEO of Corning Inc., says that: “Today, people
question the status quo. They want to make their own decisions. They want to
share their ideas and their enthusiasm and not just be told what to do” (Schaefer,
1993). Today’s employee is a very different person in terms of values and needs
than the employee in earlier decades of this century. Thus only relying on several
traditional communicating channels would be far from enough to meet the work
force’s changing and growing needs.
Based on the assessment of Marvell’s internal communication practices,
the author would provide suggestions from the following several aspects to help
improve its efficiency and effectiveness.
A. Conduct a communication audit
To begin with, the author would suggest Marvell conduct a thorough
internal communication audit to better understand current internal communication
practices’ effectiveness and employees’ satisfaction towards such methods to
39
find any existing problems, information gap, unmet needs, and any space for
improvement.
In the interview the author has conducted with Edelman’s west coast VP of
employee engagement and internal communications Mr. Dan Shaw, he also
agreed doing an internal communication audit is usually the best starting point to
approach a project like this. “It is critically important to understand your audience
before making any changes that affect them and the audit is the best start.”
According to Mr. Dan Shaw, the internal communication auditing process usually
takes place in three phases: focus groups with employees at different levels
being the first, one-on-one interviews with executives being the second, and
company-wide surveys being the third phase to testify results acquired from the
first two qualitative methods.
Just as Mr. Shaw stated, the major purpose of the internal communication
audit is to understand the internal audience, especially with regards to the ways
and habits that they consume information, both inside and outside of the work
place, to make internal communication practices better cater to their preferences.
Important questions to be asked would include: what channels do employees use
to acquire information, what information do they need, how do they like the
content and formats of information provided to them, etc.
Adjustments could then be made based on the audit results to increase
communication efficiency and effectiveness.
40
B. Communication Channel Diversification
As briefly discussed above, employees’ communication habits are
changing rapidly. Current channels used in Marvell---an intranet, regular emails
and newsletters---cannot meet the increasing and varied demand for information
in the work force. In response to it, adding a social media channel could serve as
the best remedy. In the interview with Mr. Dan Shaw, he also expressed that the
number one trend in the internal communication field is social media integration
and “with almost every account that I work with, they are all trying to get their
heads around it.”
To quote Mr. Dan Shaw from Edelman again, “communication nowadays
is no longer vertical as it used to be in the old school model. Employees now
acquire information from various sources. Leaders and managers are longer in
the center of universe. And there is now the expectation given that people’s
communication behaviors have been adapted within the social media
environment. There’s an expectation now that people will want to play a role in
making decisions, providing feedback, and being part of the process, instead of
just being told, ‘OK, everyone, here’s the way we’re gonna do things now.’
There’s the expectation now that they will get a say at the decision. So one major
trend in internal communications is that decisions no longer drive conversation,
conversations drive decision.”
When it comes to the actual social media incorporation strategies, possibly
the best place to start would be the intranet, as Mr. Shaw explained. “When you
are looking at how you can bring the social media element into the company,
41
looking at their intranet that currently exists and understand what the capabilities
are to go social. Pepsi Co. is really a good example to show profession in the
space.” To be more specific, the company has created an intranet on a mobile
site that is accessible on various mobile phone platforms, whether it’s Droid or
iPhone. Instead of crating a mobile app, they created a mobile-enhanced site to
their employees and that allows them to login on their own intranet while they are
on the go. One crucial thing in the process is about their HR department’s
participation. “Because a lot of the companies are afraid, when it comes to going
social, that internal information getting leaked out. So what Pepsi Co. did was
that they worked with their HR department and did a whole exercise where they
analyzed the content on their intranet and determined about 85% of what’s on
the intranet could actually be shared externally. It’s kind of a surprise because
they didn’t expect there are so many things on their own intranet that can be
shared externally.” (Quote from the interview with Dan Shaw) So with that in mind,
Pepsi Co. created a content-management system on their intranet where if
employees read a story on the intranet that they like, a press release, a new
technology that the company has just developed, they can “like” or “share” on the
intranet and it could automatically feed into the personal Facebook page.
The Pepsi Co. case well exemplifies how social media and internal
communications can work hand in hand. Even though intranet is an internal
channel, they found a way to incorporate social media. And instead of simply
“pushing” down information to employees regardless of its actual effects, this
strategy allows them to “pull” and share information in a relevant way.
42
With the growing social media trend in internal communication practices
and capabilities of the intranet at Marvell, the author would suggest add an
interactive feature to the site that allows employees to have their voice heard. It
could take various forms from simply adding a “comment” function to the news
posts, to a discussion board for employees to communicate with one another, or
similar to Pepsi Co.’s case, allowing employees to share a piece of information to
their own social media sphere. Marvell can even go a step further to create a
platform to facilitate conversation between employees and senior management
by allowing the former to “ask the leader” questions and share thoughts and
ideas.
Following the proposed changes to be made to the intranet, the other
possible addition to the internal communication package could be a mobile
phone application that enables users (in this case would be employees at
Marvell) to access internal communication information on the go. Given the high
percentage of smart users in Marvell, such an addition fits well with user habit
and provides them with another more convenient channel to “pull” information as
they like it.
The author would also encourage Marvell to increase their presence
across various social media platforms, just as one of their key competitors
Qualcomm does. Even though such practices target mainly at the external
stakeholders, it provides more channels for employees to “pull” information at the
same time. Again as Mr. Shaw puts it, in an ideal world, internal communication
43
flow would strike a balance between the organization’s pushing out information
and employees’ pulling what they need.
C. Employee Segmentation and Content Customization
While employees in a specific organization can be viewed as a very
homogeneous group, their needs for information from within the company can
vary significantly. This is especially true in large multi-national corporations where
staff in different departments can be doing totally different type of works, thus
making the need for audience-specific communications would become more and
more prominent. To be more specific, managers, sales and marketing
professionals may need information and strategies customized for their work that
are more direct and timely while designing engineers might care more about the
availability of the most advanced designing tools to facilitate their work.
Failure to do so will result in a blocking of message cascading and bolster
an impenetrable concrete middle as the river of communication flows around,
rather than through, intractable second-level executives.
In Marvell’s case, a large proportion of employees in the central designing
department in the Santa Clara headquarters are U.S. graduate students who
originally came from Asian countries, China, India and Korea being the top three.
To continue working in the United States, they need sponsorship from the
employer and this process usually takes from three to five years. As a result,
there usually is a great demand for human resources related information for
newcomers during the first several years. As they progress in their career, those
44
needs would disappear and others would emerge from the business’s
perspective.
To be more specific, as engineers get familiar with the day-to-day duties
and business operations in the company, they would want to know more about
insights, trends in the field and their employer’s position and potentials in the
complicated and highly competitive semiconductor industry so as to make
decisions about their own career development. This again reinforces the
importance of understanding the target internal audience, find out their needs
through communication audit and then provide them with what’s needed through
the most preferable channels to maximize internal communication’s effectiveness
and efficiency.
As a result, no matter what internal communication channel Marvell uses,
the content should be better customized and cater to the varied needs of
employees in the organization.
Possible content concentrations could be:
a. Customer Focus
The Communication Return on Investment (ROI) study conducted by the
Watson Wyatt Worldwide in 2007 shows that high-effectiveness companies are
far more likely to keep everyone---from managers and supervisors to technical
specialists and frontline employees—focused on the customer. Seventy-six
percent of these companies have a program in place to ensure that employees
understand how their actions affect customers. Only 5 percent of low-
effectiveness companies report doing this.
45
When asked about what customers they were working with, none of the
three circuit designers provided a clear answer. They were only aware of the
specific project or component they were responsible for, which showed a
significant information gap regarding customers between the company and its
central employee group.
b. Employee Engagement
The same study also shows that top performers are four times more likely
to report high levels of employee engagement than lower-performing companies.
Companies that have employees with high engagement levels typically also
experience superior financial performance. In high-effectiveness companies,
senior leaders actively communicate corporate strategy, business goals, and the
rationale behind management decisions. Personalized communication from top
executives strengthens commitment and increases line of sight (focus and
direction)—leading to higher levels of employee engagement and better financial
performance.
c. Managerial Communication Goes First
At Marvell, the day-to-day contact midlevel managers and frontline
supervisors have with employees makes them a credible source of information
about corporate strategy and business goals.
High-effectiveness companies recognize this fact and leverage these key
people to build commitment and line of sight among employees. They prepare
managers and supervisors for their role as communicators in a variety of ways.
Training to improve communication skills is a starting point. These companies
46
also package information so that it is easy to deliver, and they involve managers
early in the communication process, giving them time to absorb the material
before passing it along to their direct reports.
In the interview with Dan Shaw, he also provided an example that well
illustrates this point. With one of the companies his team has been working, they
have recently developed, after consulting with the organization’s senior
management, HR department and corporate communications units, a two to
three page business slide on a monthly basis to send out to all managers. The
deck outlines the top five things that employees need to know that month.
Managers are then charged with sharing that information with their teams. In this
case, the organization is giving managers a tool that they need to cascade
information down.
Mr. Shaw further explains that in the internal communications context,
managers need to be empowered and enabled to serve as the deliverers of
information and to drive important business indicators. And whichever
department handles the IM function, they should take charge to educate
managers of how to be effective internal communicators. It is also critically
important to help managers understand it is part of their job to effectively
communicate with their team and also arming them with tools and methods of
how to cascade the information down.
D. Taking a more proactive internal communication stance
Companies with a high level of operation efficiency also recognize that
effective communication occurs not only from the top down, but also from the
47
bottom up. These companies use multiple tools for soliciting employee input—
from large-scale annual and biennial surveys and mini surveys to focus groups
and skip-level leadership sessions. The result can be an open dialogue that
promotes trust and confidence, thereby strengthening commitment—one of the
two components of engagement.
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Chapter Five: Conclusions
As one of the leading publicly traded corporations in the semiconductor
industry, Marvell’s current internal communication practices don’t carry much
value to its employees and fail to contribute to the company’s overall business
success. Results of the three interviews conducted with designers in the central
engineering department, Marvell’s core working force, indicate the unsatisfying
effects of current internal communication practices.
Specifically in Marvell’s case, two issues appear to be prominent when
fulfilling the internal communications function: one is about the cultural sensitivity;
the other is the comparatively higher turnover rate than the industry average.
As prior discussion explains, the majority of Marvell’s core engineering
team is comprised of non-native engineers coming mostly from China, India,
Korea and other Asian Pacific countries, which is a true reflection of the general
workforce composition in the computer science and electronic engineering
industries in the United States. With employees having such heterogeneous
backgrounds, the internal communication team needs to take the cultural
sensitivity issue into consideration when developing strategies to communicate
with the internal audience. How to make such a diversified group feel happy and
motivated so that innovations can be fostered and efficiency be enhanced?
Perhaps a peek at Google’s internal communication strategies can offer a hint.
Similar to Marvell, Google, the Internet search giant, also has a large
engineering team consisting of employees from around the globe and a large
part from the Asian Pacific countries. At Google, employees are offered with
49
satisfying compensation package, free all-day gourmet meals, and the campus is
decorated with bright colors, exaggerate replica of Spaceship One, dinosaur
skeleton and many other “unconventional stuff.” Employees are taken well care
of in every aspect that the only thing they need to spare any time and thought
would be their work.
To better facilitate internal communication and encourage innovation,
Google uses various tools to keep the system running. “Product Snippet,” for
example, is a weekly email sent out on Monday where employees are asked to
submit their projects and activities from the previous week and the forecasted
work for the next week. But it doesn’t stop there as Marvell’s weekly department
meetings do. All Product Snippets are then complied into a database that is
made searchable to other employees so that information can be shared everyone
in the company can know what is going on. Data collected via Snippets then gets
published to Google’s project database user interface in real time for any
employee to access regardless of their area of expertise, language or location.
Another one is Google Ideas, which is used internally to “generate, prize
and encourage” employees to act upon new ideas. The application allows people
to share new ideas, comment on others’ ideas and discuss the feasibilities.
(Ussery, 2008) To further enhance collaboration across departments, Google has
MOMA, the intranet search engine that enables employees to find the right
experts within the company to help them work on an idea or project.
In summary, everything related to internal communication is geared
toward facilitating employees’ work needs and encourage collaboration amongst
50
the entire working staff. Specifically speaking about the culture diversity issue,
Google not only embraces multi-culturalism by hiring employees with various
backgrounds from all over the globe, it also celebrates such diversity with series
of events and theme activities. For example, in Google India, the company has
organized The 6
th
Sense, which is a weeklong event with the theme of “Diversity
of Inclusion” aiming to “increase employee sensitivity and awareness of
differences across genders, cultures, and sexual orientation.” (“Diversity in Our
Culture and Workplace”)
Multi-cultural celebration in Google is also global. In 2009, a group of
employees organized such an event at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View,
CA with food, music, dance performances and executive speakers. Over 1,000
Google employees attended the event (ibid). The event further expanded to over
22 offices around the world with more than 5,000 employees attending.
To celebrate culture diversity, Google has different teams in place to
organize and promote events like these. One of the most active event host is the
Indus Googler Network (IGN). Each year, IGN would host many events across
the world to help raise cultural awareness of countries and people among
employees, or Googler, as they usually call themselves. Other teams that are in
place to help facilitate cultural pluralism at Google include the Google Culinary
Team, the Dance Department and the Google Culture Club (ibid.)
Reflecting back to Marvell’s case, the company’s corporate culture seems
to be rather rigid in terms of letting employees express themselves. A simple
example would be cubicle decoration. The author was allowed to briefly tour
51
around the working campus and found that almost none of the employees have
done any decoration to their cubicle, the place where they spend most of the time
on a workday. The author then raised the question in a very casual tone during
the three interviews and two of them expressed a strong interest but felt like “the
company doesn’t encourage such thing” and “putting posters and other personal
stuff would seem to be a bit too self-expressing.”
Based on the above Google example and interview observation, the
author would suggest Marvell take a more human-oriented approach for future
internal communications. The cultural diversity needs to be embraced and
celebrated. Being the most valuable asset for the organization, employees
should feel happy rather than depressed when they are at work.
Following the same line, perhaps the high turnover rate at Marvell’s
engineering team could find its answers here. As mentioned above, a large
proportion of the central designing team is comprised of non-native employees
who need sponsorship to continue working in the United States. This means that
they have to stay in the same company for a certain period of time (usually three
to five years) to acquire the identity need to freely stay and work in the country,
which may turn out to be the only reason that holds them in Marvell. This also
explains why turnover happens mostly frequently among employees at their late
20s and early 30s when they usually get permanent sponsorship at such age.
Speaking from a long-term perspective, Marvell needs to revamp the tone
and appeal of its internal communication practices to make employees feel the
sense of belonging and being needed, rather than addressing them in a cold and
52
official way. With three to five years’ intensive working experience, employees
are at their best time to jump onto a new level. If there could be other factors
beside the sponsorship that employees find valuable at Marvell, they may be
willing and happy to stay for a much longer time and become the core force for
the company’s sustainable development.
To summarize, extensive research about effective internal communication
and studies of companies with highly efficient practices show that if the company
could adjust its communication channels to better meet employees’ different
demands, encourage two-way communication, provide content that caters to the
actual needs of the working staff in a proactive manner, internal communication
would help the company to make substantial gains by encouraging positive
behaviors and thus enhancing business success.
53
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Abstract (if available)
Abstract
This paper examines the internal communication practices in Marvell, one of the world’s largest semiconductor corporations based in Silicon Valley, USA, and offers suggestions for optimization. To be more specific, Marvell, as the leading player in the highly competitive chip-making arena, has a very professional engineering team on board to deliver quality circuit designs to a wide range of customers including Microsoft, Dell, Google and Hewlett-Packard, just to name a few. However, being the most valuable asset in the company, the central engineering team is not taken as well care of compared with Marvell’s key competitors such as Qualcomm. Internal communication, whose major functions are to keep employees well informed, motivated and happy, is still conducted in a rather hierarchical and one-way manner at Marvell. Given the information explosion in the Web 2.0 time and the high prevalence of mobile devices, effective communication is usually achieved through an interactive and two-way module. This article aims not only to diagnose existing problems in the target organization’s internal communication structure through face-to-face interviews with engineers in the central designing department, but also to provide suggestions along the engaging, two-way, and social media line of thoughts, which are inspired by the extensive researches on effective internal communication practices and an interview with Dan Shaw, the west coast vice president of employee engagement and internal communications at Edelman who has thorough experiences in the field.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Ju, Xing
(author)
Core Title
An analysis of internal communication practices in Marvell and tentative optimization suggestions
School
Annenberg School for Communication
Degree
Master of Arts
Degree Program
Strategic Public Relations
Publication Date
08/03/2012
Defense Date
08/02/2012
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
internal communication,Marvell,OAI-PMH Harvest,social media
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
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Advisor
Le Veque, Matthew (
committee chair
), Swerling, Jerry (
committee member
), Tenderich, Burghardt (
committee member
)
Creator Email
starsmiling@gmail.com,xju@usc.edu
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https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-86015
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etd-JuXing-1128.pdf
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Ju, Xing
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Tags
internal communication
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social media