Culture Awareness and Mutual Differences - Essay Example

Culture Awareness and Mutual Differences INTRODUCTION Over the years, there has existed a significant challenge of cross-cultural awareness not just in engineering as a profession but across the business world. The society has become more globally connected than ever, and thus one’s ability to communicate and adapt effectively to cultural boundaries or understand cultural awareness has gained increasing prominence (Adler & Gundersen, 2008). Today, understanding the impact of dynamic globalization on various cross-culture communications is essential for any organizations seeking to develop a competitive advantage in the global arena. There have been countless instances where different individuals have been negatively affected by this diversity. Valuing and Managing Diversity is a critical component of effective employee management, which can enhance workplace productivity (Black Enterprise, 2001). Cultural awareness is when one is aware of theirs and others culture as well. Everyone expects to be treated equally, irrespective of what culture they are. This dimension of cultural encompasses the diversity of view and practices in human communities and how these beliefs and practices are present in human societies around the world, including concepts of the way others could consider one's societal setting as seen from other vantage points. Cultural awareness is central when one has to interact with individuals from other cultures. Various people perceive and interpret things in a different unique ways. This dimension is the most problematic to attain. The societal misconception about the concept of cross-cultural awareness is that individuals consider it as a set of stereotypes that don’t do a good as superficial understanding engenders prejudice. As a result, there have been various challenges in dealing with this concept such as Importance of cultural awareness Cultural awareness plays an important part in making both an individual an organization grows. As an individual, clear understanding of one's diversity in any contemporary society. In the long run, it ensures one is readily accepted and can adapt effectively and quickly despite the diversity. Cultural awareness is also important in helping members of a multicultural team to identify easily where issues could be going wrong and the best manner to best leverage team diversity. Without some understanding of cross-cultural awareness, it is problematic for multicultural teams to identify areas that need attention effectively and improve on. As stated, cultural awareness manifest in several ways. Within a multicultural grouping, a person's cultural background will affect the way they see things, act or behave and interpreted view. There will be differences in areas like communication, approach to towards solving a conflict, decision-making styles and attitude to task completion. Unless people individually and as a group come to realize this diversity between them by cultural awareness, glitches can continue and even intensify more in our professions and organizations (Jackson et al., 2009). Building real cross-cultural synergy is only attainable through properly understanding cultural awareness. Cultural diversity becomes a benefit when the organization expands its sense of identity and solutions and starts to take different approaches to finding solutions to the contemporary problem. Diversity, in this case, generates valuable new skills or behaviors. Working and relating with people from different cultures. i) Build my cultural knowledge This is currently the initial step in one success in relating to people from different cultural background. Doing this will assist prevent conflicts between the employees and make the company better adapted to handling various customers from different cultures. By building my cultural knowledge adaptation in the workstation in various cultures, becomes a reality. This done through trying and learning a bit more about various cultures of individuals we work with. One way of succeeding in this objective is through accessing information available on the internet and various books (Olson, 2004). Likewise, this is possible by asking these colleagues at work. In other words, build my cultural knowledge would require a start to build some cultural awareness. Building an environment that not only encourages discussion but a teamwork that reduces cultural issues. ii) Treat people at workplaces as individuals rather than a group Information about other cultures is normally based on generalizations. Many go wrong by stereotyping individuals by the communities and culture of places they come from, and this make us have wrong cultural awareness. This implies that the information might not apply to every single individual of that culture. As in individuals sensitive and willing to work in a new environment, it is important to be aware of this and try and handle people as individuals rather than as a group or community (Olson, 2004). . Through this understanding of individuals enhance my concerned with values and beliefs on the basis of how they interpret experiences and behave individually and in groups. Broadly and simply put, individual understanding of individuals is one important way I can better foster the overall teamwork. Since I will focus on understanding the shared common experiences that shape the way I understand the workplace diversity. iii) Withhold assumptions. This is achievable by trying to avoid jumping to prompt conclusions about individuals. One of the first principles of cultural awareness is ideally refraining from assuming something is wrong, and the other one is right. This views generated by individuals should be put 'on hold' and given a thought. As an individual, I can focus on extending or adding to views expressed instead, keeping criticism for a later 'critical stage' should be in cases of work processes. By suspending judgment or assumptions, I can feel free to develop cultural awareness and understand the diversity of generated ideas. The perfect thing to do then would be to get a good and long list of view in work case scenarios by suspending assumptions and looking from new perspectives. These new approaches to thinking may enhance cultural awareness and provide better solutions. Since it combine and improve views. Work environment is today very diverse and dynamic and requires thoroughly thought judgment rather than shallow assumptions. Better views may be combined in the process to form a single better. iv) Avoid blame Avoiding the blame is one appropriate way of ensuring healthy working relationship and relating with people from different cultures Blame is never constructive. When I see a situation break-down as opposed to apportion blame, then pick the situation apart with my 'cultural awareness glasses' on and comprehend what the cultural mechanics were. This assists in resolving issues and act as a point of reference for the future scenarios. Sometimes it's important to assign blame in the work environment, such as situations in where someone isn't performing the job seriously. However, when it is in a multicultural environment, it is important to be sensitive to doing so. Here, it's usually more essential to look at what went wrong so workers in this multicultural environment can avoid repeating the mistakes. Blame is many times counterproductive as it undermines multicultural environment relationships and impedes transformation. v) Strengthening Teamwork More often than not cultural conflicts within a multicultural environment are brought about by assigning tasks to individuals and the neglecting importance of group. For instance, if within the engineering departments as workers we have a strong sense of teamwork and are driven to meet organizational company's goals, cultural conflicts could be minimized. Through this, our employees including myself will be too focused on succeeding their work done to indulge on cultural differences amongst us. These will ensure workers are active listeners, and this is a cornerstone of cultural awareness (Olson, 2004). . Furthermore, relying on knowledge is made possible. Employees will work with colleagues in the multicultural grouping to relay knowledge to each other. In other words, building teamwork in any multicultural environment ensures employees indirectly reduce cultural conflict. Challenges associated with working with individuals from different cultures Increasing globalization in the world today requires more interaction with individual from diverse cultures, background, and beliefs than ever before, and this has been challenging. Employees no longer live and work in the same setting like before; they are presently part of a globalized economy. Diversity in culture contributes to the rich vibrancy of Australian own unique culture. However, these differences may present challenges in the workstations (Olson, 2004). . The challenges faced by multicultural teams tend to be more complex and normally invoking serious consequences when compared to same-cultured grouping. There are various problems that can be singled out: i) Lack of common ground and distrust This challenge normally stems from perceived lack of contribution or favoritism based on diversity in various cultures due to lack of proper communication. Employees fail agree on simple decisions based on the fact that there exist lack of trust. One most significant trait related to people of character is their trustworthiness. These are characteristics normally associated with the trustworthy individual are integrity altruism, goodwill, sincerity, and honor. These are the necessary characteristics that ensure long-term achievement in the departments. These ingredients are important especially instances when the employees are to make a decision and have a common ground. It is clear that trust between communicators is very essential. The general distrust that exists between two complete strangers in multicultural setting leads to an uneasy situation marred and suspicion. ii) Implementation of diversity in the workplace policies In recent days, this has been an overriding challenge to every multicultural global environment. In paper, adoption and embracing multicultural working environment may seem simple and an easy idea; many organizations experience various challenges whenever they try to implement these changes effectively. Many organizations have had it problematic to develop the needed strategies for implementation, analyze findings and make necessary changes, and this has led to results that don’t meet the established objective. The implementation procedures may present challenges to workers involved, and frustrations might arise since implementation is not as smooth as intended. Through analysis, it is important that employers decide to hire experienced professionals specialized in workplace diversity and educate their multicultural team to accept and incorporate the dynamic environment (Steers & Nardon, 2006). Experienced professionals and committed employees are key to operationalization of this dynamic workforce. iii) Opposition to Change It is a fact that multicultural global working environment brings with it various benefits. However, some managers and employees might not respond positively to changes made and this where the challenge roots. There are normally employees who will decline to accept the fact that the cultural makeup of their work environment is changing. This tends to be a major challenge as this mentality muzzles new ideas and inhibits progress .workers who oppose workforce diversity always reject new opinions and make work environments more uncomfortable (Flagg, 2002). If the organization doesn't address this opposition wisely and promptly, workplace diversity initiatives might not provide the intended fruits to the organizations. Nevertheless, alleviating fears some individuals possess about this dynamic environment can lower much of the opposition. iv) Possible demotivation due to perceived harassment It is agreeable that workplace harassment of any kind is unacceptable. In work environment particularly with different cultural things can seem a little bit complicated. Cases of perceived harassment tend to be common, and this leads demotivation of workers. Contrary to workplace relationships that should be developed among employees in accordance with company policy more often than not this is never the case (Flagg, 2002). Sometimes few employees feel uncomfortable or pressured by other employees with less than professional motives. Reality is that unlike local work environment where there is one cultural setting, employee harassment is common in multicultural global environment, and this demotivate affected workers. Conclusion A multicultural diversity of a workforce is a reflection of the ever-changing world. It is agreeable that diverse work teams always bring high value to organizations. It becomes the duty of anyone who finds themselves in this dynamic and exciting environment to quickly adjust. Likewise, respecting everyone’s differences in this cultural setup will benefit the workplace by increasing work productivity and developing a competitive edge. Likewise, today diversity-related challenges are overwhelming and are present in almost every multicultural setting, whether they are large corporations or small business enterprises. However, what can benefit organizations and individuals is acceptance of the fact that workplaces are made up of diverse cultures, and there is a need to learn how to adapt. ReferencesTop of Form Bottom of Form Adler, N. J., & Gundersen, A. (2008). International dimensions of organizational behavior. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western. Black Enterprise. (2001). Managing a multicultural workforce. Black Enterprise Magazine (July). Flagg, Alex. (2002). Managing diverse workgroups successfully. United Behavioral Health website (members only section). Available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ubhnet.com. Jackson, S. E., Schuler, R. S., Werner, S., & Jackson, S. E. (2009). Managing human resources. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Olson, D. (2004). Developing management skills for a multicultural workforce. Steers, R., & Nardon, L. (2006). Managing in the global economy. Armonk,N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe Read More