The Effects of Culture Differences on Work Objectivity - Assignment Example

Diversity in the Workplace: A Study of the Effects of Culture Differences on Work Objectivity and Productivity Part 1 The world is a heterogeneous place composed of diverse cultures. The culture of a people is a very important predictor of various aspects of a person, including their creativity, aggressiveness, and reasoning, among other aspects. Cultures have facilitated stereotyping hence individuals from certain cultures are associated with certain behaviors. However, this is not absolute, though a study of cultures reveals some basic trends. When translated to an organization, culture forms the basis of the norms, values, customs, beliefs, practices, rules, assumptions, as well as the art and skills that are employed in a workplace. This means that a culture can promote increased productivity or otherwise result in failure. Alternatively, culture can either enhance or deteriorate employee objectivity in a workplace. The influence on these two factors is because culture influences both the physical as well as the psychological aspects of a person. This research shall be guided by the purpose to achieve a relationship. The research will have a purpose statement that will help keep a focus on the goals while helping develop a concrete argument that is narrowed to a specific topic. In addition, the statement will help save on the time and effort required. The proposition that culture influences work productivity as well as objectivity remains contentious. A review of the available literature will provide a background of what has been done in finding the relationship between culture and with objectivity and productivity in a workplace. The research will focus on culture related parameters and their significance in a working environment. Therefore, this statement shall guide the purpose of this study: In order to understand the relationship between culture and work productivity and objectivity, this study shall look at the dynamics of culture that have an effect on these two work-related parameters while seeking to understand to what degree is the effect. A research is supposed to have both a research question as well as a hypothesis. These important components of this paper are meant to increase the chances of having a focus on the effect of culture of work productivity and objectivity. The following shall be the research questions: 1. Which is the most conspicuous aspects of culture that influences the extent to which employees are objective and productive in their work? 2. To what extent does cultural stereotyping relate with employment output and behavior? These research questions provides a platform for understanding whether there occurs any relationship between work objectivity and productivity in regards to culture. These questions can be answered through research by providing literature that attempts to answers them or conducting a quantitative research that provides answers them. The hypothesis developed should be testable and should be able to provide important insight on the research question (Vogt, 2007). This research can have more than one hypothesis so that various parameters are compared. The hypotheses would be; H1: Cultural differences have a positive influence on the work objectivity and productivity H2: Cultural differences influences work productivity and objectivity negatively H3: Cultural differences have no influence on the job productivity and objectivity. The three hypotheses can be easily tested based on the findings of the research. In order to develop an efficient research, a research plan is essential. The following is the order of doing the research: Stage 1: Identification of the research problem is done followed by the development of a research proposal that reviews the literature and points on the need to establish why workplace productivity and objectivity are influenced by culture. It should also bear the objectives of the research as well as providing the purpose statement. Stage 2:Approval of the proposal and making of relevant changes. Stage 3: Developing a review of the existing literature, including theories that link culture and workplace productivity and objectivity Stage 4: Developing the research methodology, which includes; formulation of hypotheses, research questions, and research tools, this will include questionnaires as well as designing the mode of conducting interviews. Stage 5: Analyzing the data obtained from the various sources and incorporating the data in the research paper Stage 6: Drawing the conclusions and recommendations Quantitative method will be the most appropriate; in particular, the descriptive design will suit the study (Babbie, 2010). This is because this research will require many participants across the world to give their views on what they think are the effects of culture on productivity and objectivity at work. The target population would be managers and supervisors of companies that have people from different cultural backgrounds, in particular targeting the multinationals. A large number of respondents shall take part in the study. The identification of the participants would be done online through their respective companies. The dependent variables are work objectivity and productivity while the independent one would be cultural differences. Threats to validity include; the effects of doing the selection of the respondents, communication, attrition and the volunteer effect. To minimize these threats, there should be a motivation for the respondents and intensive follow-up (Johnson and Christensen, n.d). The ethical consideration to be put in place is to ensure that the participants have prior consent and their confidentiality protected. Part 2: Qualitative research Introduction Culture is an important aspect of human lives and it has influences on a number of ways. One of its major impacts is on the way people work in terms of their objectivity as well as their productivity. A study design geared to elucidate this relationship can be developed through a qualitative analysis of the impact of culture on the two work-related aspects. The purpose of this study is “to identify what are the specific parameters of culture that have an influence on both work productivity and objectivity.” In a qualitative research, the research questions are framed to guide the research. Contrary to the quantitative form, there are no hypotheses because the findings cannot be predicted, they are emergent (Denzin and Yvonna, 2000). For this reason, the questions are more specific. The following are the potential research questions for this study; What makes people from different cultures exhibit varied levels of productivity and objectivity? What are the positive and negative implications of cultural diversity in a workplace? How does having a single culture dominating a workplace compare to multiple cultures in terms of productivity and objectivity? Why are Europeans deemed more objective in their work compared to other cultures? Research Plan The research questions mentioned above are testable through making a comparison of various groups of people from different cultural backgrounds. All the research questions are interrelated and drives one common objective; finding the relationship between culture and work objectivity and productivity The qualitative research would have a number of benefits over the other methods in elucidating the relationship between culture and the two workplace-related aspects. It provides a better view that is more real and is incapable of being understood through statistical data, for example the people’s beliefs, customs, traditions may be the factors that come into play and such cannot be quantified. The researcher gets the opportunity to immerse into the people’s culture and hence he gets to have direct interactions with them, hence they are able to define what is unique about the culture that affects productivity and objectivity in a workplace. Finally, data collection is very flexible, including the analysis, and the interpretation. The most appropriate qualitative method that would answer the research questions is through a case study. This is because a case study provides an opportunity for the researcher to interlink various cultures hence able to understand why there are certain patterns in job productivity and objectivity (Sage Publications, 2006). The research framework would involve the study of various cases across the world involving different cultures while finding any available literature that links work productivity and objectivity with culture. The role of the researcher inn this study would be to find cases and analyzing them. In addition, the researcher can draw conclusions for the study. Research assistants can do the recruiting of participants on the ground that comes up with various case scenarios. Data collection can be done through interviews. The quality and reliability of the data will be established through appropriate follow-up of the participants. The main threats to validity in this research would include extraneous variables such as religion, placebo effect and the ambiguous temporal effect. The ethical considerations include prior consent, confidentiality, and making contact with the involved as well as making contacts with the affected organizations. Part 3: Mixed-method research plan This approach takes into perspective are real-life understanding of relations within a given context. They take a multi-level approach and are good at developing relationships that are influenced by culture. Both qualitative and quantitative strategies are applied. While the qualitative approach explores the meaning of particular constructs, the quantitative approach endeavors to find the magnitude and the frequency of the parameter under assessment (National Institutes of Health, 2014). The multiple methods applied gives strength to the research. In this case scenario, through this method we are to quantify the relationship between culture and work objectivity and productivity while developing an argument why this is so. The purpose statement of this research would be: “Elucidating the magnitude in which culture affects work productivity and objectivity while developing factors that contribute to this relationship.” Research questions What makes people from different cultures exhibit varied levels of productivity and objectivity? To what degree do cultures impact work productivity and objectivity? How does having a single culture dominating a workplace compare to multiple cultures in terms of productivity and objectivity? Hypothesis H1: culture has both positive and negative influences in the workplace. The research questions above can be tested through developing a concrete literature framework. The questions provide aspects that are either measurable or are available in literature. On the other hand the hypothesis presents a position that the research easily agrees with or totally disagrees. This design can be appropriate in elucidating the relationship because it presents both qualitative as well as quantitative data that can be compared to establish the relationship between the variables. In addition, the fact that we are testing two related parameters (productivity and objectivity), the research is capable of proving a certain relation in one while the other exhibits a different one. The primary research design is the qualitative design because it attempts to develop the view that underlies the relationship. On the other hand, the quantitative seeks to make a numerical relationship, which does not provide a full account of the relationship between the variables. The design would involve doing a case study because of the diverse cultures that are involved. On the other hand, the target population would involve individuals from diverse backgrounds, which means that they will have different cultures. This can be done through approaching organizations that have multi-cultural employees through the online platform. The sample size will depend on the number of cultures chosen, the confidence interval, the standard deviation, and how the sample is taken (Smith, 2013). The instruments that may be required are questionnaires. While data collection can be done through filling in of the questionnaires as well as through interviews. The researcher can try to follow-up the participants and get to integrate with them at a personal capacity as a mechanism of increasing reliability while reducing validity (Eeva-Mari and Lili-Anne, 2011). This would ensure that the data collected is reliable. The data can be analyzed though tabulation and graphical presentation. The ethical considerations in this research relate to the participants, aspects of confidentiality as well as participant anonymity should prevail (National Institutes of Health, 2014). Part 4: comparison of the methods The three methods are capable of providing some worthy information concerning the relationship between objectivity and productivity in a workplace. However, the approach requires a broad view and requires opinions and a number of respondents. Therefore, the three research methods differ and are similar in various ways: Large sample sizes are required so that the relationship is established, this makes the quantitative method ideal as far as this parameter is concerned. The same applies for the mixed method but the qualitative method is limited. The mixed method as well as the qualitative method has an upper edge since there is dynamism in the way data is collected while the quantitative method is more rigid. Therefore, understanding people’s patterns such as attitudes, norms, and beliefs among others will be easy to elucidate through the interviews. Since the qualitative method is based on an understanding of human behavior (Merriam, 2009), it serves as the ideal method of understanding why there are racial differences in the workplace on basis of productivity and objectivity. Contrarily, the quantitative method is capable of providing statistical data that predicts the relationship but does not provide an explanation why the relationship is like so. Therefore, the mixed methods become the most appropriate mechanism because it provides both the trend and the relationship for that trend. The qualitative method has the capacity to drift away from the main aspect under study. On the other hand, the quantitative method is rigid. For this research, the drifting may be beneficial to the research since it can unearth another aspect that influences the relationship that is not among the variables, such will enhance the research findings. Therefore, both methods provide a complement for each other, hence making the mixed methods the ideal method for the study. The quantitative method is consistent and can result to a clear identification of the relationship between objectivity/productivity in work with culture. On the other hand, the dynamics of the mixed method provided by the qualitative aspect makes the research able to capture diverse aspects of culture and employment that may be related to the study. Both qualitative and mixed-methods are costly in terms of time, human resource and money as opposed to quantitative research which can be done within limited resources. In conclusion, in order to determine how culture relates to work productivity and objectivity, the most preferable method is the mixed method. It has more advantages over the rest. References Babbie, E. R., (2010). The Practice of Social Research. 12th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage. Denzin, N. K. and Yvonna S. L. (2000). Handbook of Qualitative Research. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Eeva-Mari, I. and Lili-Anne, K. (2011). Threats to validity and reliability in mixed methods accounting research, Qualitative Research in Accounting and Management, 39-58 Retrieved on 21 February, 2014 from https://tampub.uta.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/66045/threats_to_validty_and_reliability_2011.pdf?sequence=1 Johnson, B. R. and Christensen, L. (n.d). Chapter 8: Validity of Research Results. Retrieved on 21 February, 2014 from http://www.southalabama.edu/coe/bset/johnson/lectures/lec8.htm Merriam, S. B., (2009). Qualitative Research: A Guide to Design and Implementation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. National Institutes of Health, (2014). Best Practices for mixed methods research in the health sciences. Retrieved on 21 February, 2014 from http://obssr.od.nih.gov/scientific_areas/methodology/mixed_methods_research/section2.aspx Sage Publications, (2006). Five Qualitative Approaches to Inquiry. Retrieved on 21 February, 2014 From http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/13421_Chapter4.pdf Smith, S. (2013). Determining Sample Size: How to ensure you get the correct sample size. Retrieved on 21 February, 2014 from http://www.qualtrics.com/blog/determining-sample-size/ Vogt, P.W., (2007). Quantitative Research Methods for Professionals. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon. Read More