Cultural Diversity in the Workplace - Coursework Example

Intercultural Communication Work place diversity is a situation where there is an inclusive environment that embraces people’s individual differences and gives opportunities for all employees in an organization to achieve full potential. This enhances the productivity of the staff and increases their chances of staying in the organization. It is necessary for organizations to value this diversity. This creates flexible and responsive employees’ potential. Many workplaces have been reformed to include cultural diversity. Communication among the staffs’ who have diverse cultural background is very important. Productive or unproductive communication involves every body in an organization. Each and every staff is supposed to play a role in developing and improving communication. There is a need to develop every employee or staff competencies in any organization. In day to day transactions in a multicultural workplace the organization should respond to the diversity of the specific cultures that exist. Cultural misunderstanding and language barriers affect the flow of communication and create complex situations in the work place. This brings a need for the organizations managers to have expertise in cross- cultural communication. There are different cultural issues that influence the communication among members of a team in an organization. This essay looks at the communication in an organization that has staff of Australian cultural heritage and Chinese cultural heritage. In the world today globalization has made the world a village. This has made people from various parts of the world to work as teams in the same organizations. This has made the business relation nowadays is more global than ever. As more organizations go towards a global market, many people are working in a multicultural environment. The key to communication in the organization is to understand the diverse cultures. This is important especially in relation on how each culture represented conveys meaning. The problem of low and high context cultures arises in the organization. This is because the members of the team from Australia have low context culture while team members from china have high culture context. The problems arise in the exchange of information. In high context cultures like China, there is the use of non verbal elements in communication and most of the messages are in the indirect form. There is also personalization of disagreements and the conflicts must be solved before work can continue, or conflict must be avoided. The team members use deductive logic in their reasoning where they proceed from general to specific information. They value accuracy of information highly (Sethi 2009, p. 19). On the other hand, the team members from the low context like Australia cultures prefer conveying information by use of words instead of non verbal means. Unlike their counterparts, they depersonalize disagreements. They focus on rational solutions to any disagreement when carrying their tasks. They like things done by following procedures and having a focus on the goal. In making conclusions they use inductive logic where they make their conclusions from specific to general. They value speed on how fast work is done unlike their counterparts who value accuracy of how work is completed. The team members from the low contexts cultures tend to state the obvious, in their communication in both social and business interactions rather than relying on knowledge (Parvis 2006, p. 116). This is an issue that arises in most time in the organization. This is because of the difference between team members with Chinese cultural heritage which is high context and the team members from Australia who have low context culture. The other issue that arises in communication among the members is the issue of individualism and collectivism in their cultures. The Chinese have an aspect of collectivism in their communication while the Australian members of the organization team are more individualistic in their communication. In individualistic cultures people tend to think independently. The connectivity between the members is loose. Collectivist culture is where the members of the groups have strong cohesion. The two differences affect communication among the team members in the organization. The Australians have individualistic culture try to make improvement of their connection and also to gain more value out of them. They do not value the relationships that exist between them and other members of the team. They are involved in making calculative moves for their own personal gains. During the team meetings they tend to defend their own interests in the organization. They under perform when working like a group but perform well when working as individuals. Their progress is more important that the organization growth. On the other hand, the Chinese focus on the harmony and loyalty within the organization. They avoid confrontation as much as they can with the other team members. They use phrases in describing disagreements instead of using direct words. They base their relationship with other members of the team on trust and an understanding of moral values. The growth and the development of the organization is of great value than individual progress (Price 2007, p. 213). The Chinese perform best when working as a group than when working individually. The differences that arise out of the two affect negotiations, decision making and motivation. Both individualistic and collectivist interests have both their strength and weakness. Individualism enhances freedom of speech among the members and also provides a platform where everybody’s opinions are heard. On the other hand, collectivism provides harmony, teamwork and reduces conflicts. One advantage that collectivism has is that it lacks creativity and openness to opinions. Members of the team should have harmony when dealing with issues that make the issue of collectivism and individualism arise in the organization. The team members in the organization are also faced with another issue while working through the technology. As a result of the competition that exist in the market it brings the need for facilitation communication is faster than before. This brings the issue of time, which is viewed differently by the two cultures. It brings the issue of monochromic and polychromic cultures. Chinese have a monochromic culture while Australians have a polychromic culture. This means they have a different view of time. The Chinese have an emphasis on schedules, reckon time and promptness. They view time as a very important commodity. They carry out an activity after another. They like finishing each activity before they can start the next. To them it is not logical to carry out many transactions at the same time. On the other hand, the Australians handle multiple things at the same time. They focus on the number of transactions which are completed rather than adherence of time schedule (Bode 2008, p. 9). These causes some differences in the organization as members of the team who have Chinese heritage get frustrated most of the time with their counterparts with the Australian heritage because of the difference on how they view time. Most of the time, the team members from Australia alter schedules to shifting priorities. They make meetings start when it is late and also allow some outside issues to interrupt the meetings. They also make schedules of multiple activities at the same time (Bode 2008, p. 9). While the Australian team members recognize the need for having plans, they generally have a balance of the multiple tasks and also modify plans accordingly. They do not have so much focus for excessive amounts of information. The members usually overrun during the meetings without control. This causes the team meetings to be postponed for later dates (Bode 2008, p. 9). The difference brings a need for development a strong relation so that the two cultures are able to work in a harmonious way despite that fact they have a difference on how they view time. A strong relationship will act as a key facilitator which drives the team to reach the deadlines and also be able to meet the schedules. This is important as the different views of the two cultures are important for the growth and development of the organization. Application suites are used which allow the members of the teams to respond and do not feel isolated. It is important to develop schedules that each member of the team owns. During the meetings it is important to stick to the agendas of the meetings and allow the meetings to run their course (Vuckovic 2008, p. 47-59). Another issue that arises is miscommunication. This causes discomfort and conflicts among members of the team. This is because communication either verbal or non verbal goes beyond what is said or written. The style of communication is different in the two cultural groups, in the organization. In most times there is miscommunication which occurs because of the different communication styles used. There is no style that is good than the other. The most important thing for the team members is to understand the different communication styles that their counterparts from the other culture use. Effective communication between the two groups requires more than just recognizing the differences. The most important thing is to know how to deal with the differences. The most important thing for the members of the team to do is to have respect for the differences, be flexible, be willing to reflect other people’s point of view and have tolerance for ambiguity. There are various strategies that the organization can use to handle some of the issues that arise in communication due to the difference in cultural heritage (Rogers & Steinfatt 2009, p. 237). One of the most important points to have an effective communication is knowledge. It is important that the members of the team recognize the issues hindering effective communication and try to put efforts to overcome the problems. The managers of the organization should have an open mind when the issues arise. Reflective listening helps in validating what was said is understood (Vuckovic 2008, p. 47-59). It also helps as the different cultures use words and signs in different ways in their communication. The organization can use mediators who are familiar with the two cultures. They are helpful in the communication process as they assist the teams to understand each other effectively. They translate the signs and words for better understanding. For instance in the organization the team members from Australia are quick to reference and direct to the issues. On the other hand, team members with Chinese cultural heritage like setting up good relation before discussing any business deal. In such a case the mediator who recognizes the issues helps in making the appropriate adjustments to the procedures. The management of the organization should increase their knowledge on how to handle communication issues that arise out of cultural diversity. This will assist the organization to have success in the global arena. This is because diverse cultures have influence in talent management policies and procedures in the organization. One talent motivates others and demonstrates the ability to have effective communication among the team members, clients and the management. Lack of effective, diverse cultural communication skills affects the organization negatively. A work place with culture diversity promotes equity and skills among the employees. This further contributes to the success of the organization. Organizations working with culture diversity have realized the benefits of having such culturally diverse work place. Community languages skills and cultural competency are important assets to an organization. This enhances improved customer service as the staffs have skillful communication with customers from different backgrounds. The community around will also has identification with the organization that shows that level of diversity. Cultural diversity also enhances responsive service delivery and staff skills. Organizations grow when the staffs are exposed to new ideologies. When staff or employees of an organization are encouraged to learn from one another they develop their skills and knowledge. Therefore, cultural diversity in the work place has a lot of advantages despite the issues that arise. The organization should come up with strategies to deal with the issues. The diverse cultural aspects should be understood by every staff of the organization. This is the only way that the organizations have positive growth. The team members should develop culture tolerance behavior. References Bode, S 2008, The Importance of Culture, GRIN Verlag publishers, Munich. Mooij, M. (2003). Global Marketing and Advertising: Understanding Cultural Paradoxes. 3rd edition, Sage publishers, New York. Parvis, L 2006, Understanding Cultural Diversity in Today's Complex World, 2nd edition, Lulu.com publication. Price, A 2007, Human Resource Management in a Business Context, 3rd edition, Cengage learning, Florence. Rogers, E, & Steinfatt T 2009, Intercultural communication, Waveland Publishers, London. Rosinski, P 2003, Coaching across cultures: new tools for leveraging national, corporate, and professional differences, Nicholas Brealey publishers, London. Sethi, Anjanee, 2009, Business Communication, Tata McGraw –Hill publishers, Mumbai. Vuckovic, A 2008, Inter-cultural communication: a foundation of communicative action, 2nd edition, Wadsworth, Belmont. Read More