Factors That Affect Communication in the Workplace - Assignment Example

?Introduction Communication is one of the important elements that affect workplaces, and the kind of relationships maintained in the workplace. The factors that affect relationships in the workplace range from the personalities of the members of the organization, the spiritual orientation that the organizational members’possess, gender, disability, culture, generation as well as age. These factors affect interpersonal relationships in the workplace in different ways (Allen, 2002). This essay will consider the effect of gender, culture, and perceived emotions as well as personality of the members of the organization in creating and enhancing the communication that exists in the work place. The organization, Med life, a small company in Jeddah City, Saudi Arabia offers health care services to patients and other people who are in need of medical help. It is a health organization involved in taking care of sick patients brought into the medical center, ensuring that they receive the best care that can be accorded to them, and finally ensuring that the conditions in which they live in are conducive and clean. Med life has a manager whose role is to ensure that the operations of the medical center are very efficient with no problems. The manager is in direct communication with the secretary and the financial assistant. The secretary has the role of ensuring that all the data of all patients is properly documented and filed to avoid the loss of crucial data especially patient information. The financial assistant ensures that all financial records that relate to patient care are properly kept for easy retrieval and accountability. Moreover, he also looks into the profitability of the organization in order to avoid bankruptcy. Analysis- Gender Gender can be described as being socially and psychologically constructed through the family, social as well as educational settings. The role of gender in workplace communication has been discussed a lot in the past and the studies show that men and women have very different ways of communicating. In the time that I spent at Med life I realized that the male colleagues tended to be very aggressive and always came across as commanding during communication. From research, I realized that communication that is evidenced by male colleagues in the workplace is much aggressiveness, the tendency to interrupt other people when they are talking, and the tendency to try to hide their emotions when communicating. The male gender is characterized with the attributes of strength, competitiveness, risk taking, and independence in all their communications (Barrett & Davidson, 2006). According to evolutionary psychology studies, men communicate aggressively, interrupt others during conversations, and try so much to hide their emotions. These three aspects are useful in mate selection and it is inevitable for men to avoid this subliminal desire even in a business meeting (Mian, 2013). In the organization, women colleagues were mainly emotional people and this is well exemplified by an incident that occurred once in the organization. A fellow female colleague was overwhelmed by her responsibilities in the company and at home. As expected she shared her feelings with a colleague and she explained that she might not keep up with the pressure. The manager who overheard this conversation assumed that the female worker was lazing around and should refrain from discussing personal issues during working hours. From research, women are characterized as very emotional and thus tend to engage in expressive talks and this involves the tendency to establish closeness and intimacy and build understanding as well as empathy through their communication. According to Babcock (2003), “Women often worry more than men about the impact their actions will have on their relationships. This can prompt them to change their behavior to protect personal connections, sometimes by asking for things indirectly, sometimes by asking for less than they really want, and sometimes trying to be more deserving of what they really want without asking.” In addition, women tend to share credit for success, seek clarification on things that they do not understand by asking many questions, and talk in ways that balance their own needs with the needs of other people in the organization. Conversely, men tend to practice a kind of instrumental talk, which includes the use of communication as a way to solve problems and finish the tasks that they are faced with. They use language to negotiate status and they do not ask many questions in the work place (Barrett & Davidson, 2006). This is because they view this practice as a means of trying to gain an upper hand or even look for favors in the organization. Men have been seen to have many instrumental forms of communication as compared to women who tend to practice expressive forms of communications. This has been seen to cause many problems in the workplace because of the result whereby the male workers and female worker misinterpret each other. Difference that comes in communication because of gender is the way that the men and women talk to each other in the organization. The male communication is characterized with powerful speech behaviors that include talking a lot more, interrupting other people as they are talking and being overly opinionated. The women counterparts on the other hand are characterized with less powerful speech behaviors, asking many questions as well as using more hedges in communication. Men are very direct in their speeches, they randomly use any words that come to their heads, and rarely apologize. Women on the other hand come across as very comprehensive, pause a lot to give room for questions to be asked, employ a lot of word choice when speaking, use jokes to lighten the mood and apologize a lot to avoid offending other people (Buzzanell, Sterk, & Turner, 2004). In the organization of Med life there is a post of manager held by a female colleague and from observation, I realized that the male colleagues talked and interrupted her more as she was talking and giving instructions. This is because of how men are wired in relation to communication and expressing themselves. The men tend to look for facts when listening and they tend to attack feelings as a result. They therefore feel that women give a lot of unnecessary talk instead of concisely stating the facts. Women on the other hand expect to have their feelings appreciated and that is the reason they talk much (Buzzanell, Sterk & Turner, 2004). From observation, I also realized that women tend to have relational communication and as a result, are able to identify with their clients more easily, tend to be more client centered, and they have a more conversational style and embrace a psychological approach as they attend to clients. Because of these factors, women tend to be given roles that deal with direct communication and interaction with customers. In our organization, both the secretary and human resource manager are women. This is due to the job description of both positions requires pleasant people who must communicate and interact with customers. The outgoing nature of women is an attribute that will enhance customer satisfaction. Men demonstrate a lot of instrumental communication and they are not good with appreciating the extensive expression of feelings of clients when they present their problems. This is the main reason why they are given jobs that do not involve customer interaction. They are best suited in addressing technical problems that need a procedural approach (Buzzanell, Sterk & Turner, 2004). Over time, the organization has come up with policies and practices that influence the impact and nature of gender on communication processes in the work environment. The policies adopted include training that focuses on developing awareness of the different ways in which different genders communicate, the forms of gender stereotyping that are in existence today and the negative consequences that result from these forms of gender stereotyping. Another strategy that has been adopted involves always encouraging the employees to seek clarification always rather than making uninformed assumptions. Moreover, the employees in the organization should be able to check with other people with respect to interpretation of verbal and non-verbal communication. This helps to avoid misunderstandings that may arise in the workplace (Di, Gu?nthner, & Orletti, 2001). Our organization embarked on capacity building to promote employee compatibility via communication skills. Employees were sensitized on the need to effectively relay communication. A series of seminars were held as video presentations were made on effective communication skills in the work place. Another strategy that can be used to ensure that there is effective communication in the organization is a strategy that is known as gender flexing. This involves the temporary approach that involves the use of communication skills that pertain to the opposite sex to try to increase the potential of influence that exists between the men and women (Di, Gu?nthner, & Orletti, 2001). Medhelp has adopted this approach and the application of a factor known as sports analogies has been employed by a female manager in an attempt to motivate the male employees in the organization. The male managers can apply the concept of gender flexing in trying to reach out to their female employees and be able to form not only a powerful connection with them but also to be able to understand them and the ways in which they communicate with others. Gender flexing is an efficient method of ensuring that the differences in communication between the different genders are bridged and that the males and females can understand each other. However, gender flexing also has its disadvantages and thus may not be able to achieve the desired effects. This is because some people may view the process of gender flexing as trying in vain to adopt characteristics that do not suit them (Donahue, 1998). Culture Culture can be defined as the beliefs that people from different backgrounds hold and how these beliefs affect and influence how they perceive reality, organize and understand important concepts, entities, and relationships in life (Crossman, 2010). Culture and communication influence each other at a great level and the higher the cultural differences and diversity that exists among people the higher the chances of conflict arising because of misunderstandings that arise in communication procedures. Cultural diversity will help broaden options that are beyond personal experience and as a result therefore influence the efficiency, creativity, performance, the capacity to understand the needs of the diverse clients that exist and therefore ensure that conflicts that arise from culture misunderstanding are reduced. In instances where there exist greater cultural differences in terms of values and behavior, then there is a greater potential for conflict. Improper management of cultural diversity also leads to ambiguity, conflict as well as dysfunctional relationships (Donahue, 1998). Culture can be categorized into different types and these include high context culture characterized by the process of inferring their conclusions from the texts that are usually provided. They tend to avoid embarrassing and unpleasant situations and in most instances, they do not get to the point directly but rather give clues on what they are trying to show (Barrett, 2009). High context cultures are in most cases homogenous cultures that value good and long-term relationships and produce responsible leaders. However, high context cultures are characterized with a disadvantage and this includes making communication very difficult from outsiders. Low context cultures are interpreted as patron who provides explicit and verbalized information directly. They tend to exist in heterogeneous societies who ensure that responsibility is distributed at all levels. They are however viewed by people from the high cultures as being mostly rude and aggressive (Donahue, 1998). In an organization that has individual who are high context cultures therefore they will mostly not be able to relate well with individuals from low context cultures. This is because they have different beliefs inclinations within them. Therefore, in order to ensure that these two different groups are able to relate well then training should be given on the importance of embracing and accepting all cultures (Hoffmann, 1996). In our medical organization, the manager comes from a high context culture and this is what makes him a valuable leader. This can be evidenced from his personal characteristics that include responsibility and aggressiveness. These traits have been instrumental in enabling the organization to realize its goals despite numerous challenges. Tight cultures are those that have their existence in isolated and low population areas for instance Japan (Wood, 2002). These cultures have many rules that define the kind of appropriate behaviors that should be followed in any given situation. In cases where these rules and regulations are not followed then the people tend to get upset and angry. Loose cultures on the other hand tend to be more complacent, less strict, and more tolerant about the way that people should behave in all situations. In our organization, numerous people are from the tight cultured places and therefore they tend to strive to ensure that rules and regulation are followed to the letter. A manager whose culture is tight will in most cases give no room for omissions and will strictly adhere to rules and regulations. This is because meticulous attention to rules is inculcated in their behavior (Hoffmann, 1996). . A manager with a loose culture background on the other hand will tend to be less uptight about situations, and in most cases will be less strict and more tolerant. These managers are easy to work with and their employees are more satisfied. However, uptight managers are hard to work with and in most case their employees are not satisfied and as a result, they complain much. Moreover, they cannot achieve productive results as the organizations that have loose cultured managers (Hoffmann, 1996). Conclusion Therefore, communication in the workplace is affected by different factors, which range from gender, age, spiritual orientation, disability, and generation among others as I learned from the medical project that I worked on. This essay has discussed the factors of gender and culture and the ways in which they affect communication in an organization. Gender has been seen to affect communication in an organization and this arises from the fact that different genders communicate differently. Men that were working in our medical organization were seen to be more aggressive and most of the communications that they made were instrumental and thus aimed at solving problems. They were not seen to ask many questions or even engage in expressive talks. Women on the other hand were more expressive and tended to ask many questions. Their communication was highly laden with warm emotion and this greatly appealed to customers. To ensure that good communication is cultivated and maintained in the workplace, manager should always ensure that they conduct different trainings that will help to educate the employees on the differences in communication that results from the difference in gender as well culture. The different types of training that are given to employees include training on the different ways that different genders communicate, training on gender flexing, and learning the various non-verbal forms of communications that different genders use to communicate and their meanings. Employees should be trained and educated on the different types of cultures that are presented and the beliefs that are held by different people. The knowledge will help in appreciating diversity and accepting individuals from different cultures. References Allen, M. (2002). 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