The Multicultural Affects of Communication in a Large Company - Essay Example

The Multi – Cultural Affects of Communication in Large Companies Globalization is the process of speedy yet steady change and integration of countries and the occurrences that happen with the use of foreign trade and many other foreign investments (Bentley & Ziegler, 2007). Globalization can be expressed as newer opportunities and possibilities for action among people across the world. Globalization has opened up newer avenues for talent and has led to a more a diverse and multi – cultural workforce in almost all companies across the world.

This paper aims at understanding how multicultural workforce can affect the communication process in large companies. Multicultural Work Environment:A company is referred to have a multi – cultural workforce where the employees of the company is a variety of ethnic, racial, gender, and religious backgrounds. In the current time with the high levels of globalization this is a growing trend and although a very unorthodox management style, this is proving to be a relatively well accepted form of workforce management.

Several benefits have been recognized with having a diverse set of employees and management staff for every company irrespective of its size. Some of these benefits include higher creativity, better decision making, and greater success in marketing especially to foreigners, better economic opportunity distribution and even the upliftment of community especially for the ethnic minorities (Kenig, 2008). Despite the benefits the diverse work cultures also led to numerous issues within organizations, especially large organizations as well.

The issues include higher costs, interpersonal conflicts, discrimination issues, and most essentially communication breakdowns. Effects on Communication:A multi – cultural organization involves several people with different dialects and multi – cultural communication everywhere. Large companies are faced with numerous issues due to the multi – cultural languages. The first and highest impact is on the marketing processes of the company. Second, people from different cultures have different approaches and perspectives for work; this is a very common fact.

For a team to be effective and efficient in large companies, it is essential that all members of the team – work on the same page to bring up the team together. However, with the different views and styles of approaching work, and with the language differences, it would be very difficult to keep in track, and in pace the overall team performance (Sellin & Winters, 2005). Various communication styles among various cultures are different and hence this could also be a major cause for a communication breakdown.

For instance, as explained by Kenig, “Latinos and other diverse employees communicate indirectly. For example, they may imply that something is wrong but may not say so. Likewise, if they believe that asking a question may damage the relationship, they may not ask it. The reluctance to reveal the existence of a problem (or to ask for help when appropriate) also stems from fear of appearing incompetent. Most minorities bear the burden of their ethnicity. In their minds, any perception of incompetence may be generalized as a trait of their entire race” (Kenig, 2008).

This kind of gap in communications among the team of a company can lead to severe damage to the company as a whole. Hence, although the various positive aspects of having a multi – cultural workforce, the issues that come along with this are also high, and severely damaging to the company as well. Conclusions:Communication among a cross cultural workforce has several implications and the main issues that arise in this area are mainly due to three main elements of businesses especially in terms of a large business.

These include a) approach to work, b) the way to share information, and c) views of time (Kenig, 2008). Communication is an integral part of any team and a lack of communication or breakdown of communication due to multi – cultural workforces can prove to be very damaging for the company. Recommended Research:As has been understood from the above discussion, the topic of communication in multi – cultural workforce is a very vast topic. Hence based on this a research can be carried out to check for the main issues that might arise due to the multi – cultural settings in offices and its affects on the complete effectiveness of the teams.

The research could be either a general research or could be developed to be a case study for a particularly large organization. This will help narrow down the research and to find out how the break in communication among a diverse workforce can impact the effectiveness of the entire team and the overall performance of the company. ReferencesBentley, J., & Ziegler, H. (2007). Traditions & Encounters, Volume 2 from 1500 to the Present, 4th Edition. McGraw - Hill Humanities/ Social Sciences / Languages Publishers.Kenig, G. (2008, February 27).

How Does a Multicultural Workforce Affect Teamwork and Communication in Large Companies? Retrieved October 1, 2009, from network.latpro.com: http://network.latpro.com/profiles/blogs/qampa-how-does-a-multiculturalSellin, R. G., & Winters, E. (2005). Cultural Issues in Business Communication . In R. G. Sellin, & E. Winters, Cultural Issues in Business Communication (pp. 21-26). Program Facilitating.