Intercultural issues in workplace organization

Intercultural issues in workplace organization

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this paper is to unravel the cross-cultural issues that cause conflict to the workforce in an organization and offer solutions to make such a workforce more productive. In today’s business context, more firms are extending their businesses abroad. Communication challenges, as a result of different cultures, are continually increasing. Cultural diversity and knowledge shape how the company is operated abroad and how it thrives. It is widely known that intercultural issues form invisible barriers in international business communication. To gain a competitive advantage, understanding the cultural and communication barriers therein is one of the critical performance boosters. Companies that fail to understand the communication barriers resulting from intercultural issues face many challenges in international business. Intercultural communication poses a fine line in which a firm can thrive in. It also represents a significant threat if not well managed. Cross-cultural challenges like stereotyping, racism, discrimination, language barrier, ethnocentrism, and intercultural competency are caused by a lack of intercultural communication skills as well as inadequate cultural knowledge. Proper training in cross-cultural communication, in addition to exposure to other cultures, can help in the elimination of these challenges.

Cultural diversity refers to differences in religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, language, and sexual orientation in society. With the continuous globalization of business, firms should focus on the elimination of the intercultural barriers in the workplace. Doing away with these barriers plays a crucial role in fostering the organizational climate. This way, it creates more opportunities for growth into a new environment as well as thriving therein. It is true; many problems arise as a result of people from different races, cultures, countries, and values working together. These challenges affect the performance of the firm by changing the individual’s performance. For a firm to make a multicultural workforce productive, it has to understand the associated barriers and challenges in communication. People with different cultural origins have different thoughts, beliefs, values, norms, traditions, and trends.

Hypothesis

1. The intercultural issues in the workplace possess a major threat to the minority groups in the society
2. Organizations have a role to play in embracing and managing diversity in the workplace.

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Intercultural challenges in Organizations

Stereotyping and discrimination-

This is a primary intercultural challenge faced by people of color and women in the workplace setting. Their experience is different from that belonging to the white men because of the perceptions and attitudes people possess about the minority groups and women (241). Women and minority group members are often viewed in biased ways that result in their discrimination. An example of that bias is a prejudice, which refers to a negative attitude towards a member of an organization based on their culture. For instance, a manager may view a worker with Mexican- American origin as a lazy person, or a patient may think that only men can be doctors. In today’s world, it is unfortunate that there is no information showing a decrease in discrimination and prejudice treatments. Women and members of minority groups are excluded from informal communication networks. The increased need for everyday communication includes decision making, conflict management, and socialization in firms. This results in disadvantages like a limitation to information access challenges forming alliances, lack of knowledge of what is going on in the organization, which results in limited mobility (242). Another problem includes building mentoring relationships. A mentorship relationship consists of both psychological and career benefits, and thus many women would like to create a link with fellow women. However, women in the high ranks of leadership and usually limited, pushing women to develop a relationship with male partners, which may be a challenging task. Also, establishing a mentorship relationship for the people of minority groups is a challenging task because the executive positions are occupied by the majority of society members.

Language barrier

The second intercultural issue in the workplace is the language barrier. Language is a part of everyone from birth. Therefore it is an important part that forms their earning, living, learning, identity, and their general well-being. A scholar indicated speaking effectively can determine a 70% professional success and earning. Also, the lack of proper written and communication language can be part of someone’s failure. Therefore language is an integral part of an individual’s professional success.

An individual’s professional identity can be threatened or harmed when a person works in an environment where a different culture or people speaking a different language. However, some people can speak more than one word fluently, especially those from Asian and European countries. However, those people who can only speak their native language may find it challenging to interact freely with other people. Also, American workers have thought that only spoken English is acceptable, something that leads to friction. Distrust between workforces can arise as a result of simple misunderstandings on language challenges. Besides, language barriers undermine the capacity of the management to direct the workforce (Bahaudin, 1).

Another challenge arising from the language barrier is the possibility that a non-English speaker is likely to speak their native language to a fellow employee from their primary language. Either, the monolingual managers may need the employees to use English only in the workplace. They, therefore, implement policies restricting the use of English only in the workplace. However, civil rights are against the use of these policies because they are viewed as racist, illegal, immoral, and xenophobic (3). On the other hand, managers are concerned with the growth of non-English speaking workforce as a threat to safety, harmony, efficiency, and -productivity. They prefer English- only policies to do away with such challenges.

Communication Barriers

The first key communication barrier as a result of a different culture is a misunderstanding. This is caused by different values and beliefs that the workforce possesses. This variation leads to high levels of anxiety and uncertainty. The second one is the norms and roles challenging. Norms refer to culturally set ways or even acceptable behavior. Every culture has its standards and way of doing things. Therefore, a stranger in a given culture may not understand the ways of doing things or appropriate behavior. Also, different religions assign women and men in different roles. With a multicultural setting, these norms are likely to be violated. It, therefore, interrupts the communication process leading to further anxiety. Beliefs and values are other crucial areas of communication.

Ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism results from individual thinking only about their own culture and viewing it as the standard for all other religions. An individual’s own culture and their experiences make them think of their religion as the superior one. With ethnocentrism, the level of anxiety increases in a multicultural setting.

Discussion of Findings,

There are challenges and advantages associated with the intercultural workforce setting in an organization. Studies indicate that organizations in the future will have no choice but to be more diverse to capitalize on the benefits of the diverse workforce. However, to achieve this step is not easy (233). The organizations need to emphasize values from different cultures and call on the importance of interaction. Either the companies need to caution against stereotyping and a continuous focus on diversity (233).

Organizations need to create pluralism in which both the minority culture members and majority culture members are supported. It can be achieved through training programs. The employees need to be trained through awareness topics aimed at managing diversity. This program also includes the meaning of diversity and information about self-awareness. Also, through skill training, the members are trained about the various forms of different cultures. These studies are known to promote acceptance and learning, thus improving relations in the organizations. Also, these training need to focus on gender differences related to work. The management can use the same gender meeting as well as mixed-gender meetings to train the employees.

Also, to promote pluralism, it is good to train a second language to the employees. This applies to companies that hire Hispanics, American Asians, and other foreigners. The management should also take a step in communicating that other languages are as important as English (41 Taylor). Either there should be steps in place for ensuring minority group input is considered. This can be attained through ensuring that all key groups have full representation from the minority and the majority groups. Also, the minority groups should be given access to the top executives and be part of the team.

The creation of full structural integration that ensures that there is no relationship between one’s job status and their cultural identity is a crucial strategy. This method provides a complete representation of the minority groups in all functions and at all levels. To attain this goal, then skills and education need to be evenly distributed (42).

Career development allows members of minority groups to be in a position to grow their careers. Through this platform, the company offers career advice and growth opportunities for all individuals. Also, the reward system is essential in the creation of diversity and integration. Attention has to be given to the reward criteria to promote diversity. Benefits and the work schedule should be built in a way that it allows for the integration of minority groups like Hispanics, women, and blacks. The plans should be created in a way that makes it easier for the employees to balance both work and home duties.

The creation of support groups in most companies allows for the integration of all cultures. These groups allow for the exchange of information as well as social support. People from the minority groups have created their social groups to cover in a place where the majority groups did not welcome them in their groups. These groups pose some threat to integration; however, they are more helpful than not having them (44).

Another method is a bias reduction training that is aimed at reducing bias majorly through training. This is a system that helps reduce discrimination, racism, and prejudice in the workplace (45). The employees are trained on attitude change, integration with other employees as well as the elimination of negative attitudes for people with different cultural origins. This kind of training is done such that people are exposed to various stereotypes from different groups.

The taskforce is another tool that helps in the creation of an integrated multicultural setup. These task forces formed help in monitoring organizational policy as well as practices to determine evidence of racism or discrimination.

Recommendations

1. To create a multicultural workforce, the management has to take critical steps that result in supporting diversity. These steps include ;
   1. Hiring more minorities,
   2. Career development opportunities
2. The administration should increase the number of women and individuals from minority groups in the workforce (Jenifer, 13).
3. Publishing the workforce demographic information on their annual reports
4. Creating training programs meant to sensitize employees and help them appreciate other people. These programs should be inclusive of all significant stereotypes to ensure people are aware and can interact freely with one another.
5. , employee social support groups should be encouraged that offer career support and emotional support.
6. Language training should be put in place so that all languages can be given equal support to English.

Conclusion

Intercultural issues that pose a threat to the workplace environment include racism, discrimination, language barrier, ethnocentrism, intercultural competence, and stereotypes. A multicultural workforce is now becoming the norm. The impact of multicultural workforce can be both negative and positive. Therefore to attract and maintain a competitive workforce, human resources need to utilize the tools that will make that change a possibility. Organizations can gain a lot by choosing to capitalize on cultural diversity between their workforces. Some tools useful in creating a cohesive multicultural workforce include career development, increasing the number of minority employees, and training programs that sensitize on the need for integration. Other strategies include the creation of a task force tool that checks for discrimination and unfair practices and training the employees a second language. With the proper strategy in place, the management can improve on the positive effects and minimize the resulting adverse impact of multicultural setup. This is because personnel with different cultural origins are likely to indulge in conflicts. They have different opinions, beliefs, thoughts, customs, values, norms, traditions, and trends.

Limitations to study

In conducting this study, the researcher focused on materials covered majorly in US firms and put minimal considerations to those done from other regions. Thus the survey despite that it may offer critical solutions to the intercultural challenges, it may not be fully proficient in different settings. Also, the cross-cultural challenges covered focused mainly on the fortune companies within the US; therefore, some problems may have been left out since they are applicable elsewhere. The sample used is, therefore, not a complete representation of the entire intercultural issues around the globe. Either, cross-cultural matters can be different based on different industries and the geographical location. Besides, not much research has been done on cross-cultural issues and the ways of solving them.

Also, this study focused more on how minority groups can be made more comfortable and inclusive in the current workforce environment. There was limited information on how the same can be attained for the majority group members. However, the view may be biased since both groups need to be integrated to create a place for multicultural groups to thrive in.

References

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Mujtaba, B. G., Cavico, F. J., & Muffler, S. C. (2012). Language diversity in America: Challenges and opportunities for management. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 77(2), 38.

Aguirre Jr, A. (2003). Linguistic diversity in the workforce: understanding social relations in the workplace. Sociological Focus, 36(1), 65-80.

Singh, D. (2010). Managing cross-cultural diversity: Issues and challenges in global organizations. IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, 43-50.

Mauricio, S. H. A. O. K. Racial-ethnic diversity in Canada: competitive edge or corporate encumbrance? Part two Steven H. Appelbaum Oleksandr Kryvenko Mauricio Rodriguez Parada Melina Rodica Soochan Barbara T. Shapiro. Training, 47(7), 386-393.

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Jenifer, R. D., & Raman, G. P. (2015). Cross-cultural communication barriers in the workplace. International Journal of Management, 6(1), 348-351.