The Impact of Culture on Organizations
Culture can be the norms or lifestyle preferences that human being chooses to follow to live their life. A set of unofficial rules that an individual follows is the outcome of the social influences, religious beliefs, family traditions, and many other factors that influence the development of cultural traits. For example, someone’s religious beliefs or culture of that person may restrict them from consuming certain kinds of food items (Banerjee and Linstead 2001). Cultural diversification is not only a group, society, or organization having different cultural people in it but also a sense of honor and a show of respect by everyone towards the culture of every other people present in the group that is the very essence of cultural diversity.
Many theorists and management experts more specifically those who have specialized in organizational behavior have made it evident through their work that culture does have an impact on the organization and their methods of work, performance, and diversification of the workforce. Some methods and systems, when followed throughout time, become a part of the organizational culture as the systematic process of shared values, beliefs, and norms and the ability to build human relationships.
In a school the culture plays a major role, they are to teach the students as well as become role models or set an example for the students as well as the society on how cultural diversification can be effective in the well-being and growth of the entire organization be it a school or a bank or any other industry, they are to teach people the essence of acceptance and respect every culture (Khalifa, Gooden and Davis 2016). The model C schools are the kind of educational institutions which were previously structured for the white-only government schools in South Africa. After the first democratic election in the year, 1994, many of the model c schools were opened for black, colored as well as Indian students for educational purposes. These model C schools were catered solely by white females. Through time diversity took place in the inclusive education system which promoted education systems for different students from different backgrounds, races, or even religions. Such as in the model c school, mentioned having students from different races such as black or Indian learners as well as the majority of the staff is white with two-color men staff. In culture, race describes a certain type of category that has been created based on physical traits (Prasad 2003). Various researchers have stated how the legislation created by the white men has been an obstacle for the non-white population. Racial disparities have been a part of South African society where individuals were unequally treated by others. This inequality included unequal schools, housing, and even unequal employment opportunities. This unequal behavior has been reflected in the educational institution as well.
Cultural, racial, and gender diversity in the school can be the perfect way of building a community where every culture is respected as the children are the best students so while growing up if the teaching, as well as the non-teaching staff, teaches them to respect and accept every culture at the same time must teach the importance of inclusive workforce and must be able to learn various things from a different culture that there is to learn.
The Role of Culture in Model C Schools
The education about the critical race theory or CBT also helps in understanding all kinds of practices that are excluding people based on their race or their ethnicity. In model C schooling, there is always a necessity for the education of critical race theory to eliminate all the practices that are restricting the races. However, the older staffs of the model C school have a very obsolete belief that whatever is being practiced in the school is good for the students. Even previously the CRT was being opposed by many individuals as they believed it would eliminate all kinds of whiteness from the system. However, it is important for inclusive learning in model C schooling to help them understand and gather knowledge that whiteness can never be removed or eliminated, it is the impact which is affecting any culture or race, is needed to be eliminated to prominent the diversity in the classroom or the operation in the Model School. The central idea about the CRT can help foster critical thinking which will help the students in understanding the history of racism and the importance of diversity across cultures.
There are certain advantages of having a diversified workplace one of the things that they do is that they promote teamwork and a mutual cooperative attitude among all members. The massive increase in creativity and decision-making naturally becomes better. All members contribute massively towards organizational goals as they learn to embrace each other’s culture and work as a unit more effectively.
According to various experts who have studied the cultural dimensions and the equality treatment concepts issues related to races and racism are still left untouched and no proper education is provided as there is a saying about using the CRT for the elimination of whiteness. To mitigate the same misunderstandings, proper leadership is necessary; teachers can play the role of being a leader who has a better understanding of the CRT. The research works also explained the diversity among the white teachers in an educational institution. Being a part of a model c school it can be observed how the white leaders can also be having differences in class, language, or even regional affiliations (Biegen 2018).
As per the experience of the principal from the model C school, there is always a saying from the older “we used to do it in this way”. This shows the indirect power of the younger ones or the elder ones regardless of the hierarchy. According to Hofstede’s cultural dimension, there is a dimension named feminine vs masculinity (Bierema 2009). When it comes to the feminine vs masculinity factor of the model South Africa has been known for being a masculine society as their score is 63 meaning they prefer the masculine side as in to dominate at work and motivate to do the work. Love for work is not a necessity meanwhile feminine means to do what you like (Hofstede 2001). The expectation or the tendency of having a feminine approach is important in the process of encouraging diversification as they share the qualities of love and care at the same time to do what the individual loves (Hofstede 2011). This will encourage more people to love what they do and help each other all of that contributes to community building and acceptance of diversified culture. According to the context of the case of the model c school, there is a need for equality among the staff. The feminine theory promotes equal quality among the staff and considers everyone equally. This feminist theory shall help omit the influence of the power distance of the society and practices (Ford et al. 2021). As for the model c school staff, the feminism theory can be helpful for the principal in promoting equality. So that the older staff cannot create barriers by the use of power and consider everyone equally.
Critical Race Theory in Education
Apart from that, intercultural misunderstanding is one of the most crucial factors that can create barriers in the practice of diversity. Being human, every individual communicates through different kinds of languages. Based on ethnicity these languages can be different as well. While discussing South African model C school and culture, it can be said that individuals of the African ethnicity are mostly prone to establish nonverbal communication among their peers (Cox 2001). From the practices like pointing out with one finger while talking to looking straight in the eyes while talking to someone, all of these are included in the practices of nonverbal communication. Being in an educational institution with huge diversity, misunderstanding of intercultural communication can take place (DiTomaso and Hooijberg 1996). According to many theorists during the time of the apartheid era, many Africans were divided based on their races. Due to the political situation, the Africans were segregated into different groups. Living like this for ages, a communication gap was created. On the other hand, the Africans were forced to learn the language of the whites as the whites always felt themselves in the black community or the entire race. For some white people, it is still a bit of confusion about why they talk while making eye contact points with an individual. Thus it created a gap and misunderstanding among the individuals. As per the scenario, the model C school is also filled with people from different races and each of them has their kind of communication process as per their practices based on the culture. The gap between the white staff and the black men can be a little difficult and create barriers to developing benefits of diversity across the workforce. The ignorance of other people’s cultures and using the wrong kind of nonverbal signals can lead to misinterpretations of the communication and thus it creates various conflicts and disagreements between individuals of different races (Murray 2018). This goes the same for the inclusive classroom with diversity. The classrooms have students of African, Indian, or color ethnicity. Lack of knowledge about each other’s cultural practices can lead to creating barriers. Model C institutions need to promote knowledge about each other’s ethnicity and behavior to mitigate the misunderstanding about communication (Kwek 2003). It is important to provide learn about tolerance, respect for each other’s cultural boundaries as well as being friendly to accept the diversity across the inclusive classroom and educational institutions. In an inclusive classroom understanding as well as paying respect for the other culture can help promote the inclusive culture in the classroom by which the barriers between races and cultures can be omitted.
For every group of people or individuals, there is a belief that is considered sacred and followed by a mass number of people. Between the culture and religion, there is not much of a relationship or similarity. The culture puts its main focus on the human beings who are to be believed as the social heritage. On the other hand, religion is highly associated with the spiritual and the belief of people (Cox and Finley?Nickelson 1991). This religion is one universal phenomenon that can affect various cultural parameters or the moral concepts that are present in the community or even in an individual by offering answers to various questions. As per the context of South African model C schools or even the others, each of the students or the staff are under the protection act where they are free from conscience and religion at the public schools. The religious culture at the educational institutions is about the practice of converting the students to Christians to gather more young people for the faith and the belief (Theoharis and Haddix 2011). In South African schools, religion-based education is kind of affected by the separation of the races and cultures. This leads to the dominance the superiority of the freedom of religious thinking. However, modern religious education is enhancing the knowledge about the religion and the acts which help in having the freedom of conscience about the thinking and beliefs (Seymen 2006). The application of the critical theories of the paradigms can help establish communication which will help the leaders of the educational institutions to omit the cultural-religious oppression and foster positive change in the society or this case the inclusive educational institution. For an educational institution, it is always necessary to promote diversity and the freedom to adopt beliefs or values. Thus it helps in having success in delivering education in an inclusive learning environment. In this context, it can also be said that the leaders of the educational institutions must pick up the right kind of cultural practices which shall promote diversity rather than discrimination in the inclusive learning environment. It is important to learn about the differences between cultures for the betterment of society for a positive outcome.
References
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