Handling Cross-Cultural Conflicts
Different people originate from diverse cultures. These people have different ideas of handling issues according to their culture. They are therefore different in terms of knowledge, and everybody applies his or her knowledge based on their culture. However, there are usually challenges which are experienced when dealing with people from diverse cultures. The managers change their way of handling things, while the workers sometimes quite ort rather find it difficult to cope with the culture, which is dominant in a company (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011 PG 150). Company managers work their best to ensure that the workers are satisfied with what they are doing. However, when the workers are of diverse cultures, they are usually not in good terms, and may choose to handle things according to their know-how, not depending on the original knowledge of the company. To end conflict in a company, it is usually advisable to make sure that the workers get trained first, so as to make it easy for them to understand and come into good terms with their opponents in the work place.
According to the case study it is difficult to interact with people from diverse cultures. Though sign language is recommended whenever such challenges occur in a company, not all people will have the knowledge, or rhea interest of learning sign language (Eid & Larsen, 2008 NP). Some people will choose to ignore the sign language and opt to handle things with their own knowledge. For a company to move on there must be team work, which will lead to increased end products and success at the end. However, when each employee wants their solution to be put in place, there will be misunderstanding and the company will automatically fail though there are people who are usually fast in learning foreign culture, they must take a period of time (Jenkins, & Deuze, 2008, NP). They are however different in terms of understanding. Those who have been born in certain place and have never interacted with people and are used to one culture and language finds it difficult to interact with people of diverse cultures. They therefore opt to stay away from the other people, and other still get to a point of asking for transfer. These kinds of people have challenges when it comes to understanding foreign culture, and may take weeks or months before they learn a single world from a diver culture. However, the people who are quick learners take this as an added advantage since they have interacted with diverse cultures before (Blustein, 2013, NP). According to them, these people of different cultures will add value in their lives, since they will borrow words from them and come up with a rich language, will be the basic language in the company. These people are usually create, since creating interest in a diverse culture means that one is curious, eager and concerned with the other cultures.
Importance of a Common Language in Companies
Managers however find the toughest moments ever when it comes to the issue of handling issues with people from diverse cultures (Peterson, 2011, NP). Managers are forced to understand almost each and every language that these people use when communicating or when in their daily activities. New managers teed to find it difficult to interact with these kinds of people. However, with time, they come to learn about different ways of interacting freely with people of diverse cultures. They include:
Common language makes it easy for a manager to bring workers together. Managers need to make sure that in accompany, there is a common language, which does not favor any of the diverse cultures, which will be used in the company (Hammer & Bennett, 2009, PG 210). The people will use that language whenever they enter to work. No other language should be used in the work place, and should be taken seriously since these will discourange social evils such as ethnicity, gender, origin and race.
Before handling a job that needs resolution, the workers have to come together, with their manager, sit down and discuss the matter at hand. They then will take the opportunity to listen to the views of each worker (Stahl, Maznevski, Voigt, & Jonsen, 2010. Pg 700). The members will then be allowed to give ether resolutions, after that, the secretary of the group of workers will analyze all the resolutions, and each member will be asked to give their views on their resolutions. The views will then be evaluated by the secretary then weighed. They will therefore come up with one strong resolution which will be used to the work in that day. This is rather only way that cross cultural conflict can be solved, and matters handled without contributing to social evils, which have become a threat in today’s society.
Robert is having a challenge in his interaction with the workers in the company. He is not able to freely interact with the employees, yet he has to instruct them on what to do. He was not briefed n what to do by the prior manager, and this is one of the reasons behind his challenges. Robert cannot communicate with the other managers or the employees in his sector, since he has not leant of their ways of communication (Wiek, Withycombe &Redman, 2011, PG 210). Since there must be a common language, which is the culture of all companies, Robert had not leant of the common language. He was therefore afraid of losing his work; or rather making the company start to acquire loses. Robert is therefore concerned on how he should handle issues in his company. One way that Robert should do to less his challenges is accompanying the other managers in their places of operations and watch what they do to make sure that their employees are working well. Secondly, by observing, Robert will come to know that there is a common language that the workers use during their work, which the managers do not even understand (Ungar, 2008 pg 230). He should not be concerned about that, since he is a manager, not a worker. Thirdly, Robert should make sure that he makes good friends from diverse cultures who will teach him how they handle things in their cultures. It is therefore the high time for Robert to let go his fear and interact freely with his employees until he makes a good relationship with them. Factors causing misunderstanding amongst the workforce in china and Robert include
Solving Communication Barriers
There is no way Robert can come into good terms with the workforce without using a common language. People from diverse cultures are people filled with knowledge, and therefore need to come together, to apply their different skills, to make success (Wise, 2009 pg 40). Their decisions, solutions and views are the highway to success in their companies of operation. However, without a common language, these people cannot understand one another, and will always be in conflict whenever they are working. If there is no common language, many workers may opt to quit, while others will get bored and perform their duties poorly. Companies are therefore supposed to have a common language which everybody in it understands, to ease communication.
Different cultures contribute to the challenges which Robert is facing. Suppose the workforce contained all workers from the same culture, then Robert would be sure of safety, since the communication in that company would be easy. He would be moving on well and no barriers would be hindering him from getting to his goals. However, each worker must be addressed differently, to make sure that they are in good terms with their manager (Machery, 2010 pg 102). They therefore need attention too, to make sure that they do the right thing whenever send out there to perform their duties. Robert should therefore be patient enough to ensure that he understands at least all the diverse cultures, one after the other. Though it might take long, he must start from what he knows to what he does not now. Secondly, he should create interest in learning the diverse culture, since this will be an added advantage incase he secures a job in another similar company.
Sharon is facing the challenge of being a person familiar with one culture. Therefore, her stay is boring in her place of work she finds it difficult to freely interact with the rest of the managers and workers. Sharon will not be able to learn the diverse cultures easily (Lipnack & Stamps, 2008 Np). She will have to take time to learn one culture after the other. She should however be careful that the male employees do not take advantage of her weakness to misuse her. She should stick to her duties and consult whenever possible, to avoid bringing losses in the company
Diverse cultures are what we are dealing with today in the world. We found ourselves into them and we should therefore make sure that we deal with them up to the end. We should not let the separate us, but should take advantage of them by making as many friends as possible. This will make it easy for us to interact freely in the society. This will be done by intermarriage, accepting scholarships, and also trading with these people. The worlds will come to have a common language one day, which will be an added advantage.
References
Akkerman, S.F. and Bakker, A., 2011. Boundary crossing and boundary objects. Review of educational research, 81(2), pp.132-169.
Blustein, D., 2013. The psychology of working: A new perspective for career development, counseling, and public policy. Routledge.
Eid, M. and Larsen, R.J. eds., 2008. The science of subjective well-being. Guilford Press.
Hammer, M.R. and Bennett, M.J., 2009. The intercultural development inventory. Contemporary leadership and intercultural competence, pp.203-218.
Jenkins, H. and Deuze, M., 2008. Convergence culture.
Lipnack, J. and Stamps, J., 2008. Virtual teams: People working across boundaries with technology. John Wiley & Sons.
Machery, E. (2010). Explaining why experimental behavior varies across cultures: A missing step in “The weirdest people in the world?”. Behavioral and brain sciences, 33(2-3), 101-102.
Peterson, B., 2011. Cultural intelligence: A guide to working with people from other cultures. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Stahl, G.K., Maznevski, M.L., Voigt, A. and Jonsen, K., 2010. Unraveling the effects of cultural diversity in teams: A meta-analysis of research on multicultural work groups. Journal of international business studies, 41(4), pp.690-709.
Ungar, M., 2008. Resilience across cultures. The British Journal of Social Work, 38(2), pp.218-235.
Wiek, A., Withycombe, L. and Redman, C.L., 2011. Key competencies in sustainability: a reference framework for academic program development. Sustainability science, 6(2), pp.203-218.
Wise, A., 2009. Everyday multiculturalism: Transversal crossings and working class cosmopolitans. In Everyday multiculturalism (pp. 21-45). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
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