Project Context
I am recently pursuing engineering management in my university. Engineering management combines the application of management with the application of engineering. According to Srour et al., (2013), engineering management brings together the technological problem solving ability of engineering and administrative, organizational and planning abilities of management. Moreover, the professionals associated with this project course oversee the complex operational performance of engineering driven enterprise. Hence, I want to consider management as my profession in my future. I will provide me the opportunity to build my career as an effective manager in large IT sector. Bredin and Söderlund, (2013) opined that over the last few decades, the factors like growing size of the business, growing competition and separation of ownership have increased the demand of professionally qualified managers. Therefore, there is huge scope to build my career as an engineering manager, where I will be able of apply my integrative thinking towards solving complex problem.
According to Hargrove, (2015) engineering management is highly associated with operations management, where the professionals are to deal with designing or redesigning and controlling production process of good and service. Hence, I will be better explored my career as production manager in an IT organization. On the other hand, Sacks and Pikas, (2013) opined that management profession must have systematic body of knowledge and deliberate effort towards gaining expertise on field of management. Moreover, the expertise and efficient level gathered from the engineering management will assist me in better managing the employees of an organization. However, while choosing management as my profession, I may have to deal with employees from different backgrounds. Hence, there is high chance of facing communication issue in managing culturally diverse employees. There can be high level of communication gap between the manager and employees. Therefore, I have to enhance my communicational power towards understanding the perspective of diverse set of employees.
Becoming an efficient professional is highly dependent on strong leading power along with power to innovate business solutions. According to Griffiths et al., (2015), engineering management is a specialized form of management, which is highly required towards leading and controlling a project team. Therefore, I can also choose engineering manager as my profession, who will oversee the system engineering and efficiency of project step towards its successful completion. On the other hand, Rao, (2014) opined that the blend of engineering skills and business knowledge assists a professional manager towards providing innovative solution to the complex problems of business. Hence, the management profession will help me to get quick promotion in my organization through solving complex business issues with creative knowledge. While I will be managing any project in an IT organization, I may face several communication issues due to cultural diversity. In case of managing team in global basis, I may face communication issue in terms of language differences. However, if I get my job in any multicultural organization, I may face communication issues in regards to the differing values of the diverse employees.
Cultural diversity is the group of diverse individuals from different societies and cultures. In case of organizational cultural diversity, the employees come from different religion, language, race, gender, sex, age and ethnicity (Ozgen et al., 2014). In a culturally diverse workplace, managers are to deal with diverse set of employees, who are having different cultures. Management professionals are to communicate differently with the employees from different culture. Otherwise, it can lead to communication issues in the workplace among the diverse set employees. This project proposal will highlight the communication issue in cultural diversity. Effective research objectives and questions will be formed for gathering effective information regarding the topic of the project proposal.
Choosing Management as My Profession
Over the years, global expansion of business has created the needs of cultural diversity in organization towards dealing with different types of global customers (Bouncken et al., 2016). On the hand, decentralization of management practice has increased the role and responsibilities of the managers towards effectively leading diverse work group in the workplace. However, managing diverse team is quite tough job, as it needs an understanding of differing perspectives of the diverse work group (Wood & Wilberger, 2015). Both verbal words and non-verbal expressions create major communication issues in culturally diverse environment.
Cultural diversity is the most common trend of today’s business. The management of organizations extracts innovative ideas from the culturally diverse employees towards solving complex global business problems. However, there are several communication issues, which a manager has to face in dealing with culturally diverse work environment. Apart from language and expression barriers, there are also some other communication issues like misunderstanding of values, gesture and mannerism (Vangen & Winchester, 2014). Moreover, communication issues in cultural diversity often lead to workplace confliction and employee dissatisfaction, which can have severe impact on organizational success. This project proposal will explore the communication issues of cultural diversity and find some ways out for resolving the communication issues.
The aim of the project proposal is to explore the communication issues in cultural diversity and providing effective ways for addressing those issues.
- To examine the needs of cultural diversity in organization
- To explore the communication issues in cultural diversity
- To suggest the managers for dealing with communication challenges of cultural diversity
- What are needs of cultural diversity in organization?
- What are the common communicational issues in cultural diversity?
- How should the managers deal with communication challenges of cultural diversity?
Cultural diversity is the quality of diverse culture as opposed to monoculture. According to Hartmann et al., (2013), cultural diversity is the form of appreciating differences between the culturally diverse work group in an organization. These differences can be based on language, age, race, sex, gender, ethnicity and social status. On the other hand, Taylor and Kachanoff, (2015) opined that today’s organizations are made up with diverse employees from every part of the world towards meeting the identifying and meeting the global needs. Culturally diverse employees can provide innovative solutions towards providing solving complex business issues. However, cultural diversity can create high level of communication issues among the employees. Hence, managers are to effective handle cultural diversity for its proper implementation.
According to Wood and Wilberger (2015), language barrier is the most common communication issues in cultural diversity. In case of Australian organizations, various employees come from foreign countries, who speak poor English. Moreover, they also have some pronunciation issues in speaking English, which cannot be properly understood by the managers and local employees. On the other hand, Taylor and Kachanoff, (2015) opined that in culturally diverse workplace, the managers often fail to understand the gesture and mannerism of the employees from other culture. It can also often lean confliction among the employees also, which can ultimately decrease the employee morale.
The intended message of the employees from differing culture often remains misunderstood by the managers. Hence, communication issues in cultural diversity can lead to unresolved organizational problems. While managers fail to understand the values and norms of the employees from different culture, it can create hostility and frustration among the employees. Moreover, ethnocentric views of the employees also act as communication barriers, where one group of employees is tended to judge other group of employees based on their values and standards. Furthermore, language barrier in cultural diversity often lead to in effective written communication in the organization.
Becoming an Efficient Professional
Hofstede’s cultural model provides effective framework towards understanding the effect of diverse organizational culture on the behavior of the employees. There are 6 dimensions towards understanding the diverse culture of an organization. According to Bouncken et al., (2016), power distance dimension describes the degree to which less powerful employees accept the power of more powerful employees. On the other hand, Individualism vs. collectivism dimension defines the degree to which organizational employees are integrated into one group. Communication gaps in cultural diversity can disintegrate the employees and divide the group. As per Hartmann et al., (2013), Uncertainty avoidance index dimension defines the degree to which organizational members avert or accept any unexpected events. Proper communication among the employees can foster acceptance of innovation in the organization. Masculinity vs. femininity dimension defines the degree to which all employees get equal privileges in the organization regardless of their gender. Long-term orientation vs. short-term orientation dimension defines degree to which new norms and thinking are respected in an organization. Indulgence vs. restraint dimension defines free communication style in culturally diverse workplace.
Management professionals have to arrange effective training and development program for the employees, where the employees will be trained on their unknown language needed for the organization. It will minimize the language barrier in the cultural diversity of organization. Bouncken et al., (2016) opined that the managers also need to arrange frequent culture training, where the employees will understand the values, norms and standards of each other in diverse workplace. Apart from the, the managers also need to encourage interaction among the diverse employees and initiate recognition for the employees for well performance in diverse culture.
For this project proposal, deductive approach will be chosen, as it allows in using existing theories and models for gathering authentic data regarding the project topic. On the other hand, descriptive research approach will be selected for this proposal. It assists in better understanding of the research topic and framing effective research objectives and questions for collecting useful information about the project topic (Lather & Pierre, 2013). This project proposal will choose secondary data collection methods for collection relevant information about the project topic. Various secondary sources like authentic journals, books and websites will be selected for gathering authentic information regarding the topic of the project proposal.
References
Bouncken, R., Brem, A., & Kraus, S. (2016). Multi-cultural teams as sources for creativity and innovation: The role of cultural diversity on team performance. International Journal of Innovation Management, 20(01), 1650012.
Bredin, K., & Söderlund, J. (2013). Project managers and career models: An exploratory comparative study. International journal of project management, 31(6), 889-902.
Griffiths, H., Cohen, L., Watts, S., Mokole, E., Baker, C., Wicks, M., & Blunt, S. (2015). Radar spectrum engineering and management: Technical and regulatory issues. Proceedings of the IEEE, 103(1), 85-102.
Hargrove, S. K. (2015). A Survey Of Career Pathways Of Engineering Deans In The United States: Strategies For Leadership Development. American Journal of Engineering Education, 6(1), 33.
Hartmann, W. E., Kim, E. S., Kim, J. H., Nguyen, T. U., Wendt, D. C., Nagata, D. K., & Gone, J. P. (2013). In search of cultural diversity, revisited: Recent publication trends in cross-cultural and ethnic minority psychology. Review of General Psychology, 17(3), 243-254.
Lather, P., & St. Pierre, E. A. (2013). Post-qualitative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 26(6), 629-633.
Ozgen, C., Peters, C., Niebuhr, A., Nijkamp, P., & Poot, J. (2014). Does Cultural Diversity of Migrant Employees Affect Innovation?. International Migration Review, 48(s1), S377-S416.
Rao, M. S. (2014). Enhancing employability in engineering and management students through soft skills. Industrial and Commercial Training, 46(1), 42-48.
Sacks, R., & Pikas, E. (2013). Building information modeling education for construction engineering and management. I: Industry requirements, state of the art, and gap analysis. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 139(11), 04013016.
Srour, I., Abdul-Malak, M. A., Itani, M., Bakshan, A., & Sidani, Y. (2013). Career planning and progression for Engineering Management graduates: An exploratory study. Engineering Management Journal, 25(3), 85-100.
Taylor, D. M., & Kachanoff, F. J. (2015). Managing cultural diversity without a clearly defined cultural identity: The ultimate challenge. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 21(4), 546.
Vangen, S., & Winchester, N. (2014). Managing Cultural Diversity in Collaborations: A focus on management tensions. Public Management Review, 16(5), 686-707.
Wood, V. R., & Wilberger, J. S. (2015). Globalization, Cultural Diversity and Organizational Commitment: Theoretical Underpinnings. World, 6(2), 154-171.
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