People Think, Communicate, And Behave

Workers in England and Japan had similar hours of work. A young English girl around 1840 “began to work in the factory at 5:30 a.m. and finished at 8 p.m.,” with only two breaks, “a thirty-five minute break for breakfast and a fifty-five minute break for dinner” (doc 5). She worked for a total of 13 hours a day, and “worked another nine hours on Saturday … Sunday was an off day” (doc 5). In Japan, “a study by the government in 1900 revealed that a normal working day in a plant in Okaya was thirteen to fourteen

The case of Karen Leary illustrates the implications cultural conflict can have on business organizations and office culture. A common mistake managers make is undermining the power of cultural constraints at the organizational level. After six years as a financial consultant at Merrill Lynch, Karen Leary was promoted to general manager at the Elmville branch in Chicago. Leary wanted to achieve success at the branch office by building high-producing, successful group of professionals who work together to provide clients with complete service in meeting long-term financial goals.

This book grapples with ethical dilemmas that can present themselves while working with people from other cultures and professional disciplines.

Once again, this week’s reading is very timely and coincides with current work situations. This week, it has become more apparent that the culture of where I work conflicts with my personal values. Over two years ago, I moved to the Boston area for this job and at the time I realized that there were geographical and historical differences than from previous places I had lived. I also expected social and economic differences. Being the newcomer, to the work situation and environment, there was the need for me to learn about the governmental rules and processes for how decisions are made. In addition, after a few times of being corrected, I learned to call Massachusetts a Commonwealth, not a State. For a time, I embraced the cultural differences and contributed any unease to my unfamiliarity with the area. Then, I started to notice some current organizational values that contrast with my beliefs. For instance, the organization I

According to behavioral theories of communication and decision-making the rational solution to a problem is not always the best answer. Therefore, when diversity creates controversy, which inhibits the development of an organization, the organization is forced to adopt other useful tactics that would result in positive outcomes. This document will focus on several aspects of cross-cultural conflicts; A)

For any international organization, understanding cultural differences is very significant in the global context. The article analyzes the role and impact of the cultural perspective when dealing with conflict in the global context. “What seems like a perfectly reasonable approach in one culture may seem ridiculous, disrespectful, inefficient, or unfair to managers from other cultures. Japanese and German managers may be uneasy with conflict resolution preferences that differ from their own.” (Adams, p.110.) The understanding that organizational and global cultures vary results in the connected research supported in several businesses in diverse fields.

As times are changing, so is the world’s vision of normal. Discrimination and segregation were a huge part of history, but the fact is that in this modern society, culture diversity is the new norm. Companies and organizations incorporate culture diversity in the workplace due to the benefits of various experiences, language skills, and productivity. Employees are the face of the company, and if they have the mentality of prejudice and ethnocentrism, it can affect the success of the business. While most people understand that the world is a melting pot, discrimination still exists in this world and these people are at a disadvantage. Whether it is because they are living in the past, had a bad experience, or have not been exposed to it, the world is a melting pot of culture, gender, and ethnicity. Regardless of how we are different, once “we can learn to appreciate that differences do matter and that becoming aware of those differences will make interactions with others much easier” (Devry University, n.d.).

Globalization and technological advancement have dictated the need for managers to deal with multiple ethnic groups with different culture in their day to day interactions. According to Kulkarni (2012), cultures play critical roles in individuals, including values, beliefs, humor, worries, fears, hopes, opinions, attachments, and anxieties.

As the demographic changes throughout the country shape the infinite amount of social environments. Now more than ever will there be an emergence of new contexts for cross cultural problems. This contexts are brought about by passages of legislation like the Civil Rights Act, changes in economic uncertainties and a plethora of other issues. Although some of these issues are older than others they all require a revisiting in order to prevent and resolve employee problems. This is due to the fact that these new issues and recurrences will always find their way into the workplace as individuals interact with each other, and share ideas or opinions.

In past experience, through travels outside of the country for business relations it was discovered very early on that most cultures will respect fairness and tolerance, but each to a different degree. American women in managerial positions have had to struggle to find ways to be effective in cultures where their authority and credibility are not traditionally the norm. Perhaps it was the value of fairness that clashed with tolerance or respect for diversity on this particular business trip to Japan over 10 years ago. However, even if there was an underlying agreement on such values, in this particular scenario these values were prioritized differently among the two different cultures and might have been expressed different for that

The importance of understanding cultural, ethnic, and gender differences by managers and professionals in a business setting.

The importance of understanding cultural, ethnic and gender differences by managers and professionals in a business setting is essential to make the work environment comfortable. In every culture there are basic standards of thinking, and acting and these cultural differences strongly influence workplace values and communication. What may be considered acceptable and natural in the workplace for one person may be unacceptable for another person. People from diverse cultures bring new ways of thinking, creativity and language skills needed to survive in today’s work force. In many

Mismanaging cultural differences can render otherwise successful managers and organisations ineffective when working across cultures. As stated byOsland (1990, p. 4) ``The single greatest barrier to business success is the one erected by culture''. Hofstede (1983) defines culture as "the mental programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group from another" (Hofstede 1983 p. 25). Through the comparison of Chinese culture and Australian culture using Hofstedes five cross-cultural dimensions: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and long-term orientation an insightful view into the differences and similarities of the cultures can be obtained (Chong & Park 2003). Human Resource Management

There are two major cultural divisions, Hispanic and Caucasian, to further complicate the work environment the ratio of Male to female workers is 20 to 1. No effort from either group of being sensitive to the others existence is apparent. (DuBrin, 2004, p. 67). Management’s main concern is for “ethnic diversity” to the point of not having issues with the equal employment opportunity act.

Managers were concerned about knowing and understanding each and every perspective of their employee’s cultures. As they know that without studying or knowing the culture, coordination cannot be built between the employees. It is the existing perspective of managers dealing with cross-cultural management (Sultana, 2013).