Chapter 7 Homework The Religious Leaders The Village Stated That

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CHAPTER SEVEN: MANAGING INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN

THE

WORKPLACE

Objectives

Identify cultural differences that create barriers to understanding

Develop improved relationships with individuals and groups that are culturally diverse

Equip others to adapt to and adjust to new conditions in the workplace

Develop and manage teams harvesting the strength of diversity

Key Words

Intercultural communication, cultural diversity, communication divergence, intercultural

communication strategies, gender communication, survival in culturally diverse organizations,

intercultural adaptation

On the Internet: search Google for intercultural communication, culture competency, cultural

adaptation

Chapter Teaching Notes

I. Introduction: The Significance of Managing Cultural Diversity

A. Cultural diversity poses potential barriers

B. Impoverished intercultural communication is costly

C. The workplace is growing in cultural diversity

1. Culture is considered a set of beliefs, attitudes, customs, rules, activities,

and communication patterns of an identifiable group of people.

II. Definition and Model for Intercultural Communication

III. The Need to Understand Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Communication

A. Ethnocentrism – a sense of egotism and selfishness about a own culture

whereby his or her culture is elevated in importance above others

B. Prejudice occurs when one person acts toward another person with a

preconception of their attitudes or behaviors in a way leading to bias, unfairness,

intolerance, or injustice.

2. Symbolic prejudice devaluation not because of a belief on inherent

inferiority, but because the group is seen as blocking cultural goals

4. Arms-length prejudice indicates non-prejudicial actions in public, but

warmth, friendship, and intimacy are withheld in private.

C. Stereotyping occurs when assumptions are maintained about a particular group

or individual who represents a group without validity checks to

those assumptions

D. Classifying in-groups and out-groups

E. Communication style expectations

F. Culturally diverse conflict styles

G. Cultural values long abiding judgments of good and bad which a culture

considers worthwhile and important

H. Languages and code even if two people share a language, the thought processes

behind the words may not be the same

I. Interaction rituals

J. Failure to recognize gendered culture gender and international culture

differences influence the communication expectations in some social situations

IV. Intercultural Communication Strategies for Managing Cultural

Diversity

A. Strategies of Unity

1. Search for common ground

2. Adapting to low and high context cultures

a. Low context cultures rely on codes of explicit information

3. Adapting to group and individual cultures – individualism versus

collectivism

4. Adapting to task and people priorities are cultures focused on the job

or on the relationships

6. Adjust linearity be aware of how linear styles (moving in a straight

7. Understand nonverbal interaction in culture

8. Avoid hasty impression formation be aware of attribution

B. Engage strategies of cultural adaptation

1. Culture shock causes and symptoms ( so or

1. Symptoms include: expressions of loneliness, irritability,

2. Stages of culture shock

a. Stage one: Feeling good!

b. Stage two: Disappointment fight, flight, and filter

Case Study

1. From the text: The Case of Intercultural Diversity

This case study provides you with the opportunity to practice problem analysis, negotiation, and

collaborative problem solving. You will find below the situation summary, the manager role, the

supervisor role, and the employee role. We recommend the manager role and employee role for

use in a negotiation role-play. Use any of the roles together or a mediation role-play. Use all of

the roles for a collaborative problem-solving role-play. All role players should receive situation

summary in addition to the role they will play.

Situation Summary

Your company, Ridgemont Incorporated, has experienced a recent dramatic shift in employee

demographics. The number of European American employees has decreased by 25 percent, and

the number of African American and Latino employees has increased by 30 and 10 percent,

respectively. The supervisors, predominately European-American, have not changed.

The company is trying to diversify the supervisors and increase the number of multicultural

supervisors and managers. Tensions are high, however. Several supervisors and employees are

complaining about the amount of resources being devoted to the new employees. Several

comments have focused on the need to get our company and the importance of not letting

em take over. Yesterday, in the employee cafeteria, an employee said, this used to be

such a nice reputable place to

The company has always had its share of employee disputes, but the number of disputes has

increased in the last few months. Verbal fights have occurred between employees of different

Employee Role

You are an African American Male and a six-year employee at Ridgemont Incorporated.

Over the past three years, you have noticed a steady increase in racial tensions, which you feel is

in direct proportion to the increase in employees of color. When you first started working at this

company, you felt very much like an outsider. You still do, given the makeup of the supervisory

staff; but at the same time, you have been able to develop more of a feeling of belonging as

part

Supervisor Role

You have a reputation among both the employees and other supervisors for being honest and fair.

Because they trust you, several employees have come to you and complained about unfair

Manager Role

You are a European American female. As the company manager of Ridgemont Incorporated, you

have had to deal with a number of complex situations. You have always prided yourself on your

ability to listen and communicate with staff, employees, and supervisors. You have been with the

company ten years as a manager and have begun to think it is time to move to a different position.

Recently, a number of unsettling events have taken place at the company, and you really want to

attend to them. You do not want to leave the company in a crisis. Most of these

recent

occurrences

have involved complaints about insensitivity to racial, religious, and ethnic

differences.

A supervisor in the company met with you yesterday to discuss the situation, in which some

employees feel that mediation is not being used fairly across the company population.

Employees of color feel that they are more likely to be suspended after disputes involving

European American employees and this it is unfair. You pride yourself on fairness and do not

2. Ms. Blank Case

Ms. Blank works for the Ministry of Agriculture in her country. Her responsibility is to organize

and promote clubs for rural area girls, as a means of village development.

Her co-worker, Mr. X, has successfully organized clubs for boys throughout the country.

Mr. X and Ms. Blank work under the supervision of the Director of Agricultural Extension, who

happens to be Ms. Blank s brother. Ms. Blank recently spent six months in the United States

studying the organization of clubs there.

Upon her return to her home country, Ms. Blank began plans to organize her clubs.

Against the advice of Mr. X, she insisted upon organizing her clubs exactly after the pattern that

several social and political divisions in the community, resulting in rumors about the

nature.

The opposition soon became sufficient to force the clubs to abandon their meetings.

Questions:

1. What went wrong? Why did Ms. Blank fail?

2. What might Ms. Blank have done differently to improve her chances of success?

Some explanations and ideas regarding the case:

Ms. Blank:

3. Attempted to impose one culture on another without modification.

5. Lacked a good way to introduce the plan.

7. Was unrealistic

9. Lacked efficient planning.

11. Neglected social factors.

Other factors and suggestions:

2. There was a lack of administrative machinery for bringing about the change

2. Could have begun with one m club as an experimental demonstration.

4. Should have made more use of written communication.

6. clubs should have been identified as a national goal.

3. American Hospitality?

Your task is to analyze this case study and identify what you consider to be the problem and

the factors that brought about the problem.

Tim, and American student, struck up a conversation one day with Ahmed, a student from

the Middle East in his class. They had lunch together and talked about the differences

between American football and Middle Eastern football (soccer), and girls. Tim enjoyed it,

especially in finding common interests with a foreign student, and when they parted, he

suggested that they have lunch together again sometime. The next day he saw Ahmed on

Class Exercises

1. Objective: Identify communication theory with current business and organizational

practices in intercultural management.

Time: Out of class preparation plus in class time: 50-80 minutes. Group work and

presentations could be separated into two separate days.

Directions: Ask students to do research out of class. Have each student locate one article

from

credible source identifying an organization who is working to overcome intercultural

barriers in their organization. Articles could cover anything from a harassment case and its

settlement to new training an organization is requiring.

In class, have students join in small groups and discuss each other s findings. Have each

group present a small presentation on current intercultural happenings in the business and

professional world. What are the trends? Are improvements being made? What kind? What

brought about these changes?

2. Objective: Understand the role of ethnocentrism in current culture.

Time: 15 minutes

Directions: On the board, make a list of common examples of ethnocentrism in play in your

community and in the nation. What are the consequences of each of these items? How can

students work to change these beliefs? What are the consequences of this kind of thinking in

the business and professional world?

3. Objective: Further recognize the consequences of stereotyping.

Time: 30 minutes

Directions: In small groups, ask students to make a list of the out-groups and in-groups in

their college, university, or high school. Ask them in their groups to discuss the following

questions, and then come together as a class and discuss their thoughts on:

a. Who created these groups?

b. How does one become a part? Voluntarily? Involuntarily?

c. What are the consequences of belonging to different groups?

d. What is the point of these groupings?

e. What are the positive and negative results of this belonging?

f. Why do people create stereotypes of culturally different people?

g. Why are stereotypes often wrong?

h. What can you do to decrease the negative effects of stereotyping?

4. Objective: Increase apprehension of differing communication expectations in

intercultural situations.

Time: Month long or semester long out of class project. In class: 5 minutes/student Directions:

5. Objective: Increase awareness of cultural interaction rituals and communication

expectations.

Time: Varies by movie

Directions: Show a movie or movie clips which illustrate differences in cultural interaction

6. Objective: Relate to and identify further with intercultural perspectives

Time: 60 minutes

Directions: At some time, the facilitators should identify and meet with three international

students who would be willing to serve on a panel and, for about 7-10 minutes, share personal

experiences they have had in the United States. These experiences should emphasize any

7. Objective: Apply unity strategies and illustrate common ground between international

students and other university students.

Time: Varies

Directions: Ask students to interview an international student (international students in the

class can interview a student from the host country) in an attempt to find similarities. Ask

them to talk with the other student and make a list of the things they have in common,

whether at the school or in life practices. By finding similarities, they lessen their

communication apprehension and uncertainty. Afterwards, lead a class discussion on their

findings. Also, discuss the differences they discovered. Does knowing these differences

lessen their anxiety?

Notes: If your school has many international students, you may be able to set it up ahead of

8. Objective: Discover some truths of culture adaptation in real life situations.

Time: Varies

Directions: This project is semester long, but easy and does not consume large amounts of

time. Students in the class should be paired together and then that pair should be assigned to

an incoming international student. Teachers can contact the International Academics

office on

campus or even the foreign language department to find international students who might be

willing to participate.

like it, how they feel about it, what they like, what they dislike, how they feel about being

away, etc. They should take notes during each meeting. The class can then discuss the

reactions of each international student as they progress through the semester. Are they

showing symptoms of culture shock?

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever had an experience where a barrier existed between you and a person of

another culture? What happened? Were you able to overcome it?

2. Have you ever been influenced by ethnocentrism? How do world events such as

September 11th, the War on Terrorism, etc influence people s worldviews? Do they

influence perceptions of ethnocentrism?

3. What effects do prejudice and racism have on the workplace?

4. How has prejudice changed the way you view the world and world events? Can simply

increasing awareness of prejudice change anything? How?

5. If you were walking into a meeting this afternoon with an important individual, what

would your expectations be for that meeting? (Dress, formality, conversation, directness,

etc.) How might that differ in another culture Japanese, Arab, Latin America?

6. What do you think American culture values in the workplace? How might this differ from

other cultures?

7. Do gender expectations differ among cultures? How might this play a role in the

organizational setting?

8. What similarities could you use as common ground between you and some of the

international students on your campus?

9. Think about when you first arrived at your college or university. Did the culture seem to

be high context? What aspects of the culture were not explained to you that you were

expected to understand?

10. Why is having an understanding of nonverbal communication crucial when doing

intercultural business?

11. Have you ever experienced culture shock? What happened?