Organization Behavior For Multicultural Diverse Countries

Communication challenges

Describe about the Organization Behavior for Multicultural Diverse Countries.

Australia is one of the multicultural diverse countries in the world. This diversity manifests itself in many spheres of Australian life such a sports, politics and in the workplace. Australia has done a lot to overcome racial discrimination and be a racially inclusive society. For instance, the National Anti-racism Strategy tries to empower Australians to voice their opinions against racial discrimination (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2015). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2012), 20% of the population is foreign-born, approximately 20% of the population speaks a second language other than English at home and that 20% of their children have parents who were born outside Australia. Despite these positive racial milestones, blacks and aborigines still face high levels of discrimination (Price, 2016).

One of the ways in which Australia has encouraged cultural diversity is to provide for equal employment opportunities in the workplace. This is because various research studies have shown that cultural diverse workplace is more likely to be more productive than one which lacks diversity. Furthermore, research has also shown that organizations, where managers are of different cultures, are more likely to grow and become more successful. However, cultural diversity has its challenges ranging from communication, leadership and managerial styles and ethical issues.

The purpose of this assignment is to be able to analyze communication challenges, leadership and managerial styles challenges and ethical issues regarding cultural diversity in Australia.

Interpersonal communication is a very important aspect in a workplace. Interpersonal communication not only builds cohesiveness in the organization but fosters work-related relationships which can encourage creativity and increase productivity. However, when there is a lack of interpersonal communication in the workplace, conflicts are likely to emerge. These conflicts can interfere with productivity, create a hostile working environment and impact negatively on the organizational culture in the workplace. This lack of interpersonal communication is more profound in culturally diverse workplaces.

One of the major communication challenges facing culturally diverse Australian organizations is the communication styles. Many organizations in Australia use informal communication in the workplace. This is because Australian organizations lack the bureaucracy that exists in organizations that are domiciled in other countries such as the US, Japan and the UK (Hooker, 2008). Australians also has a more direct approach to communication. Informal communication is used to ease the tension associated with a formal communication. This tension is usually high in organizations where employees are from different cultural backgrounds. Cultural diversity in the workplace in Australia has been influenced by the increase in migrant population which makes up 24.6% of the total population (The commonwealth of Australia, 2008).

Ethical issues related to cultural diversity

Cultural diversity does not just include people of many races but also equal gender and people with disabilities. Fortunately, women in Australia are no longer discriminated in the workplace although many of them attain high- level executive positions because of their gender.

Moreover, managers in many Australian organizations use a collaborative communication approach when dealing with employees. This can be very difficult for a leader who is used to an authoritative communication approach where information strictly flows from the top management down to employees. However, what stands in communication styles in most of the Australian organization is the use of sarcasm as a form of humor which may be offensive to foreigners (Australian Multicultural Foundation, 2010). Luckily, the language barrier in not a communication challenge in culturally diverse workplaces in Australia. This is because English is the official language of communication and a considerably large size of the population whether foreign or local is fluent in both written and oral English language.

The most common communication challenge is the conflicts in the workplace. Conflicts in the workplace are one of the major causes of low productivity. Furthermore, conflicts create a bad working environment which may demoralize employees and influence negative work outcomes in the workplace. Cultural differences are one of the most common sources of conflicts, especially in a multicultural work environment. These conflicts created by cultural differences are further perpetuated by available stereotypes regarding individuals from certain countries. For instance, Australians are considered selfish, Americans are show offs, Japanese never say what they really think and that Germans are uptight (Cornes,1998).Therefore, being able to manage and contain the available stereotypes as one way of managing conflicts in a culturally diverse workplace(Australian Multicultural Foundation,2010).

Cultural differences in the workplace mean that employees have different personalities which may create conflicts in the workplace. Cultural differences in the workplace should be managed effectively because they influence organizational culture (Mazur, 2010). Personality differences are likely to cause disagreements in the workplace. Australians are extroverts hence likely to come across as loud spoken and openly express their opinions. For instance, this may not go well with Asians who are mostly reserved and less likely to express their opinions and therefore consider most Australians obnoxious and rude.

The best way to deal with conflicts arising due to personality difference is to conduct cultural diversity training in the workplace and encourage tolerance with each other. Personality differences can affect major decision-making process, especially if the top management is made up of people from different cultural backgrounds.

One of the ways managers can solve conflicts in multicultural work environments is to use a collaborative and compromise approach. This will enable various agreements to be solved in ways that allow the disagreeing parties to arrive at a win-win situation. Australians favor their ability to communicate directly and be able to convey a lot of information in messages (Hackman & Johnson, 2004). This in contrast with individuals of East Asian origin such as Koreans, Chinese and Japanese who prefer messages which are not direct and rely more on non-verbal cues of communication such as body language and gestures ((Kowske & Anthony, 2007). Therefore encouraging interpersonal communication, creating clear communication channels, advocating for peaceful conflict resolution mechanisms can help an organization solve its communication challenges.

The management can conduct workshops and training seminars to educate all its employees on the importance of cultural diversity and the need to appreciate and tolerate each other’s differences. In Australia, employees from different cultural backgrounds are to be given opportunities and forums where they are able to interact together and be able to talk about their various cultures and how it affects their work. Basically, organizations should work on improving interpersonal communication between employees of different cultures. The majority of organizations usually organizes cultural week where employees are able to participate in various cultural events that foster communication and improve relationships.

In culturally diverse backgrounds, it is important for strict communications rules and policies to be put in place. The policies are mainly focused on the avoidance of culturally offensive language. This is because the probability of using racial slurs and insults in the workplace in an organization made up of employees from different backgrounds is high. Research shows that blacks, in general, are likely to receive racial slurs in the workplace than other racial minorities.

Cultural diversity issues in the workplace are good for the success and the reputation of an organization. This is because it becomes diversity becomes part of the organizational culture at the workplace.  However, cultural diversity at the workplace may face the ethical challenges of incorporating diversity. Employees in a culturally diversified workplace are likely to make ethical decisions based on their cultural backgrounds. This is especially true to Australia which faces multiple issues in relations to ethics due to its multicultural population (Omeri et al, 2009). To be able to overcome this challenge of ethical issues, organizations should come up with the ethical code of conduct that bears in mind the diverse cultures of its employees.

Employees should be able to do what is morally right according to the rule of law as stipulated by the various legislations existing in a country, Moreover, employees are obligated to do what is morally right although, that may not necessarily conform to stipulated laws. For instance, in most cultures, it is morally wrong to kill someone yet the law allows a person to be able to commit murder if that person’s life is threatened or put in danger. Therefore, employees should balance what they are ethically required to do according to organizations code of conduct and what they feel they are obligated to do. Organization should employ the theories of ethics to be able to deal with the ethical issues emerging in the organization. These theories include utilitarian ethics theory, virtue ethics, and divine command theories. These are majorly part of teleological and deontological ethical theories. Employees should know that every ethical decision they make has consequences either to themselves or the organization at large.

Total disregard of ethics in many corporations has been blamed for the increasing rise in corporate scandals (Dellaportas, 2006). This is where the ethical code of conduct allows some employees though not officially to engage in ethical malpractices that are ethically wrong based on the rule of law. For example, an accountant working in a prestigious organization being told by his supervisor to engage in manipulation of financial statements whereas the accountant knows that it is unethical both professionally and by law to engage in such malpractices. However, this is less likely to occur in an organization where employees are from different cultures.

Ethical issues involve what is right or wrong. Every culture has its own definitions what it considers right or wrong. These cultural perceptions of right and wrong may come into conflict with what an organization considers to be right or wrong. It should be noted that what an employee in an organization considers to be morally right is in most cases reflected in his/her religious views. Culture is the values, norms and attitudes of a particular group of people and may influence the actions of an individual in a business environment (Goodenough & Harris, 2006). Ethical issues related to cultural diversity include dress code and communication. For instance, a high-end restaurant in Australia wants its female employees to wear skimpy short skirts to attract customers may face resistance from female employees from the Islamic culture. Some cultures also don’t allow their women to maintain eye contact with men during a conversation.

An organization should be able to balance between the ethical theory of universalism and the moral principles perpetuated by cultural norms (Gowans,2012).This is especially very important because many ethical theories have a significant impact on cross-cultural management and business ethics (Mele,2013). An organization which is culturally diverse may have a good ethical code of conduct but have a problem with its employees complying with it. This is because the various groups from different cultural backgrounds in the organization may discover that their cultural views and attitudes on morality have not been captured it. They may, therefore, find it hard to comply with such a code of ethical conduct.

 The ability of employees from different cultural dimensions to make the correct ethical decisions may affect their ability to deliver services to customers who are from different cultural backgrounds themselves. However, many organizations have found a way of being able to deal with this problem. For instance, employees from different cultures are given opportunities to give their views on a new ethical code of conduct or give reviews about the existing ones by making recommendations.

 If individuals from such cultures attend an interview and avoid eye contact, they may lose an opportunity for employment because their lack of eye contact will be interpreted as untrustworthy. This shows that a person’s moral values of what is right or wrong will always surpass what an organization considers morally right. Religious views also strongly influence the way individuals make ethical decisions. The religious composition of Australia is 26 % Catholic; 19% Anglican; 19% other Christian denominations; non-Christian religions comprise 6% and include Buddhism 2.1 %, Hinduism 0.8 %, Islam 1.7 %and Judaism 0.5 %(Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012). It is therefore, appropriate for organizations to make ethical considerations based on the religious affiliations of its employees.

A manager’s cultural background will also influence his/her ethical decisions related to business. Different cultural dimensions may also influence a manager’s attitude towards business ethics (Christie et al, 2003). This will be even more difficult for such a manager leading a culturally diverse workforce in Australia. This is because the manager’s decisions will be based on his/her attitude toward ethical issues which may also conflict with the attitudes of employees.

Research has shown that there is direct relation between culture and leadership style (Ardichvili and Kuchinke, 2002; Smith and Peterson, 1988; Javidan and Carl, 2005; Ayman and Korabik, 2010; Cheung and Chan, 2008; Hanges et al., 2006; Jepson, 2009; Russette et al., 2008) Leadership and management styles in a diverse workplace greatly vary from the leadership style for a conventional workplace. Managing a culturally diverse workplace can be very difficult for a manager who in the first place may not advocate for diversity. Being able to effectively manage a culturally diverse workforce is very demanding and therefore, a challenge to many leaders in the world (Livermore, 2015).This challenge has greatly been attributed to the fact that culturally diverse workforce experiences many conflicts. This is because employees who are followers need to be positively influenced so as to be able to achieve the objectives of the organization (Lussier &Achua, 2010).

The leadership style for a culturally diverse workplace should be flexible enough and be able to conform to an organizational cultural diversity framework. Therefore managers should be culturally competent to manage diverse workplaces and achieve positive outcomes. For a manager to effectively manage a diverse workplace like the multicultural Australian environment, he/she must be dynamic, visionary, and very competitive and be a risk-taker. Due to cultural diversity, Australian CEOs and managers are very different from their counterparts ( Peterbery consulting, 2011). Honesty is a great value among workers in Australia and therefore, the leadership style should be one which embodies honesty as part of the organizational culture (House et al, 2004).

A nation’s cultural values influence its leadership and management styles. Therefore, British and American styles of leadership may not work effectively in Australia (Rymer, 2008). This is because cultural diversity is part of Australia’s national values and therefore reflected in its leadership style to accommodate individuals from different cultures. The interaction between a leader, situation/circumstances and followers are able to create leadership styles (De Vries, 2001). Globalization and development of technology are affecting leadership in diverse workplaces (Punnet, 2004). This is because most organizations are trying to portray a global image in the provision of its products and services by having culturally diverse employees. Therefore leaders of such organizations must have a global consciousness in appreciating diversity in the workplace. Various cultural groups have different expectations regarding leadership which may in turn influence the relationship between the management and the workers (Nguyen & Umemoto, 2009).

Cultural diversity brings a whole new set of challenges to an organization which requires effective leadership and management styles to overcome those challenges (Chuang, 2013). Good leadership style must be able to recognize and acknowledge the core values of the organization. Cultural diversity is one of the core values in many Australian organizations. The influence of cultural diversity in the leadership styles cannot be underrated (Gutierrez, Spencer & Zhu, 2012).

There are various leadership styles available which may or may not be applicable to cultural diversity in the workplace in Australia. They include autocratic leadership style, charismatic leadership style, lassies leadership style and democratic leadership style. It should be noted that every leadership style has its advantages, disadvantages, and impacts on the organization in terms of employee relations and motivation. Autocratic style of leadership is where leaders give directions to their followers and the followers are expected to comply without question. This type of leadership style is not appropriate because workers are not given opportunities to give their input before crucial decisions are made.

Lassies fair kind of leadership style is the worst leadership style. This leadership style gives employees autonomy and allows them to do as they wish. Lassies fair leadership style does not encourage productivity due to lack of supervisory role by the management. Charismatic leadership style is the most common style of leadership applicable in the majority of organizations all over the world. This leadership style is based on the charm or personality of the leader. Charming leaders are able to draw people to themselves and people are likely to comply with their decisions because they like them. Because of their charm, charismatic leaders are able to inspire trust and loyalty among their followers.

Democratic leadership style is whereby followers take participation in decision making. This style has the disadvantage that it is time-consuming and may not come in handy when there is a need to make a swift and decisive action. It also does not give the managers opportunity to be authoritative in enforcing key policies of the organization.

In Australia, the role of managers is more of coordination role and therefore leadership style is based on equal leader-subordinate relationships (Uma, 2009). This just shows the extent to which the multiculturalism in Australia has influenced its leadership styles.

Conclusion

Australia is a culturally diverse nation and this diversity is reflected its workforce. There are too many Chinese, Koreans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indians, Pakistanis, Africans and aborigines in its employment opportunities Many Australians are more likely to work for a culturally diverse organization than many nationalists in the world due to the fact that cultural diversity is part of the Australians identity. Cultural diversity is an emerging organization trend in the new millennium. Cultural diversity has many advantages to the organization. Cultural diversity has an impact on the organization behavior in the workplace.

Many of these advantages can help an organization establish a competitive advantage and grow into successful business organizations. Cultural diversity is an important aspect of organization culture in many corporations. However, managing cultural diversity in the workplace has its challenges which can be overcome by effective management styles. Traditional leadership styles are not applicable in Australian multicultural context, The Australian model of leadership style is a mixture of many European and American leadership styles. However, the Australian multicultural context offers many valuable lessons for managers who want to manage diversity in their organizations.

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