Cross-Cultural Problems Complications or Issues in the Workplace - Case Study Example

Name Course name Name of Institution Instructor’s name Date Hypothetical scenario that identifies cross-cultural problems, complications, or issues at workplace Introduction Culture is defined as the spiritual, intellectual, material, and emotional features of a certain social group. It includes the beliefs, values, attitudes, customs, behaviors, traditions, lifestyle, identity, and religious faith of diverse people. Cross-culture is defined as a business environment where people from different regions and cultures interact. They bring distinct values, viewpoints and business practices. Due to rapid improvement in technology, increase in social mobility, globalization and the existence of cultural diversity, there is increase in intercultural contact both at personal and organizational level. This calls for people to learn how to adopt the unfamiliar environments and also learn how to work efficiently with people who are from different cultural backgrounds. Hypothetical scenario Aaminah, a young lady from Middle East got a job to work as a bank cashier at Queensland bank limited in Australia. Here she would work with people from different cultures and backgrounds. She would interact with customers who were from culturally diverse backgrounds. Every morning when Aaminah gets to work she had to greet her co-workers. So the first cross-culture problem she encountered is language barrier since her language is Arabic. Australian people speak English and she had studied English as a second language. What type of language barriers did she encounter as she interacts with colleagues and customers at workplace? Even though she could speak and hear English, people in Australia have an accent which would make it difficult for her to understand what they were saying. At work place, it would make it hard for her to interact freely with other colleagues. “How do you find your stay here in Australia?” a male colleague asked Aaminah. Aaminah having not understood what the male colleague asked because of his accent, she asked him to repeat his question. Due to the difference in language, it would be hard for her to serve customers more effectively. It would require that she first take time to learn how to speak like the Australians which would consume her personal time. Moreover, she found a difference in non-verbal communications styles. This refers to use of gestures, facial expressions, personal distance, seating arrangements and sense of time. According to indigenous Australian culture, avoiding eye contact with a person is a sign of respect. This is not the case in her culture that is Muslim culture, eye contact shows that you are paying attention to what you are being told. This sort of cultural difference got her in trouble at her work place. Aaminah was called by the manager into the office in her second Monday at job to be advised on how to serve clients more effectively. As the manager explained it to her, she maintained direct eye contact with him. This made the manager think that she had no respect towards him. This made it hard for her to make friends at the place. Her colleagues at work thought that she is arrogant and did not respect others. Aaminah has a different skin color from the other colleagues since she is from the Middle East. This singled her out from other colleagues at the bank who were white. It also made her a target for discriminatory treatment from her colleagues and customers. Moreover, due to the terrorist attack on World Trade Center in the US by Islamic extremists on September 11, 2001, the Australian people view all Muslims as terrorists. Due to this, she faced more discrimination at work because the attack heightened the disparity between Muslims and Christian. Some customers who came to the bank preferred being served by her white colleagues even when they had other clients and she was free. Being culturally dissimilar to others at work always subjected her to racism. After working at the bank for a while she was able to learn how to deal with her clients. Her job quality increased and she became one the most effective workers at the bank. This motivated her to put even more effort. When a promotion opportunity came, like other colleagues she applied to get promoted to a branch manager. The applications were so many and so the board decided to review them and eliminated applications submitted by workers from overseas. Such an act is considered as statistical discrimination. It lowered her confidence, which in return, affected her job quality. In case something went missing at workplace she was the first suspect. She was racial profiled because of her skin color, religion and origin. This is because of the negative belief about Muslims, that, they are terrorists. Another problem brought by cross-culture at workplace is difference in etiquette. According to Muslim culture, people of the opposite sex are not supposed to publicly show affection towards each other. These include even minor activities such as holding hands. Also engaged and married women are not supposed to shake hands with members of opposite sex. On the first day when she reported to work, a male colleague stretched his hand to great her but instead of shaking his hand she said hello and walked away. That made her to come out as a rude person. The gentleman was left wondering what was wrong with his hand. He discussed this with his other colleagues and this made them avoid greeting her. That one scenario made her workmates alienate her for a while until they came to learn her reasons for not shaking hands. In addition, people from Middle East keep more personal space than what is usually normal elsewhere. In Australia, stepping away when a person moves closer to you may seem rude. On her first day when she was being introduced to her co-workers, one of the gentlemen saw that she was very beautiful and stepped close to her so that he could offer to assist her to cope with the new culture. Aaminah stepped away from him. The gentleman and other colleagues thought that she was being rude. Such cultural differences made it difficult for her to make friends at work. It also affected the quality of her work since nobody was willing to help her cope with new culture so that she may know how to effectively communicate to clients. Moreover, in the Middle East special respect is paid to people older people. It includes serving them first. One day when Aaminah was serving the customers, an elderly lady walked into the bank. She stood up and called the elderly lady to the front of the queue so that she could serve her first. This made the other customers on the queue upset. She continued doing the same for several days and it got her to trouble with the manager. Moreover, in Middle East, personal matters are considered to be of more important than profession matters. During her first days at work, she was always making personal calls instead of working. This made her to get summoned at the human rights department. Moreover, according to the cultural norms of Muslims men are the sole providers to their families unlike in other cultures where both sex share responsibilities. Being the providers, Muslim men are forced to search for jobs which is challenging. Due to this, there has not been adequate interaction between people from Middle East and those other cultures. This has made it difficult for their culture and language to get known by people from other cultures. Due to this, colleagues at the bank are unaware of her cultural norms and it made it difficult for them to interact with her. In most cases, she appeared to be rude. Most of her workmates had negative beliefs about Muslims and it made them discriminate her until they came to her and learn about her culture. Another area that identifies problems brought by cross-culture is religion. Muslims worship on Fridays while Christians worship on Sundays. Since Australia is occupied by Christians, Friday is a working day. Due to this, Aaminah does not have time to go to the Mosque on Fridays to worship. This made feel left out because on Sundays the bank is closed so that other workers can have a free day to attend church. Moreover, her religion demands that she cover her hair and wear a Bui Bui which covers almost every part of her body. On the other hand, Australians can wear short dresses and skirts at the workplace and when other ladies are discussing where to go and shop clothes she fills left out since her culture does not allow to wear any other form of attire. Moreover, due to difference in religion with her workmates, she cannot engage in religious discussions with them. When they do, she just have to sit there and listen without commenting anything. Cultural difference makes it difficult for her to relate with her workmates freely. Questions 1. Which are the main challenges that a person from a different culture encounters at workplace? 2. Looking at the challenge that a person from a different culture faces at workplace, give recommendations on how to solve the challenges more effectively. Appendices References Questionnaire 1. Which is your country of origin? 2. Are your cultural practices similar to the ones in this country? 3. What are the main similarities? 4. What are the main differences? 5. How do you feel about coming to work every morning? 6. What are the main issues that you encounter at work due to cross-culture? 7. What efforts have you made to try and solve the challenges? 8. In which ways have you workmates helped you adopt to the new culture? Read More