Reflective Journal: Challenging Task of Managing Employees

Critical assessment of an Issue/ Situation encountered

Culture is the man-made part of the business environment in which a group of employees perform together. These set of employees are expected to work in direction of a common goal or an objective, that is aligned with the organizational goals and objectives. The cultural differences between the employees may widen the emotional gaps between the employees belonging to a team/organization and may lead to personal differences overcoming the professional objectives (Resick et al., 2006). These may lead to potential threat to the business conduct and social environment of the companies. Thus, the human recourses personnel in the organization are facing the challenge of carefully handling the cultural differences between its staffs, especially when at work. 

Let us discuss the issue faced by the team’s manager who had some American as well as French employees working in a project team. Communication both verbal as well as written is integral part of business functioning for any of the business projects. With the advancement of technology, telecommunications have facilitated communication systems in organizations. It is one of the prominent boons for the multinational organization, who have global presence, and have to manage business from different parts of the world. Now this manager observed that something was really absurd in the way the personal interaction between the colleagues from diverse backgrounds went. There were also few personal misunderstandings between the French and American colleagues belonging to the same team, who were not highly integrated as a team due to their personal differences.

The manager used to tool of video conferencing to have meetings with each of the employee groups and interacted with them on a personal level to find out the exact differences. He observed that his American subordinates preferred to have a frank telephonic conversation for some business discussions, whereas the French employees preferred to draft an email for all the business discussions. As a result the communication expectations of these groups differed a lot, which had led to widening of personal gaps between these set of employees. Some of the employees even had unnecessary misunderstandings about the other group of employees.

These circumstances were indeed challenging for their manager, who had to deal with   a diversified work force.

Method in which the discussed issue was resolved

The manger had identified methods in which he had determined to gradually resolve the above discussed issue and make the work place more comfortable and friendly for the employees. Cultural trainings and team building exercises were the key priority solutions that the manager had sought to implement. Looking at a broader picture, this was an organizational level issue as it was leading to delay of some key deliverables and was directly impacting organizational efficiency. The manager had envisaged to implement the following ways to maintain a healthy cross cultural management in the organization.

1. Cross - Cultural Trainings at periodic Intervals for EmployeesThe arrangement of cross –cultural Trainings and workshops periodically for the employees of the team as well as the entire business organizations, would definitely helps the employees in gaining familiarity and confidence while working with each other.

2. Measurement of Cultural Flexibility as a part of Recruitment processThe open-mined, skilled, adaptive and observant,  individuals that would be keen to quickly adapt and accept the behavioral differences between the employees belonging to a different nationalities and culture would be preferred in the HR recruitment & Selection process of the organization.

3. Organization of Social Meets and eventsThe social meetings and events conducted for networking and socialization purposes also enables interaction between the culturally diverse employees and helps over coming stereotypes and cultural barriers.

4. Enhanced Open Door Work policiesOpen door Work policies, would certainly help the employees facing the cultural issues in having easy access to Human resource assistance department of the organization.

5. Conduction of Language development and Communication Workshops on a periodic basisLanguage familiarity is another criteria helps build cultural congruency between the diverse cultured employees. These aspects enable free verbal communication between the employees and helps overcome nationality and ethnicity barriers.

Key Learning experiences gained

The Following are the key learning gained from the above discussed experience:

1. Culture is indeed the man-made part of the business organization that accommodates individual employees with respective ideologies as per their respective backgrounds (Adler, N.J., 1997). A favorable Cultural environment in a work group makes the group members socialize and adjust with one another and this positively influences the success and growth of a business organization.
2. The cultural differences between groups of employees, like those between the French and American employees in this case, may become a potential threat to the social environment and business conduct of an organization that should be timely resolved.
3. Employees belonging to different nations have an inbuilt variant style of communicating and expressing things which is highly related to their cultural background of that particular nation. These styles and ways have to be openly discussed in cultural trainings, to obtain enhanced cultural transparency within the organization.
   

 

Conclusion

The business organizations today go beyond the geographical borders of a State and a country. The Information technology makes it literally a click away from its stakeholders. So we can conclude that the smooth functioning of most of the organizations does highly depend on the successful management of the cross-cultural challenges faced by the organizations and their front runners (managers). The successful management of cross cultural challenges definitely helps an organization in reaching more effectively towards its desired goals.

References

• Adler, N.J. and Graham, J.L. (1989). Cross-cultural interaction: the international comparison fallacy? Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 515-37.
• Adler, N.J., 1997, International Dimensions of Organizational behavior, Cincinnati, OH: South Western Publishing Company
• Borg, & Lingoes, J. C. (1987). Multidimensional similarity structure analysis, New York: Springer-Verlag.
• Chao, G.T. and Moon, H. (2005). The cultural mosaic: a met theory for understanding the complexity of culture, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 90 No. 6, pp. 1128-40.
• Resick, C. J., Hanges, P. J., Dickson, M. W., & Mitchelson, J. K. (2006). A cross-cultural examination of the endorsement of ethical leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 63, 345- 359.
• Smircich, L. (1983). Concepts of culture and organizational analysis, Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 339–58.
• Sondergaard, M. (1994). Research note: Hofstede’s consequences: A study of reviews, citations and replications, Organization Studies, 1994, 15(3), 447–56.