Communication Between Cultures Essay

Introduction

Cultural values define a community's values and beliefs which greatly vary from one community to another. The diversity of culture is, therefore, an accepted norm which freely exists in public domains including the workplaces where people with different believes and principles come together to work to achieve a common goal of an organization. Such organizations have their rules and values which must be followed. As a result of the diversity, cultural differences manifest and creates friction between the employees and the employers which call for mediation for proper understanding. For peaceful coexistence and harmonious interaction within an organization, communication is required to pass important information from one point to another within an organization. When an individual communicates well with their team, it helps eliminate misunderstandings as it encourages a healthy and very peaceful work environment. It, therefore, means that efficient and open communication with one's team make work to be done quickly and in a much professional way as noted by (Mindess, 1999)

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The success in the functionality of various groups explicitly depends on the nature of the communication structure erected in place to serve the organization. Communication breakdown requires the top management to choose the best channel of communication which will ensure that all the employees are brought on board to dispel the feelings of neglect and disrespect. Once the employees are fully motivated, they become energized and work extra hard to deliver their best for the success of the company. However, it has proved to be very hard to come up with policies which favour everyone in an organization since the nature of employees is varied. A certain group of employees will always criticize and get foul in policy and step brought forth by the administration. It becomes important for the management to understand such individuals and treat them equally good since they are very important in ensuring better performance by the organization. Communication can thus, take many forms whereby form must have some clear guidelines which entail an in-depth explanation of the consequences which are likely to occur in case an employee goes contrary to them.

Communication in a workplace can be improved by having an open meeting. All the ideas and agendas should be passed when all the team members are gathered. The method is basically mean to ensure that necessary stress is made where necessary in the presence of everybody to avoid sideshows which the critics may take advantage of after the meeting. Secondly, communication in a workplace requires the use of emailing which tends to reach all the employees at the same time. However, emailing may not be very much effective in case the employees are far away from work since they may not be in a position to access their email accounts at the moment hence jeopardizing the authenticity of the information. Similarly, some cultures might not encourage the use of technology in their operations as they see it as a source of time wastage which some employees become addicted and hence forget doing their duties (Samovar et al., 2017)Leading a team requires more than individual may think of. Basically, leading a team needs a strong leader who has good communication skills since this is what separates a poor leader from an exceptional one. Another leadership style which enhances cultural diversity in an organization is communicating on a one on one basis with the team members. Through the use of one on one communication strategy, team members are able to open up and disclose all the information regarding their culture's views which will help the team leaders to come up with the best cultural practices to govern all the team members without any feeling of oppression and dislike. In addition to one on one communication strategy, the team leaders should create a receptive atmosphere which can be enhanced through training. The team members get to share ideas during open training which help to build confidence and seriousness in them. Apart from enhancement in confidence and seriousness in the team members, open training makes the team members develop their skills and their delivery level increase afterwards.

Formality vs informality in communication

Formal communication may be described as the flow of information both vertically and horizontally while Informal communication involves the unsanctioned informal communications existing between organizational members which can flow in any direction. Organizational culture requires both formal and informal communication strategies in order to have an effective flow of information from one point to another within the organization. Formal communication refers to the interchange of information officially. The formality or informality in the means of communication depends on several factors which may include; the nature of the information to be passed. Some information is very much sense and is hence handle with top secrecy. Such information is passed formality to avoid any leakage which might result in losses. The second factor that the method of communication depends on is the urgency of the information. Some urgent information is required to be passed from one point to another are passed using a communication strategy which will ensure that such information is received on time without any delays.

Formal communication

Formal communication refers to the type of communication which involves passage of information from one point to another in an organized manner where the information is passed through letters emails or memorandums. Formal communication is basically intended to pass very vital information which must reach all the employees within a specified period of time. The flow of such communication is controlled with a deliberate effort. The effort put on it makes it possible for the information to reach the desired place without any hindrance, at a little cost and in an organized manner.

Informal communication

In most cases, informal communication is also known as the grapevine which is a communication without strict order in which it occurs. It is always meant for socialization purposes where the team leader and members can decide to use short text messages, emails and calls to pass the information. Informal communication is not documented and hence cannot be proved at later dates. Organizations may decide to use such communication strategy when the information required is basically meant for interaction purposes and capacity building. Since it does not have any order, it can take any channel as long as the parties share social ties.

Organizational culture

An organizational culture is a basic unit in any business or company which determines how fast and far the business can reach. The managerial strategies of different firms aspiring to grow should enforce cultures that recognize their employees as the chief producers of all the successes that a company enjoys (Mousa & Alas 2016). Cultures go hand in hand with business ethics which play very vital roles in all business organizations including enabling the operations of such businesses to move on undisrupted. Business ethics are thus social guidelines which are based on moral principles and values which do not have punishments, fines or penalties when individuals fail to abide by them. The ethical principle in the case of international athletes has always been dishonesty and lack of professionalism in their work

An organizational culture thus refers to a system of shared ethical assumptions, values, and beliefs that governs the manner in which people behave in any organization. The values dictate the acceptable codes of conduct which the members should adopt ranging from behavioural aspects to dressing styles. An organizational culture also entails ways of delegated duties and how various departments are governed and how tasks are performed. The culture may vary from one organization to another depending on what an organization deals with. For an effective operations of an organization, cultural practices brings order which eventually leads to the success of organizations. It is because they have created a culture where all employees are given equal chances to come up with new innovations which are used to develop the company thus making the employees to be motivated with their work

Conclusion

It is therefore very vital for an organization to have a set of cultural values which the members can identify themselves with. The cultural values act to steer the mission and vision of an organization to greater heights. To accommodate everybody, the cultural practices must be moderated and made friendly. It is from the cultural practices of an organization where the nature of communication is determined. The nature of communication chosen must be in line with the set cultural values and norms of the organization.

References

In Hinde, R. A., & Royal Society (Great Britain). (1972). Non-verbal communication. Cambridge [England: University Press.

Mindess, A. (1999). Reading between the signs: Intercultural communication for sign language interpreters. Yarmouth, Me: Intercultural Press.

Samovar, L. A., Porter, R. E., McDaniel, E. R., & Roy, C. S. (2017). Communication between cultures.

Mousa, M., & Alas, R. (2016). Organizational Culture and Workplace Spirituality. Arabian Journal of Business and Management Review, 2016.