The 21st century has seen increased interactions among individuals from different cultural backgrounds and orientations (Ferraro 10). This can be attributed to the effects of globalization and the internet. Organizations and teams operate in a multicultural environment where physical differences, race, or ethnicity presents no barrier as far as organizational operations are concerned. While organizations are giving their best to ensure that a single multicultural project framework is adopted in an organization, communication challenges among multicultural individuals is a major obstacle towards the realization of organizational goals and objectives (Oertig, & Buergi 28). The existence of cultural differences among employees means that communication is subject to distortions or lack of understanding. At the basic level, comprehension is often a challenge among individuals from different English-speaking nations. A scenario involving individuals from multilingual backgrounds is a major challenge.
Cultural diversity is associated with a multiplicity of communication challenges within the workplace. As such, organizations face the challenge of optimizing communication patterns among employees within the organization. This optimization entails conducting a detailed study of individual languages and cultures because a lot of difficulties arise when workers fail to understand each other’s cultures and language (Matveev, and Milter 105). Another major area where cross-cultural differences present a daunting task to many an organization is training. Virtually, every organization must train its employees to be acquainted with certain organizational aspects. Training programs involve a lot of talking and writing and the existence of multi-cultured groups makes raining extremely difficult.
Cultural differences affect thinking patterns and decision-making processes thereby affecting the outcome of the communication process. Each culture has its own arrays and sequence that is commonly followed to arrive at agreed solutions during communication processes. A mixture of different cultures means the existence of different formats for arriving at solutions. A comparison between the Asian and American culture presents a set of different approaches whereby Asians do not follow a sequential order during the communication process but they ensure all issues within a discussion are covered while the Americans follow a sequential order but only discuss specific issues (Whitmore). Equally, an American will consider a problem half settled when 50% of the issues under discussion have been agreed upon while a person from the Asian decent would consider no progress at such an instance.
Another communication challenge encountered within cross-cultural teams is the aspect of time orientation. The value placed on time differs across cultures and hence, each culture has the tendency of viewing time from different orientations (Ochieng and Price 529). Most individuals from western cultures value punctuality in communication processes or meetings are such individuals are constantly checking time to ensure that they stick to specific agendas. However, individuals from those cultures with long-term orientations have different priorities many of which are related to timelines. Within the team setting, this can be viewed as lack of respect and commitment to the goals of the team.
There is no doubt that writing, listening, and speaking are the most essential skills required to ensure successful realization of organizational goals and objectives. It is also important to note that organizations are composed of individuals from different cultural backgrounds and orientations. As such, differences exist in key communication areas such as speaking, listening, and writing. A situation that involves poor communication among employees leads to lack of comprehension, miscommunication, and decision-making difficulties among workers within an organization.
Work Cited
Ferraro, G. The Cultural Dimension of International Business. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall. 2005. Print
Matveev, A., V and Milter, R. G. The value of intercultural competence for
performance of multicultural teams. Team Performance Management,
10.5(2004), 104 – 111
Ochieng, Edward, and Price, David. (2009). Framework for managing multicultural
project teams. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 16.6
(2009), 527-
543
Oertig, Margaret. & Buergi, Thomas. (2006). The challenges of managing cross-
cultural virtual project teams. Team Performance Management, 12.1(2006),
23 - 30
Whitmore, J. Business Class: Etiquette Essentials for Success at Work, St.
Martin's Press. 2005. Print
