Communication
Strategies for Facilitating Multicultural Groups
Intercultural Leadership
This style of leadership is among the strategies of the enhancement of the multicultural interrelation and groups through communication. Intercultural leadership focuses on the inclusive leadership, where the leaders adopting the strategy promote the aspects of the cultural diversity. Intercultural leadership is of great significance in the enhancement of the multicultural groups because the principles of this style of leadership focus on the need for the culturally diverse teams or groups in the radiation of the center or the focus of the organizations rather than the conventional top down style of authoritarianism. The characteristics of the ideal intercultural leaders are significant in the facilitation of the multicultural groups. First, intercultural leadership promotes winning hearts through the respectful relationships, solidarity, and supportive collaborations (Hogan, 2007).
As such, these aspects facilitate the multicultural groups because they bring these groups together in solidarity for the fulfillment of a common course. Intercultural leadership as creates cultural sensitivity, which encompasses the celebration and promotion of differences, learning and appreciating the differences from each other, and enriching each others’ lives through the intercultural contacts. Intercultural leadership promotes the coaching and leading for transitions and change across the multicultural groups, which facilitates the improvement of these groups in the societies (Hogan, 2007). Another elemental component of intercultural leadership as a strategy for the enhancement of the multicultural groups is that it promotes empowerment and taping into the abilities and the power of individuals within these groups.
Intercultural Sensitivity
The development of intercultural sensitivity is another strategy for the enhancement of the multicultural groups. The employment of this strategy encompasses an elemental use of the stages of intercultural sensitivity in the promotion of the thinking and the operations of the multicultural groups. The initiatory stage under the development of the intercultural sensitivity is the denial stage. Under this stage, individuals are unaware of the cultural differences. In this strategy the identification and the recognition of the cultural differences is of great significance. These individuals have to interact to promote the understanding of each other’s culture to facilitate the intercultural sensitivity among them. The defense stage is also of great significance in terms of the development of the intercultural sensitivity and the enhancement of the multicultural groups (Anderson, 2007).
Under this stage, individual start perceiving the cultural differences. As such, it is an opportunity to allow these groups to understand the existence of the each other’s cultures. The task and the strategy under this stage are to allow the multicultural groups to become tolerant to the differences and acknowledge the similarities in the different cultures. Third, minimization, which encompasses the measures to avoid the stereotypes and appreciate the differences in the culture and the languages, is employed as a way of enhancing the multicultural groups. The aim of this strategy is to enable individuals to learn more about their culture and avoid projecting those cultures to other individuals’ experience (Anderson, 2007).
Nevertheless, one of the challenges of this strategy is that it may be difficult for the stage to be successful, especially when one of the cultural groups has unrecognized and vast privileges than the other groups. Shifting the perspectives while maintaining the commitments to the values of each of the cultural groups is a factor that promotes the acceptance of each of the cultures. An adaptation to the different cultures is of great importance as well.
Cultural Mapping
The cultural mapping encompasses the creation of an action journey to investigate, identify, and reclaim the strengths and weaknesses of various aspects in the cultures of different groups. In this case, the cultural mapping would be essential in the identification and the embracement of the cultural resources of various cultural groups. The importance of the cultural mapping is an essential strategy because it presents the aspects that would facilitate the enhancement of the multicultural groups and their interactions (Hogan, 2007). First, cultural mapping is an important strategy because it strengthens the understanding or the knowledge need to inform a wide scope of planning and development decisions. In this state, these decisions are often important because they bring the groups together in collaborative ideas and contributions. Cultural mapping also assists to increase the awareness of the local culture for the residents.
As such, the creation of awareness is an important tool in the facilitation of the multicultural groups because it makes the interacting groups more acquainted with the cultures of each other. Cultural mapping supports the stronger networks and the collaboration across the cultural groups as well as the activities they undertake. For these reasons, cultural mapping is important because it brings the systems under the different cultures together in an element of mutual understanding (Phalet, 2004). Nevertheless, this strategy is often successful when the cultural groups have gone through all the stages of intercultural sensitivity. They have to understand the significance of having the knowledge of the cultures in the groups because the interaction and the interrelationship of these cultural define the extent to which the activities of these groups are effective and beneficial.
Recommendations for Handling Multicultural Groups
Adaptation is the first recommendation for the handling of the multicultural groups. Adaptation is essential because it works with the members of the cultural groups who are willing and have the capacity to acknowledge their cultural differences as well as assume the responsibility for identifying the measures to live with them (Phalet, 2004). Adaptation is elemental because it encompasses the acknowledgment of cultural gaps and working around them. It allows individuals in the multicultural groups to evaluate the systems and the environments in which they live in order to cope in these environments.
Structural intervention another recommendation for the handling of the multicultural groups and is important because it encompasses the reassignment and the reorganization designed for the reduction of the interpersonal misunderstandings or for the removal of the sources of conflict for the groups. It is often effective when the obvious subgroups in the cultural systems demarcate the teams or when the members of the cultural groups are threatened, defensive, and proud or cling to the negative stereotypes of each other.
Conclusion
In conclusion, multicultural groups are significant in society and they operate in varied elements. Facilitating the multicultural groups is among the essential components of the management of the communication among these groups. Among the strategies of the facilitation of the multicultural are the intercultural leadership, intercultural sensitivity and cultural mapping. On the other hand, the recommendations for the handling of the multicultural groups include adaptations and the structural intervention, all of which if employed would enable the effectiveness of the interactions and the interrelationships of the multicultural groups. For this reason, multicultural groups require strategic management.
References
Anderson, D. (2007). Multicultural Group Work: A Force for Developing and Healing.The Journal for Specialists in Group Work. doi:10.1080/01933920701431537
Hogan, C. (2007). Facilitating multicultural groups: A practical guide. London: Kogan Page.
Phalet, K. (2004). Assessment in multicultural groups: The role of acculturation. Applied Psychology-an International Review-psychologie Appliquee-revue Internationale. doi:10.1111/j.1464-0597.2004.00169.x
