Question 1
I would recommend to my friend to not start coaching from the beginning. Coaching helps people achieve a goal in the workplace by finding and implementing their own solutions. When the coach works with the coached, the intercultural perspective while communicating has to be considered. This involves not only the environment and background of the coached but also the industry and corporate culture. The way a managing team is addresses in the UK may be different from the way it is done in the U.S. or when compared to the fashion industry and international bank. For a foreign national, to coach in a U.S organization, has to be aware of many cultural aspects including the use of language, the corporate culture, management, leadership, and communication styles.
Culture is dynamic and is not set in stone as the research by Trompenaars (2000), Hofstede (2005) and others who had compared cultures had found out. They have also found out the cross-cultural differences between different national organizations. As an example, German managers would be more open to communicating directly and explicitly compared to the managers in a company in the U.K. In a coach/coach relationship, the individuals are engaged in a constructive conversation so that stereotyping or over-generalizations can be avoided. To achieve this, there are some fundamental steps that need to be taken by both. Language is often the barrier when working across cultures. There should be first an agreement on the language to be used during the sessions so that both are comfortable using this language and have the same understanding of the vocabulary. This is great importance as words can have a positive or negative connotation depending on the language and culture. To quote, being “emotional” is perceived as negative in the UK while it might not be the same in other cultures. My friend, working with a team from another cultural background should be aware that there is a possibility of her interpreting the behavior of a team member according to her own perspective, based on her our own values. So she may be wise to follow the recommendation to assume differences until similarity is proven. However, to be able to communicate effectively in such a situation where cultural differences are capable of being a decisive force, managers and coaches should try to find similarities and shared values such as the objectives and vision so that trust can be built. So, it is crucial that she undergoes cross-cultural training herself so that she can recognize the merits and downsides of each culture to leverage those cultural differences. This is especially important this deal with her daily relationships with counterparts, colleagues, client, and suppliers.
Question 2
Most companies in the U.S have a Christian majority and hence they observe the Christian calendar and holidays. They may observe some major other religion holidays such as Diwali and Ramadan. However, many religious holidays are not observed by the companies. Even in those organizations that follow Christian calendar, if they are companies such an assembly line factory, they have to work continuously. This means that the employees should also work continuously on the days they are assigned work. So even Christian employees may have to work on those days which are of religious significance.
The other scenario is that, there are many religions and most of them have their own days of significance. Since Title VII of Civil Rights act prohibits an employee from asking about the religion of an employee, unless the employee volunteers the information, the employer may not know about employee’s religion and the importance of following those religious beliefs for him or her. The employer may, therefore, put up the work calendar based on the most prevalent religion and this may necessitate people from other religions to follow it. So, Moslems, for whom a Friday is of significance, might have to work on Fridays.
In case the company works on all day, then this can be accommodated by enabling the employees to pick their weekly holidays based on their beliefs, but for a company that works only five days a week, it may not be a feasibility. Similarly, the company may declare some holidays based on days of religious significance such as Christmas and may fail to declare holidays on for other religions. Instead, they may allow those employees to take paid leave for a fixed number of days in a year for celebrating in the days of significance for their religion. When both solutions are not possible and the companies force an employee to work on days of religious significance, the employees might feel that they are being harassed and may feel that they are being discriminated. Legally, as longer as the company does not treat their employees less favorably than the others due to their religion and can reasonably accommodate employees sincerely help beliefs unless they pose an undue hardship on the employer, the employer is within his or her rights to ask an employee to work on a religious holiday. Religion and spirituality, diversity should not be just about human resource policies and practices, but for an organization to embrace it so that in this religious diverse world it is critical to its sustainability. Hence, to ensure that the employee stays motivated,
Religious awareness, education efforts in the workplace should focus on respecting and valuing the religious differences rather than minimizing them so that the organization’s business results are driven by the focus. Religious diversity training on an ongoing basis will help drive employee engagement. This will create a work environment that leverages religious diversity
Question 3
Cross-cultural communication can be disrupted by misperception, misinterpretation, and misevaluation. Perception is a selective process, that is, only specifically selected information is allowed to influence one’s mind. It is learned, meaning that one's personal experiences guide one's perceptions. They are culturally determined as individuals perceive what they want to perceive based on their cultural background. Misinterpretation means that we categorize situations from the perspective our own countries (culture) and assume it to be true for countries. This is one of the reasons for stereotyping people from other countries. This can be both helpful and harmful guide for evaluating a person or a situation. Cross-cultural misevaluation refers to judging a situation, if it is good or bad, from one’s own cultural perspective. The other factors that cause conflicts are the different communication styles. Americans tend to express their thoughts clearly and promptly (Direct Communication). In contrast, indirect communicators transmit verbal messages that camouflage and conceal speaker’s true intentions. As a consequence, miscommunication can lead to an unwanted conflict situation. If that occurs, a team manager has to be able to react appropriately in order to resolve the occurred problem.
Cultural elements (national culture, not organizational culture) affect almost every step in the trust building and in the enabling of information exchange. To make the participants follow common rules, but also believe in the common goals, there should be a shared perception of justice. This factor assumes special importance if the cultural distance is high. Cultural differences affect negotiations and team dynamics. There is a variance in effective leadership qualities across cultural borders and performance and communication in heterogeneous, multinational networks. Trust is gained when the person behaves as expected, but that depends on knowing what to expect. A rule-based trust is built on shared understanding about the rules regarding appropriate behavior. The trust level in different contexts is different in Japanese and American groups. Attributes like age, education, personal reputation, position in a company, or personalized knowledge can potentially affect trustworthiness. Shame and fear of loss of reputation are factors that are more important in some cultures than others which skew the willingness to share negative vs. positive information. Some cultures seem to be more “trusting” than others. To facilitate a cross-cultural communication, one would have to read the cultures involved, which is complicated because culture is not necessarily a conscious behavioral pattern and as the culture is so interwoven with the individuals’ personalities, one would have to take care not to tread on people’s toes.
If the manager has a high cultural intelligence can differentiate between such behaviors and will be able to initiate the needed behavioral response or actions. However, if the manager does not have such a high cultural intelligence, he or she will refrain from expressing his or her ideas for fear of miscommunicating which can cause loss of face or shame.
Question 4
Any leader has to develop 18 emotional intelligence competencies that are grouped into four categories such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Apart from these competencies, to be a leader in a multicultural environment, there are additional steps one must take.
Learning to think about a collection, not an individual. Today’s motto in the corporate world is “every man for himself” due to the competitiveness. Multicultural leadership cannot have this view. The reason for this is that there are cultures that are collectivist rather than individualistic. So, to manage members from these cultures in such a way that they can contribute to the collective good of the organization and together work for the benefit of the growth of the organization. The individualist thought or collectivist thought of themselves in isolation will be harmful to the harmony of the team. The leader should understand both and manage the team members according to their cultural background. An example is given below
Some cultures such as the Chinese, Latino, and Black cultures originate from a collectivist culture. These cultures differ from individualist cultures such as the U.S. in that they are more tightly woven and integrated. They focus on welfare, unity, and harmony of the group. In order for these values to be maintained, people act in a socially desirable manner and respect others. For the people of these cultures, group success is more important than personal credit or gain. Most businesses will benefit from employees who feel that they are part of the team and hence work together for the company’s success.
Practice generosity, not greed. In collectivist communities, one of the desired leadership traits is being generous. This indicates integrity and brings them respect.
When employees are hard working, leaders have to show generosity by paying employees fair wages. CEOs generally make an order of times the average worker's salary. However, a company that practices, multicultural leadership will not allow such a thing to happen as they are not greedy. These leaders want the best for their employees.
Question 5
Nonverbal communications can lead to misunderstandings as well as understandings. It all depends on the context and situation. A lack of understanding of other people’s culture, language and gestures may sometimes cause unnecessary conflict. Nonverbal communication cues such as beckoning to someone, pointing at someone with one finger, looking someone straight in the eye, passing things, especially food, with the left hand and so on are not acceptable in some cultures such as Indian and African cultures whereas they are acceptable in other cultures.
Some African employees do not look in the eye of white employers. This can be misconstrued that they are not being truthful. However, this is due to the cultural perspective of the Africans, which dictates that it is disrespectful to gaze at someone if he or she is of a higher status. The accepted behavior, in this case, is to understand the situation and modify one’s behavior accordingly (in this case it involves not jumping into conclusions but investigating if there are any cultural issues at play)
Americans may hug people when they meet, but this could be construed as misbehavior in some cultures such as Asians. This could actually lead to altercations at the workplace. (The accepted behavior of the American would have been to extend his hand for a greeting rather than hugging).
When there is a possibility that there will be cross-cultural exposure of the employees due to relocate to a foreign land or workforce diversity, they should be provided cross-cultural training. In both the above cases, without the cross-cultural training, it would not have been possible for the people to even know that there could be conflicts due to non-verbal communication. Most people may not be aware of these nuances.
References
ADL. (2012). Religious accommodation in the workplace: your rights and obligations. New York, NY: Anti-Defamation League.
Bordas, J. (2016, May 28). Eight ways to practice multicultural leadership. Retrieved from reliableplant.com: http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/8914/multicultural-leadership
Mangion, K. (2012, May 9). Cross-cultural coaching and mentoring in international organizations. Retrieved from regentsthoughtleadership.wordpress.com: https://regentsthoughtleadership.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/cross-cultural-coaching-and-mentoring-in-international-organisations/
Ntuli, C. D. (2012). Intercultural misunderstanding in South Africa: an analysis of nonverbal communication behaviour in context. Intercultural Communication Studies, XXI(2), 20-31.
Raaum, M. (2011). Barriers of trust in information sharing networks. Gjøvik, Norway: Department of Computer Science and Media Technology Gjøvik University College.
SHRM. (2008). Religion and corporate culture: accommodating religious diversity in the workplace. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource Management Corporation.
Yordanova, G. K. (2011). Managing with cultural intelligence: the new secret to multicultural team success. Aarhus, Denmark: Department of Management Aarhus School of Business.
