Cultural Diversity in Organizations by Taylor Cox

Author:Taylor Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781605098715
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Cultural Differences

Here I recommend three strategies for conflict resolution related to cultural differences, beginning with altering personnel. One way to achieve this goal is by educating existing personnel to obtain a better knowledge of cultural differences. Another way is to hire and promote persons with tolerant and flexible personalities who will productively support cultural-diversity change initiatives in the organization. Stated simply, people who are more tolerant and accepting of difference will produce less conflict when confronted with cultural differences than people who are not. The problem of intergroup conflict is partly due to emotional or affective reactions of individuals.

Redefining issues can also aid in cultural conflict resolution. An example of this is promoting the mindset that cultural differences present opportunities rather than problems to be solved. For example, Blau (1977) argues that increased intergroup experience stimulates intellectual endeavors. One way that this kind of redefinition is illustrated in the language of organizational relations is in the preference for the “valuing” of diversity rather than “tolerating” diversity.

Structured interaction is also usable in resolving conflict related to cultural differences. An example is the use of interdepartmental task forces. Although such groups normally have a specific work task to accomplish, time may be spent initially on activities designed to help representatives of the various departments get to know the culture of the other departments better. Familiarity with the language and norms of the other groups is likely to facilitate the work on the task. Even informal meetings may be of great value. For example, during a recent consulting project with a research and development firm, several engineers and scientists spoke about how some of them had used cross-disciplinary meetings as a means of gaining understanding about the differences between their functions and how they viewed their role in the overall mission of the firm. These persons reported that the meetings had proved valuable in reducing misconceptions between the groups and that joint projects and cross-functional communications had increased as a result.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.