Attitude towards Conflict Management - Essay Example

Student Name: Instructor’s Name: Title: CASE STUDY Cross-Cultural Challenges and Problems at Work Course: Institution: @2012 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Background Information 2 Case Description: Cross-Cultural Challenges and Problems at Work 6 Communication styles problems 6 Attitude towards Conflict Management 8 Attitudes towards Disclosure 9 Group Work 10 Lesson Learnt 11 Solutions and Recommendations 13 Bibliography 17 Appendices 19 Interview Questions 19 Background Information Cultural differences play a great role in the management of an organization. In the world today people have interacted due to migration from one continent to another. This could be attributed to various reasons which may include; searching for greener pastures, escaping conflicts in their mother countries, search for quality education or further studies, military deployments and also job opportunities in other countries. As a result of this, the world is more flexible in terms of interactions between people from different cultures than it was decades ago. As far as workplace is concerned, the issue of cultural different plays a vital role in the operations of an organization. This is considering the fact that the employees have to work together to achieve the common goal of the company. This can be quite challenging when they are from different cultural backgrounds. The main reasons being people from different cultures do not view and analyze issues the same way. There is always a big difference on their mode of analysis. This can lead to huge barriers to the accomplishment of the task required by the organization. The management style and practices will also affect the rate of delivery of work considering the difference in cultural behaviors. In most cases the managers will always implement issues depending on their cultural behaviors which include the methods of analysis of issues. This may end up affecting the employees from a different cultural background. This issue may end up causing conflicts in the organization between the employees and the management or among different team members (Sandra, 2011). In the UAE, the phenomenon was analyzed in one of the major companies called Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, (ADNOC). This company deals with the exploration and drilling of oil and natural gas. It is also ranked among the top oil companies in the region. It employs both the citizens of UAE and expatriates mainly from Africa and other Arabic nations. Most of the top management is mainly from the UAE. The management style in the company is very strict in terms of ensuring that the employees perform their duties accordingly. This is mainly for the purpose of ensuring that there are limited loses to the company due to wastage or negligence. The management style can be classified as high context. The company mainly relies on its supervisors to implement the company’s decisions. The employees are thus in direct contact with their supervisors (ADNOC, 2012). The employees are required to be very efficient when performing their duties to avoid being sacked or suspended. Most employees are however expatriates and are not used to some of the rules and regulations which are mainly different from their cultures. This at times presents challenges to the management as the differences ends up affecting the operations of the company (Harvey, 2012). The operations may slow down due to the fact that some employees do not understand what they are required to do. Most of the managers have however been trained on how to work with employees from different cultures. Most of them have also traveled widely and understand how to deal with this issue. However, most of the supervisors do not have adequate skills and experience in dealing with a culturally diverse work force. This is mainly because most of them are the locals who have not traveled widely. The main challenges to the expatriates are mainly in terms of communication. Most of the expatriates only understand the English language while only a few understands the Arabic language used by the locals. At the work place, the communication problem is usually encountered as some of the supervisors do not pronounce some words correctly and it tends to have other meaning. This causes confusion leaving the expatriates in a dilemma of what to do. However due to the strict managerial practices most of them find themselves in trouble for doing the wrong things or tasks. This ends up in some being lashed out at or even some end up being suspended. The main religion in the UAE is also Islam. Most expatriates from Africa and other Asian countries are from different religions. As such there is always a problem at the workplace. This is mainly caused by the fact that the prayers are usually recited at certain times during the day. This means work has to be stopped to give way for prayers. The employees from the other religions are thus left stranded with no instructions on how to continue operations. As such some will tend to continue working and mess up in the end. The day of worship also presents a challenge as the employees from the different religions worship at different days of the week. This leaves a gap during such days which ends up affecting the work. The company is however putting in place measures to ensure that these problems are solved for the sake of the smooth operations of the company. However, the paper will deal mainly wit the communication problems as told by one of the employees during an interview. According to the interviewee during the process, the communication process used by the company is not flexible enough and it is prone to some challenges. The official language used for communication in the organization is English. This is mainly because of the expatriates do not understand the Arabic language which poses a lot of challenge to them. The use of sign language is also found in the company. However this is not official. The sign language used is not the universally accepted. This therefore affects the communication process as it leaves room for some weaknesses. Different sign languages have different meanings depending on the culture (Eisenberg, 2010). However most of the employees who have worked long in the company can easily communicate using the sign language. The challenge is mainly with the new employees. Information is usually passed from the top management to the junior employees. The supervisors act as the main coordinators between the management and the employees. Various teams have also been formed. However team members are taught on how to work together. Despite this, the cultural differences are always there and pose some challenges to the company. Case Description: Cross-Cultural Challenges and Problems at Work Some challenges were noted during the interview of the employee from the organization. Most of the problems were however related to the communication problems. The group was also able o establish other problems that affects both the managers and the employees. The communication problems are however not very serious at the management level as most of the managers have worked together for a long period of time. Communication styles problems This was the most serious problem that was established during the interview with employee. According to the interviewee, in most cases the employees and various teams do not get along well in terms of communication. The languages in the UAE are quite complicated or some employees as they only learnt the basics before migrating to the UAE. As a result of this communication becomes quite difficult. This ends up affecting the decisions being made. Poor judgment was also noted to be a challenge emanating from the concept of communication problems. In some instances during the interviews, it was also established that the communication problem does not only arise due to the lack of understanding of the languages involved. The use of sign language is very common in the UAE and also other parts of the world (Walck, 1995). However these sign languages have different meanings depending on the cultures. An example is nodding, meaning one is in agreement with a situation in African and parts of the UAE. This posed a serious challenge for the employees in the UAE from the Asian origin. This is mainly because in Asia nodding the head while speaking means that one is listening and not necessarily agree with the statements being made. This contributes to making of wrong decisions since there is always some kind of misunderstandings and the employees ends up making wrong decisions (Fine, 1996). During the teamwork there are always major issues during discussions. This is mainly because the citizens from Western countries have no problem shouting during communication but in the UAE it is different as it causes the feeling that something is not right. Sign language also leads to other communication problem as the employees from Africa are used to greet each other with the left hand. However in the Arabic culture of the UAE it is a sign of rudeness which ends up causing conflicts among the team members. This communication problem was thus established as the major cross cultural challenge at the work place and it affects the way employees relate to each other. Communication problem was also a major cause of conflicts among the employees from different cultures as some of them felt like they are being undermined by their colleagues. This problem has been noted to affect most of the workers in the field as the drilling and exploration activities require a lot of close coordination. Injuries and even deaths have been reported in the past due to poor communication styles. Attitude towards Conflict Management At any workplace conflicts are always present due to different various reasons. It could be due to personal misunderstandings or difference in opinions. People from different cultures have different methods of solving their conflicts. The problem becomes even more complicated when there is a conflict between members of different cultures. If both cultures are not considered then it may end up creating a scenario where one side may appear to be favored. During the interview I conducted, it was evident that the people from the UAE had a different method of solving conflicts compared to those from Asia, Africa and the western nations. Incase of a conflict, the employees from the UAE origin preferred settling the conflict indirectly through dialogue and written exchanges. Those from the Asian countries especially in India preferred direct confrontation to solve the conflict; this was also noted to be used by the African employees. It is therefore considered to be quite embarrassing for the employees from the UAE to be directly confronted as it symbolizes lack of respect. The employees preferred being carefully told of their mistake and an amicable process followed. The issue further made some situations worse as some of the supervisors were from the Indian origin and would not tolerate any conflict. Instead they would directly address the people involved publicly through shouting and raising their voices. This usually causes a lot of embarrassments and the employees develop the feeling of being harassed in public by their supervisors. The issue of solving conflicts is thus complicated and it varies from one culture to another. This fact therefore affects the employees in the workplace and it presents a dilemma to them. In some instances most of the employees were not satisfied with the methods used to solve conflicts and it ended up affecting the spirit of teamwork among the members. This is considering the fact that the organization values teamwork a lot due to the nature of its operations. In some few instances, heated arguments have been reported among the employees due to failure of the employees embracing the most appropriate measure to solve conflicts. This is considering that each employee’s opinion is linked to their cultural way of solving conflicts. Attitudes towards Disclosure During the interview, I also noted another serious aspect of communication problem is the attitude towards disclosure. When the employees are in a team, the concept of attitude disclosure may end up affecting the outcome of the whole process. In some cultures it is not acceptable to speak a bout an important issue with emotions as it will be perceived that the speaker has already made a decision or taken sides. On the other hand, speaking with emotions in some cultures shows that there is certain weakness on the part of the speaker. In some cultures it is acceptable to speak with emotions as it shows that the speaker is concerned about the issue at hand. In the African culture is acceptable but in the Arabic culture in the UAE it is not acceptable. Due to this difference the team members always find themselves in a form of misunderstanding. Some supervisors were said to be speaking with a lot of emotions to the employees especially when they are angry. This was mainly the case with supervisors who are expatriates. This portrays a negative feeling to the employees from the UAE. It makes them feel belittled and creates an atmosphere of fear among them. On the other hand it is also not recommended to speak with emotions when passing sad information to the employees. This is especially in the case of dismissals or retrenchment. The natives of the UAE that emotions are not displayed during the communication process as it has negative impacts on them. This problem affects the employees when they are working in a team and they require information or during discussions among the team members. As a result of this problem, most of the employees do not value discussions as they may end up being embarrassed in front of the other employees. Group Work For any group to succeed there must be understandings between al the members involved (Allen, 1995). This s mainly for the purpose of ensuring that all members are on board and they know what is required of them. This also includes the ability of the members to make contributions towards issues affecting the group. In some cultures, it is not good to express ones ideas freely. This may include exaggerations and making fun of the idea. This may in turn lead to applauding by the members or even loud laughs. In some cultures ideas are expressed precisely to the point and making fun of the idea is not considered as a good behavior. In the native culture of the UAE the people prefers making decisions precisely but this is different from Africans who go to much details to express themselves. During the interview I realized that this affects the group work as some did not make their contributions for fear of being perceived in a negative way. This therefore affects the communication process in the teams which ends up affecting the operations of the whole team. Lesson Learnt After interviewing the employees from the organization and discovering the importance of cultural difference as well as the challenges it poses at the workplace, I learned several valuable lessons about other people’s cultures. The interview was conducted on an employee of the company. This is important since it gives a wider picture of the cultural difference that exists in the organization. The views of one individual is able to give the opinion of a while society regarding an issue. I also learnt that every individual no mater their cultural difference will always want to be treated with respect. This is evident from the fact that due to communication problems, some of the employees felt that they were being mistreated. This is however not the case. The real issues were the culture clash and the individuals wanted to be treated with respect. Despite the fact that the employees were from different cultural backgrounds, when it came to the workplace each one of them wanted to be treated as an individual this is according to Hall concept. Most of them do not appreciate being treated as a certain group or the other. This was also the main source of conflicts as some felt like they were being generalized. However this is not to mean that the individuals were not proud of their cultures but rather a sense of equality with the others. It is also clear that everyone will always want his opinions to be felt and to be heard. However due to the different way people from different cultures express themselves it may bring about conflicts especially in the team. However some of the conflicts are not intentional as each person tries to explain his views depending with their cultural way of expression. This may end up causing conflicts but is however not intentional. It was also clear from the Hall concept every person will always appreciate when they are given an opportunity to express themselves. This is evident from the fact that the employee who m I interviewed was quite cooperative and gave most of the information willingly and happily. This is despite the fact that he had never been awarded such opportunity to express himself. This therefore proves the point that cultural conflicts in terms of opinions will be reduced if every team member is given an opportunity to express himself. Despite the difference in the communication styles and methods of expressing oneself, it is also evident that every one understands the principles of fairness and justice in terms of treatment from people from a different culture. That is why some of the employees will feel; embarrassed when subjected to a certain form of treatment. This is despite the fact that their cultural practices is different from that of the other people they associate with. No mater how different the cultures of the people may be, they will always understand that a certain treatment is fair or not fair depending on how they have been treated. When dealing with employees in a culturally diverse workplace, it is always important to have an open mind. This is despite what they do or do not do depending on their cultural background. Te situation may prove to be difficult if one is not open minded about the issue of difference in cultures among various people. Solutions and Recommendations In order to ensure that the employees work together without any conflicts in terms of opinions and communication, it is important to put in place some measures to ensure that everyone is comfortable with the work environment. One solution to this problem is to ensure that there is openness in the organization in terms of making expression of ideas and opinions. Most of the employees as noted may at times be afraid of making certain opinions since they believed it will be viewed in a negative way. The managers should recognize this issue of difference in cultures among the employees. This should be followed by creating awareness among all the employees. A culture of openness should then be promoted and the employees should be encouraged to listen to the opinion of any one despite the cultural implications (Vaughn, 2006). However there should be a limitation to the opinions made. The opinions should not be inciteful of directly aimed at offending members of a particular cultural group. In the event that anyone makes such statements, immediate action should be taken against them. The employees should also undergo training sessions from time to time to create a strong bond among them. This should be followed by discussion groups that will make the employees get used to one another and thus creating an environment of openness. Any opinion made any member should be taken seriously and no single opinion should ever be ignored. The organization should also consider diversifying the leadership positions. This is to avoid the incidence where all the supervisors are from the same cultural groups or al the members of the management team are from the same cultural group (Brownell, 2003). Such kind of arrangement as discussed earlier in the paper is prone to ring a lot of communication problems. The leadership will not be aware of the problems being faced by the other employees and as such the problem will not be given the attention it deserves. However r if the leadership positions are diversified, then it will be easier for the management to understand the problems facing the employees from different cultural background. This will also promote openness in the organization and a sense of understanding of the issue among the staff. The organization has to develop a policy that will deal with the matters of the difference in cultural background among the employees. This is for the purpose of ensuring that the needs of all the employees are carted for and no one is left out. The policies will also be useful when dealing with the cultural issues among the employees at the workplace. However the policies should be flexible enough to avoid the instances of other employees feeling that they have been left out. An employee satisfaction survey should also be carried out to ensure that the employees are satisfied wit the measures put in place to deal with the issue of cultural difference. During the survey, the employees should be encouraged to give their opinions without any fear or favor. They should also make suggestions for ensuring that improvements are made concerning the issue. The organization should make a thorough assessment so as to determine the extent of this problem and how it is affecting the delivery of services in the organization. The assessment will also give a clear picture of the challenges being faced by the company currently due to the issue. The assessment should be customized and the management should ensure a wider participation of the employees during the process. Depending on the findings of the assessment, it will be easier to make decisions on how to tackle the problem. The solutions should be in accordance with the results of the assessment. This will ensure that the problem is talked and reasonable solutions found (Milliken, 2003). A work plan should then be developed after the assessment. The structure of the work plan should be determined by the outcome of the assessment. The work plan should be quite comprehensive, attainable and measurable. The plan set to deal with the issue should not be too high that it cannot be attained while at the same time it should not be too low that it ends up undermining the process. The goals must be attainable as it will ensure that the issue has been addressed. The organization should then determine the changes to be made so as to accommodate the plan. A time frame should be developed as to how long the changes will be attained. A timeframe is very important as it will establish whether progress has been made or not. After the time frame has expired, the plan should be assessed to ascertain the gains it has made. However, for this process to succeed during the implementation stage, it is necessary for the leaders to play a key role in its implementation. All the managers should play an active role of ensuring the success of the plan in al the departments. This is mainly because the employees will easily embrace the concepts once the management shows commitments. Attitudes in most cases will always originate from the top management and trickle down to the junior employees. Any negative attitudes at the management level will put the concepts in question and the employees may end up lacking the trust with the process. Bibliography Clark J. Mulroney, 2001. Issues in the Workplace Because of Difference of Culture Retrieved on 21 March 2012 from Sandra F, 2011. Cultural Differences in the Workplace Retrieved on 21 March 2012 from Harvey C, 2012. Understanding and Managing Diversity (5th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.. pp. xii-393. ISBN 0-13-255311-2.  Cox, T, 1991. "The Multicultural Organization". Academy of Management Executive, 5(2), 34- 47. Eisenberg E, et al 2010. Organizational Communication (6th ed.). St. Martin's: Bedford. pp. 250–58. ISBN 978-0-312-57486-4.  Walck C, 1995. Editor's introduction: "Diverse approaches to managing diversity". Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 31, 119-23). Fine G, 1996. "Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: The State of the Field". Journal of Business Communication, 33(4), 485-502. Allen J, 1995. "Diversity and Organizational Communication". Journal of Applied Communication Research 23: 143–55.  Vaughn B, 2006. High Impact Diversity Consulting. San Francisco, CA.: Diversity Training University International Publications Division. ISBN In progress. Retrieved on 21 March 2012 from   Brownell J, 2003. "Developing Receiver-Centered Communication in Diverse Organizations". Listening Professional, 2(1), 5-25 Milliken F, et al 2003. "An Exploratory Study of Employee Silence: Issues that Employees Don't Communicate Upward and Why". Journal of Management Studies 40 (6): 1453–76. Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), (2012). Retrieved, 21 March 2012 from   Appendices Interview Questions 1. What is the management styles used in the organization? 2. What is the nationality of the employees? 3. Are the employees from different cultures? 4. Do all the employees understand the native language? If no what is the official language at the work place? 5. What forms of communications are used? 6. What problems are encountered during the communication process? 7. What has the organization done to solved the problems if any? 8. What could be the main source of the communication problem? 9. To what extent have the employees been involved in solving the communication problems? 10. How successful has the organization been in terms of solving the cultural problem? And what steps were followed? Questionnaire Please rate the company based on the following. NO QUESTIONNARE VERY GOOD GOOD AVERAGE POOR VERY POOR 1 What is the level of interaction of diverse cultural employees in the company? 2 What is the response of the company in conflict from cultural diversity of employees? 3 How effective is the mechanism of solving cultural conflicts in the organization? 4 How is the company’s training program on cultural difference effective? 5 How relevant is the policies of the company concerning cultural difference? 6 What is the response of the employees toward the efforts of the organization towards solving cultural difference issues? 7 How are the employees coping with the policies? 8. What is the level of involvement the employees in the in the implementation process? 9. How is the company implementing the policies? A. Too fast B. Fast. C. Slowly D Too slow. 10. Who is involved in the implementation of the cultural diversity policies? A. The management. B. The employees. C. Experts. D. The management, employees and experts Read More