Chapter 2
Understanding Culture and the Workplace
Objectives and Outcomes:
-Define culture and recognize the critical role that it plays in the workplace
-Understand factors that contribute to various cultures
-Analyze and understand the ways in which culture affects workplace communication
-Work more productively and respectfully with colleagues from various cultures
Noticing Culture in the Workplace
There are many different cultural differences in the United States workplace. The workplace today is very diverse and is multicultural and multiracial. In 2000 the U.S. Census states that roughly 18% of people in the US speak a language other than English at home. Also Racial Minorities own nearly 15% of U.S. companies. Slightly less than 70% of people counted by the U.S. census are white. 12% are black. 12% are Hispanic or Latino. 4% are Asian. 1%are American Indian or Alaka Native. The ability to communicate successfully in the workplace includes your ability to recognize and positely respond to culture-specific attitudes, actions, tools, and artifacts such as documents, oral presentations, and visuals.
Culture can be calssified with nationality, race, ethnicity, and religion also can be talked about as a culture of disability in which people have physical or mental disabilities.
What's Normal
Understanding a culture is more than just viewing what the normal person sees. Sometimes things that are Different to us are normal to others. For example the clothes different people wear to work you might think are strange and you think yours are normal but to others they might think yours are different. Also another example would be the accent or volume of a persons voice might be diffrerent to you but to them it is normal.
Cultural Blindness
Being unaware of other things in other cultures then our own. For example certain holidays in the U.S. that are celebrating our independence such as July 4, or December 6th are only celebrated in the U.S. People from other cultures have some of their own holidays that dont have any meaning to us.
Defining Culture
Culture is the system of learned beliefs and values that influences attitudes and actions. Another definition used says Culture involves what people think, what they do, adn the material products they produce.
Understanding the Importance of Culture
Many companies are paying closer attention to culture as a center of success for their organization. Companies are focusing on culture,diversity, and human rights for its employees, contractors, and suppliers.
Globalization and Localization
Understanding other culutres makes you more successful when respecting others in the workplace. Cultural differences are based on nationality, race, ethinicity, religion, economics, sexual orientation, gender, education, and disability. Globalization can be defined as linking local and distant cultures in way that affect both in which it is the unrestricted movement of ideas and people, services, and systems, goods and money across national borders around the world, made possible becuase of cooperative global economics, politics, and technologies.
Localization
Localization is based on preferences for familiar goods, processes, and services that have recognizable characteristics, even if global goods and servies may have a higher quality or a lower price. Products and services for people all over the world need to be localized so they are appropriate for specific users or small group users, tking into account needs that are unique to their country, customers, and language. No culture is monolithic which means no cultural is comprised of identical individuals, and no culture is the same in different contexts and circumstances.
Cultural Values
Productivity- Meetings and other interactions with poeple who have different cultural perspectives are often more productive and pleasant.
Explanations- Alternative points of view can often explain attitudes, actions, tools, and artifacts that arent immediately or obviously comparible with our own perspectives.
Compliance- Attention to cultural perspectives is likely to increase compliance with organizational policies and procedures and thus increase consistency, safety, productivity, and compatibility within an organization.
American business people are always traveling overseas and working with people who live in a different culture. It's important for these people to understand differences in these cultures. It's been reported that over 65 percent of business managers worldwide have problems identifying with the cultural differences between theirs and their clients'. Language is one of the most physical aspects of culture. Whatever country business people travel to, there will be English spoken but what type? Many cultures speak English, however, they might have their own version of it.
Increase Cultural Awarness
The last section of section 2 explains how you can better understand and relate to cultures other than your own. As you enter a new culture, you need to prepare how to approach the culture. Respect and show interest in the culture, learn the body language and cultural customs. Finally, when working in an unfamiliar setting, remember that your clients are unfamiliar with you as well.
24 comments:
In this day in age, there are so many things we Americans can learn from other societies and cultures. They are rich in traditions and values. I think everyone can learn at least a thing or two from appreciating these amazing traditions and values. Anyone who has the opportunity to travel to other countries during their lifetime can attest to this. Everyone, at some point or another, will have the opportunity to be connected to another culture through work, school, family, friends, etc. We need to understand that everyone is not just like us, and they have the right to be different. I think that for anyone to be successful in today‘s workplaces, they need to understand the cultures foreign to us and learn whatever they can about those cultures. We need to have a genuine understanding that there is a much bigger and brighter world out there than the one we live in and that we can learn so much from it.
There a lot of instances in which I’ve seen people of different cultures work well together. The one most apparent in my life is my dad and his colleagues, who have become great family friends. My dad works as an engineer/director of marketing for Gateway and is constantly traveling to and communicating with people in Asia. I asked him if working with his Asian co-workers made it more or less difficult to get the job done and he said both. It’s harder because of the language barrier but easier because they are open to each other’s ideas. He said that the language barrier actually makes it so you have to listen more intently and gives you the opportunity to hear something that you may have ignored if talking to someone who speaks without an accent. Each has learned to work with the other by embracing the cultural differences between them.
I think it is extremely important that we gain knowledge of other cultures when we are still young. In many work places you will experience different cultures. Also, it may require you to do some international business which might mean traveling or communicating with other countries. You have to know that some things in our culture may not be accepted in others and things of other cultures may not be accepted in our own culture. On the other hand, we have to be open to other ideas and respect these ideas. If you listen to all points of view on certain projects or plans you may use a fantastic idea that our culture would not have thought about. Learn as much as you can about other cultures and by doing so you and the other culture will ultimately benefit from it.
I think this chapter discusses a lot of great points; the main one is being able to work with minorities. This is something that no one can get around, and in my past experiences I have learned a great deal from people of different cultures. Not only do I learn a lot about them but they learn a lot about our culture as well. I think businesses would benefit a great deal by learning about the cultures they are selling too or trying to attract. I agree with knowing they are working with and having people that can communicate or create ties with other cultures inside your business could help both the business and the frustration people sometimes deal with when not sold to their preference. But I think our culture does a great job dealing with this by having stuff on hand to buy off line or order out of a catalog.
I think one can see that these days the workplace is very diverse. A lot of cultures and traditions are present in any work environment and in metropolitan. For example, in the twin cities, there are Mexicans, Hmongs, Laos, Somalians, Ethiopians, and many other refugees of war or immigrants. Each of these ethnic groups have their own culture and traditions. I remember my high school years was with the most diverse group of people. I have friends from Europe, Russia, east and south Asia, and South America. I learned a lot and they also learned a lot from me. By being with many different cultures, I learned things or ideas that I never knew before or never have thought of them and benefited greatly from these experiences.
Culture differences in the workplace have been around for quite sometime now. With more and more countries developing international business situations, the need to understand many different cultures has grown greatly. For example, if a company in the United States wanted to sell goods overseas they would have to research the likes and dislikes of that country. People definitely need to realize that the United States is not the only country on the planet. People in different countries have an entirely different way of life, different customs, and different. I personally believe if the United States can become a better country if they start to understand the countries they are dealing with. If the technical communication barrier can be broken, the entire world would benefit.
While reading about chapter 2, I thought a lot about my Ethnic Studies class that I am currently enrolled in now. Even though it is in the beginning of the semester, we talk a lot about cultural differences and how they play a huge roll in their everyday life, like the work place or at home. I think if I went to a country where they had a different culture, I would be looked upon as different because of my customs. But because this is the “Land of Opportunities” we, as a country, do need to acknowledge and accept every different custom and different culture.
Today you can see the large amount of diversity everywhere. Even in rural Minnesota there is a large variety of cultures, So of coarse you will be interacting with a large variety of people in the workplace, at school and at home. As a clinical dietitian I will be working with people from all different cultures and I will be analyzing what their food intake is. I will have to learn about different cultures and what their religious beliefs are when it comes to food so I can make appropriate recommendations for changing their diet. Another thing I will have to do is learn to communicate and teach different cultures successfully.
In my last job we had to take a workshop to learn about everyone that we worked with because we were getting in so many minorities. Some people were having difficulties working together. I learned a lot from the workshop because I saw different perspectives from many people with different value backgrounds. I think it is important to gain knowledge about people outside of your culture and norms. I like what Ashley said about her dad and having the language barrier. At first it seemed like a barrier but really it was causing everyone to listen to one another, which is something you need to be able to do if working for a big company. Different cultures have different ideas and customs and we need to pay attention to these when we get into the workplace because in the end our ideas and someone with different ideas could make something remarkable.
This chapter really hit home with me. I am currently taking an intercultural communication class and have just recently taken other courses with an emphasis on culture in general and in the workplace. Culture and diversity are an extremely large part of my life today since I attend a diverse university and it will be a large part of my life when I will be teaching at diversified high schools. Reading about and learning the skills discussed in this chapter will be most helpful when I am identifying the students in my class and creating presentations and projects for a specific audience. The text in this chapter will only improve my outlook on diversity and help me acknowledge different cultures and adjust my presentations etc. to their needs.
A professional in the United States is more likely to be expose to many different cultures. For this reason is very important to educate ourselves or at least have some type of knowledge in ethnic studies and socialization. I know if a apply this to my career I will be open mind and understand and not judge other cultures beliefs. Communicating and socializing with people of different cultures or social groups can be challenging, but rewording at the same time because I can learn to appreciate other opinions and work in a team. By learning a different language and being involved in multi-cultural activities I would have a better job opportunity. Being able to come out of our shell and discover new experiences with people with diverse cultures is a gift given to us so we might as well take advantage of it.
In this day and age minorites are a huge part of large companies. People need to be well aware of this, because this is how it is going to be. In some of my past experiences at jobs, I have learned a great deal from minorities, and I would hope they learned alot from me. It makes us as a country so much more 3 dimensional instead of just a gray scale, but so much more colorful and it allows us to be very more effiecient in the workplace. Language is definately the hardest part about working with different cultures, but we al learn from each other and we help each other out more than hurt each other in the long run.
In todays society we are going to be working with all sorts of people, either face to face, or even through technology. Use of video conferencing in the professional work place is growing larger as the technology becomes cheaper and easier to use. This will help companies expand or conduct business on a global scale who might not have done so in the past because of cost. We must understand their cultures in the work place, as many countries do not have the same workplace as ours. And understanding culture is not just a large scale professional idea, we can look at this as a much smaller scale, at the jobs we work at now.
Chapter two helped me to gain a greater understanding of how different cultures affect the workplace. Different cultures are something that I don’t have much exposure to. For example, I attended a small high school near Duluth. There weren’t very many different cultures so now it is hard to anticipate what to expect. Recently at my job I have had to communicate with the Mexican culture. It is not uncommon to talk to one customer and have another translate to the other. Culture is something that will affect my job in the future in terms of meetings, or even the time for production. If you think of what time frames different cultures work at, or what pace cultures get work done could greatly affect your own deadline.
After reading chapter 2 it made me realize that culter is every where. Differnt religions and ethnic back grounds. Over the years we've all learned to work together as one. Everyone is unique in some way that makes us interesting. Some things can be difficult such as language. Not everyone speeks the same language. If we all spoke the same language and we all alike then this world we live in would be dull and boring. Hopefully everyone has the oppotunity to experience the cultural differences in the world. Get a good view of whats out there beyond our fronts doors.
After reading chapter 2 it made me realize that culter is every where. Differnt religions and ethnic back grounds. Over the years we've all learned to work together as one. Everyone is unique in some way that makes us interesting. Some things can be difficult such as language. Not everyone speeks the same language. If we all spoke the same language and we all alike then this world we live in would be dull and boring. Hopefully everyone has the oppotunity to experience the cultural differences in the world. Get a good view of whats out there beyond our fronts doors.
I have notices a lot of different cultures in the workplace already and I can imagine that it is only going to grow. Even in my current job of car parts sales we are looking for people that know multiple languages that can communicate with some of the minorities that come in. Then in my major of automotive engineering I’m going to have be developing parts for not just cars that are made in the united states, but it might involve me going overseas to find and develop new ideas there.
Modern day construction has been known to be quite the diversity of people working in the trade. In the past years I have found out that when you learn more about the people working around you and where they are coming from it is easier to work and communicate with them. I personally have worked with people that the biggest thing that we had in difference was language but when these things are recognized you have an easier way to work through these differences. Cultural recognition in the workplace is a very critical piece to a well working business.
So many people in this country especially, cannot see past their own culture. They see someone doing something "different" to them and they cant grasp the fact it may only be different to themselves. I see it many times around the campus. It maybe someone wearing a traditional head dress or it may be someone with a lot of piercings. It may be cultural or religious but as human beings we need to learn that we are all different from one another. It is a hard obsticle to overcome, but with a little time and patients we can understand that communication between cultures can be achieved.
The world is becoming such a diverse place no country is solely on themselves for development. With this interdependence on each other comes the responsibility's to learn about the different cultures that you will be working with so that not only do you not offend someone but you in turn will not look like an idiot. From a young age many of us were introduced to new cultures and religions that. Knowing how to communicate and understand other cultures seems to be something that is being taught younger and younger but it never hurts to relearn some of it as you get older.
Working with minorities is becoming more and more popular in todays workplaces. I am going into the construction business and there are a lot of minorities in the business. There are a lot of Mexicans working in the industry they are actualy very hard workers and deserve to be working. People know adays need to know more abot some of the ethnic backgrounds because the U.S. is becoming more and more of what some people call a melting pot and there is all colors and races that we interact with everyday.
I think that its very important to have diversity in the workplace for many reasons. In a class I took previously we talked about how companies like diversity because new innovative ideas spring from it. If you have a group of people that are all a like a creative idea won't usually happen because everyone is already on the same page. However, if you have a group of people working together with different backgrounds and cultural experiences, many creative ideas can be gathered. I work at Chipotle across from school and I love how everyone assumes we're all hispanic, but it shows diversity in a way many people would over look.
In any job now, its very important to have an understanding that there are many cultures different from your own. It was interesting when this chapter talked about
"Cultural blindness". I see that because I view my culture as normal, its hard to recognize other cultures as having equally important traditions. When I worked in cosmetics, I worked with a Somalian woman. She used to teach me little bits and pieces of her language, which made it easier to help my Somalian customers. Learning another language is a great thing when you work with a diverse group of people.
According to 2002 U.S census, America is considered one of the multicultural and multiracial country. I believe this is true, because there are many cultures from different country in America. Minnesota is considered as one of the top states that have the highest number of immigrants according to an article written by Barbara Ronningen. Here on campus, we are diversified with students from all the five continents.
This chapter prepares us on how to interact and appreciate other cultures that surround us and in the workforce that we will encounter after graduating. We need to know how to interact, respond and comply with different cultures in our area. In doing so, it increases the cultural awareness and blocks cultural blindness.
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