Cultural diversity at the workplace and conflicts arising because of it often become a number one problem in different organizations. With regards to healthcare, this problem becomes more and more evident due to the increasing number of immigrants and the practice of international exchange in education (Bosher & Pharris, 2008). Cultural diversity in the workplace should be accepted as a fact, rather than something that may lead to conflicting situations. Nevertheless, there are a number of spheres of human activities where cultural diversity at the workplace results in conflicts and misunderstandings, and health care is one of them (Collins & O’Rourke, 2008). Working for the U.S. Army, I consider it necessary to address some major problems at my place of employment-related to cultural diversity.
First of all, it is important to position me within the organization I work for. The U.S. Army is a large organization all parts of which have to work harmoniously to achieve the desired results. Fulfilling my duties and responsibilities, above all, consists in carrying out the primary mission of the U.S. Army, which is to do the utmost to promote the country’s national security and support its defense strategies. With respect to these duties, my part of my work consists in ensuring that quality health care is delivered to everyone who needs it with no differences made in terms of race, ethnicity, or similar characteristics.
Nevertheless, conflicts related to cultural diversity at the workplace do take place in the organization I work for. There are two major problems that currently need to be addressed at my place of employment. First of all, this is judging the intelligence of people based on their language abilities. It is often the case that medical staff is perceived by the patients as not qualified enough due to their being not proficient in the language that the patients speak. This is the major problem arising in relations between medical personnel and the patients. As far as the second problem is concerned, it is related to relations within the medical staff. This problem consists in the use of professional language at the workplace, whereas this language is difficult to understand for the personnel of different cultures, which significantly impedes communication (Srivastava, 2007). This results in numerous misunderstandings and the inability of some members of the personnel to get a promotion, as well this increases the possibility of medical errors. Dealing with these two problems is crucial because the integrity of the health care system depends on the relationships between patients and personnel, as well as within the personnel; besides, Joint Commission standards require the organizations to address such problems on a regular basis (Joint Commission, 2006).
Finally, I believe that both these problems need to be addressed in subsequent studies. Therefore, the problem of judging the intelligence of people based on their language abilities and the problem of using professional jargon at the workplace need to be thoroughly researched and addressed in order to discover which factors influence the delivery of health care and which decision-making strategies should be followed to make the organization successful even in the conditions of cultural diversity. The same problems should also be analyzed from the legal perspective in order to discover which legal implications they have for the organization under consideration (Ahronheim, Moreno, & Zuckerman, 2005).
In sum, cultural diversity at the workplace can indeed lead to conflicts in health care. In the case of the organization I work for, the U.S. army, these problems consist of patient-personnel relations, as well as relations between the personnel members. Dealing with these problems and the issues that they involve is necessary to ensure the quality of health care delivered by the organization.
Reference List
Ahronheim, J.C., Moreno, J.D., & Zuckerman, C. (2005). Ethics in clinical practice. London: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Bosher, S.D. & Pharris, M.D. (2008). Transforming nursing education: The culturally inclusive environment. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Collins, S.D. & O-Rourke, J.S. (2008). Managing conflict and workplace relationships. Mason: Cengage Learning.
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (2006). Web.
Srivastave, R. (2007). The healthcare professional’s guide to clinical cultural competence. Toronto: Elsevier Health Sciences.