Working with Individuals Displaying Generally Competitive Culture: Key Business Trends
Culture clashes are inevitable for any organization operating in the realm of the contemporary multicultural environment. Because of the increasingly diverse setting that the global marker represents, it is essential for a company to delineate a strategy for handling cross-cultural conflicts that may occur due to miscommunication. The clash between the members of a competitive organizational culture can be regarded as one of the most common occurrences in the global business real (MacRae & Furnham, 2018). To handle the issues that may occur between staff members that reinforce the concept of competitive culture, one may have to consider the approaches based on openness, promotion of cooperation as opposed to aggressive competition in the workplace, and placing emphasis on how much the organization values each staff member. Thus, employees’ insecurities that compel them to compete in the workplace will be addressed appropriately.
Moreover, it is crucial to introduce staff members to the corporate culture that implies cooperation and mutual trust (MacRae & Furnham, 2018). The shift toward identifying unique characteristics and specific needs of employees will also help in reducing the levels of anxiety among them, thus, leading to a gradual drop in the intensity of workplace competition. Staff members need to realize that they should evaluate their progress based on their own professional development and their sets of skills as opposed to the standards set by other employees (MacRae & Furnham, 2018). As a result, a massive improvement in the workplace environment, including a drop in the levels of tension, can be expected.
Working with Individuals Displaying Generally Cooperative Culture: Key Business Trends
Although working with people that choose cooperative culture as their key foundation for developing corporate behaviors is much easier than changing the mindset of competitive employees, certain issues can be expected. For instance, one must keep in mind that the specified type of employees may be much more vulnerable than the staff members that openly start a confrontation in case they are against specific innovations (Williams, 2015). Therefore, a manager should abandon any attempts at coercion as the strategy for persuading employees to accept corporate rules. Moreover, the framework involving cooperation and based on the concept of mutual trust will have to be deployed to handle the issue (Williams, 2015). It is crucial to support staff members in their choice of cooperative culture as the platform for building workplace relationships.
Furthermore, it is highly undesirable to use the techniques that involve any form of personal attack. In the cooperative environment, where workplace ethics and values are highly appreciated, employees will recognize the identified step as an attempt to manipulate their choices (Williams, 2015). As a result, the employees’ loyalty levels will drop immensely. Instead, a manager should focus on the idea of direct and uninhibited communication.
Finally, in the realm of cooperative culture, one must explore additional opportunities for managing conflicts and carrying out negotiations. Since the participants of a workplace confrontation may be personally affected by conflict, a manager must use the option of transforming the confrontation into an opportunity to learn more about opposing opinions (Williams, 2015). Thus, the company’s personnel will experience an even greater increase in corporate loyalty levels.
Cultural Factors in Applying an Approach for Managing Differences: Current Global Issues
Because of the rapid growth in diversity levels, the necessity to manage cross-cultural conflicts is becoming larger and more urgent with every passing day. Differences in the interpretation of workplace ethics, values, and even the steps that need to be taken to attain work-related goals may serve as the obstacle on the way to developing friendly relationships with colleagues in a highly diverse setting. The discrepancies between the philosophies of employees may range from grand differences such as work ethics to minor differences such as different interpretations of time management (Bennett, 2015). Thus, it is essential to design the framework that will help manage the specified discrepancies successfully.
Assuming that an aggressive strategy aimed at assimilating staff members will lead to massive improvements would be a misconception. Instead, one must introduce the principles of clarity and transparency in the workplace setting to ensure that staff members develop trust in the organization. As long as a company recognizes the efforts that its employees make and offers them extensive opportunities for professional growth, people feel valued, motivated, and willing to excel in their performance (Bennett, 2015). Furthermore, what used to be the breeding grounds for confrontations in the workplace will be turned into a pool of opportunities for engaging in a multicultural dialogue and learning more about cross-cultural communication.
To build the platform for trust- and cooperation-based relationships in a particular workplace environment, one must consider using the negotiation approaches that are based on the culture-specific needs of all stakeholders involved. Thus, employees will realize that their voices are heard and that their statements are taken into account, whereas an organization will be capable of developing an approach for reinforcing corporate ethics and values, at the same time keeping the staff’s engagement and motivation levels high.
Reference List
Bennett, J. M. (2015). The SAGE encyclopedia of intercultural competence. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
MacRae, I., & Furnham, A. (2018). Myths of work: The stereotypes and assumptions holding your organization back. New York, NY: Kogan Page.
Williams, R. C. (2015). The cooperative movement: Globalization from below. New York, NY: Routledge.