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Typically, individuals of Muslim and Jewish religious traditions (and others) avoid any incidental or polite physical contact between members of the opposite gender, even though such gestures (like handshaking) might be completely appropriate under ordinary circumstances (Moran, Harris, & Moran, 2007).
Dealing with Cultural Differences Positively:
Cultural differences have tremendous potential for creating divisiveness in the workplace where no appropriate effort is made by management to increase cultural awareness and mutual sensitivity and respect among coworkers with different cultural backgrounds and expectations. Conversely, any negative effects attributable to cultural differences can be minimized or neutralized entirely by effective approaches designed to do so (Locker, 2003; Moran, Harris, & Moran, 2007). Ideally, business management should institute policies and awareness training in the realm of cultural sensitivity throughout the organization and in advance of any specific issues arising in that regard.
Precisely because awareness is such a crucial component of cultural sensitivity, in many cases, potential conflicts and issues that are functions of cultural differences are capable of prevention instead of a post-hoc approach to resolve such issues only after they manifest themselves as problems between and among coworkers (Blair, 2003). In principle, cultural sensitivity training need not necessarily convey specific knowledge of any particular culture.
Rather, effective training of this nature need only emphasize the awareness of the many types of interactions and issues that could generate problems among coworkers from different backgrounds. Therefore, it is not necessary to emphasize the specific idiosyncrasies within any culture at all; it is sufficient to increase awareness in a general sense of the degree to which issues such as physical space, prolonged eye contact, expressions of emotion, and physical contact can raise within a culturally diverse...
What is far more important than any specific cultural differences represented in the business organization is the responsiveness of management to the corresponding need for cultural sensitivity and awareness training. Ultimately, with an appropriate emphasis on mutual sensitivity and understanding of this nature, management can virtually ensure against the materialization of any significant issues arising in connection with cultural differences in the modern workplace.
References
Aronson E., Wilson T., Akert R. (2003). Social Psychology. New York: Longman.
Blair G. (2003). Groups that Work. Washington, DC: IEEE Press.
Galin, A., Avraham, S. "A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Aggressiveness in the Workplace: A Comparison Between Jews and Arabs in Israel" Cross-Cultural
Research, 43(1), 30; 2009. Retrieved May 21, 2009, from ABI/INFORM.com
Cross-Cultural Communication With increased competition being witnessed in many industries, Multinational companies are setting shop to new foreign markets as a way of increasing their profitability and remaining competitive. Many countries have liberalized their markets, and present advancement in technologies has made it easy for companies to open new branches in foreign markets. However, this also comes with it challenges, particularly relating to cross-cultural communication. Effective cross-cultural communication is very important
J Lastly, in chapter 9, Hendon, Hendon & Herbig (1999) focus on "what" or the contract, of cross-cultural negotiations. The authors claim the only purpose of cross-cultural negotiations is to product a "contract" or an agreement, which they define as an "exchange of conditional premises in which each party declares it will act in a certain way" only on the condition that the other parties involved agree to live up
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