Intercultural communication failure at Tetonica Plc.

Intercultural Communication in the Workplace

The modern day individual is stressed and always in a hurry to get his job done and complete his responsibilities. The modern day organization strives harder than ever to improve and maintain its competitive position, and this is both fostered as well as impeded by the growing forces of globalization. The increased access to resources -- capital, commodities, human and technological -- is a great example in this sense. In terms of the human resource, the contemporaneous organizations enjoy the ability to cross geographic boundaries in search of the best skilled and qualified staff members. On the other hand, they also face the necessity of integrating this new and extremely culturally diverse workforce. In this context then, it comes as "no surprise that the biggest global communication issue organizations face in this big round world today is understanding and engaging diversity" (Geddie, 1999). The aim of this report is to present an intercultural communication issue within the workplace, assess it and identify solutions. It will round up in a section for concluding remarks, which will restate the most important findings.

2. The Situation

Tetonica Plc. was founded seven years ago and operates in the real estate industry; it employs 30 individuals, most of who work as real estate agents. As the economic crisis emerged within the United States, the managers at Tetonica found it was time to implement a major process of organizational change. Yet, they did not know what direction they ought to select. In order to help with these processes of selection and assessment of alternatives, decision making, implementation and transition to the new organizational state, Tetonica brought in a reputable Irish management specialist. The CEO had heard about Anrai Brogan from a friend in Ireland, who had praised his high skills and ability to turn a failing organization around. The only problem with Anrai was that he only spoke English at a poor beginners' level. The Tetonica managers however did not perceive this as a threat, even more so when he promised great results in exchange for little remuneration.

Communications between the Tetonica employees and the Irish consultant were intermediated by a translator, but the parties soon realized that the efficiency of communicating through intermediaries was reduced. Based on the beliefs that Brogan's English was improving, as well as on the desire to reduce costs with the translation, the management at the real estate organization renounced the services of the latter. Confusions aroused even from the first day without the translator, and continued to perpetuate throughout the following days. One day for instance, the CEO had a brief discussion with Brogan in which he inquired the consultant about the improvements made. The dialogue is summarized below:

Tetonica CEO: How's it going? Are we making any improvements?

Anrai Brogan: No, no improvements.

Tetonica CEO: Why not? Do you need more assistance?

Anrai Brogan: Yes, I can do myself.

Tetonica CEO: & #8230; Will a change plan be ready for this Friday?

Anrai Brogan: Yes, next Friday.

Based on this brief encounter, the CEO organized a meeting for the following Friday in which the ideas for the new plan would be presented. The plan had not however been completed. When inquired, the specialist replied: "Yes, yes, next Friday." The CEO was enraged and fired Brogan, swearing to only hire Americans from that day on.

Realizing the language barrier and keeping the translator

Previously documenting on the culture of the culturally diverse party could have lead to the recognition of his difficulties in distinguishing between yes and no

Recognizing the dialects and the diversity of a language even within an apparently homogenous community (Chapter Fifteen).

5. Conclusions

In this era of rapid technologic development and growing forces of globalization, economic agents are presented with the opportunity of benefiting from the comparative advantages of various global regions. Alongside with the gains however, the operations possible through globalization also raise new challenges. The most important of these challenges for the modern day manager is that of integrating the culturally diverse staff members.

As we have seen, the management at real estate company Tetonica Plc. failed to recognize and integrate cultural diversity, all which culminated with a miscommunication issue that lead to a breakage of the understanding between the parties. The problem was based on a language barrier, due to which Irish consultant Anrai Brogan was unable to perceive the difference between yes and no, and which led him to sending mixed messages. In the future, similar misunderstandings could be avoided through the early recognition of cultural differences.

References:

Geddie, T., April / May1999, Moving Communication across Cultures, Communication World, Vol. 16, No. 5, ABI/INFORM Global, p.37

Novinger, T., 2001, Intercultural Communication: A Practical Guide, University of Texas Press, ISBN 0292755716

Introduction to Nonverbal Communication, Fort Hays State University, http://www.fhsu.edu/~zhrepic/Teaching/GenEducation/nonverbcom/nonverbcom.htm last accessed on September 16, 2009

Chapter Fifteen: Speech