Intercultural Interactions in the Workplace

Cultural Sensitivity

Intercultural sensitivity has emerged as one of the most important aspects of the modern working environment because of increased diversity in today’s workforce. In essence, today’s workforce is characterized by people from different ethnicities, nationalities and race. The increased diversity of the workforce is attributable to increased globalization, which has significantly transformed the modern society. For instance, this company comprises of employees from different races and ethnic backgrounds, which is a reflection of the increased diversity of the workforce as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1: Composition of the Company’s Workforce
Given the increased diversity in the organization’s workforce, intercultural sensitivity is a crucial component towards enhancing interactions between the workforce and enhancing their productivity (Kegeyan, 2016). Intercultural sensitivity is essential towards promoting positive interactions and intercultural communication in the company’s workforce. In this regard, the company will significantly benefit from establishing a corporate culture that is characterized by intercultural sensitivity and positive intercultural relations in the workplace. Some of the challenges that this company currently experiences are partly attributable to intercultural sensitivity issues. In my opinion, most of these challenges will be addressed through promoting intercultural sensitivity and positive intercultural interactions in the workplace.
The first step this company should adopt towards promoting intercultural sensitivity and positive interactions in the workplace is through conducting employee education regarding other cultures. Through this employees should be educated regarding the different cultures in the firm’s workplace and how to relate to each other in light of the cultural differences. This would help in avoiding cultural barriers to effective communication and enable employees to understand diversity. The training should mostly be carried out on the two dominant cultures in this workplace i.e. Hispanics and African-Americans. The employee education on cultural diversity will help enhance understanding of the various cultural perspectives and contexts and enable them to demonstrate respect for each other (Miladinovic, 2014).
Secondly, the company should establish strict policies on discrimination against others on the basis of their race or ethnicity. Currently, the company has not established such policies, which has contributed to some incidents of cultural insensitivities. Strict policies on discrimination will help enforce a zero-tolerance policy through which employees would become more culturally sensitive in their interactions.
Third, the organization should encourage individual interaction among employees since such interactions provide a good foundation for them to understand cultural nuances and enhance their cultural sensitivity. Individual interactions between employees will also play a critical role in promoting acceptance among employees and creating a working environment in which all employees feel safe regardless of their cultural differences. Through this approach, employees will avoid being ethnocentric, which is the belief that one’s culture is superior to and important than others (Estrada, 2017). As employees become less ethnocentric, they demonstrate cultural sensitivity and engage in positive interactions in the workplace.
References
Estrada, M.F. (2017, August 18). Cultural Sensitivity in the Workplace. Retrieved from The Pennsylvania State University website: https://extension.psu.edu/cultural-sensitivity-in-the-workplace
Kegeyan, S.E. (2016, February 9). Intercultural Communication in the Workplace and the Role of Communication in an Organization. International Journal of Professional Science, 2. Retrieved from http://scipro.ru/article/03-02-16
Miladinovic, M. (2014, August 26). How Are Intercultural Skills Valued in the Workplace? Retrieved October 12, 2017, from https://woca.afs.org/afs-announcements/b/icl-blog/posts/how-are-intercultural-skills-valued-in-the-workplace