Intracultural communication in the workplace

Intracultural Communication

Intercultural Communication in the Workplace

Communication in the workplace is a vital component of a successful business outcome. Environments which do not foster effective communications stand increased risks of not reaching their objectives due to lack of collaboration between parties. Fostering an environment which encourages communication however is a challenging task for a manager due to the existence of several barriers. The aim of this paper is to present a communication issue with emphasis on cultural barriers.

Description of the Situation

The PackTeen Company's operational focus is on constructing a centralized database of products and services especially created for adolescents and allowing customers access to this database in order to help them in selecting and purchasing those products which best satisfy their needs. The activities undertaken by the company are complex and include operations such as data collection, database centralization, web page development or promotion of the website. Similar to the diversity of the jobs, the cultural diversity of the organizational staff members is also increased. This basically translates into the existence of several cultural barriers, leading consequently to inefficiencies in the communication process.

Last week, native born American John Smith came up with an idea on a campaign to promote an acne product for teenagers and presented it to Swami Kumar, native born Indian marketing specialist. The message was rather bold and aggressive, and not to the liking of Kumar, who became rather angry with the last stunt of his subaltern. In an intense dispute in which Smith was defending his idea and Kumar declared himself fed up with his inappropriate campaign ideas, the American employee shouted at his boss not to "have a cow." Despite the fact that Kumar is generally an easy going colleague, this remark set him off and he began to shout at Smith that he disrespected him and that professional disputes were one thing, but being so personal and so offensive in an argument was the lowest of the lowest. After ten minutes of yelling, Kumar stormed out of the room and slammed the door. Smith was in awe of this burst out and stood there just looking at his colleagues and wandering what had set Kumar off so badly; a colleague whispered -- "the cow comment."

3. Diagnosis

Indians hold the cow as a sacred animal due to the numerous ways in which it sustains life. In ancient mythology, the Indian deities would be presented on cows as their means of transport. As time evolved, cows were common in all Indian households; they had names and personalities and were cherished as members of the family. Cows are generally valued due to their ability to offer milk and the subsequent dairy products, which are consumed on daily basis in India. The slaughtering of cows is forbidden by law (Potpourri, 2009).

It is clear that when he made the "don't have a cow" comment, John Smith was not aware of the status of cows in Indian culture -- or he temporarily forgot about it. This situation is the perfect example as to how can different cultural values impede communication. Instead of focusing on the promotional campaign -- the core of the first dispute -- the two parties became engaged in a more intense dispute which prevented them from addressing the work related matter on the table. In a theoretical formulation, the conflict aroused as Smith failed to obey one of the most important rules of intercultural communication -- that of being aware of and respecting the cultural symbols and values of his culturally diverse colleagues (Hahn, 2009). Within the workplace, the effects were those of accentuated conflicts and tensions, as well as the adjacent reduced performances of the people involved, but also the observes.

4. Resolution to the Problem

Several steps could have been taken to avoid the occurrence of the cultural conflicts; and despite the fact that they were not taken, it is advisable for them to be implemented from now on in order to avoid similar situations. It is imperative to resolve the issues of cultural barriers in the way of effective communication in the workplace due to the ability of these conflicts to create larger problems. "A simple handshake or joke can now cause problems from legal to lose of business" (Harris, 2009). Given this status quo then, it is necessary for the management at the PackTeen Company to engage in the following courses of action: